I went to the Philippines from February 5-27. I went for several reasons. The three main reasons were to look for investment opportunities, to meet and understand Filipino people and to just relax and get out of Thailand for a few weeks as a holiday.

I had been meaning to do this trip for over a half year because of the mystery of that big island just sitting there on my map looking back at me. Amid warnings of upcoming election and muslim violence, I just decided to just go and find out for myself.

I spent my first two nights in Manila. After that I flew to Cebu for three days and then took the Superferry directly to Cagayan de Oro on the northern coast of Mindanao Island. I didn’t stay there for more than two hours. Instead, I jumped on a bus and headed directly for Davao in the south. After two days in Davao, I traveled along the coast a bit farther and spent two days in a resort in a town called Panabo. Then on Valentines day, I stopped for a visit in Bislig and continued on to spend three days back on the north coast in the Butuan City. After that, I went on to a beach resort in a place called Calamcam near the bus stop town of Talisayan for two days. Then I continued on along the coast through the city of Cagayan de Oro for a second time and ended up one night at a resort on the outskirts of Iligan City. The next day, I took off and went to a city called Pagadian for one night and then started my trip back to Davao where I planned to get a ticket to fly back to Manila. I stopped once again in Iligan City, but this time I stayed in a hotel in the center of town. Then I headed through Cagayan de Oro for a third time stopping at a large SM mall only to change money and spend an hour on the internet. After that, I headed south and stopped for a few minutes in a town called Malaybalay before deciding not to stay there. I continued on to the city of Valencia where I spent two nights before heading down to Davao. I got my ticket to Manila and spent one more day there before flying back home to Bangkok.

The results were as follows and may result in further journal entries:

Investing in the Philippines is not a good idea.

Filipinos are good people.

I hope to return to Mindanao for further holidays in the future.

In a nutshell, I didn’t like that there were many beggars and was alarmed that small children tried to pick my pocket several times.

The exchange rate was about 48.9 pisos to the dollar when I arrived, but sunk to 47.9 by the time I left after three weeks.

I was wise to have a few yahoo chat friends to meet me and show me around and act as cultural informants and make me feel at home when I was there.

As soon as I arrived in Manila, I purchased two SIM cards, one Globe and one Smart and inserted them as needed into my Nokia cell phone from Thailand. That really helped with communications during my entire trip. Philippines is the texting capital of the world.

I tried to get into internet cafes to vote on TF, but wasn't very effective, so I thank all those people who voted for me during the three weeks while I was away who were not reciprocated. Now I'm back and voting in full force!

philippines is great...wonderful fun people...but...investment is f**ked...society is corrupt right the way through...such a shame the country is in such dire economic state...massive natural resources, english speaking educated populous, magnificent 7000 islands and natural wonders.....but governments, dictators, colonialists and corruption have left it in a mess....

oo diba..........

Having said all of the above the question has to be asked did your get any girlie action?!!!!

Sounds like an interesting trip, I don't vote for anyone, so not looking forward to your vote........saying hello is better..........

lizardo: Yeah, it's really a sad state of affairs. I'll express my two cents worth on that soon. So sad and frustrating for the general populace. The people are being raped and pillaged by their "leaders" to an extent that makes Thailand politics look almost clean.

Dave40: I could have, but didn't

afook06: HI to you too. Aren't u a pinoy?

Just wondering how beautiful the beaches / mountains were? Were they reunied by rapid resort development?

Was their a lot of litter and shanty towns around?

Pickpockets and beggars seem to be common place in many East Asian countries. A bit of common-sense and that should be enough for a safe trip.

Sound like good time eventhough you got some bad impression there. At least you have known many things and can make a best decision for your investment. See you in TF function. Thank you for teaching me some new word .Keep saying I love learning and don't feel bad that I don't know those words.

: )

Matthew: Almost no development. Scenery reminds me of Jamaica. The place is a shanty country. The reason there is little development is due to a lack of improving the infrastructure which provides basic services.

frogster: I love you... Ha ha ha.

damn...im lazy to read wa pii don

Yeah but their leaders are getting richer just like every where else,are you looking at opportunistic values your self and find you can't find a spot?or are you trying to spread your wings because you not making enough money in THailand? Why wouldn't you try the middle City of Cebu?

Any way not that I have money to invest or take risks with because I can't afford a business venture in Australia I will just keep working,paying taxes and hopefully end up with a few of the dreams we always had.

unprettyBB: ¢Ãâ·É·ÕèäÃèä´éãªéÀÒÉÒä·ÂÊÓËÃѺÃÒ§ҹ¹Õé¤ÃѺ

ghee: The air was clean so I had a lot of energy. Seeing new things made it seem less busy. And I made sure to sleep well every night and eat good clean food.

BJ: Looking at potential investments = being opportunistic.... That can have either a neutral or negative connotation. I have enough savings that I don't even need the income that I make in Thailand. Providing affordable condos does a service to the people renting as well as giving me something to do that doesn't require me to get up for somebody else in the morning. I found Cebu to be the least friendly and the only place where taxi drivers tried to rip me off. The people swarming tourists at the airport was worse than any other place that I have ever been. I'd stay in Manila or even a small town in Mindanao before living in Cebu. Good luck with your own business ventures. I worked hard to get to where I am.

Proud to be a FILIPINO!!!

Mylene: Proud to be ur friend!

philippinos are great people!

one of their national sports is stick fighting (one in each hand) arnis de mano

(the sticks are just a disguised version of the REAL art)

the sticks are just training tools.

then substituted for knives.

the best knife fighters in the world come from the philippines.

glad you had a good holiday Don, despite the pickpockets :-)

Vacanti373 and JC_HKT

Thank you for sharing with me and others reading this, your knowledge and thoughts.