The good and the bad

In this post I would like to list the positive and the negative points that I (being a Swiss citizen) experience in my every day life in the Philippines. I am aware that this list is very much biased and might look totally different for a foreigner originating from a different country than Switzerland.

The good

• The climate. I am coming from a country where the climate is constantly cold or cool. Sometimes the sun is hardly coming out from the clouds/myst for several days or even weeks. Here in the PH the temperatures range between 26 degrees and 34 degrees Celsius.
• The happiness. Filipinos are in a constant state of happiness that nobody can take them away. Even in the most stressful (for me) situations, someone around me suddenly starts singing a song. Just like that.
• There are no youngster groups hanging out here and mocking any person who passes by. Younger people are always respectful towards older people. This contributes quite much to a comfortable feeling when being in the public, as the average Filipino age is around 23 years only. This results in the situation that most Filipinos are younger than me. Voila. Here is the respect.
• As an expat I am in the lucky situation that I can benefit from my European salary but spend it in the PH where many things (not all things though) are cheaper. Particularly restaurants, taxis, personal services (tennis instructor, ball boy, house keeping, ...), traveling.
• I can go diving and playing tennis much more than I could in Switzerland. Diving because there are very nice dive sites just 2-3 hours away, and tennis because it is much cheaper here and the weather allows to play outdoor every day until 22:00.
• Traveling South East Asia Pacific region is very convenient from the PH.
• Proximity to the sea and to nice beaches
• The openness of Filipinos to foreigners and also among themselves. They are not afraid of getting to know anybody new.
• Restaurants and shops always have plenty of staff. As a customer you definitely get the attention you are looking for easily.
• As a foreigner I feel like sometimes I get a particularly good service in the PH. Or if I complain about something my complaint is being taken a touch more seriously.
• For a single man life in the PH (or may be generally in South East Asia) is much more relaxed than in Switzerland in terms of looking for female company. In Switzerland there are 70% males in every bar. Planes can not take off because they are over-weight (see this news article) having so many males compare over so few females aboard. These things would never happen here. Here it could be other way around, I get the impression.
• Virtually everybody speaks English in the PH.
• I can use the swimming pool every day. If I only would...

The bad

• Out of stock: So many times when you pick your dish on the menu of a restaurant, it turns out that this dish is out of stock right now. Or you need to buy some milk very urgently? Out of stock. The service technician who is supposed to install your land line telephone: Out of stock of cable. Needs to come back later. Toilet paper? You don't want to know.... Supply chain management is a problem all over the PH. I have still not found any satisfactory explanation why that occurs so frequently here.
• Out of change: In the Philippines you need to be prepared having the right change to pay for anything. Don't expect to receive change for cash which exceeds 3 times the price (e.g. if the taxi fare is PHP 300, you won't be able to pay using a PHP 1'000 bill). 
• The air in the city and the tap water are not clean.
• The relentless burocracy and the many forms you have to fill even for buying bubble gum. For each service you need to sign five times.
• Many Filipinos litter and are not aware that other people might feel disturbed of the trash lying around. This applies even to parks, beaches and historic islands. I guess the people who litter simply don't appreciate the beauty of the landscape enough, so they don't recognize its value.
• Traffic is very bad in the PH. Not only in Manila. There is hardly any railway or metro system. So all traffic flows though the streets. And the Jeepneys and UV taxis just stop everywhere, blocking the traffic behind. Often cars just stop anyways, for having a breakfast in a Jolly-Cheap, or for having a pee or whatever, and often they don't drive aside but simply stop right in the middle of a traffic lane. Cars always cut the turns. Pedestrians cross at red light. Tricycles (slow!) drive on highspeed roads, leaving no space to overtake. Roads always take traffic right through each city-centre or centre of the village, there is no such a thing like a perimeter road which keeps transit traffic outside of the cities, by-passing them. The cities collapse under the heavy transit traffic, and the transit traffic fights with the slow city traffic like tricycles. A lose-lose situation.
• Travel taxes: Every time I leave the PH I have to pay travel taxes of about 60 dollars. A cheap quick flight to HK, Singapore or Thailand gets easily doubled in price only because of the travel tax.
• Security feeling: I always feel safe around my neighbourhood. And I have never got into any trouble so far and not even whitnessed anything. But especially abroad people keep reminding me how dangerous it can be in the PH. I guess the truth lies somewhere in between.
• Despite the many cinemas around (each mall has one), the selection of movies they display is very narrow (selection is usually around 5 different movies only). Filipinos seem to like the blockbusters with superheroes. But to find cultural movies or movies which are not made by Hollywood or by the PH is very difficult.
• The internet connectivity between the PH and Asia or USA seems to be relatively slow. Despite having the fastest home internet plan available, I still can't watch a Youtube video without letting it pre-cache first.
• Electronic goods (cameras, computers, HIFI systems, TVs, ...) cost more than in European countries. And much more than in Singapore or HK.
• It is difficult for me to find my usual healthy food in restaurants. When I order something with vegetables here, the vegetables are usally only for decoration. Just a spoon full of vegetables. Meat and carbohydrates are clearly prioritized on local menus.
• Despite every body speaking English, sometimes accent-free, it can be surprisingly hard to get your point across to the conversational partner. And the flawless English you hear makes you believe that communication should be child's play. It's not.

This picture shows a taxi stopping in the middle of the street to have a breakfast at the Jolly-Cheap (food stall) at the side of the street. This is normal and nobody seems to care. Even in peak traffic hour.