money & rides

Their money... The exchange rate was roughly 51p to $1. So, $100usd = $5,271.70.

It was a bit hard to tell what was going to be cheap vs. expensive before purchasing. 

But, seems to me that most "daily" things were pretty cheap. 

Brand name stuff was pretty much the same price as here. 

Street vender food was relatively cheap. Fast food was relatively cheap. Higher end local restaurants weren't as cheap as I would have expected.

Lucky, most of my credit / debit cards worked and it was relatively easy to get $ from ATMs. 

There were only a few times that I felt "ripped off". The most memorable was a "trike" driver that change us the same amount of $ to take us 3 short blocks as it would have cost is to take a 15 minute ride. 

When calling him on it, he was pretty pissed. After dropping us off, we needed a ride back and kept waving off anyone that tried to pick us up. 

Eventually I realized I could use an at called "grab" (sort of like Uber) and got a ride. 

some take aways

April first, I came back from a month long trip to visit / meet my gf (hopefully, soon-to-be wife) in Buenavista, Murcia, Philippines. My first time in the Philippines. 

We've been "dating" since Dec 2020. 

Humidity... I definitely wasn't prepared. Should have brought a handful of washcloths or rags to take along with me.

The Food. I ate what they served me. Most was pretty good. Some was as one would say gross. We did go to a few restaurants, I wood consider most of them low quality, and meats of questionable origin. 

I was expecting, that since I was staying in a farm village, in the mountains, there would have been more fresh fruit & veggies. 

Losing weight. I'm too fat for the heat as well. Losing weight is something I should do anyway. I was under the impression, that I'd lose weight while I was there. Nope. They fed me so much. Was hard to turn down without offending someone. I didn't lose a pound. Lucky, I didn't gain either.

I'm going to need to research how to set up a bank account as a foreigner. Would have been convenient. But, I didn't have much of an issue. 

I was told that most money exchanges were rip offs, but, didn't have an issue with them. I used the ones in the airport. Felt I got fair exchange rates.

Definitely have some adjustments to make next time I go. 

Bring; rags, wipes, hand sanitizer, maybe a portable toilet seat (I have an old one I can bring for their house), razors, shaving cream, soap/body wash, 3-prong to 2-prong converters, 3-prong outlets to upgrade their electric, maybe GFCIs, surge protector, extra power cable for each computer, sandles / water shoes, more shorts, more short sleeve shirts, laundry detergent, stain remover, camping style first aid kit, I'm sure I'll think of more 

Spend a few days in Manila to sort out the mail situation.