788 replies to this topic

[Surin Nix]

It'll be 2 months on Tuesday, Nix. No second thoughts, no regrets, but certainly pangs of homesickness from time to time. I'm glad that it's so inexpensive to call back to the States, but living with Angel is even better than I thought it would be. She's an absolute doll.

Macman

I am delighted to hear that!

What a great story of a man living his truth, on his own terms. I admire you for that.....and continue to wish you and Angel all the best. Someday, I hope to meet you two.

Nix

[thailover57]

I second SN's comments. Good for you Mac.

[indigo66]

I know that our State Department warned Americans not to travel south of Midinau though.

Sorry to interupt you but I'm sure you're talking about Mindanao instead of Midinau. I'm not into hairsplitting.

I've been several times to Mindanao, never had problems there. That area is undervalued and also unknown territory to lots of Filipinos living in Luzon. I've been to Basilan (the island of kidnappings) but not any further than that, too dangerous ...

Good luck with your girlfriend.

[Macman]

Thanks, Nix and TL for your comments. I appreciate it. Indigo, you're probably right. I find that there are a number of places to which my friends refer that sound similar to another town. That reminds me of something that I keep forgetting to post. A while back Nix asked me if they still have the "Philippine Rabbits" here, and I said that they have what they call "jitneys." Actually I misheard. We have "jeepnies." Hey you know what name I love? There's a town in Bohol named Tagbilarin. Doesn't that have a Celtic ring to it? Sounds like it should be right around Tipperary instead of here in P.I.

Macman

[Macman]

Indigo, I just noticed that I left the "n" out of Mindanau. That was just a typo, but I also used an "i" instead of an "a". We're talking about the same place though.

I just came on line after a power outage that went from 4:00 AM to 6:00 PM. It wasn't even due to a storm. It was just a routine check of the lines. Jeez, there has to be a better way than to shut everything down. When our power goes out, we also lose water. Our water is stored in a tank on a little tower next to the building. When we lose power, the electric pump can't get the water up to the tank. No fans, no AC, no water, no internet, no TV or radio, no lights. By the way, they refer to these outages as "brownouts" here, which makes no sense to me. There's nothing brown about it. It's a total blackout. When I told Angel that we refer to the action taken to reduce the current sent to us during times of critical usage as "brownouts", she said that they call that "shortages" here. Okay. When in Rome ...

We're going to Cebu tomorrow to try and get my money from Citibank so I can pay for the SUV I bought. If not, I guess I'll lose out, because the buyer's not going to wait 3 or 4 weeks to get her money. The money is there in my Citibank account in The States, but I've learned not to try and apply common sense to these kind of situations. We'll see.

Macman

[thailover57]

This may be a stupid question not knowing the lay of the land there) but do they have portable generators for sale? Although it might make you a target of jealous neighbors.

We had a hurricane in'85 in the northeast and lost everything for a couple of weeks. Didn't have a generator (they were all sold out within minutes). But I did have a Coleman gas lantern which worked wonders to illuminate the house. Much better than candles. We'd play card games and board games to pass the nights and keep the kids entertained.

Maybe they call them "brown"outs because it scares the s#$% out of them!

[Macman]

Actually, TL, I was the jealous neighbor this time. I could hear that damn generator coming from my rich neighbor's house, and it was driving me crazy. I'll have to look into possibly getting one for us, but I don't think we're set up for it, being an apartment. As for the lantern, it's the damn heat and lack of water that got to me. I can live without the light, but the heat was really bad. 14 friggin' hours. By the way, we also had to toss some chicken and pork. Oh, well.

Macman

[thailover57]

I hear you. We ended up having a block party to cook (on charcoal grills) all the food and commiserate about the lack of everything. Met some good people who became friends who we had never seen before, even though they were just a few houses away. Sometimes positives come out of negative situations.

[Macman]

That block-party barbeque was a great idea, TL. I just told, Angel about it. Next time (and I'm sure there will be one), we'll be prepared.

We just got back from Cebu. It was a long day, and I'm really beat. I need to hit the sack. but tomorrow I want to tell about one of my most frustrating Philippine experiences to date.

Macman

[Macman]

Okay, here's my tale of woe. Since I was planning to buy a car for 370,000 PHP (about $8,800 US), I transferred money into my Citibank checking account in New York. Angel and I went to Cebu, the nearest Citibank office. Please keep in mind that I've been a Citibank customer almost my whole adult life, and also worked there after retiring from my Wall Street firm. I worked there long enough to get a small pension from them. So - long-time customer and retired employee. I explained to the officer that I needed to get the money from my NY account and needed a Certified or manager's check. The answer - "First of all, we don't have access to your money, so you'll have to use the ATM machine." Some quick calculations on her part and then, "You'll need to make 24 separate withdrawals of $15,000 PHP each. However, since you're normally limited to $1,000 withdrawal-per-day, we'll need to get permission from NY to take out that much." "Okay, but when I get this, can I then get some kind of a check?" "No, you can't." "Are you telling me that I have to walk around Cebu for the rest of the day with $9,000 in my pocket after having spent almost an hour at an ATM, obvious to anyone that I'm withdrawing a large sum of money." "Yes. Sorry." (By the way, even if they would waive the ATM fee, there would still be a "foreign transaction fee" for each transaction, charged by my NY bank.) So she called Citibank HQ's. After some chat, the representative said, "We can't allow that much withdrawal from an ATM in one day, but we'll approve $6,000." So that meant that I would have to make 16 withdrawals yesterday, return to Cebu today, and make 8 more withdrawals, all the time having this cash on me or hidden in the apartment. It's a 5-hour round trip to Cebu, and that's just the ferry part of the journey. I told NY to forget about it. I then asked the woman if I could open a Philippine account in my name, and write a check from my NY account for deposit. "Do you have an ACR card?" "No, because they screwed that up in Tacloban, and it'll be another 3 weeks.'' "Sorry. Oh, and by the way, we require a 100,000 PHP minimum deposit and balance." "But I'm a retired employee with an active account with Citibank. Because of that, I have free checking and no minimum balance." "Sorry. And, oh, if you do open an account here, it will take 25 banking days for your check to clear." The year 2011 - a check from Citibank to Citibank - 25 f%#$&*g banking days to f%#$&*g clear.

I will most likely lose out on the AUV (Asian Utility Vehicle) I was going to buy. I can't ask the guy to wait a month for his money. You know what? I don't even blame The Philippines. I blame Citi. It's been a piece of crap from the day Sandy Weill took over until now.

Thanks, guys. I needed to rant and rave.

Macman

[viking675]

May be a thought ... why you do not go to western union online and use your american CITI bank account and wire 8000 US dollars to your own name and go to a western union office and collect the cash ?

i am not sure if that will work but might be worthwhile checking out. You need to pay a fee but at least you have the money ...

Must say i really like your thread and wish you all the best

[Legend]

nice rant mac,
i do enjoy these tales of real life situations.
nothing is straightforward in england either.
everything requires 4 phone calls to correct others mistakes.
thanks for the update.