Thinking of Bicol

[Fish]

My wife and I are thinking of becoming expats in a year or two. We are going to look at a lot on San Miguel Bay , Camarines Sur in this month. My wife is from Pasig and her father was from Daet, Bicol. I am wondering if anyone living in Bicol can tell me how they like it there. And is the water in San Miguel Bay clear.

[Onemore52]

I live in Daet and have been on and off for the last 5 years, ask away.

[Fish]

On 12/10/2018 at 11:26 PM, Onemore52 said:

I live in Daet and have been on and off for the last 5 years, ask away.

I have many questions but we are packing right now to fly there tomorrow morning . My biggest concern is how safe is it there. Have you ever had any problem with the locals? If I bought a bangka boat and pulled it up on the beach (on the property i buy) would someone try to steal it? Do they dislike seeing foreigners boating in San Miguel Bay?  Do you use a hospital in Naga or the VA hospital in Manila? Thanks for the help. 

Jerry

[Onemore52]

I live on a property outside of Daet where I find it is safe but I have 3 Belgian Malinois dogs which have so far deterred the robbers, which are around, as it seems burglary and theft is a popular pastime here.

We haven’t had any problems with the locals so far but we don’t go out after dark because of all the drunks and druggies out on the road.

Everything is fair game for them to steal, boats included. We even bring the cow up to the main house of a night it is that bad. When we started the building of the house the burglars came in and stole the steel re-enforcement. 

The family has a factory next door, they came in one night and stole the batteries from the delivery trucks and the welding machine.

The reason for all this theft I believe is because there is no jobs here, only tricycle drivers and there is 2500 of them roaming the streets and they are a law unto themselves.

I did take one of the employees here to the hospital to get something done for his high blood pressure, when things went sour they told me to take him to Naga hospital for treatment, his trip was one way.  If I get sick I am off to Manila or back to Australia for treatment, or even Bangkok.

The reason for this lack of facilities is all political I have been told, which can easily be seen by the state of the roads as once you get off the freeway out of Manila on the way here it becomes a goat track, 8 hours of driving on a one lane road.

The water supply here is a trickle out of a 1/2 line which is regularly cut off because of no supply, but at least we haven’t had a blackout for a couple of weeks now, having said that there will probably one today.

[Onemore52]

Which is why I am up at 4 in the morning, this the only time of guaranteed water pressure to do the washing.

If you are buying a property make sure there is plenty of space for your burn pit and somewhere to bury your kitchen waste as there is no rubbish collection here, it got all too hard for them.

Knowing now what I know, would I do it again? No F...ckin way.

At least I got some sleep last night, there wasn’t any karaoke or disco machines going, you see the locals here have no regard for their neighbours, which is because the local government set up a squatters camp outside the city, so until they move on we are stuck with them, which is another reason for the high theft .

It is going to be hell here in 2 weeks time.

[hk blues]

7 hours ago, Onemore52 said:

Which is why I am up at 4 in the morning, this the only time of guaranteed water pressure to do the washing.

If you are buying a property make sure there is plenty of space for your burn pit and somewhere to bury your kitchen waste as there is no rubbish collection here, it got all too hard for them.

Knowing now what I know, would I do it again? No F...ckin way.

At least I got some sleep last night, there wasn’t any karaoke or disco machines going, you see the locals here have no regard for their neighbours, which is because the local government set up a squatters camp outside the city, so until they move on we are stuck with them, which is another reason for the high theft .

It is going to be hell here in 2 weeks time.

Serious question - if it's that bad (i'm not doubting your word) then can't you make an escape plan?  What you describe is a million miles from where I am living.  

[Onemore52]

Yes I have a plan if things get too bad, or any worse than they are, which I can do anytime but at the moment I am safe because I don’t expose myself to the goings on around me.

[fillipino_wannabe]

Well it's obviously not as safe as a Western country, 80% of the population is struggling to make 400 pesos per day and they can identify any foreigner earning 10x(or more) their income just by their skin colour.
I think I've been unluckier than most but in 2 years here I've had:
1 fire.
dog stolen.
bag of cement stolen (lol)
someone try to snatch my wifes bag.
burglary. 

the fire and the burglary was by my maid though to be fair, absolute mental case. That's all with us barely ever going out at night and keeping ourselves to ourselves and living in a 'nice' area lol.

 

[Arizona Kid]

I don't know where the hell you guys chose to live and for what reason. I came to Cavite province in 2002 and have never had a crime committed against me or my family. Nothing stolen..nothing. Had a few try to con me but I never let it happen. After 12 or so years I just today put a lock on my back door that had never been locked. 

Cmon guys..figure it out.

[Jollygoodfellow]

53 minutes ago, Arizona Kid said:

I don't know where the hell you guys chose to live and for what reason.

I've been here a bit over two years and chose to live with locals. To this day still dont lock the door.