Long time resident in Philippines.

[Gilgamesh]

Just saw this forum and thought I would join in case I might be useful to those thinking of coming to Philippines.

I came here 22 years ago and married a pen friend, built a house, fathered a son (he's 17 now) and lived (relatively) peacefully ever since.

Easy living. Avoid complaining, be careful, smile and life will be good.

[zboy1]

Just saw this forum and thought I would join in case I might be useful to those thinking of coming to Philippines.

I came here 22 years ago and married a pen friend, built a house, fathered a son (he's 17 now) and lived (relatively) peacefully ever since.

Easy living. Avoid complaining, be careful, smile and life will be good.

Welcome to the forum, Gilgamesh. Cool story, bro. I think after I spend a year or two teaching English in China, I might make the Philippines my next place of destination. The reason being: English is widely spoken there, its a more Westernized country than a place like China, and there's lots of expats and foreigners there (including Koreans like me).

May I ask, how do you make a living there? I guess I could get a job teaching English there--as a Filipino American on this forum offered me a job there--but I don't think there's a great demand for English teachers in that country. Anyway...tell us more about your life in the Philippines. Thanks.

[Gilgamesh]

@zboy, as to making a living here in Phil., we started by buying a concrete mixer and hiring it out by the day. That kept us alive for a while, then we bought a pedicab (pedal tricycle able to carry three, common for public transport in this small city), and expanded that until we owned more than seventy pedicabs, selling them to the drivers by installments.

When I reached the age of 65 (I was almost 61 when I came here) I was eligible for my state pension from UK (low amount only) so I gave my tricycle business to a friend and we live on my pension now. Though only a small pension it's enough as living is very cheap here.

[Taco]

@zboy, as to making a living here in Phil., we started by buying a concrete mixer and hiring it out by the day. That kept us alive for a while, then we bought a pedicab (pedal tricycle able to carry three, common for public transport in this small city), and expanded that until we owned more than seventy pedicabs, selling them to the drivers by installments.

When I reached the age of 65 (I was almost 61 when I came here) I was eligible for my state pension from UK (low amount only) so I gave my tricycle business to a friend and we live on my pension now. Though only a small pension it's enough as living is very cheap here.

Those are some good business ideas. How much did you rent the concrete mixer and the pedicad out for per day?

[filousophe]

hi gilgamesh,

good day. 100% filipino here living in Manila.

actually, i might say that it's quite easy to live here if you just have the diligence to set up a small business. just look around for the indians and the mainland chinese (the ones who just migrated, not the established ones) who are doing their small businesses here.

@zboy1

yes, english is widely spoken here. as a matter of fact, in general, we are the country of choice by the koreans for learning english.

actually, there is still a relatively considerable demand of english teachers here, with koreans and call center agents as your primary students.

one option you could do is that when you get here, get a job in a voice-based Business Process Outsourcing ("BPO") (i.e. call center). as long as you can speak english, you can earn a decent amount here.

hope that helps.