I think you can stay as long as u want but you have to extend every six months for a small fee.

i would not live in manila. That little place alone is so overpopulated. I would stay anywhere in makati, taguig, laguna(1 hour near beaches) cavite or tagaytay. All within 3 hours drive to capital manila. Also there are like 5-10 casinos in philippines.

Im not sure if boracay have high speed internet but you could probably contract out a small but luxurius hut right beside the beach for 300us a month. Youre only problem is INTERNET.

Thats so hot playing poker under the sun while u watch neked b1tches sun bath.

from 10kpesos to 30kpesos per month.

somebody coach me and Ill be your tour guide. end of march till end of april I will be in phil.

My fee is coaching or staking HOLLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i saw on tfc that online gambling is illegal in the philippines? any info on this? i'm planning on taking a vacation up there, and don't wanna drop my play. might be an extended vacation up to 6 months or so.

online gambling is not illegal in the Phils, heck they cannot touch online poker. I've been playing online for 2 years now at FTP and I'm a Filipino. Feel free to ask me questions

I'm looking at moving down to the Philippines for awhile. Can anyone point me in the right direction for a good area to look at if i looking for a place close to the beach (within walking distance) and within reach (a short cab ride away is fine) of a decent sized city. Somewhere close to doctors, shopping, and movie theaters. Oh, and i need a good internet connection. Thanks.

If you take a look at a map you'll find that it would be tough to live far from a beach.

What is the best city to live in the Philippines? You should visit a bunch of cities and see how you like them.

lucky: personally I prefer to live in Manila mainlybecause everything I need is already in Manila, good hospitals, shopping malls, inet connection. The only thing missing is a nearby beach. As a local, I would have to drive 1-2 hours to get to the nearest beach, Batangas.

Paul B. has a great suggestion, when you head out to the philippines, it's better to see Manila first then hit Bacolod, Cebu, Davao, these are relatively small cities with a few malls wmovie theathers, shopping, they have awesome beaches and it's a bit cheaper than Manila . I bet you can have an inet connections, not sure of the quality though but rest assure it can handle playing online and yeah they have good hospitals

if you want like a beachfront type of setting you have to try going to Boracay, avoid the hotels if you plan to stay long try renting an aptment

Thanks for the information Paul and mnlgrind! I'll do some more research with this info and probably be back with some more questions.

Power plugs: I'm from the USA where we use 110V @ 60 Hz. Wiki tells me that most of the Philippines uses 220V @ 60 Hz and that I need to buy a step-down transformer and a passive plug adapter. Where can I buy these and how much do they cost?

I'm flying into Manila on the 12th. Anyone have any recommendations as to where to stay? I want to stay in Manila for a few days, then check out some other cities.

Why is everyone asking so many questions about live poker? Yes, when I visit a third world country, live poker is so important...cmon...the formula is simple..just play online for money, chilll and have fun being a rockstar and enjoying life...

Paul: transformers are standard, my xbox/wii needs the 110v and then TV, dvd players and computers are 220v. transformers cost like 3-5k pesos or around 80-120usd, depending on how many outlets the transformer has.

depends on your needs bro, if you wanna stay near shopping areas and clubs? try staying in Makati (there's the Somerset hotels Phil) near casinos try Malate (this is the fave of foreigners bec of the titty bars). also search for Discovery Suites Philippines. Other cities you might wanna check out, Boracay (awesome beach must see!), Cebu, Davao (both cities have cardrooms)

We can def meet up when you come down. btw, I recognize your screenname from STTF, i'm a sttf'er myself

Good point primo, but live games here are sooo juicy, the big games here are like 200nl-500nl. Usually the people in those games throw chips back and forth :P

How is the price of electronics down there compared to US or Europe prices? TVs, laptops, iPods, cellphones, LCD monitors, etc? I am living in Argentina now and they have a 50% tariff on imported electronics (which is just about every electronic device). So things end up being double the price i can get it for in the US.

Hi,

My mom is filipino and I have told her about my plans on living in Makati. She and her friends agree that it is way too dangerous to live in the philippines as an obvious "outsider/foreigner." Too many cases of kidnappings and ransoms since everyone is so poor they are willing to do anything for money.

I wanted your guys take on this because I would love to live there as long as it is safe =/.

The only expensive electronics here are the laptops. If you plan to buy a laptop it's still cheaper to buy it from Singapore/HK/US. The others are fairly cheaper esp the cellphones.

Is your mom 100% Filipina? Word bro. I believe that anywhere you go, as long as you stay away from sketchy areas, you'll avoid trouble. I'm a Filipino and I feel safer here rather than living in Thailand, US and wherever. I think you just have to get used to living here then you'll feel comfortable. The reason why there were foreigner kidnappings and ransoms before was because they were having a vacation somewhere in the islands near the rebel camp, like what I said avoid sketchy places

I personally haven't lived there (visited for months at a time though). Kidnappers/ransomists (if that's a word) look for people that flash money, not necessarily "outsider/foreigners." They especially look out for people in local banks, so just be careful when you withdraw huge sums of money out. Sometimes, they have tellers tip 'em off when someone withdraws $$. My uncle was in a restaurant in QC when a group of dudes came in and held up the whole restaurant b/c some other restaurant patron recently withdrew some monies before going to eat there. So, as long as you're not ostentatiously flashing $ around, you'll be alright.

You are correct dude. As long as you don't attract too much attention like "Hey im rich, mug me" you'll be fine. About the bank withdrawals this sometimes happens in businesses here in the PI, obviously you really have to be careful while withdrawing a huge amount

I have been reading up on the Philippines on some other forums. One thing that seems to get mentioned a lot is the amount on insects running around inside the house. Lots of ants, cockroaches(flying ones!!!), spiders and mosquitoes. My wife is TERRIFIED of cockroaches and spiders! Is she going to have a panic attack staying there? Would it be safe to assume that i would see less bugs living in a condo in the city, and opposed to a house outside the city? Or it makes no difference?

Ya shes 100%, she lived there for like 20 years i think. I've visited there when i was little and I plan to go again for the APPT (corsses fingers). I think that its true that you shouldn't flash money around etc. but a lot of the people here will be playing for large sums of cash in the casino no? So i think this issue may arise a lot. I was just wondering how the current state of the Philippines was with relation to 'tourists.' I think America labeled it as a place not to go due to terrorist activity? I guess every 'poorer' country will have these same problems.

I think Philippines is a really nice place to live since it is much cheaper and relaxing than a normal city life. Makati is definitely on the opposite end of sketchy right ?

lucky: it depends. if you live like a slob of course there will be a lot of insects. Our house gets cleaned like almost everyday thanks to household help so all you need is to buy a good pest spray and your good to go. I think there would be less bugs living in a condo, just keep your bug spray handy. Mosquitoes are a bitch!

The funny thing is when one time when i was buying chips at the casino, I saw this old lady, she's not flashy or anything then I noticed her whipping out a wad of cash worth $1000-1200 usd, looks can be deceiving. I see koreans with money wayyyy bigger than $1000usd. As for casino security it's pretty damn secure so no worries.

Dude, you are correct, it's way cheap compared to other asian countries, relaxing too and very laid back. I live in Makati, IMO its like the heart of Manila. People go to work in Makati,they go shopping and clubbing in Makati almost everything is in Makati. There are areas in Makati that are sketchy, i noticed too that foreigners love hanging around these sketchy areas :P