Davao Butterfly House - A great family getaway

Tuesday was a holiday here in the Philippines (last day or Ramadan), and the kids were out of school that day, so I decided to take them for a family outing.  We went to the Davao Butterfly House, which is in Maa, Davao City, along the Davao River.  This area is really starting to fill up with various family type venues where you can take the kids for a great day!

The butterfly house had a great number of butterflies, and some of nearly any color you could imagine.  It was a beautiful day, sun shining, barely a cloud in the sky.  We all had a great time, and really enjoyed the butterflies.  I particularly enjoyed watching my 4 kids enjoy the place and discover new things there at the place.

With four kids, my wife and I, we paid about $2.40 for admission (for the whole group), we also each had a softdrink, and the total for that set us back about $2.00.  So, for under $5 we had a family outing, great times, good memories and a lot of fun!  You can’t do that in the States for ten times the money!

I live in Davao City, and here is what I think about the place

I got an e-mail from a friend overnight. He told me that he was planning to retire in the Philippines next year, and he is thinking of living in Baguio City when he comes. Somebody told him about Davao, and he decided that maybe he should consider it before deciding too quickly. He knew that I live in Davao, so he decided to ask my opinion. I thought I’d share my response to him, since the topic is relevant to our discussion here.

Let me say first, though, that I have not lived in Baguio, so I am not criticising Baguio, I am only telling what I think about Davao. Here is what I had to say:

I have lived in Davao City for almost 5 years now. All I can say is that I love it here! I believe that Davao City is the best place to live in the Philippines. I have talked to other ex-pats living here, and they all feel the same way too.

There is such a variety here, I don’t see a way that anybody could dislike it! A few examples of life in Davao:

• We are outside the typhoon belt, no typhoon has ever hit Davao City.
• It is rare to even have rain during the day, but it rains probably 250 nights per year, after dark. Everything is green and lush, yet you get to enjoy the sunshine almost every day.
• You can literally have brunch at the beach, then spend the afternoon on the country’s highest mountain on the same day!
• While the city is large, it is not crowded like Manila or Cebu. In terms of size, Davao City is the largest city in the world! Yet, the population is small enough that you don’t have traffic problems and such.
• We are a big enough city that you can readily get western foods and other items that an ex-pat would desire to make your life more comfortable.
• If you are thinking of going to Baguio for the weather, we have that here too! Just a short trip of an hour and you are in Bukidnon, up in the coolness of the mountains! There have been times in years past when it has been so cool in the mountains of Bukidnon that there was ice on the road!
• While Davao enjoys many of the amenities that you will find in large cities like Manila, the prices here are much lower than Baguio or Manila! You can live here for about 1/3 of the price that the same lifestyle would cost in Manila!
• You can be anywhere in the Philippines in less than 2 hours with a cheap flight from Davao International Airport. For under $100 you should be able to fly to any destination in the Philippines! Baguio airport has always had problems with flights - short runway, tough path to the airport, etc. - and flights to Manila are not daily. From Davao to Manila, there are at least a half dozen flights per day, on 4 different airlines!

[note: at this point, my friend had asked about the DDS, which is an acronym for "Davao Death Squad" a group of vigilantes who go after criminals in town, primarily drug dealers. Although it is not officially acknowledged, it is known on the streets that the DDS kills many of these types of criminals.]

Yes, Davao is a law and order town. In my opinion, that is an advantage. The DDS does deal with criminals and keep the streets clean. However, I have never heard of a foreigner having problems with the DDS. I suspect that if a foreigner got into some trouble, they would be given a warning by the DDS to leave town. I have never heard of any problem, though. Yes, there have been a few instances where the DDS has killed the wrong person, but only rarely. It is not something that worries me. Crime would be worse without the DDS. As it is now, Davao City has the lowest crime rate in the country.

Another thing - there is a LOT to do in Davao! There are a lot of resorts around the area (especially on Samal Island), there are the mountains too. Fruits are abundant here, with many varieties of fruit that are not available in other parts of the country (unless you pay a premium for fruit shipped in from here). There are places like Eden Nature Park, the Philippine Eagle Conservatory, Malagos Gardens, GAP Farming, the Crocodile Park, and other such places to visit and learn.

You won’t get bored in Davao, I know that for sure. Before living here, I lived for 2 years in General Santos City, and I was indeed bored there, not much to do.

We have lots of big shopping malls here too - SM, NCCC, Victoria Plaza, Gaisano City Mall, Gaisano South Mall, Chimes, etc. Plenty of shopping for the wife!

All in all, I recommend Davao City highly. I can’t imagine living anywhere else in the country!

Watching for scammers

This morning I got an e-mail from somebody who reads one of my other blogs.  He is in an “over the internet” relationship with a girl who lives in another city here in Mindanao.  The girl had e-mailed him saying that one of her relatives is sick and in the hospital.  But… they have no money for treatment and the person who is sick will die if they don’t get treatment.  She is asking him to send money so that the sick patient can receive treatment.

There is a slight problem, though…  The hospital where the girl says the patient is hospitalized does not exist!  She gave the name of the facility to the guy, and he e-mailed me and asked me to verify that this person is a patient there.  I checked the phone book for that city, and no such facility is listed in the phone book.  I also spoke with a doctor in the area, and she told me there is no such hospital.

Funny thing is, this is not unusual.  It is a scam, and a common one.  I actually get this same e-mail from people abroad about 6 to 8 times per year.  So, this happens all the time.  Imagine how many people fall for the scam?  You can imagine, there are many many people who don’t e-mail me to check this out (or e-mail anybody else for that matter), they just send the money.

The point is… if you are in such a long distance relationship with somebody that you’ve never met in person, be careful.  There are a lot of scammers out there, after all.

How much money do you need to live in the Philippines?

Probably the most often asked question from people who are thinking about living in the Philippines is this - How much money do I need to have a good life there?

Well, to be honest, there is no single answer that can be right for every person.  “Living good” is a different concept for every person, and what is a good life for one person may be a life of poverty for another.  However, just because the amount varies depending on your lifestyle doesn’t mean that we can’t talk about general amounts that would be required to live here.

The least amount of money that I would say a single person could live on and have a comfortable life is maybe about $600 per month or so.  For a couple, maybe $800 to $900.  Now, I have heard of westerners living here on $200 to $300 per month, but for most of us that would not be too comfortable.  Those who live on that kind of budget live the way that local Filipinos live - in a nipa hut, eating native Filipino food (mostly rice and vegetables), just an existance as opposed to a life.  At $200 per month you aren’t going to spend time in Malls, go to Movies, go out for entertainment and such.  Even at $600 you won’t be doing a lot of this kind of thing.

Now, if you can do $1,000 to $1,200 per month for a single person, maybe $1,500 for a couple, you can live a fairly nice life.  You can rent a decent house, eat a fairly good diet with plenty of meat and such, go out for some entertainment, maybe do a little travel around the Philippines too!  You can also get a maid to stay in and take care of cleaning and chores, maybe a little cooking too.  For this kind of budget, you won’t have to take care of much yourself in the way of work, you can hire it out.

If you want to live a swanky lifestyle (nothing wrong with it… I tend to live a pretty darn good life myself), for a budget of $2,000 to $3,000 you can live in style.  Nice house, a car, a couple of maids and somebody to wash your clothes.  You won’t be wanting for anything.  I am not ashamed to admit that I personally fit into this category.  I have myself, my wife, 4 kids and 2 nieces living with me.  I guess we get by on maybe $3,500 per month.  This includes putting 3 of my kids in a private school (best in Mindanao, IMHO), and one niece in college. I guess it would be said that we don’t really want for anything.  If there is something that I want or need, I buy it, and it doesn’t break the budget.  A few weeks ago our refrigerator was getting rather old and worn out, so we bought a new one.  Even with that expense, I will still live within my budget for the month.  If I want a new computer or laptop, I buy one.  So, I would say that for the standards of many back in the States, my lifestyle is probably excessive.  But, why not?

Some examples of things that you might wonder about when it comes to pricing:

Movie Tickets:  $1 for seating in the premium section of the theater
Grilled Chicken:  $3 for a whole chicken
Can of Coke or other Soft Drink:  30 Cents
Kilo of Fresh Tuna:  $2 (that’s about $1 per pound)
Kilo of Porterhouse Steak:  $8 (this is for the premium steaks… $4 per pound)
Kilo of fresh Potatoes:  $1.20
Kilo of fresh Mangoes:  $1.20
Kilo of Durian fruit:  80 cents during this time of year when it is “in season”
If you feel like eating out, you can have a decent dinner or lunch for $2 to $4.  If you want “premium” western food, you might spend up to $10 to eat out in a nice restaurant (per person).  Here in Davao, for $10 you can go to a 5 Star hotel, eat their buffet with maybe 50 different food choices, eat all you can including all courses.  Food is cheap.  Some other things are expensive here.  But, overall, you can live well on a much lower budget than you would in the States.

Direct Deposit of US Government Payments

Did you know that you can now have most US Government payments (Social Security, Military Retirements, etc) deposited directly into your Philippines US Dollar Bank account?  That’s right!  BPI (Bank of the Philippine Islands) now offers direct deposit of US Government payments.  Payments are made through ACH (Automated Clearing House) payment, which generally means that you should get your money in just a day or two. BPI is advertising that the money will be in you Philippine account within 24 hours after funds are received from the US Government.
It is my understanding that BPI is working in conjunction with Chase Manhattan Bank to offer this service for those who live in the Philippines.

You can get more information here.

What a great thing for Americans living in the Philippines and receiving payments from the US Government!