A Few Thoughts After My Recent Visit

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PaulB
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Well I am back in Abu Dhabi after another great trip to The Philippines taking in Subic, our house and a day in Manila.

 

Even though I did enjoy as a holiday I also took time to imagine what life will be like when I am there full time in 4 years or so.

 

I thought I would share a few thoughts that came to mind and see if any of you out there have had the same and what you did to overcome them.

 

1) How does an expat handle being the only one around? Here I mean in the provinces where our house is based (Isabela). I am a bit of a loner at times so not fussed about being around expats constantly but would be nice to catch up from time to time. When on holiday I spend all my time with the family.

 

2) I believe it must be very important to get busy as soon as you arrive to settle. I took time out to imagine what my normal day will be like. No coffee shops or malls within walking distance so I think a nice walk followed by a quick work out to start the day. I also think I will get involved daily in my water purification outlets. I do not want to drift into boredom and opening a SM Light at 10am! Well not every day! I am also going to buy a kayak as a river not too far away.

 

3) Internet and Satellite TV in the Province. I learned to become very patient this time around as poor signal after Lando and we do not have any internet in house or even nearby. What have other people done in remote areas? Can you get satellite internet installed? Also the best Satellite TV for expats. I love my English football at weekends and movies and series. Any recommendations? Again being able to watch TV would bring some normality or choice.

 

4) Getting around. I am looking forward to being self sufficient with mobility and am tossing up between buying a new SUV or Second hand one. Any advice?

 

Every time I go back to our house I realise this is where I want to be BUT I also know that I must get life in order as I can get into bad habits too quickly and boredom can be a killer.

 

Look forward to your feedback, lessons learned and also if anyone else is making the leap in the not to far distant future what other concerns might you have.

 

Paul B

 

 

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PaulB
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How does an expat handle being the only one around?

 

Find other expats in the area or move to another area where there are more of them.  Be comfortable in your own skin and then it won't matter if there are others like you nearby (watch Dances With Wolves)

 

 

 

get busy as soon as you arrive

 

Find a lot of things that you like to do and whittle them down to the things you like to do most.  Then you will wonder when you ever found time to work.

 

 

 

Internet and Satellite TV

 

It takes time, but you get used to having fewer options and you don't rely on Internet speed or number of channels any more.  Remember life in the 70s?  No Internet and only 2 channels in many areas?  And yet we enjoyed life.

 

 

 

Getting around.

 

Depends where you are and what you prefer.  Walk, bike, motorcycle, tricyce (yours or public service), jeep, bus, V-Hire, private car (self drive or hire a driver)   I have seen expats use any and all of those modes of transportation so its all up to you and your budget.

 

Don't sweat the small stuff.  It all works out so long as you adapt and overcome whatever obstacles get in your way.

 

Dave

 

Thank you for the feedback. I appreciate your input and you are right. Don't sweat the small stuff.

 

I am thinking of buying a small unit in Subic so I have a bolt hole to touch base with expats.

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Mike S
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Be comfortable in your own skin and then it won't matter if there are others like you nearby (watch Dances With Wolves)

 

Triple like this Dave ..... just to take a page from my buddy Jake ..... :mocking: :tiphat:

:cheersty:

Edited by Mike S
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Tukaram (Tim)
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I made friends with some neighbors (locals). With the language difficulty we don't a lot, though.  I have not really had much luck meeting foreigners.  The pool of people is quite limited where I am, and I don't want to just sit around and listen to them complain ha ha.  We have one guy in our town I like (from California). We both worked for school districts so we can laugh about old times. But he lives on the other side of town and rarely get together.  We had a guy from my old job that happened to come to the same town... but his wife talked him into moving to the US...

 

I like to walk to the beach and swim.  I am still looking for a place to ride my bicycle - the 2 lane highway here is crazy. For getting around the city I am glad to ride the jeepney.  It may be cramped but I don't have drive so it is fine with me.

 

I like practicing my magic tricks and there are always kids around to entertain.  :tiphat:

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Thomas
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Can you get satellite internet installed?
Yes. But when I checked two years ago it was expensive and NOT good speed.

But since then some type of mobile internet has improved the situation much at least in some regions. Someone talked about it in an other tiopic. He said he sit at Negros island and get his signal from MANILA somehow, when that give the best signal.

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Dave Hounddriver
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Yes. But when I checked two years ago it was expensive and NOT good speed.

 

I heard that you can get Satellite Internet here.  When I lived in a remote area of the province I was desperate for it so I looked ways to get Satellite Internet and could not find out how to do it other than vague rumors about so and so doing it.

 

If you have direct knowledge on how to get Satellite Internet, along with prices and who to contact to get the job done, then please share them on this forum.  I am sure there are some in remote areas who would pay exorbitant prices to get on line.

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Jack Peterson
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Came across this Page some time Ago. Gives a few sat Providers 

http://www.satproviders.com/en/list-of-all-services/PHILIPPINES

:thumbsup:  Full of Trivia at times but thought it might help a little  :)

Jack :tiphat:

Morning all  :morning1:

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RBM
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Well guess so much comes down to the individual. Being somewhat of a loner would help living in remote areas but one must look at the long term. Being constantly with the family would not be easy and I fear eventually drive you bonkers. We all need some expat company time to time. Being remote, no decent internet or TV would be difficult for the best of us, certainly I could not handle it.

Like the idea of working out first thing and swimming but same every day? The idea of a condo in Subic sounds great, be an excellent escape if required. While it's nice to have some Filipino friends as most of have some how with the different culture it's just not quite the same getting together with a bunch of expats....Providing there not the complaining types..

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Thomas
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Yes. But when I checked two years ago it was expensive and NOT good speed.

 

I heard that you can get Satellite Internet here.  When I lived in a remote area of the province I was desperate for it so I looked ways to get Satellite Internet and could not find out how to do it other than vague rumors about so and so doing it.

 

If you have direct knowledge on how to get Satellite Internet, along with prices and who to contact to get the job done, then please share them on this forum.  I am sure there are some in remote areas who would pay exorbitant prices to get on line.

I had it among my notes, but I didn't have backups of some of them, when my old laptop broke, so I lost that.

 

Roughly from MY memory  instead of the broken computer's   :) 

1 MB for 4 times the cost of a decent mobile/landline internet. (I don't remember what costs I compared to back then. 4 x  = 5000p/month?) Some higher speed were available, but did cost very much, it would be a rather big part of the cost if starting a business, which absolutly need Internet.

But that was a bit over 2 years ago.

Well guess so much comes down to the individual. Being somewhat of a loner would help living in remote areas but one must look at the long term. Being constantly with the family would not be easy and I fear eventually drive you bonkers. We all need some expat company time to time. Being remote, no decent internet or TV would be difficult for the best of us, certainly I could not handle it.
Me wanting to live remote away from people exclude the family-in-law too   :lol:

 

It's much easier to get an interesting TV than Internet for not much money. I expect problem to get ok Internet, but not problem to get TV, which are send to antenna or to satelite disc. (So I will only miss the TV channels satelites DON'T send the Philippines, and I CAN see through Internet - IF I can reach high enough speed for not to much money, which I believe will be a problem.)

I don't know if the TV satelite above Sri Lanka can be seen from the Philippines. Some expats in Thailand use that.

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