For those of you in Pampanga

[TimL]

Awesome, thank you Bows. I just checked their web site and it looks nice. Visa extensions is a big plus as well. I’m more interested in a house for the long term but that could certainly be a nice drop zone for coming into town to look around and check housing out. Being single with money can definitely be a dangerous thing but, wth, you can’t take it with you so, you might as well enjoy it while you can. 

Hope that you have a great time while you are there. Stay safe and keep it in your pants.

Ummm, your money I meant. 

[Happyhorn52]

On of the first things I did when arriving was get a Philippines Drivers License and buy a used SUV. The license conversion process took around an hour and cost around 800p. I bought a 2008 Toyota Fortuner which I drive every day. The thing that make driving difficult here is the roads are narrow and Jeepneys stop to take on passengers every block or two, Trikes making U Turns in front of you, and Scooters passing you from both the left and right side. Again a bunch of stop and go traffic at low speeds so no big deal. If you come from a small town with no traffic it may be a shock but coming from Houston I find it easy to get around. 

Edited July 9, 2018 by Happyhorn52

[Gary D]

1 hour ago, Happyhorn52 said:

On of the first things I did when arriving was get a Philippines Drivers License and buy a used SUV. The license conversion process took around an hour and cost around 800p. I bought a 2008 Toyota Fortuner which I drive every day. The thing that make driving difficult here is the roads are narrow and Jeepneys stop to take on passengers every block or two, Trikes making U Turns in front of you, and Scooters passing you from both the left and right side. Again a bunch of stop and go traffic at low speeds so no big deal. If you come from a small town with no traffic it may be a shock but coming from Houston I find it easy to get around. 

I assume you got your licence before they tightened the requirements to prevent tourists from obtaining one.

[Happyhorn52]

No, because I have the SRRV Classic Visa and am retiring here they waived the 1 year wait rule. 

[Gary D]

2 hours ago, Happyhorn52 said:

No, because I have the SRRV Classic Visa and am retiring here they waived the 1 year wait rule. 

Well it sounds like the OP is on a tourist visa so you experience is not relevent to him.

[Eddie1]

4 hours ago, Gary D said:

I assume you got your licence before they tightened the requirements to prevent tourists from obtaining one.

It seems that the problems that tourists were experiencing a while back in obtaining a Philippine Driving License have gone away now, well at least in Dumaguete and Cebu they have so i assume that is probably ok most other places now also.  I am on a tourist visa and got my Philippine License just a month or so ago and all they requested was my ACR card, UK License and my Passport. I am also certain that 'JGF' mentioned a while back that there are no probs any longer in Cebu getting a license on a tourist visa.

[Jollygoodfellow]

8 minutes ago, Eddie1 said:

I am also certain that 'JGF' mentioned a while back that there are no probs any longer in Cebu getting a license on a tourist visa.

Yes my friend did it and was in and out in no time.

[TimL]

Yes, I am going to hang on a tourist Visa for a while to see how things go before dropping 20K to change Visa type.

I am going to give the license thing a whirl though and see if I can skate through. It would seem that the rules change quite a bit depending on where it is you try to do it. It is not beneath me to travel around to other areas to achieve my goal of getting that license once I get my ACR. :)

[Happyhorn52]

I have a friend who knows a LTO fixer in Olongapo. He was able to get a Class 5 Crane Operator License without really knowing how to operate a 30T Crane. 

[TimL]

 that’s pretty scary.