Hey Everyone,
A good friend of mine named Randy, wants to sell his Motorcycle.
Its a 1995 Yamaha Virago. 1100cc Engine in Good Condition.
180k or Best Offer
Call Randy at: 0921 644 5391
Message: HI,have been talking to you for a year or so about moving there,,,,,well I let a friend talk me into moving to makati,,,,,,,,,and DO NOT LIKE IT,,,,,how does davao compare to makati,,,,,,,,,and do you think the cost of living is less there?
Moved here from Puerto Vallarta mexico,,,and love being near the ocean…
Thanks
Arnold
Category: General Inquiries
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From: tom kyper usn retired
Message: would like to know when & where the group meetings are being held so i can come to one again.
Category: General Inquiries
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Message: This is a long shot question. I am trying to find anyone who may be traveling to Costa Rica anytime in the future. I have golf clubs that have to be brought back there. I would pay some one to take them with them and they would be picked up upon arrival at the airport there. my e-mail is
sales@american-supply-corp.com and cell phone is 09158946906
Category: General Inquiries
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One question that seems to come up quite often with my fellow expats is driving. Now, there are many different points of view on this subject and I would like to get yours.
First I would like to say that my opinion on driving in Davao has changed many times over the last 7 years. When I first came to the Philippines, I just took taxi’s everywhere. That lasted for about 1 year, and then I bought and started driving around a motorcycle. After about 1 year of driving around my motorcycle, I bought a little KIA clunker that I drove around for about 3 years. Currently, I own a SsangYong Korando.
So, let me go through my changes 1 by 1.
Motorcycle has many benefits and they are lots of fun to drive around town or even going out of town. Very good fuel economy, cheap to buy and own, easy and cheap to get repaired. The down side for me was my wife and I had just had my oldest son and a motorcycle for me, is not a good family transportation option. I did keep my motorcycle for a few years after buying my car but after I got my car I did not ride it often. Finally, I sold it to a friend of mine Nate. One of the biggest things I think any expat should consider before buying a motorcycle is safety. Sure, you may save a few bucks from not having to take taxi’s all the time, but 1 accident and time in the hospital could cost you a lot of money, not to mention pain and possible death. My current opinion is motorcycles are great fun and I think it is best to ride with a club like Sunday Riders or Durian Riders. Have fun, enjoy going out of town with a group of friends but I would not want to use a motorcycle for my day to day driving unless I was living at Samal Island or out in the province.
Since that time I have been driving my KIA and my wife and I now have another boy, so that makes 2 boys. I have not had much problems driving here in Davao, only problems with that old KIA clunker until about 1 year ago. I was driving my SsangYong Korando and I was making a left hand turn crossing 2 lanes of traffic, I was completely across 2 lanes when a motorcycle with 1 passenger passing on the shoulder of the road hit my vehicle on the passenger side rear section.
Now, I prefer to not give much detail on this part of my blog. In brief, when the police and ambulance arrived, the driver and passenger of the motorcycle claimed that it was my fault. The ambulance took both of them to the hospital and I drove my vehicle to the police station. At the station, the police took my driver’s license and charged ME with RECKLESS DRIVING and wanted to impound my vehicle! The police officer did not even listen to me or look at the evidence. His mentality was basically just it’s the rich foreigner guys fault. We will just make him pay for everything.
I made 1 phone call, handed my cell phone to the officer and all I heard was yes sir, yes sir, yes sir, ok sir. Then the officer handed me my keys, told me I could go. When I came back the next day, all charges were dropped and I got my driver’s license back a few days later. In the Philippines they have a saying and it’s VERY true, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. Lucky for me, I happen to know a few people.
After this incidence, I have hired a driver and I think it’s one of the best decisions I have made. Having a driver is great. I could go on and on about having a driver, but I will just list them out:
- Much Less Stress
- Less Risk If There Is An Accident
- Better Able To Manage My Time
- I Can Spend More Time Working And Not Running Errands (Paying Bills, Take Kids To School, etc)
- Don’t Have To Find A Parking Spot – Driver Can Drop You Right At The Front Door!
- Cost only 200-300 Per Day Plus Lunch
I still drive sometimes, but I would highly recommend hiring a driver if you have a car. If you don’t go out much, hire a house boy with a driver’s license. That way he can help around the house and when you need to run errands, he is there to take you where you want to go.
Hope some of you guys will take this into consideration when you are planning your transportation options when living here in Davao.
Coop
Category: Private driving in Davao
| 3 Comments
Here in Davao City we don’t have MRT or a public bus schedule.
Public traffic here (like in most cities in the Philippines) consists of Tricycles (good for 4-6 people), somewhat bigger tricycles (just called “motor”, good for around 10-12 people), multi-cabs (4 wheeled mini-buses, good for maybe 15-20 people), jeepneys (good for 20-30 people something) and ordinary taxis of course.
Generally speaking, the size of the vehicle will let you know about the distance it will go (except for taxis).
For distances less than one kilometer, take a tricycle… Tell the driver where you want to go inside your district and he will bring you there.
Price is around 10 pesos per km, maybe 15…
“Motors” (motorbikes with a guests’ cabin behind) will go short but planned routes; usually from one district to another.
They will stop wherever somebody waves at the side of the street because he/she needs a ride, just hop in there, ride as far as you like, pay the driver, and alight again.
Price is around 20 pesos from one district to another.
“Multi-Cabs” are almost the same than “Motors” but their range is somewhat larger since they are 4-wheeled.
Price should be almost the same, their behaviour is same like “Motors” as well, just shout or knock on metal with a coin if you want the driver to stop so that you can get off.
Jeepneys are the farthest-range public vehicles available (except for taxis); they can bring you from one side of the town to another.
The prices vary by distance of course, it can be a long trip if you have to travel a far way…
Some rules inside a Jeepney:
People sitting closest to the driver will be the “Konduktor”, this means that all the fares will be passed on from passenger to passenger, until they reach the driver.
If you’re sitting directly behind the driver, be ready to receive and pass on coins to the driver before each and every stop.
If people embark the jeepney, move to the side. It is impolite to squeeze your feet and tell people to just pass by, simply because it’s uncomfortable for everybody.
If you want to alight, just knock with a coin to a metal bar (usually there is a metal bar in the top middle of every jeepney to latch on to), or just tell him of course – the driver will stop at the next possible location.
Last but not least, taxis;
They are the most expensive way of travelling around, but they are not THAT expensive in western terms.
A ride from Lanang to Abreeza Mall (around 4-5 kilometers) is about 80-90 pesos and I have never (really NEVER!) seen a taxi driver cheating on me before.
One advice I can give you when using a tricycle, a motor or a multicab:
If you know how to speak Bisayan, the driver will always know that you are not a tourist, so your price will be “normal Filipino price” because they expect you to know the common prices.
Category: Public traffic in Davao
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This is quite a delicate topic, but I still like to write about it because I don’t think many of the expat-readers here are familiar with it – burials.
About a year ago my wife and I lost a child, a couple of days upon birth, and I came to “enjoy” the way of a Filipino burial.
The baby died in a hospital (at DMC to be exact and also due to a huge lack of medical equipment like cardiac monitors, bloodstream monitors and stuff – so be alert if you ever plan on going to DMC!).
A couple of hours later we received the corpse, brought it to a funeral parlour where it was “pimped up” to look nice and pretty. All of that went down quite fast!
Well ok, that’s just the way it’s done…
When all that was done, the closest family members (i.e. my wife, me and a sister of hers) spent the night inside the funeral parlour, inside an especially decorated private room “guarding” the deceased family member to be sure her sprit would not come after us angrily after her death to cause trouble on us.
Actually this was kind of scary to me, since I’ve never done a thing like that before (gosh I’ve even been afraid to go to the toilet in this creepy building lol)! But for the sake of the Philippine tradition and for the sake of my deceased daughter I surely did it willingly.
On the next day the coffin (having some kind of a folding lid with a small window underneath) was brought to our house to stay there for three days.
During these three days all the relatives and friends had their opportunity to come by and say a last “good bye”.
On the third (last) day, everybody who could came to the house and had a big celebration together.
I mean it was sitting around, eating, drinking, playing cards, and so on – the mood was positive and happy!
To be honest, in the first place I was sort of disturbed by that behaviour (well hey, I lost my daughter here!) and I was not at all like “partying” or “being happy” or drinking and playing…
But some days later – when I got my reasonable thoughts together again – I realized that this is just the way it’s done the “Filipino way” and that my mourning was indeed completely accepted, but it was “not in the right place” in that situation.
It was fully accepted though, but it was “uncommon” to my friends and family.
One day later, the actual burial happened.
First a mass at the church of course and then all the way to the cemetery having my wife and me in the funeral parlour’s car and 2 (two!) big Jeepneys full of relatives and friends following us (we rented the Jeepneys for that purpose).
There really were people (family-friends) who I’ve never seen before in my whole lifetime! Haha
When coming to the burial ceremony, I realized one thing in the first place: nobody wore black clothes!
All of the people’s clothes were WHITE!! Or any other bright colour, but most of them were white.
To me, that symbolizes the “happiness“ about death, and not the sorrow!
This is really astonishing to me as a European.
I’d like to say, if it’s about “Filipino culture”, this one is a pretty good thing to learn about it if you experience it first-hand.
Category: Burials
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A big topic in the Philippines is public holidays of course!
I’m sure everybody of the expats here has experienced Filipino Christmas and New Year consecutively, but in this blog I’d like to have a closer look at “Halloween” (the dates/nights of November 1 and November 2).
Actually, in my home country (I am from Europe) we don’t really “celebrate” something like “Halloween”, therefore I’m not sure if the dates I posted are exact.
We also have our customs for that, but it’s not like a “big deal” there…
Nevertheless, as you might know the vast majority of the Philippine people are very religious Catholics and this is also reflected in the customs of the Philippine All Saints’ Day (“Undas” in Tagalog) a lot.
Let me tell you about my experience of this public holiday here in Davao:
A couple of days before Nov-1 you need to reserve a place at your local cemetery to be allowed to erect a party tent there, plus maybe one or two sleeping tents as well, some tables, chairs, and so on…
Needless to say, this location will be around the graves of your loved ones of course.
On November 1, you and your family will go to the cemetery to stay there for the following 36-48 hours.
In fact, you will sleep at the cemetery for two nights.
“Quite scary” some of you might think, but:
Due to the fact that you actually had to RESERVE the place before, you can deduce from it that everybody (!) will do the same on those particular two days.
The whole cemetery will virtually be packed with people camping there next to the graves of their loved ones!
To say the least, my family’s cemetery is located in San Pedro and last year there were an estimated number of 80000+ people there.
My first impression was like “if it was raining, this could be like Woodstock…” haha.
On Halloween Filipinos don’t go to the cemetery to mourn their dead ones, or to remain in thoughtful silence, they stay there eating, drinking, playing cards, even have loud music playing occasionally.
It’s more like a giant big 2-days party to honour dead relatives and friends.
You will find lots of stands there selling food, drinks, cigarettes, candles, flowers… everything one might need…
And you will find lots of happy people of course, having a very good time in the name of their dead ancestors, together with the whole family.
It seems to me that they’re rather happy about (celebrating) the time they spent with their loved ones, instead of being worried and sad about them not be there anymore.
My conclusion is, when comparing this to the way my home-culture “celebrates” this day – All Saints’ Day – I am a little bit envious of the Filipino culture about it!
No matter how many people will “attend the party”; all it matters is the positive atmosphere around something that is actually a sad thing (in our Western understanding).
But it’s the Philippine lifestyle that still makes it a happy event!
I think we all can take a leaf out of that book.
Category: Halloween
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