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To parents whose children hold both a Philippine passport and a foreign passport: my son has a Philippine passport and an Australian passport (he was born here in the Philippines). When we leave the country, we use the Philippine passport, and when we go to Australia, we enter and exit using the Australian passport. How do you handle this?

My question is: since he'll leave the Philippines on his Philippine passport, will the immigration officer ask for an Australian visa?

Asking those who live in the Philippines: if you or your spouse grow older and need long-term care or a nursing home, what happens?

Are there decent facilities? How long are the waiting lists? Is the cost affordable enough to get proper care, or do you need to plan and save for it several years in advance?

Affordable housing

I just moved to Cebu. I'm looking for people to hang out with in this area. Is anyone in or near IT Park? I'm looking forward to meeting great people and having some exciting new experiences.

As a retired U.S. federal employee living overseas, which health insurance plan are you using to get coverage abroad? Thank you.

Bangladesh's extremely dangerous railway crossing.

They talk a lot about the so-called "foreigner markup (skin tax)."
How do you deal with it when you find out you're paying more than Filipinos do?

I am a 64-year-old woman and plan to retire next year and live in the Philippines. When I retire around June 2027, I will have Medicare and TriCare. Does TriCare fully cover me in the Philippines? I am a widow and would like to reconnect with my roots. Are there any organizations or groups for active seniors in Manila? I am active, I love travel and exercise, and I work out every day as part of my routine. I would appreciate it if those who are currently in the Philippines could share their experiences and offer advice. Thank you.

Went with a double... now a tampon (opened) too... Unfortunately, condoms still haven't gotten any cheaper.

My father turned 65 on October 2nd of this month. On October 14th he received his Social Security deposit, and it looks like the Social Security Administration has started deducting $200 for Medicare. Can he cancel the Medicare Part B premium and keep only Part A, which is free?

I've paid the internet bill for the whole place, but my landlord had a cable run to another tenant's unit.

I've been living here for about 8 months and I've been paying the full internet bill. About 3 months in, I said I needed faster internet and even told him the exact plan I'd pay for. Instead, the landlord upgraded to a different plan that included cable TV, with the same speed (lol). The technician from the telco drilled a hole in the roof and ran the line over to the other tenant's side. Apparently both sides wanted cable TV. Even if the PLDT technician did it, as far as I know that's illegal.

I told them I didn't want cable TV and needed faster internet. They said they had cut off my cable TV. But the LAN3 light was still blinking like crazy, so I could tell data was going over there, and I unplugged it. I'm paying for this, and I'm uneasy about sharing my connection with a stranger (what if they're doing something illegal on that line?). Two days later the landlord came back, plugged it back in, and said he was checking the modem. The other tenant said they don't have cable TV.

I ran speed tests with the line plugged in and unplugged. There's a difference of about 5–10 Mbps. It could be cable TV or something else. When I briefly went into the other tenant's room, they had their own modem. So there's no reason my internet line should be going to their unit when I'm the one paying for it.

How should I bring this up with my landlord without upsetting him?

Looking closely at each sound... all the way to the final jump

Feel free to reject my post. Looks like WWII history isn't really of interest on this site. I understand.

Smartphone addiction in the Philippines is completely out of control.

On average, Filipinos spend 6 to 7 hours a day looking at their phones. That's a whole workday.

Their attention spans are getting shorter, and quite literally, their brains are rotting.

Productivity drops significantly.

It damages interpersonal relationships.

People end up accepting the dangerous ideas of untrustworthy "influencers" without question.

This addiction is contagious. People have come to treat it as normal. Wherever you go, everyone is staring at their smartphones, and before you know it, you start doing the same little by little.

We took Grandpa sightseeing in the city for a day trip, and the "sunglasses" he insisted on bringing turned out to be 3D movie glasses.

Isn't everyone way too obsessed with this pointless drama?

Today's topic is the Ban Boys, and tomorrow's will probably be that foreigner #53 who lives near Zambowanga disappeared like some NPC.

Instead of spending all that time on it, people would be much better off putting their effort into their own businesses or something like the gym. Even my girlfriend has been talking to me about this pointless drama. It was made to earn ad participation money.

Anyone who has worked in marketing knows how low the Philippine CPM and Facebook ad participation earnings are, and everyone knows most vloggers don't make much money.

And spending 100,000 pesos on your girlfriend isn't a big deal. Complaining that you spent 100,000 pesos on your life partner's plane tickets or meals is like complaining about the cost of gas for your car. You're also gaining from the content while being with her. I also bought my girlfriend meals and gifts and spent well over 100,000 pesos. She's my life partner.

If you're complaining about 50,000 to 100,000 pesos, then you need to earn money yourself. Most people here have been consumed by the Facebook mindset that most Filipinos have, and that's why productivity is at an all-time low.

Today's experiences in the Philippines.

I'm posting this as a warning. Don't come to this country. These are things that happened to me today in the provinces. Some people said I must be provoking something, or that it's because of my appearance. That may be true. In 2025 and 2026, if you're not Filipino, you have to look intimidating, focused, wealthy, or big in order to avoid harassment. For reference, the people of other ethnicities I've met have been consistently kind.

What happened during one hour I spent walking around among these "people" to run errands:

- While I was trying to buy something at a small shop, a group of Filipinos looked at me with hatred and mockery. Sneering stares, aggressive attitudes.
- A young boy looked back for a moment, hissed at me, and quickly turned away again. Like a badger hissing, not human at all.
- A "Hey Joe" catcall started out friendly and turned into ridicule, and the group of Filipinos demanded that I buy them something.

Bonus: Two days ago, a mentally unstable Filipino man approached me in a coffee shop and shouted that I had stolen his land. I couldn't understand what he was saying. After he left, I asked the female barista what he had said. She refused to tell me. I asked six times, and each time she made excuses to avoid helping a foreigner.

For foreigners and white people, this country is becoming increasingly dangerous. If you still want to live cheaply, I recommend Vietnam or Thailand. If you decide to settle here, it could become your final resting place.

If it were my kid, they'd have run off shouting "Goal!"

As a child, we were taught not to even talk to strangers. But before I knew it, Bell and I were on a plane with nothing but our backpacks and passports, squeezed into a van full of people we had never met, and driving north from Manila for 12 hours to a small town. There, more strangers let us into their home, gave us a place to wash up, and fed us. It was an amazing adventure with truly wonderful people! Huge thanks to the local folks who welcomed us so warmly 🙌

Bell and I will be posting more soon about riding the Buscalan tramline. It's a makeshift cable crossing built to span the deep gorge between the mountain trail and the village, and it leads to the remote Buscalan village, home of the legendary traditional tattoo artist Apo Whang-Od. We climbed the mountain at 4 a.m., showered with buckets and a taboy (wooden dipper) at a cold spring, explored a cave, and got a traditional tattoo from 109-year-old Apo Whang-Od, done the old way with thorns and a stick. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

#Philippines #ApoWhangOd #ApoWhangOdTattoo

There's a lot more to this story than that

100,000 pesos is pocket change, and when you see someone posting drama publicly, throwing cash on the floor, and drinking, it shows the reality of why I dislike the vlog lifestyle. Vloggers don't earn very good CPM revenue, and since they constantly need good material for videos, creating it, whether right or wrong, becomes a big problem.