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Hi all, has anyone been to Lucky Al's Sports Bar in Manila and would like to share their experience? 😎

Another foreigner killed in a home robbery in Angeles City

I haven't seen any English or Filipino news coverage of this one, or of the one in April 2025.

On the night of September 24 in Angeles City, a foreigner was killed by a robber who climbed in through a window, at a place on one of the main roads in the AMCIT area. It's about a 5-minute drive from Walking Street.

The neighborhood had no power for a few hours because of the rain, so the CCTV may not have been working, and it may have been planned, with someone waiting for the chance.

I wonder whether the media is ignoring it on purpose or being told to by government officials. The recent home-robbery murders in the southern Philippines certainly got plenty of coverage and attention.

Bongbong Marcos is not in the Epstein files

Figured the Joes around here would want to know.

I'd like to get a neck and face lift from a real professional in Manila. Any recommendations, experiences or advice?

A pro tip for anyone complaining that a foreigner expects intimacy from them

This post is dedicated to the rant that went up recently:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Philippines_Expats/comments/1wqch9y/pro_tip_for_anyone_here_complaining_about_how/

This is just an idea showing what happens if someone flips that rant around like a mirror. It's for entertainment and educational purposes only and doesn't reflect the author's opinions.

----------

He's using you because you're young, available and willing to sleep with him, and you're using him because he has money, a stronger passport and a lifestyle you couldn't afford on your own.

It goes both ways. If you're a 1.5 out of 10 on the international dating market, you're still a 1.5 even if some lonely foreigner suddenly finds you exotic, and you get exactly the treatment you deserve.

You won't land an educated, good-looking, well-off foreign man, because those men look for women as educated, attractive and well-off as they are. He doesn't need to support some broke twenty-something's whole family to get laid, and he doesn't need your 'foreign men treat women better' routine to find someone interested in him.

Those men date women from top universities, professional circles and successful families, women with their own careers, money and options. They don't need to import a girlfriend whose biggest life plan is finding someone else to pay for it, and they aren't impressed by youth, a tiny waist and a passport wish list attached to a Facebook profile.

No successful foreign man in his right mind will automatically see some young woman as a serious partner just because she calls him handsome and laughs at his jokes. Successful people have high standards for education, looks, independence, social class and ambition. Most of those men mix with women from their own professional circles, or women abroad with the same standards and background.

And no, your unfinished degree from some provincial college and your 'businesswoman' title from reselling cosmetics online aren't considered the same caliber.

If you're a low-quality woman, you'll end up with a low-quality partner no matter where in the world he's from. If you want an impressive partner, be an impressive woman. Your age, your body and the fact that foreign men answer your messages aren't the gold stars you think they are.

This is just about the nastiest kind of dating delusion, and it's satisfying to know the well-off foreign men you're all chasing are laughing while you convince yourself that being twenty-three and willing to date a sixty-year-old somehow puts you in competition with the accomplished women his own social circle actually respects.

If you've made it to the end of this post and you're offended or seething, I hope you use the time before telling the foreigner you met online that you need money for another 'family emergency' to calm down.

A pro tip for everyone here whining that 'their Filipina' is scamming them out of money

She's using you for money, and you're using her because she's petite, 15 to 20 years younger and doesn't say no when you want sex. It goes both ways. If you're a 1.5 out of 10 in your own country, you're still a 1.5 in the Philippines, and you get exactly the treatment you deserve. You won't land an educated, well-off Filipina, because those women look for people as educated and well-off as they are. They don't need to suck wrinkly veteran dick to get ahead, and they don't need your World Vision, sponsor-a-child white savior act either. These women go to the top universities in Manila and on to graduate school. They don't need anyone's help to climb higher, and they aren't impressed by a guy with an exchange-rate-boosted bank account and a blue passport who's one cough away from retirement. No successful Filipino parent in their right mind would let their daughter so much as look at a passport bro or a grandpa. Successful people have the highest standards for education and looks. Most of these women mix with Filipino or Chinese men of the same standards and background. And no, your 1960s business degree from some college in the middle of nowhere in North America isn't considered the same caliber. If you're a low-quality man, you'll end up with a low-quality partner wherever you are in the world. If you want an impressive partner, be an impressive man. The exchange rate on your pension and the color of your passport aren't the gold stars you think they are.

This is just about the nastiest subreddit around, and it's satisfying to know that the well-off women you're all chasing are laughing at you as you sweat an ocean with every step.

A lot of us here have kids. I'm really enjoying being an older, wiser dad. Anyone else here become a father of twins in the Philippines?

Nor'easter (US Northeast storm)

I've heard so much about the rainy season. Will the downpour about to hit us here in the northeastern US give me some idea of what the Philippines is usually like? And what's the worst rainy season you've ever had to deal with?

Bedridden expat – looking for assisted living

Does anyone know an assisted living facility that's good for foreigners? We've been taking care of him for three years. We'd like to keep caring for him at home, but the problem is he can't be nice to his caregivers or our helper. He's really stubborn. It should be near Metro Manila so we can visit every weekend, and please tell us the price if you know it. I looked into Rain Tree, but they don't answer our messages or tell us the price. He's 77 and American.

Does anyone still celebrate Halloween? I'm curious about other people's experiences. We're throwing a party, and friends and family seem excited even though it's not really a thing here.

Edit: OK, I assumed it wasn't a big deal here because the Halloween section at SM has like 20 items.

Second question: is it more common in Luzon than in the Visayas?

How many of you genuinely love Filipino culture, and why?

I'm not just talking about the women. I mean anything and everything else, whether it's family events, outlook on life, food and traditions, karaoke, even religion. What do you like about the culture here?

It feels like all I ever see among expats in the Philippines is complaining. I haven't spent enough time in the Philippines to really understand the culture yet, but I've lived abroad in places whose culture I truly loved for all sorts of reasons, like Mexico.

🥀

Has anyone ordered anything from AliExpress? How long did it take to get your stuff?

What's Boracay like?

My girlfriend and I are thinking of moving to Boracay in December for 1 to 3 months, maybe longer. We found a place to rent up north, near Diniwid Beach or whatever it's called.

What's it like there? We're pretty laid-back. Will it get boring? Any info at all is appreciated.

We've been traveling for about the last year and want to slow down a bit. The Philippines is a good option for us for visa and tax reasons.

My Filipina girlfriend can't open a bank account

My girlfriend applied to open an account at BDO but was rejected because she doesn't have any proof of income. She's in grad school and is about to finish a contract/temp job as a substitute teacher, where she's paid in cash.

I'm confused, because when I look online it seems there are basic accounts that only need something like a photo ID. Maybe it's culture shock since I'm American, but it's still wild to me that you'd need anything beyond an ID, an SSN (Social Security number) and a pulse to open a basic savings account to put money in.

I'm trying to get this done for her so that 1. she has a place to keep money where her family won't suck it all up right away, and 2. she can build and document modest savings before applying for a US tourist visa, hopefully sometime next year. I know the interview can be very thorough; she'll need to document nearly every part of her life and her relationship with me to get approved, and I doubt they'd approve anyone without even a bank account.

She's from a small provincial town where most people don't have bank accounts, so unfortunately she's just as green at this as I am. I'd appreciate any advice on how best to help her get set up with an account.

Which ATMs are best for withdrawals? I haven't needed to use one in a while.

Can my girlfriend come back to the US on a tourist visa after her J1?

Just like the title says. My girlfriend has been in the States for five years, and her J1 visa ends soon. I don't believe in marriage; it is what it is. We talked about me flying her back to the States twice a year. How likely is it that she gets approved for a tourist visa, and what are the rules? Thanks

Advice needed – overstay

Hi. I'm the partner of a US citizen who came here in 2024 to be with me; we've been together since 2022. I make good money as an engineer, so since I could cover our living costs, we decided he'd move here and find remote work. (He sold everything he had and moved here.)

Fast forward: after being told we had zero chance of having a baby, I got pregnant, and things kind of went downhill from there (don't get me wrong, we love our baby to death!). Being pregnant made me really sick. My job is actually fairly easy for me and my company is very lenient, so I never had to stop working; I'd work a few hours from home and call it a day. But because he was the one taking care of me, it became hard for him to look for work (I have no family nearby; it's really just the two of us). Then I gave birth, and he's been a truly good father, taking on all the exhausting work of caring for me and our baby. I never even had to get up or ask him for anything. Then, the same year, I was sadly diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Basically, my genes mutated in a bad way. I'm more symptomatic than most, and he's been caring for me while also being our child's main caregiver. It's no exaggeration to say things have been hectic with all the back-and-forth hospital stays, and we didn't even have the bandwidth to think about visa renewal. I'm still working and have good benefits (my company even got him health insurance as my domestic partner).

Now he's been overstaying for a year, and we're trying to plan how to sort everything out bit by bit, since most of our money goes to my healthcare and our child's needs. So I'd like to know, even roughly, how much it would cost to settle everything. He was on a tourist visa, and from 2024 until late 2025 we kept extending it and paying the fees, before everything got out of hand.

Also, if we settle everything, will he still be able to stay and keep extending? Or will they make him go back to the States? :( That's my fear. I don't want him to be detained either, and I'll do whatever it takes to clear his record.

🇮🇪🇵🇭 Seph's Philippine Musings 🇵🇭🇮🇪

🌴 Field Notes Written in Paradise 🌴

🎤 Episode 3: The Great Filipino Karaoke Experiment 🎤

10:47 p.m. A dog barks, a child cheers, and someone three houses down is singing 'My Way' as if submitting evidence in a twenty-year-old trial.

The speaker crackles.

The mic squeals.

One neighbor shouts encouragement.

Another stares silently into the dark, wondering whether sleep is still legally allowed.

You never asked for a concert.

You never bought a ticket.

You may not have even left the house.

Doesn't matter.

Karaoke comes to you.

In Ireland, karaoke usually takes a pub, a mic, a few drinks and one fella convinced he's the second coming of Van Morrison.

Here in the Philippines, a whole neighborhood can turn into a concert hall before you have time to shut the window.

No ticket.

No invitation.

No escape.

Just sit, open a window and wait.

Sooner or later, somewhere in the distance, a mic crackles to life.

And then...

It begins.

After extensive research into Filipino rice consumption, jeepney transport and the mysterious science of 'malapit lang' (it's just nearby), I've decided to investigate another phenomenon that has thoroughly baffled the Irish scientific community.

Karaoke.

Someone is singing. Someone is shouting encouragement. A child is dancing. A dog is rethinking its relationship with humanity. Somewhere, a neighbor stares at the ceiling, wondering if there's a law against singing the same song seventeen times.

There is no escape.

You're having a quiet afternoon, minding your own business and pondering the mysteries of existence, when suddenly someone starts singing 'My Way' with the emotion of a person giving final testimony before the Supreme Court.

And you know what?

They mean every word.

Both hands on the mic. Eyes closed. Head tilted back. The entire history of heartbreak delivered through a speaker that sounds like it was built inside a tin can.

And the neighbors are listening, like it or not.

That's one of the great rules of karaoke: talent is optional.

Confidence is mandatory.

Sing beautifully, terribly or somewhere between a dying rooster and a broken car alarm. It makes no difference. Hold the mic and you have the stage; have the stage and you have an audience, even if it's three kids, a sleeping grandmother and a dog hiding under the table.

This is democracy in its purest musical form. Everyone gets a turn, a say, and the chance to discover that their favorite song is apparently everyone else's favorite too.

Of course, karaoke varies. Some are lively neighborhood gatherings, some happen in family homes or private rooms, and some are quiet, tidy affairs where everyone waits politely for their turn. There's no single Filipino karaoke experience, just many ways to enjoy a song.

But one song deserves special mention.

'My Way.'

Frank Sinatra's immortal anthem of personal independence, now apparently the favorite of everyone who's ever picked up a mic after a few drinks.

Having watched enough performances in my imagination, I've concluded this song is no longer about Sinatra.

It's about the singer: their struggles, sacrifices, victories, questionable decisions, ex, current partner, possibly the neighbor's partner, and whatever happened in 1998 that they still haven't quite gotten over.

By the final chorus, they're not singing anymore.

They're testifying.

And when the mic gets passed to someone else, that's when it gets interesting.

Because karaoke has an unwritten constitution.

Nobody sings just once.

You may have come to listen, to enjoy a quiet coffee, or even to sleep. None of that matters.

Someone will point at you.

"Sing!"

You politely decline.

"Oh, come on!"

You decline again.

"Just one song!"

Next thing you know, you're holding a mic, staring at a screen full of lyrics, wondering how your life led to this moment.

Then the music starts.

Now, as an Irishman, I feel a certain cultural responsibility here.

We have our own musical traditions: ballads about love, loss, rebellion, drinking, fighting, emigration and the general misfortune of being Irish. We have songs that make grown men cry into their Guinness and get whole pubs singing together.

So maybe Filipino karaoke shouldn't surprise me.

We Irish have been doing the same thing for centuries.

Just with fewer electrical appliances.

And the more I listen, the more I realize that beneath the questionable singing, distorted speakers, dramatic gestures and occasional musical assault on the human ear, something truly wonderful is happening.

Karaoke is about participation.

It's about having fun without worrying about being perfect, laughing together, giving someone their moment in the spotlight, and being ridiculous in public without the world ending.

Somewhere along the way, many of us got too worried about looking foolish. We worry about what people think, about making mistakes, about being judged.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Philippines, someone who can't carry a tune is standing before the whole neighborhood belting out Celine Dion like their life depends on it.

And they're having the time of their life.

Maybe they've figured it out.

There are limits, of course. Midnight isn't the ideal time for a forty-minute power ballad medley. And if your karaoke machine is louder than a departing plane, maybe your neighbors deserve a little consideration.

Even paradise needs a volume knob.

But I have to admit something.

There's a certain warmth in hearing people laugh, sing and enjoy themselves, even when the singer sounds like a goat meeting electricity for the first time.

Sometimes happiness comes through a cheap mic, a plastic chair, a bottle of soda and a speaker that's lost half its original sound quality.

And sometimes it comes at 10:47 p.m. when you're trying to sleep.

That's the karaoke experience.

A moment when a living room, private room or neighborhood gathering becomes a stage, where confidence sometimes beats ability, and where everyone gets a turn.

So maybe that's the real karaoke experiment.

Not whether everyone can sing or whether the speakers survive, but whether, for one song, everyone is willing to step up, take the mic and give the people around them a piece of themselves.

And if you don't know any Air Supply, you're considered a party pooper.

Then again...

If I hear 'My Way' one more time tonight, I may have to sing 'The Fields of Athenry' just to restore the international balance of musical suffering.

Because in karaoke, everyone gets a turn.

And tonight, it seems, so do I.

🇮🇪🎤🇵🇭😂

Seph's Philippine Musings

An Irishman doing completely unqualified anthropological research into Filipino life, one mic, one shaky high note and one neighborhood concert at a time.

Seph 🇮🇪☘️🇵🇭

#SephsPhilippinePonderings #Philippines #LifeInThePhilippines #FilipinoKaraoke #Videoke #PinoyHumor #FilipinoCulture #IrishmanInThePhilippines #MyWay #KaraokeLife #NeighbourhoodLife #FieldNotesFromParadise #IrishHumor #MusicAndLife 🇮🇪🇵🇭

The three things that annoy me most about living in Davao/PH

I've been in Davao City for two months now, and these things happen almost every time I go out to do anything... I can't help getting annoyed.

1. The need to cut in front of others. A lady was standing in line ahead of me at SM with one item... then right as it was almost her turn, her daughter came through with a cart, and I mean a seriously packed cart, pushing everyone out of the way. They swapped places and the older lady went off to the pharmacy.

And for some reason, whenever you get off a bus or ferry, people from rows way behind you magically end up passing everyone to the very front, which makes it harder for everyone to get off.

2. When talking with some Filipinos, they sometimes leave out key information and then look at you like you're stupid for not knowing lol. Then they tell you that bit of information only after you've been made to look like a fool. My question is, why can't they just say everything that needs to be said from the start, so I don't have to stand there looking like a fool?

3. If you're dating or married to a Filipina that others also find attractive, be ready to be treated differently than when you're alone.

People are seriously jealous, and it goes both ways. Women aim their hate at my wife, and Filipino men give me the cold shoulder, probably because they think they should be in my place. It's really weird. It's just funny to me that other people think they'd be a better match for what my wife or I have.

Other than that, life in Davao has been great. I wish those things didn't happen so often, but it is what it is. I don't expect anything to change. It's all just unnecessary rude behavior.