Explore feed

I just had my first experience of healthcare in the Philippines. I went to a dermatologist at a private hospital to check a suspicious mole behind one ear. She took a biopsy sample on the spot, and a week later removed it by laser, again with no waiting. No complaints about the service, and the problem was sorted in a week.
I paid 27,000 pesos in total. Does that sound about right, or did I get ripped off?

Respect

There's been a lot of talk lately about foreigners not respecting Filipinos.
This goes both ways.
Today I went to a 7-Eleven to buy some drinks. The store had a few tables and about ten teenagers (they looked around 13 or 14).
A boy in my aisle said 'hey bro.' I'm 60, and Filipinos are supposed to have great respect for their elders. So I simply said, 'I'm not your bro, you can call me Mister or Sir.' He said nothing.
Then a girl I couldn't see yelled out 'Sir, buy me food' (these kids were all well dressed, not street kids), and I ignored her.
Then as I walked out of the aisle, one of the girls was standing there and said 'hi daddy.'
So I told her that's short for sugar daddy, and that I'm not her sugar daddy or anyone else's. Which meant she was calling herself a prostitute.
Everyone looked shocked.
Then I said, why do you think it's okay to say whatever you want to a stranger just because he's a foreigner?
And I followed up with, what would your parents think about what you're doing?
Of course, once they were called out, it was all silence.
I shook it off and enjoyed the rest of my day. Most of my interactions with Filipinos are positive, but it feels like a double standard is forming. The foreigner always has to be respectful, while for Filipinos it's optional.
I'm tired of this kind of behavior, which happens far too often.

Happy 100th birthday to Grandma! Still, she should have gotten that lung check🤣 (by @rosssmith)

19M, making friends my own age

This is my second time in Manila (born in the US, not Filipino). I originally came just to get work done by my tattoo artist, but I remembered how much I loved the Philippines and everything it has to offer, so I'm planning to stay a while again.

The thing is, I'm kind of lost on how to make friends my age. Don't get me wrong, I have tons of friends who are older than me, mostly 25 to 30 year olds from Manila. But I'm 19, turning 20 in a few weeks, and I barely have any friends my own age. I get that college might keep people here busy most of the day, but is there any way I could make some friends my age?

For some background, I don't drink anymore, so I'm not really into the party scene. I usually work out, but with my new tattoos I have to take a few weeks off the gym.

I'm guessing I won't get much advice since there aren't many 19-year-old foreigners in the Philippines, but any and all advice is appreciated :)

I'm moving to the Philippines in a few days. Does anyone use Popcorn for their phone service? If so, is it reliable?
Thanks :)

An ordinary Indonesian street

Learned a new word today: estafa

I was reading an article about two arrests at NAIA last week. One on departure, one on arrival.
Anyway… the article… said a woman had been charged with two counts of 'estafa'.

I had to look it up. According to the Internet Gods:

Estafa is a legal term commonly used in the Philippines for swindling or fraud. Basically, taking someone's money or property through deceit, abuse of trust, or certain fraudulent acts.

Switching SSA direct deposit to a Philippine account (BPI)

Hi, does anyone know how many months my grandfather has to wait for his SSA direct deposit to switch over to a Philippine bank? We submitted the documents to the US Embassy in the Philippines on July 24.

In August it still went into his US bank account

In September, nothing came in at all.

🥺

Be careful when parking

Several people on an earlier post said a four-year degree just means you end up working at Jollibee.

Sure, picking the wrong four-year course without proper guidance can land you exactly there.

But if you have a four-year runway and someone actively researching the job market with you, helping choose the right educational track, build the right skills and create opportunities along the way, the outcome can be very different.

This post is for those of you whose family members or loved ones are looking at degree programs and career paths that could lead to a good life.

I've personally outsourced more than 100,000 hours of work to the Philippines, and clients I know have probably outsourced ten times that. Much of it was work paying $8 to $20 an hour.

Yes, AI will wipe out some of that work, but it will also improve other jobs and create new opportunities. Some of the Filipinos I work with in tech already earn as much as, or more than, what a lot of retired foreigners here live on each month.

Four years is a long runway. Use it wisely.

Women after a green card or residency: how common are they?

Over the past few weeks I've met several women who are very eager to go to a Western country. It turns me off, and I always end up cutting contact.

But I wonder: how common are women who use a man just to get a green card or residency? I read a lot of comments about it, but does it really happen that often?

I don't mean to judge or criticize — I just think it's good to be informed about it so I can be prepared.

Making a beat

Greetings

Is it normal to meet the Filipino family of the woman you're having a child with and have only 2 out of 5–6 people acknowledge you or say anything? Even after meeting a few more times and buying them alcohol, they don't look at me, say hi, or even nod. Is this normal Filipino culture? Expats, and especially locals, please share your opinion. I'm from the West, and there everyone in the house would greet you in some way, no matter what

Hi everyone
Are any of you UK pensioners claiming Attendance Allowance? I'm asking because I noticed there are residency rules and wondered what that's all about

He saw his chance and didn't miss it

Big Mike - Spa Day (Thanks, Joy!)

Joy treated Big Mike to a mani-pedi and a full-body massage. Here's what she told the receptionist: “My husband is really stressed. And his feet are wrecking our bedsheets.”

Mike lowered himself into the pedicure chair. It made a sound like a ship leaving port.
The nail technician examined his heels, quietly crossed herself, and brought in another technician.
“Why two?” Mike asked.
“One per foot,” Joy said. “We'd like to get home today.”

Mike picked a bright purple toenail polish.
“The color of royalty,” he explained.
“Ube color,” Joy said.

During the massage, the therapist told him to relax. Mike fell asleep right away and snored so loudly that the whale-song recording was completely drowned out.
Then she pressed a knot in his shoulder.

Mike bolted upright. “JOY! SHE FOUND MY CLEVELAND INJURY!”

“You fell out of a lawn chair.”

“That was a structural failure.”

When it was over, Mike came out in a tiny robe, disposable slippers and purple toenails and declared himself “a completely reborn man.”
Then he took three elegant steps toward the front desk.
Both slippers burst.

While Joy paid, Mike stood barefoot next to a sign reading ‘Please remove your shoes.’
“Five stars,” he told the receptionist. “But your footwear needs some engineering.”

That evening, Joy found Mike sitting with his feet propped up on two decorative pillows.
“The polish needs to cure,” he explained.
“It's been six hours.”

“Joy, you paid for a luxury husband. Please respect the maintenance schedule.”

12 days is never enough to enjoy the Philippines, so I'm thinking of going on a visa

Hi, I've already been to the Philippines three times and 12 days is way too short. Going out every day, you get tired and there's no time left

I'm thinking of trying for a visa, but what if immigration asks why I'm coming on a visa when they specifically gave a 14-day visa-free option

Priorities: Protecting the booze first during today's earthquake in Panama.

I think I've asked something like this before, but I'm curious how many foreigners living in the Philippines still work on US hours.

It depends on which part of the US you work with, but that basically means working through the night here. Depending on the US time zone and daylight saving time, a normal US workday starts somewhere between roughly 9 PM and 9 AM in the Philippines.

For those of you actually doing it, how do you cope?

Does your work schedule decide where you live?

Do you deliberately pick places with 24-hour restaurants, gyms, stores and other things to do at odd hours?

Has working US hours changed the way you engage with the Philippines or your social life here?

Do you eventually adjust and build your life around those hours, or do you keep fighting the schedule?

I'm curious how much working US hours affects where foreigners end up living in the Philippines.

Looking for advice on how to stop a romance scammer

I was in a relationship with a Filipina escort who turned out to be a romance scammer. She showered me with love-bombing and got a lot out of me. During the relationship I found out from her phone that she has a pattern of running scams like this. She almost trapped me with a baby, though she miscarried. Now she's in the Philippines waiting for her passport renewal so she can leave the country and escort overseas on tourist visas.

Her method goes like this: she love-bombs someone and sets up lovers or sponsors in as many countries as she can, which ends up with the sponsor or lover taking the fall for the immigration violations her activities cause. She justifies it, and gaslights, by saying she does this to support her family and her daughters' future. I wonder how it's fair for other people to be destroyed psychologically, emotionally and physically for her own gain.

She kept manipulating and love-bombing me to vouch for her visa and tickets so she wouldn't get offloaded by Philippine immigration. I was weak because I had a soft spot for her, and I kept asking for space and time to heal, but she refused and kept pushing about the visa. When I finally made it clear that it was over, she turned nasty, saying she'd come to my country with the help of another client or sugar daddy and harm me right under my nose. After I warned her I'd report her, she went back to love-bombing to manipulate me.

She's older, and her family will keep demanding a lot of money, so she'll be a nuisance in every country she goes to. That'll push her to run more romance scams on others along with escorting, possibly harming people, and she'll be breaking immigration laws wherever she goes by doing sex work on a tourist visa.

I'm asking the community for suggestions and insight on how to report her through the right channels, so she can never leave the Philippines again to do these disgraceful, shameful things that give her country a bad name.

Please share advice and resources.