Finding Accommodation in the Philippines (Part 1)

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates recently, I've been a little busy and recently took a month long vacation to the UK.

I thought I'd start off my return with a little bit of information about accommodation in the Philippines, this is the first part which covers hotels, in the next part I'll go onto more specific information about those who want to rent vacation apartments.

When we think about a vacation, one thing we don't want to worry about is the state of the hotel. Most people just want to have a nice comfortable and high quality hotel, somewhere to relax and keep your personal belongings while you're out enjoying the place.

The next most important thing (or the first for some people) is the price of the hotel, nobody likes to get ripped off (especially me) but there is the old saying that you get what you pay for, which usually is case unfortunately.

Of course I can't leave out the important aspect of the location too, who wants to have a really great 5 star hotel out in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do? Well, I'd think the majority would say they wouldn't, besides the fact that no company is going to waste money building at such a location, but moving on..

So we have the 3 factors, so how does this help you find out where you're going to stay? Lets look at 3 locations and 3 different hotels from those locations, I’ll cover just Makati today, next Cebu and then Boracay:

1. Makati

Who would stay here?

Being a business district, a lot of investors and general business travellers would choose this as a prefered location, but its great for tourists too, its a central location and with a large amount to do! Makati has a large selection of malls, restaurants, bars and with all of that available hotels too.

Find out more about Makati

OK, lets look at a few of the hotels in Makati:

Upmarket

Photo by Jekert Gwapo

Shangri-la Makati, just has to be mentioned here, one of the nicest upmarket hotels in Makati with room rates of around 10,000 peso.

I’ve stayed here myself in the past and would have to say the quality of the rooms, lobby and staff service is great! It’s such a comfortable and relaxing place to welcome you into the Philippines, although for the price tag of course you shouldn’t expect less. This is perfect for those who have a little more cash to splash out for their stay and don’t mind paying the extra for the experience, or a long term stays though perhaps a cheaper hotel would be a better way to spend your money.

Budget

Into the budget hotel categories falls the Saint Illians Inn, which I’ve heard great things about, with all that you need for your stay Saint Illians is reasonably priced starting at 1,770 pesos per night, find out more at http://www.saintilliansinn.com/.

Reasonable

Photo by Hotels.com

At a reasonable price the Renaissance (new world hotel) Makati, can’t be argued with at around 7000 peso per night and like many world class hotels, the service is great. The room décor is not quite up to the standards of the Shangri-la, however it’s not bad and has everything you need!

Run down of prices

Price Range	Hotel	Price (Peso)	Price (U.S. Dollar)	Price (GBP)
Upmarket	Shangri-la	PHP12,000	~$279	~£175
Budget	Saint Illians Inn	PHP1,970.00	~$46.00	~£29.00
Reasonable	Renaissance (New world)	PHP 5,500	~$127.50	~£80.50

*These prices and conversion rates are at time of writing, quoted from the hotels website for stay of 1 night for 2 persons,

~ approximately (room was not quoted in this currency)

If you wish to recommend other hotels or have any comments about the hotels in this post, please contact me!

Safety in the Philippines

The Philippines is such an interesting place and as a forienger I've got a lot of tales to tell!

I'm sure that a lot of people have great questions to ask, if you have any please feel free to comment, i'll do my best to answer all the comments that I can and I'll include these in the website and blog too!!

My first question is what would all of the people who are coming to the Philippines for the first time like to know??

One question I get often is about the safety of the Philippines, more so recently after the news of the HK hostage bus situation.

So, Is the Philippines safe for tourists?

In a word I'd say it is, since being a tourist myself in the past I never experienced any major problems. Relating to the Hijacking incident and the police response to it. In some ways I agree that this incident does show that the police can make mistakes, although this has happened before in other countries where the police were unable to protect hostages in a similar situation.

Anyway, bearing in mind, this is not a regular occurance and this one incident does not threaten all the foreigners visiting the Philippines.

To sum up, kidnapping/hostage situations are unlikely and rare, more so if you avoid the more dangerous areas (such as the southern parts of the Philippines), the Manila incident was isolated.

Street crime is also not as common as you might think, if you take care of your belongings as you would do in any country. If possible, don't high priced belongings or cash around when walking down the street or in unfamiliar areas. Usually a theif or criminal will not strike unless they know what you have.

Anyway, in conclusion, act streetwise and avoid obviously dangerous places and 99% of the time you won't have a problem on your trip!

For me safe places for foreigners include:
- Makati (especially around the tourist belt/ hotel areas)
- Ortigas
- Alabang
- Las Pinas
- Paranaque (BF Homes area)

Riskier places:
- Tondo
- Binondo
- Malate (at night)

I can't really comment on so many of the beaches, as usually they are relatively safe places, but attracting so many tourists means watch out for pickpockets/snatchers too.

Do you have any concerns about Philippine safety??

Shopping in the Philippines

Malling

A common hobby of a lot of Filipinos is malling (not sure if this is the official term or not), this involves wondering around the malls for a few hours shopping, window shopping or doing other things for entertainment!

The main reason for this, is not only that malls are a fun place, but they all have one thing in common... really good air-conditioning!! Since most people want to get out of the hot weather during the day, the perfect place to do this is the mall.

What do people do there?

Eating/Drinking

In most malls you have places to eat and drink, a few common ones are:
- Jolibee (Filipino version of McDonalds.. but with a few nice variations, such as hotdogs and filipino dishes)
- KFC
- Pizza Hut
- McDonalds
- Chow King (chinese style fast food)
- Toyko Toyko (Japanese food)
- Mang Inasal (Filipino bbq and other foods)
- Jerrys Grill (Drink and grill bar, good place for hanging out)
- Kenny Rogers Roasters

I could go on.. there is a large list though, all depends on your tastes and what your craving for.. just this weekend I went to a place called the Pancake House.. although they have a lot more than pancakes!!!

other than eating...

Other things you will commonly find in the malls are arcades (such as Timezone and Toms world), where you can play video games, shoot on basketball hoops (there are a lot of these) and win prizes by collecting tickets. You can also sing karaoke in private rooms here, where you can either use tokens or pay by the hour.

Internet Cafes

Another thing thats very common in the malls are internet cafes such as netopia and lots of others too.

Singing

I've noticed a lot of singing rooms opening up too.. usually about 1 or 2 per mall, these operate in a similar way to the arcades, where you can pay per hour or per song.

Opening times

Most malls here in the Philippines are open around 10am to 10pm.. although some stores or restaurants may open later. depending on the location of the mall and the type of restaurant (usually bar/ grills are the ones that open until later).

Common Malls

A few malls that you will see often are:
SM malls
Robinsons Malls
Ayala Malls (such as glorietta, Greenbelt etc)

SM is probably the most popular, in Manila at least there seems to be 1 SM mall per area!

Recommendations

With plenty of malls around, theres no excuse not to visit, at least to check it out.. a few big ones I recommend are:

SM Mall Of Asia (commonly abbreviated as MOA) - very very big mall, with a ton of great restaurants at the back.. right beside the sea, this complex has enough stores to satisfy even the most demanding shopper!! There is enough to do here that you'll need a lot more than one visit to experience it all! This mall is located in Manila, beside Manila bay (at the end of EDSA road and near to Roxas Boulevard. Buses and Jeeps often go here, so its an easy location to get to.

SM Megamall - Located on EDSA near to Quezon city, this mall is also quite large, and houses an outdoor market too, perfect for bargain hunters and mallers alike.

SM southmall - Located in Las Pinas, this mall is frequented by a lot of foreign residents living near by.. because of this it caters for a wide range of international foods and stores.

Greenbelt complex - Makati, great place for a day out.. its a mall that surrounds a green park like area. Nature in the middle of the city! This mall has a lot of fashion boutiques and very large selection of restaurants, coffee houses, bars and nightclubs. You can hang around here for 24 hours if you wanted to.. since was the bars/restaurants are closing early morning, the stores are beginning to open up again. Coffee houses here tend to be 24 hours! A lot of the places cater specifically for foreign tourists, so be prepared to pay higher prices than usual!


for more info on shopping click here....

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Living in the Philippines

Well what can I say about Philippine life, I came here for a 2 week vacation.... 2 and half years ago! I've been here ever since, people may ask me what my reasons are! I get regularly told to go back to my home country and earn good money!

What are my reasons?
I don't know exactly to be honest, thats not because i'm a crazy guy who decided to live in another country just to be random, its more to do with the fact that there are so many positive reasons, that I can't put my finger on one!

Things that I love about the Phillippines:

The people & culture

There is something different about the people here, in a good way. I can't decide on the exact reason however, but its a fusion! The kindness, the feeling of welcoming. Even though foreigners are mocked on occasion (expect a few "Hey man, whatsup"'s on the street followed by the occasional "Hey Joe") which could be classed as racism, but it is in fact more of a lack of understanding.

All that most people know, especially those who are poorer and uneducated are that foreigners are American. Becuase thats what they know. I don't look down on them for that and I take their comments are less of an insult and more of an attempt to show that they understand me!

I love that people are so interested that your a foreigner, they'll ask you questions and usually ask you what you think of their country. As your opinion means a lot to them. I think this comes mainly from the colonial mentality of the past, when Filipinos were treated as second class citizens by the Spanish and the US, but its still facinating to be treated in this way!

Culture wise the Philippines has a lot of positives, such as family first. Something that seems to have been lost long ago in the West, where a lot of people just put elderly or sick relatives straight into a retirement home. In the Philippines this would be looked down upon, children are expected to take care of their elders once they are old enough to take care of themselves.

One contrast compared to England, is that people are so transparent and will be willing to tell you all thier personal information at the drop of a hat. Coming from the UK where privacy is like gold, this makes an interesting change.

The final thing I have to say is that the country is so laid back, no one seems in a rush.

The Sun

I don't know what it is but having so much sun seems to have both a positive and slightly negetive effect on people.

The positive is the fact that people seem brighter and more friendlier and the days feel generally great! You can take a trip down to the beach if you've got the time, or you can sunbath in your garden! Feels a massive difference compared to the gloomy UK!

The disadvantage is that when it comes to work some people get a little lazy due to the heat. I myself can be affected by this, when its too hot, its just too hot to do anything, whether thats working, exercising or whatever your into.

Beaches

It has to be said that the beaches here are absolutely amazing, wherever you find them, you'll discover paradises that you'd have never thought existed before! Combine that with the great sun that I've mentioned above and you'll understand why its so amazing.

Imagine this.. instead of saving up all year for that 2 week spot in the Sun, you could literally go this weekend on a 1 or 2 hour trip, be in complete paradise for the next 2 days then go back to work on Monday all for a cheap price!

Find out more about the Philippines beaches here.....

Generally

A few other things are that the prices of items are so cheap here! I mean when you can get fresh lobster for a couple of hundred pesos compared to 3 times that in other countries, you can see the price difference.
This is one of the many reasons that people retire here, you could really live like a king/queen for just a few hundred dollars a month! In my estimation that would get you a nice rented, fully furnished house in a safe neighbourhood with enough money left to splash out from time to time as well as enough money to cover your general living costs! It does vary depending on where you want to live, but you get the picture!

Well i'll be writing more info as time goes by, I'd love to see some comments or replys about what you love in the Philippines (if your living here) or why you'd love to live here (if you don't).

P.S. Sorry for the lack of updates recently, i've been a little busy, but I've penned down a few articles which i'll be uploading as soon as I can!

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Filipino Driving

Driving in the Philippines

Well, as i'm sure a lot of you might have guessed. driving in the Philippines is quite different from the west. The driving style is very defensive, expect people to cut you off and expect just about anything that doesn't follow the rules in your own country to happen! Prepare for big traffic jams in some places and probably lots more pollution and noise than you are used to.

Thats why use extra caution when driving, not only are there lots of cars on the road, but you'll see a lot of other strange and wonderful vehicles, such as jeepneys, tricycles (motorcycles carrying a passenger in a sidecar) and various other modified bikes, motorbikes and even horses (calesas).

Driving updates:

In the past 2 years, I noticed a lot of strange things in the Philippines when it comes to driving. Two of those things are now classified as illegal since President Noy-Noy declared that the existing law will now be fully enforced.

These 2 things are:

Use of Sirens on non-police vehicles to get through traffic (known as wack-wack, the sound of the siren)

The second one is counterflowing traffic, basically driving on the other side of the road.

Of course not only are these both unfair to other drivers, but they are dangerous too. In the case of the sirens if people don't know who the Police are, Meaning they aren't going to bother moving when there is an emergency such as an ambulance trying to get through with a sick patient in the back. Crossing onto the other road speaks for itself, as you can imagine the possibility of head on collisions is a big factor.

Luckily this seems to be reduced now and the road is a little quieter.

Rules of the road:

Driving rules are generally the same as the US such as turning right when the lights are red. The Philippines drive on the right side of the road also.

If you're a foriegner wanting to drive you'll need an international drivin license, but when living here for a while you'll need to goto the LTO (land transport office) and get a filipino driving license, which you can easily get by providing your original license and undergoing a drugs test.

Factors in driving:

The key skills are patience, not taking things such as beeping too seriously and one essential item is air-conditioning (it gets really hot most days, especially sat in traffic)!

Beeping/Using the horn:

Well people will beep at you for just about anything, to tell you to go, to tell you they are overtaking, out of anger because you cut them off, to pick up passengers (taxi/jeepneys) or in some cases I can't even determine the reason. Me and my friend actually timed how many seconds between hearing a beep on the road and hearing the next beep, we never once got past 30 seconds.

The horn is a valuable tool in the Philippines, since it seems people don't use their wing mirrors much. Using the horn can prevent a collision if you are overtaking. Its a strong contrast to the UK where I'm used to hearing a horn about once or twice a day.

Bearing this in mind, remember also if you're looking for property in the city, might be a good idea to look for one away from the main roads to avoid being woken up all night (Aside from horns, a lot of engines are really loud especially tricycles). So if you're a heavy sleeper like me, you've got an advantage here!

Cutting off:

Try driving here and no sooner have you set off on the road, someone will try to cut you off. Its not that this driver is trying to annoy you, this just really is the way things work in the Philippines. Hesitate in a traffic jam and i'm sure that a jeepney, taxi or car will be turning across your path into the empty space.

Well this is just a little bit of information about driving here, remember always be safe and wear a seatbely. Speeding is not recommended, especially in places where there are lots of pedestrians and very few real crossings available.

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Rain in the Philippines

Since its getting to rain a lot more these days (rainy season has begun).

Heres a few things that get affected during heavy rain:

Traffic - Increases a lot when its raining, seems almost instant, the moment a rain drop hits the ground everyone jumps into their cars and hit the road (or so it seems).

Electricity - Expect some brownouts in a heavy storm, most likely from either lightning causing a generator or transformer to blow out. Usually temporary though, but in heavy typhoons, it might be a few hours.

Internet - Internet usually becomes slower/ disconnected. My estimation for this is either the quality of the lines fitted (if some are damaged might cause water to get inside) either that or people are just unwilling to go out and use the net more causing slowness in service.

Flooding - Those in low lying areas can easily be affected by flooding, sometimes flash floods. Usually these are just inconvienient (making it difficult to go out/ get home), but sometimes they can be worse!

Transport

Taxi rates - In rain everyone wants a taxi, and taxi drivers know this.. everytime I've tried to get a taxi in the rain the rates were really high!

Buses - Buses are really really crowded in the rain, in fact if you're on EDSA especially its almost impossible to find a bus with seats if its rush hour.. I was once waiting at magallanes for a bus in the rain for 2 hours!!! I did manage to get one eventually but was almost crushed because of the amount of people on it, besides that i had a comfortable position stood right in front of the leaking doors.

A few tips for those in rain:

Goto 7-eleven - You can hang out there for a while until the rain dies down, you can eat, buy magazines..... and something which has saved me on more than one occassion is the fact that they have umbrellas for sale!!


Dry off when you get home - this may seem like common sense, but because of the temperature changes and the common use of electric fans in homes, as well as some factor of pollution contained in the rain, you'll be better off taking a shower and changing you're clothes. Many Filipinos have told me about getting sick from the rain, which has happened to me before.

Stay Dry!!

Culture shock in the Philippines

First of all this is my first post on the new blog, i'll be putting a lot of new content from the site here along with my own stories/ information and any recent news too!

I'm going to tell you a little bit about Filipino culture, these are mostly based on my experiences, both in socializing and in stories told to me by others.. or just things i've experienced myself.

Culture shock is common in the Philippines, but those who get past it really learn to love the place, the people and everything about it.. those who simply can't will end up hating it here and probably go home telling all their friends not to go to the Philippines. Which is fine.. everybody is entitled to their own opinion after all.

The weather

The first thing you will notice, which actually isn't culture shock.. more weather shock.. is the extreme temperatures during the peak of summer (one of the 2 seasons here, also refered to as the dry season). I first arrived here around the end of march.. and it was HOT!! When I got of the plane I could feel the intense heat though the roof of the walkway as I was getting off the plane!

I thought that was bad.. then I actually got out of the airport! Now considering i'd come from England where it was relatively cold around that time of year, then landing and getting out in the late morning when its starting to get to the hottest point of the day, it was roasting hot!!

Stepping out of the shade I thought I was walking into an oven, luckily an air-conditioned car was on the way so it was only a matter of minutes before it was back to comfort levels again. It took me a few days to get used to it fully.. but once you reach a couple of months staying here, you hardly notice it, unless its a super hot day!!

More about the weather in Philippines...

Aside from the weather, what else can you expect here??

Filipino culture is interesting, as a foreigner one thing you should know about, is that most people think you are super rich.. In terms of Filipino salaries/ money you probably are especially if you are just stepping off the plane to enjoy a well earned vacation in a tropical paradise!! But just beware! On many occasions, you'll see beggars on the streets, now sometimes there are a lot of them, which is fine if they don't bother you.

But, 90% of the time i've walked past (or even been across the road) from beggars (especially kids).. they've ran upto me sometimes quite a long distance and refused to stop bothering me, even running down the street. I try to give them a few pesos if possible, but sometimes there are just so many that its better to just keep walking and ignore them.

Another kind of person who especially love foreigners are taxi drivers, if they believe you've just stepped off the plane and don't know anything about Philippine taxi rates, they really will try their luck with crazy high prices and refuse to use the meter. They'll use every excuse in the book "too much traffic", "the meter is broken" or they might just say some complete jibberish thinking if they confuse you enough you'll accept. Just refuse if the price seems unreasonable.

What is an unreasonable price?

Well, meters start at 30pesos usually and a taxi drive for about 20-30 minutes might cost you around 200+ depending on the distance. Going to that 7-eleven down the road shouldn't cost you 500 pesos! So just negotiate!

There is a problem sometimes, in that there simply isn't many taxis around and you have no choice, either that or you've stopped a few and they've all trid to rip you off. In this case you just have to accept it and go along with it.. but personally I wouldn't tip on a fixed rate fare in any circumstances!!

Language confusion

Now the Philippines does speak English thats true, but the question is at what level? Actually i'd say that depending on how heavy your accent is and how slowly you speak. Some people just can't understand more than basic level, especially those in jobs that require them to be quick such as fast food servers and bar tenders etc.

Often, i've been to places like Jolibee, McDonalds or similar, only to find out that my order from the menu was wrong.. I learned to correct this by just using the codes on the menu (for example N2 in jolibee is a chicken + rice meal) and usually ordering drinks, you might get the wrong choice. 9 times out of 10 I just accept this if its similar enough to my original order. Getting angry just makes things worse since they might be more nervous and make further mistakes. My point being, just accept that their might be a few mistakes, be polite about it and it should be easy enough to get it write! or another idea is learn tagalog (if you plan to stay for a while) to make things easier.

A few other things:

- Lateness: If you have a business or have a meeting planned.. expect lateness, its a part of the culture of things been more laid back.. sometimes its kinda nice but other times its annoying.

- Friendliness: People will be overly friendly, but for them its just normal.. compared to the west, it can seem scary.. but don't worry my rule of thumb, is with friends or people you've got to know well its fine.. but try not to go with those who seem suspicious and especially random strangers. They could be trying to scam you.

Theres so much more to Filipino culture than I could possibly write, have a look at my page on the subject on the site.

Filipino Culture