Re: I'm really leaving the U.S. for a 3rd world country because of politics

I've never been to the Philippines, but I see some documentaries on the Philippines on TV, so I can not say it's too bad to live there, but I can say that living in very poor countries is a real nightmare...

It is a different culture and value system, unless you isolate yourself. So in that sense it is a nightmare if you aren't able to totally abandon your own culture and value system. Which is very difficult if not impossible to do.

I live here with a combination of isolating myself, cherry picking the best advantages, and to some extent my western culture was eviscerated by being here in the Philippines for half of my life (I will be age 52 in June). For example, I no longer use toilet paper. I always use my hand, water, and soap instead.

Many westerners just come for a vacation and sex tour (but more go to Thailand for that since Philippines is a Catholic country), but the infrastructure is sub-par and the disease welcoming you doesn't discriminate against white people.

You can hook up with a pretty lady here, but most likely she is going to give you a health gift that keeps on giving even after you've left the country.

You can find a good girl who won't give you an STD, but she will drive you nuts with her weird culture and her entire family out to the 5th cousin who will expect everything from you, such as never brushing her teeth. This beautiful lady in the mall started to speak and I forgot about her beauty.

On the positive side, filipinos are happy go lucky and want to have fun all the time. The downside of this is don't expect your gf to help you accomplish much of anything, other than consume your resources on fun all the time. Responsibility and attention to details are not concepts that are practiced here.

You can make some minor tweaks here and there, and perhaps there are some exceptions but what I have written is accurate enough to represent the average reality here.

Im curious what part of the Philippines are you referring?

I've spent more time in the Visayas and especially a lot of time in Mindanao, which is one of the least developed regions (excepting Cebu City and Davao City which are developed).

But I have also traveled in Luzon as well.

I think my statements are reasonably accurate for the entire country. Of course you can find exceptions and the conditions have improved a lot in the past 10 years. But yet you still have to be very cautious about disease in a tropical country. Dengue is a significant threat for example. Do you know that Dengue can give you permanent genetic mutation and then you spend the rest of your life fucked up sick (which is my condition for the past 4 years at least).

Filipinos love noise. The more noise the better. They hate silent places. You as a foreigner trying to get any quiet time will need to isolate yourself in an expensive hotel. A cheaper lodging will be so noisy. Many cultural issues like this. A continuously barking dog is normal for them. You don't tell the dog to stop barking.