Hi k2d

If you like short fat girls and have a fetish for moles on faces. PI is the absolute NUTS!

I don't know anything about the flight.onward option but I have been asked more than once both leaving for PHL or after landing at Manila for proof of ticket. They accepted my printed ticket easy enough.

Also had a friend who landed from Australia and was sent back as he had no ongoing flight. He called attorney friend here in Manila and was nothing they could do. He was held by immigration until next outbound and send back. Returned next day with ongoing ticket no issue.

You can usually find a cebu pacific or air asia ticket to Singapore or Macau etc for $50 or less. Even if you throw it away seems worth it to know you won't have any issue.

So I posted previously on my team moving over, and got great advice. Here is an update on my side:

- Visa(s) non issue, visa waiver exemption accepted for all 4, now using the process for extensions & ACRI card
- Apartments had some issue with some asking for a full year rent up front, had some asking for 3-6 months up front. Run bad was due to a few real estate agents swarming us, considering we wanted 2 places for extended periods of time. Ended up using rentpad.com.ph and negotiating with the actual owners.
- Bank Accounts, Crazy easy BPI was super accommodating, provided them with accounts and cards within a week. Super easy to wire, and in general im quite pleased with this. They also accepted our apartments without an actual mail, rather just confirmation we were renting there.

I see a lot of you guys are living around solaire (Sea Residence etc) does anyone have a price they pay for this location, I'm looking at grabbing a place around Makati, looking more the Rockwell area, but need a comparison of people actually living there. 75k PHP seems pretty steep for a 1 bedroom in rockwell, but I understand this is the expat area of PH.

Also if anyone has actual prices for the greenbelt business district id love to hear them, right now I'm concerned that online prices are jacked up 20+% compared to actual prices if i walked in there wanting to dump cash on them.

Any areas around greenbelt that are safe/good areas that are not jacked up, that anyone can recommend?

I have been living in solemare for 5months... Been feeling pretty safe... Though what BGP said feels scary indeed... I would argue though that it is withing walking distance(though this depends on person obv. and i admit i can be bit crazy walker) at least on CoD. Solaire and MoA are bit further and you might get bit sweaty depending on how hot it is outside(also if you walk even bit further you may reach all in and midas, though it is less safe)... but yea not much else around here and restaurants close quite early around here. I pay 23k(BGP pays less) +utilities but had to make 6months contract(they(well there are some invidual agents also) also offered monthly for 35k with utilities)... They also offer free shuttle to MoA for old ladies and BGP
Sea residence is obv closer to MoA but further from CoD and Solaire

Free shuttle to MOA? I've been on a free shuttle to RW before, but that's standard for a casino, haven't heard of malls doing free shuttles before.

It is not the mall... it is the condo... Well it goes only every two hours or so... Though there was free 'shuttle' to marquee mall in angeles(from opposite the casino)

Thanks a ton for the above, I'm trying to compare places everywhere and the above helps me with that perfectly. Initial searches from that area pulls up anything from 18-35k, right now I'm trying to work out if its worth grabbing a place that side, or sucking it up and paying the premium to be around the Power plant mall area.

Do you have any experience with the greenbelt area, like these places look like a steal:
http://rentpad.com.ph/long-term-rent...ati/68b66eaa20

In essense im trying to work out a safe area, close to everything, without being smoked for 75-100k per month.

Yes, but nothing is actually free in this world. Someone is paying for your 'free shuttle.'

Who do you think is more likely to be the one paying for it, the one who already has your business and your money and has you locked into a lease, or the one that wants your business and has an interest in drawing you to their location so you can give them your business?

Studios at knightsbridge residences go for 20k pesos/month through facebook groups or I know a poker guy there who could help. One bedroom i assume about 40k. In makati so pretty safe, 500m to burgos street, 2km to greenbelt mall. Just not ideal for quick access to casinos for live poker if you were playing everyday.

That place you linked is better located if you don't care about burgos though. I'd just use Airbnb and try out a bunch of places to start with.

Indeed though this shuttle is called solemare 'resident' shuttle with solemare logos etc. and are parked within condo... But i'm pretty sure owner of condos have to pay some sort of monthly 'maintanance' fees for their condos(which i don't as i'm only renting... but obv. without this fee my rent would be lower) from which i quess also the expenses of using this shuttle is also paid... so in the end it is not really free and you actually have to pay for it

I don't have much experience about other areas in Manila but i have been happy for my area also liked eastwood(but i quess it is not so accessible also). But yea in Manila the traffic is terrible so it is worth a quite a bit to choose location that suits your needs. Like resort's world/airport isn't so far from my place but due the traffic(they are making new road over there) it can take about 1hour to get there.

Lol I walk to moa every time I go to the gym, but I'm drenched in sweat by the time I get there.

For 75k in Rockwell you should be getting a 2 floor apartment.

I cannot find 20k in Knightsbridge. .. cheapest is 28 k... no idea if it's studio or not though. Where did you see that?

French Jon found the deal from a secret facebook group 'knightsbridge residences pod owners' which someone has to invite you to for you to even see it, dunno how he got invited, I can find out though.

20k is already overpriced by Thailand standards. The studios are small, i'd get claustrophobic. Gym and location could be a little better. Halfway between greenbelt and burgos would be perfect. K

Cool thanks. I've only seen one apartment complex with an adequate gym so I'd be planning to join another anyways. Biggest things for me and wifi and location.

Really hard to believe how awful rent prices are here.

BGP, what is it that keeps you in the Philippines? A lot of infrastructure stuff we take for granted is like a huge bonus over there. Add traffic, corruption, pollution, crazy incoming President who is encouraging people to kill.......

I got screwed out of two pretty substantial amounts of money in china and needed a break. Philippines has some problems for sure but it's a nice change of pace. When I left china I knew I was not going to be learning another language but wanted to stay in asia so philippines seemed like a great choice. Also was not going to be doing visa runs so philippines won again. Overall things function here very well and the people are great. Despite the high rent costs my monthly costs are lower than china and I have a good lifestyle.

Traffic really is awful here, pretty much nothing worse about the country.

Corruption doesn't really bother me. It's not something which affects me day to day and I got used to it in china. Asia has a strange way of functioning despite the massive corruption. Obviously talking about my day to day life activities and not anything political.

Believe it or not every city I lived in in china is more polluted than here... including xiamen which is hailed as one of the cleanest cities. My lungs have actually started to clear up since moving to manila... how filthy is that?

The new president could change things I haven't followed his politics much except for reading about the drug thing after the gun incident. I'm hoping things don't change for the worse but it could be a deal breaker.

He also wants corrupt journalists assassinated.

So a drug dealer with a camera is some kind of multiplier probably. Near a school may tack on a few pesos.
I wonder if knife kills will get you extra.

screwed out of two large sums of money stories upcoming i assume

Not that interesting. One was a private game that couldn't pay out. I actually won almost no money from him but there was a whale who dropped a lot of money. He had done this before and always paid but he didn't really like the two guys running this game so he just told them he wasn't paying. He is a spoiled kid from one of the wealthiest families in the city so not much the game runners could do. One had to flee to Hong Kong and the other went into hiding somewhere inland.

The other one was kind of similar but the owner couldn't pay out for a lot of reasons. Don't think he's in hiding but he's working his ass off trying to earn money to pay off debt.

I don't expect to see either of the amounts owed me but always a slim chance.

Humm... maybe I wasn't so crazy after all to suggest against playing in underground games eh.

I'd be surprised if anyone disagreed with you. Pretty much every time it comes up I mentioned thay they are very profitable but you need to know the owners well or you're likely to get screwed.

Also the lower stakes game use cash so not as much of a problem.

any PLO players looking to come and visit cebu? id like to buy you a beer and talk about PLO

Just saw headline about how top crime lords/kingpins in the country have put a bounty on Duterte's head.

Considering he's going after corrupt police and military officers I'm not sure who he's going to count on to protect him from those looking to collect that bounty.

If it's Duterte and a few trusted police and military vs. the world, I'm not sure that's going to go well for him.

No matter what though, sh its about to get real in the streets of Manila, apparently it already has begun.

BGP's experience may soon be a regular nightly occurrence throughout the city.