Subseastu's emigration story part 2 zzzzzzzzz

Part 2. Right where was I?

Arrived in Manila, tired and smelling not too great after a long journey. The plane from Dubai to Manila is obviously of the older class of plane as it’s getting quite ropey now. Anyway we were fairly close to the front of economy so where one of the first off the plane (good to help beat the queues at immigration). Bit of a tense moment at immigration as the wife travels on her UK passport and we’ve not got her dual nationality sorted yet. But we both got through with a balikbayon stamp so she’s good for a year and as they’ve extended the period of days to 30 with no need of a visa I’ll be ok when I come back in from work in a month. Then it was just a matter of getting a spot at the carousel and waiting to see if any / all of our bags made it. After what seemed like an eternity all of our bags (surprisingly) appeared. Then it was a matter of getting some credit and contacting Januarius’s brother in law (our van and driver) to let him know we’d arrived. Can recommend this bloke. Nice guy and good driver.

I also called the agent in Manila for our dog, after a bit of toing and froing their man on the ground met us. The dog (Pau pau) was due to land an hour or so after us. By the time we met up with the guy the plane had landed and off he went to deal with the paperwork customs etc. After standing around a bit sweating we decided to go across the street towards the KFC. We all went for a bite of food (and a few san migs for me) at the Chinese restaurant close by the KFC. Can’t remember the name but can recommend it, cheap and tasty food plus they have A/C which was nice.

Anyway after eating and a bit of sitting about we got a call from our man and met him back in the car park. We then drove round to the customs building to get pooch. He seemed in remarkably good nick considering he’d been cooped up in the box for god knows how long. Got him out so he could stretch his legs and do his business etc. Paid the man his $700 and away we went to Olongapo.

Unfortunately we took the old road to Olongapo and not the highway as I was told it was still closed due to the heavy rains the week before. This it turns out to be wrong info; the freeway was closed but only to heavy vehicles. No real matter, we arrived in town about 1am at this place

http://www.aotrizapartments.com/

Not too bad 950/day, they are clean though pretty small. We struggled with space to be honest with the amount of luggage we had. Also the kitchen is v basic with not a lot of utensils but apart from that the owners are friendly and helpful. Oh yes there is no hot water in the apartments so cold showers are the order of the day. Plus it’s in the area of town I want to concentrate on. Also with prior agreement they let us stay with the dog. Due to jetlag we were awake at stupid o’clock and went into town for supplies and a bit of an explore.

Basically the next few days were spent driving round in tricycles (interesting for me at about 6”4!) and a friendly taxi driver we found. After the terrible flooding that happened here a few weeks ago houses for rent are v thin on the ground but we found a place in Gordon Heights well above the flood zone on the Tuesday. I spoke to the owners on the phone that now live in the states and we struck a deal. Basically 2 months deposit plus 2 months rent in advance and they’ll include the furniture. This was a god send to me because we were going to struggle to fit the house out otherwise, though they’d offered the furniture to me for $5000!! No way was it worth that, so I snapped off her hand when she included it in the deal. The owner’s sister and her girlfriend live next door which is very good for us, so far. They are both friendly and helpful which puts my mind at a little for when I go to work. All repairs are getting done pretty quickly and to a reasonable standard. I will mention rent is 25000 / month, contracted for 12 months.

Anyway we started to go round buying appliances etc. mainly from a shop in town called “Ocampo”. I managed to bargain a reasonable price on most stuff. Prices below in peso (exchange rate at the time about 69 to the pound). Delivery free of charge:
LG wft1210stg washing machine (one of those top loader things) – 18000
LG gr-m602gsh fridge / freezer – 30800
LG 42lm6200 TV – 38700
Electrolux edv600m drier – 13900
Electrolux ekg55301k gas oven - 13000

Costs so far I estimate to be in sterling:

Travel, us – 1500
Travel dog – 2600!!
House rent – 1500 (2month deposit 2 month in advance)
Setting up house (appilances, general house hold items) – 2000

There are some other costs which I cant remember but I think so far I’m in for just over 8000 quid to get us across and set up. Main saving is the house is effectively furnished for what we require at present. We may have to buy another bed etc in the future.

The owner’s sister knows someone in the CAT-TV office in town so we went there on the Wednesday, jumped a huge queue and got cable and internet scheduled for the first week in November. Though this actually changed to “next week” as soon as I went for the fasted internet and top TV package! Strange how that worked. Anyway the guys came and fitted it on last Sunday morning! So only 3 full days after ordering it, nice.

Other than that its really just been a matter of setting up yet another household. Stuff like cleaning gear, plates, cooking stuff, blah blah. It is expensive now with the poor exchange rate but things should settle down now the house is effectively done from our point of view. We’re just waiting on other repairs etc to be completed.

In all I think we got lucky so far finding this place and with landlords happy to spend money getting it up to scratch though like amost things out here it’s always a bit rough and ready and never finished to a standard I’d expect in the UK. Apart from a few problems elsewhere things aren’t going to bad on the whole (touch wood).

You can all wake up now!

The new abode

The worlds most travelled dog?! back in the uk

Very nice house! Take care and stay safe and I wish you and your family to have a wonderful stay!

He's adorable! we had Jet black Labrador but we couldn't bring him with us in the Middle East because there are lots of things to process and we are lacking of time with the visas. So I left him to a friend.

In fur lined basket!

We've brought him as the wife is a real animal lover and for us we couldn't leave him with anyone really. Its been expensive but its company for the wife when I'm at work.

Nothing is too good for our mut............apparently!

Lucky! watch out for the Lasenggero, they may steal him and make him pulutan! They can be horrible with dogs if they are not dog lover, they are dog eater!

I'm afraid that's about it for now Dom. Apart from the fact I'm leaning to not getting a car as it seems to much hassle to try and go that route. From our house to the gate in a tricycle at the base costs 70 peso, 50 to the market. Our taxi man cost 300 for a pick up to anywhere local and 4500 to the airport and back. If my day to day transportation costs get anywhere close to a grand for a year I'll be happy with that. Far cheaper than buying a car just for a couple of years.

It does take some getting used to the general attitude towards animals out here. There is a house at the back of our that our rear terrace thing overlooks and they have 5 dogs in a pen all day with little food and water. They are basically neglected and make a hell of a noise in the morning! That the thing out here you can have a nice / reasonable house and have some right dumps for neighbours.

Excellent once again Stu.
Many of us have been to the Phils many times but your feedback on going to live there is invaluable. Thanks

Stu, if you're wanting fresh milk or other dairy goods such as yoghurt delivered to you, contact this dairy:

Karlen's Fresh Cow's Milk Shop
L 14-5 Forest Road, Carmenville Subd. Angeles City

Email: karlensfreshmilk@yahoo.com

Cell: 0917 553 8460
Tel: (045) 887-1268

They deliver on Tuesdays and Fridays to Subic/Olongapo and fresh whole milk costs Php70/litre.

Nice one thanks Mark. We've been using "President" half skimmed milk so far out of the SM and royal mall. Its not too bad to be honest though we only really use it in tea in the mornings

No probs, to be honest with the way some things are going out here its actually given me something to do to spend an hour or so writing it up. To be far I'm only really expanding on hints, advice and tips everyone here has given me before we came across. I suppose there's nowt like putting it into practice.

Heh. You have just described me. (Well, there are 60,000 of us)

Just been out and brought a continuous ink supply with free Canon MP287 3 I 1 printer! I had to read the sign twice but that's what it said. Cost was 4900peso. Had to run out and get this due to the inability of my local internet café to print of my boarding pass etc for going to work tomorrow! Numpties.

Anyway its a quite clever system using an off board bank of 4 ink containers that feed tubes to where the normal cartridges would be. The bottle refills cost 120 peso each and look pretty big

BREAKING NEWS

We've found some reasonable sausages!!! We got them at the Royal mall on the Freeport base. They come in packs of 5(!?) and are called, wait for it..................

English bangers!!

They are pretty tasty, though a little small in size they are close to a proper banger. I think they cost 120 or 170 peso for the pack so a little expensive for what you get but they are a reasonable taste of home.