Eastern Dreamer is live!

and then I've got three hours to transfer it's a weird glare right there that's odd anyway got three hours to transfer to to MTI so this will be trip number two to the Philippines last time it was about five years ago and this will be new places so last time it was SIU well started off in CD Kayan deoro and then um K again and then SIU I finished in SIU this time we'll start in jetti and I'm I still can't make up my mind because I'm getting pulled into different directions like on one hand I've got of course friends that I want to go see in Mali um but then the other side of it is checking out Elo Elo so everybody's telling me about Elo Elo and it's um you can't go wrong but I also know the audience you guys want to see certain places certain places have really stuck out to you and so uh definitely have to think about like how to compromise there I am feeling pretty tired I didn't sleep great last night and then today I just been in wind down mode I hit the ATM paid my electric bill settled up with the building manager she's wonderful definitely recommend staying with her if um you need a place to stay in the nag and you're just looking for a studio um I am thrilled even though I'm exhausted I'm so excited I have so many people to see on this trip and it's just going to be it's just going to be a really special trip I think I'll probably sleep the entire flight which is only two and a half hours which is strange because I'm used to having least four hours maybe six hours some cases to get to the Philippines so um or to leave the Philippines and so it's not a very long flight hopefully I'll get a nap um on the flight to do MTI and then big cup of coffee after I land um that's G to be interesting for sure I you know I have mixed feelings about it because everybody's saying you know there's so many forms there um but last time you know I went to at least the first couple of places not too many foreigners um I think CDO is getting more on people's radar now as far as for foreigners but back then I don't know if I saw I don't know if I saw a single Foreigner when I went to cdio I maybe in like McDonald's I don't I don't even think I saw foreigner like at Gano or liit Kai um yeah and I did in cigun though cigan was like the reverse oh wow we got five people on here I don't know if chat's activated this is the first time I'm doing this with my phone um feel free to chat to post something up we've got five people watching um I'm not seeing any chats oh hey good to see you Christopher okay excellent so chat is working great this is my first time doing this on my iPhone as opposed to my laptop here and something funny I wanted to show you guys my bag chose the perfect time to split so I don't know if you could see that but I'm standing in line to check in and there's a seven kilo limit on your checkin this is clearly way over um way over 7 kilos but uh yeah I'm gonna I think that might be a troll um so I can't I don't have the block feature on my phone if they continue then I'll I'll block them but uh yeah if you're going to send me some money to pay for shaving equipment I'll I'll shave my cheeks but um yeah if you're not you're just going to have to enjoy it oh yeah you wow that is that is not uh yeah that is very strange um yeah hide user on this channel um okay yeah so I guess this chat for whatever reason is popping up to random people um got a really strange comment there yeah so uh Christoper yeah I'm in transit I've got like an hour and a half um until the flight leaves so we'll probably start boarding here in an hour um just got to sorry Christopher I saw really disturbing message somebody posted but I got rid of that person um yeah yeah so I've been in transit all day I um you know cleaned up the apartment toss you know toss the TR took the trash out um settled up with the land lady landlord um spent the last of my currency so I got down to I'm pretty happy with this I got down to 1500 Vietnamese Dong which is like three cents and normally I can't um I can't get it that low so that was pretty excellent to be able to even it out you know because I got like 10 or 12,000 bot left over from Thailand so it's kind of burning a hole in my pocket but um yeah yeah still in transit definitely a little bit different from uh you know Mainland Southeast Asia you're flying in half and you you get there in one afternoon I think with the Philippines at being like this series of islands then youve got to anticipate the transit um you've got to anticipate like having a layover if you're not going direct Manila or sioo or Deval but I'm so excited I can't wait I'm just so excited this is you know we talked about a bit before like but it's just such a fun place and people are so nice and so fun and it's it's almost for me like a vacation within a vacation so I've been traveling for over a year now and you know some of it is like exploration especially in Thailand um it's more oriented toward exploration here it's just like pure fun pure joy being in touch with so many people already that are either living in the Philippines or um you know also Filipino friends who of course Filipino friends live there but um having different perspectives right because I think that's the beauty of the country is you get so many different perspectives where in countries with a stronger language barrier you feel like I don't know you feel like you you're mostly talking to people that are cons have consciously made like I don't know it's just different I don't know it's just different but um really excited for this one rivet head uh I've been getting a ton of weird comments in chat and my video comment seems the Bots have gone on thank you so much rivet head I really appreciate you calling that out because uh yeah I just that there was a really strange comment I I came out of left field definitely not a subscriber of mine I I catch that kind of stuff as soon you know anytime somebody posts something inappropriate I just get that right out of there this this channel is meant to be helpful for people and not have um yeah I hope it's a bot I hope that's not an actual person that says that kind of thing um Frugal wander oh welcome Frugal wander uh thanks so much you know Tony mentioned uh your channel to me and I'm actually a subscriber uh to you and I think your content's great I'm looking forward to seeing more of it um definitely hope we can cross pass at some point and um yeah Tony's great he's just a wealth of information and he's getting within a few years of his Target Financial number to be able to travel long term you know I think he's more interested in Latin America but it seems like there's I don't know it seems like there's a more vocal community in Southeast Asia for whatever reason I'm not exactly sure why that is because when I was in Latin America I saw plenty of foreigners living down there um the first Foreigner I actually met was a foreigner married to my friend who's Mexican and at the time I was like how does this Canadian woman end up in Mexico like I felt strange as an American in Mexico this is how naive I was um but after I talked to her like you know she explained to me she loves the we she loves the culture the people and it really opened my eyes up and so yeah for for whatever reason the southeast Asia vloggers Foreigner vloggers tend to get the most attention but um there's there's a lot of interesting stuff going on in um in Latin America and I think potentially my next trip will be through Latin America um I'd really like to see pil Argentina and Uruguay so those are kind of in Chile so those four would be potentially the next trip for me so am I from Canada I am not from Canada actually um I am from the United States but it's uh I I really seem to connect with people from Canada for whatever reason um a lot of great people in Canada and funny enough you know with the Philippines actually like the um the Filipina that I dated uh last time you know I was in the pH her sister actually she mentioned to me lives in Canada um so that's something that's interesting to me because when I was in the US I of course met Phil Filipino American people but didn't really realize there're also Filipino people in Canada so um that was really cool like it's um it reminds me a little bit of the kind of the Hawaiian effect right where you meet people from Hawaii but in many different interesting places um because we had Hawaiian people in Tennessee and I would say Las Vegas is more probably the most popular place for people from Hawaii to live in the mainland us but yeah um Christopher says very true about less vocal expats in Latin America I think that many just want to keep a low low profile totally agree Christopher I think that maybe they just are not as interested in drawing attention to themselves I found that they had maybe they had less interest or less need to blog maybe they had less desire uh to blog I know that for the expats that I met in Latin America one was a video editor uh one she liked to sing and she was into coaching um not as many maybe it was just me a lot of the expats I saw America they were typically like young people trying to live abroad still doing some kind of online work whereas more of the foreigners I meet in the in Southeast Asia they're more often they work they've done their time they've saved up their money Investments they're not actively needing to work um and that could be a time zone thing right I mean if you're trying to work with Americans it's going to be a lot more difficult trying to do so in Southeast Asia whereas if you're in Latin America you've got plenty of time zone overlap it's really not much lift at all compared to trying to work nights over here here Frugal wander says I am Canadian but grew up in Florida I have ton of Filipino friends in Canada many in Montreal and Toronto interesting so I think with um the sister of the woman I dated she lived near she lived in British Columbia so she was near Vancouver she was outside of Vancouver proper but uh yeah certainly that's interesting that there are also folks in Montreal and Toronto it's um yeah this is I just can't believe it like I'm finally getting to go back it's um Frugal wander asks how long are you staying in the Philippines so at least a month I'm in multiple interviews right now uh one job is in Austin Texas which should be cool i' never lived in Austin before I it's not like it's not a software company so it's a little bit confusing what is a sales and marketing role um and then I am in the process for an interview for a job back in the San Francisco area so I'm gonna keep moving forward with those it's super competitive right now um I'm still not in a rush so I would say at the shortest like a month is my plan but as long as like six months I'd love to say 6 months to be honest because it's there's just so much to love about it right like it's the people are super nice um the weather is nice there's all kinds of outdoor activities like it's not like back home or stuck inside in the Philippines you're living outside right you you're going out to visit people and like you have this beautiful vibrant social life and it never gets old like when I was there last time it took me some time to like get used to it to like figure it out because as a foreigner especially coming from the US it's the polar opposite of the US in some ways um people actually like approach you and talk to you I was very skeptical the first time I went I was like why are these people being so nice I don't trust it why are they being so nice to me and um in time I learned that's just the norm right that was it's I'm better prepared this time because I've had a lot of time to like research Filipino culture talk to people uh from the Philippines online I also can reflect on my first trip I also spent a year in Thailand it's much more relaxed than the United States but um yeah this should be really good because I have all the context to the first trip I understand the the place a lot better um and there's a lot I miss right like it's it's different because I you know for a while was the of going to new places but you know with new places there's nothing you miss you really don't know what you're in for you don't know what to expect now it's like I've been I've been missing it for five years and when I left um five years ago it was like right around the uh I would say it was right around the pandemic time and there was this interest of oh I love this place and I want to come back next year and oh these people are so nice and then like everything shut down um um and it really took I don't know if I would say it took a toll um on connections there but it definitely created distance right because you didn't know when the Philippines was going to reopen you didn't know how long it would be you didn't know how your friends were doing at one point my buddy z um who lives in kagay deoro he was saying Alex just book a flight here just you could just stay with us as long as you need like um you know you don't have to stay in Thailand you can just stay with us and um that didn't pan out because I I didn't want to go and potentially like I don't know do der all my plans for a long time studying on line I also didn't know if I was going to be able to go back like if I went to back to the Philippines then I didn't know if I would be there for several years and it was such a chaotic time around the world and uh yeah it was just a really tough time but I'm glad that's over um but yeah Frugal so I would say as short as like three weeks a month ideally three to six months I've got to sort out so I'm hearing right now that the Visa extensions they're putting a bit more scrutiny right because some foreigners misbehave in the Philippines and it's really fortunate but it they have to to you know they're putting more scrutiny on foreigners asking foreigners to have a better reason for staying for having uh a reasonable explanation Beyond just like I'm here on vacation and I'm not at the age where I can get a retirement Visa so and I'm not technically in a relationship so it's not like I'm I'm going to be getting on a marriage visa next we week or something like that so it's something I have to be really conscious about um I'll sort it out though it's not you know it's something I'm worried about I'm just in tomorrow and um who knows what will happen I mean there's just so much it's just an exciting and fun place um so yeah jard I'm not there yet but I will be in probably five hours I'll land in Manila speaking of which I'm going to check the time really quick guys okay okay so I'm back okay very good um so yeah 9:37 my flight leaves in an hour probably start boarding in 25 minutes or so so I'll probably stay on here about another 25 minutes I wanted to do a stream last night I wanted to do one today um but last night I had an interview and I just thought H you know I don't I don't know like I I had done two interviews yesterday so I did one in the morning lasted about two hours this was a a YouTube Interview not a job interview and then I had a job interview in the evening um um yeah Gerard I'm I'm looking forward to it I part of me wishes I'd gone instead of Thailand but I don't know I just felt it it's just a different kind of connection to the philppines for a wander I have not been to the Philippines yet I have spent six months in Cambodia and have been loving it there think Fugal wander I think Cambodia is super underrated I found the people to be super friendly super warm uh it's really like especially in Pome pen it's got this International feeling which I wasn't expecting there's so many people from around the world when I was in penon pen I met people from uh China from people from Malaysia people from Eastern Europe um it's the architecture is really cool too it's also got this kind of like I don't I just like the look of the city it's um the colors too of the buildings the way the paint the buildings are painted these kind of pastel colors is uh is really neat oh yeah so um Frugal you'll love the Philippines uh well you I can't speak for other people I love the Philippines you may really enjoy the Philippines if you make it over it's um you know there's a lot to like I would say some of the best things one the people two the nature and then three the English those are the three what I would describe as the sort of highlights that a lot of people really enjoy there's I think a lot more to it than that but those are the easy ones right those are the things that I think really stand out for me is um I felt it really easy to connect with the people the nature is some of the most beautiful in the world um it's also how to explain like everybody's talking about Thailand and I'm thinking whenever this Secret Gets Out this place is going to be flooded I mean it's so that's I don't know that's another reason to go for me personally sooner rather than later is I know like in within my lifetime it's going to be a mega tourist destination more so than it already is I think it's already kind of you know Among The Adventurous types it's got that positive reputation but I it's a place I would feel comfortable taking friends that are not like hardcore Travelers like myself and I can't say that about everywhere I go in fact most places I go I wouldn't want to take friends that are not hardcore Travelers but um the Philippines is an exception there it's like I could just show I can just show people pictures and they're totally Blown Away uh Frugal wander says it is my last night in Saigon I'm headed back to Pome pen in the morning safe travels through the wander are you taking a flight or a bus how are you getting back to gome pen I didn't make it down to Saigon this time I just I don't know I felt kind of homesick for um for the Philippines even though I'm not I'm not from there um there's just like I don't know there's just this kind of attachment I I get to certain places this um this emotional attachment I get and it's not that I don't have it toward Vietnam like I I've started to build that here I do plan to come back to Vietnam at some point in the future but but uh with my you know with the job interviews going better I don't know when I'll get an offer and I'm like okay I can't I can't miss the Philippines on this trip if I get an offer I don't want to have to go back and not get to see everybody that I missed and spend time with people and catch up with people and um it's one of those places I just I don't see how anybody can feel lonely you know I think a lot of us expats and longterm Travelers can struggle with that it's one of those places that just you feel the love I don't know maybe it's because people are super social maybe it's because people are very curious maybe it's because people AR open um it's weird to be halfway around the world and feel that I can say that because there's been a lot of lost and trans lost and translation moments that um did have me feeling a bit isolated um but yeah not not a thing there I'm gonna I'm going to double check my plane ticket because I'm okay so it's we're going to start boarding probably in the next 101 15 minutes um let's see maau streets uh are you in dumag Getti right now hope you love it there so I'm not yet so I'll get there tomorrow morning my flight lands around 6:30 a.m.

I'll take a I'll take some mode of transportation to time do MTI um I'll grab a coffee and then my host that I'm staying with she said well technically I'm staying with her parents so she and her husband live in Australia uh and they manag they kind of help their parents manage the property they're in bong so bong is in between dumag Getti City and da DN is famous for dive resorts um so they're going to be available around 10: a.m.

so I'll have that like 7 to 10: a.m.

window what I'll probably do in that window is I'll probably go to Globe and get a SIM card I'll probably um I'll probably go to well no the shopping mall is not going to be open that early I'll probably just go I'll probably get a SIM card and then just go sit in the coffee shop I recorded some stuff that I want to edit um if I don't edit on the plane then I'll I'll be doing some editing um I'll be doing some editing until they're ready to have me and then once I get word from her hey you know my folks so ready for you to come down then I'll go down to beong probably sleep all day uh and then I have some English lessons I I do some tutoring every Sunday so I'll tutor some English lessons Sunday evening and then Monday I'll start lining up some YouTube interviews so I've Got U some interviews that I've wanted to do for like five years so that's that's since my last trip where I didn't get to do those for various reasons those are top priority my first week uh also just getting to see the city like getting to see the boardwalk I wouldn't mind taking u a ride up to C Aurora Falls um I just want to do all the things and I don't have the energy because I haven't slept well but I know after I get like a good day like probably sleep half a day tomorrow then I'll um I'll still have that pinch myself feeling because where I'm staying is like 100 meters from the water and so I could just walk that 100 meters and go jump in the ocean and that's something that I'm I'm craving I'm really craving that to jump in the water and to go swimming in the ocean the crystal clear like beautiful water seeing the fish seeing the it's just like a dream um thank you so much maau yeah I have a feeling that I'm going to love it there it's uh it's you know all the different islands are kind of different flavors of almost the same thing I would say they different population that's the bigger difference is like of course Manila is like huge C is pretty big Dev is pretty big um but like they they still all have some of the [Music] same things that I think we all like uh look into appropriate health insurance yeah Gerard so um one of the things that I make sure I have I'm not going to oh yeah see you Fugal Wanderer no worries I'm going to have to hop off here in a few minutes too because I just I can't M this flight I'm so excited um so Gerard one of the things I do I'm not disclose the number but I self insure I just keep a big basically stack of money in the bank and it's kind of cordoned off for any kind of health issues I the first time I went to Thailand I purchased expensive health insurance didn't use it um then I I did my travel in Latin America never had issues that was six months did the four month trip in Southeast Asia um never had issues and it's something that's definitely like important but I also look at it like I don't ride motorbikes so that's that's like one of my top things I do not ride motorbikes I don't have expertise in that I don't know how to do it it's not something I'm willing to do that seems to be the biggest area where foreigners have issues is is that um they're inexperienced they ride motorbikes they get into an accident because they don't know what they're doing and um yeah so I I look at it like I self insure um is it something that I'm going to yet as I get older certainly like health issues can come up um if I were to commit to living long term that would definitely be something I would do but I look at like having my cash which I get I collect interest from as well um it's I I know roughly what a number of the common issues can cost and it far exceeds that amount um but yeah if I was to commit to living long term like if I was in a position to stay in the Philippines long term which is potentially a place I would want to live long term then yeah I would definitely get it and the other side of that too is I wouldn't mind partnering with an insurance uh provider just so that you know I'm able to recommend one for travelers cuz you know like I say don't to what I do sort out what's best for you uh what's right for me may not be right for you uh what's right for me today may not be right for me tomorrow um yeah I I like I said I'm I'm low res low risk lowkey I don't go to dangerous areas I don't I don't really partake in The Nightlife scene um so uh yeah thank you for your caution your concern it's definitely something I recommend for the majority of people I look at it like to the other side of it aside from having the account for it is it's especially important if you have a family I'm not in position where I have a family so um nobody's Reliant upon you know my income or my resources um yeah Fugal says bus is the only way for me yeah I think bus is probably very comfortable and it's you know you get to see a some different stuff I think Jake told us about how he traveled um via bus from Hood she so one of my other subscribers Fugal actually did that trip probably a couple of weeks ago he took a bus from um from hoim City from Saigon to Bangkok I think he's down in um the south of Thailand now but uh Bruce Leroy where are you going now yeah so I'm actually about to board a flight to Manila uh Philippines and I'll have a three-hour layover two hour 45 minute layover and then I'll be flying to do MTI and I'm really excited it's my first time there I've transited through Manila before i' never stayed in Manila just because I'm not as much of a big city guy but uh dti's been on my radar for a long time I could have gone last trip but I just didn't like I wanted to get more full on immersion in the Philippines I know dag Getti is super popular among foreigners and I was worried it would give me a different perception of the Philippines versus being in some more like kind of local spots this time I'm going to go check it out I've spend time in Thailand both in the Foreigner popular and the places with fewer foreigners and I think it's good to have a taste of both I used to think oh one is it's better to not be around foreigners and then I wanted to try out um you know uh being in the more Foreigner popular areas and now I'm thinking like just try out both get the perspective of both be able to speak on both right the audience it's not just you know when you start to build an audience I know my audience is very modest in size but you start to build an audience you start to wonder what they like what they want to know about uh what's most interesting to them what would provide value for them I have people ask me about a lot of different places in Thailand right there's people like I have friends from the US who they're looking at tourism guides tourism videos and they're wanting to go to cat they're wanting to go kbie they're wanting to go to um many different places and um and uh sorry uh anyway um they're wanting to go to many different places and uh I'm gonna move here because this um sorry these really loud folks SED to sit next to me um uh agreed both kangs and locals mix it up moving longterm to changmai come end of September and uh that sounds great um yeah what brings you to changai I I'm really I really like changai a lot it's uh it's let me go ahead and just check and make sure I don't need to be boarding right now um it's a really cool City so it is boarding okay but it's uh you know the line's pretty long here it I may uh oh third time oh wow you're half High I had no idea uh third time back I'm ha Kai family from changai and Chang Rai how cool oh man that's you're that's so wonderful you're getting to move there long term it's uh I haven't been to Chen Rai I wanted to go to Chen Rai on my last trip and uh I didn't make it um I didn't make it there for different reasons I love changmai but yeah I think you're gonna have a wonderful time and you said you're moving there a long time so it's not just a a visit please keep us posted uh Bruce like in future streams please let us know when you made it there and you're uh you know you're settled in there if I you know next time I make it back to I'd love to meet up it's um it's just a really chill [Music] Place how long has it been since you last were in uh Northern Thailand Bruce Leroy uh Gerard says don't be late for flight thank you for calling that out I have definitely rushed up in the past and been late I missed the flight once um surprisingly public transit was late and I'm not going to specify the country but it was a country that notoriously on time uh so that was really strange but yeah I'm in line here and um yeah thank you so much Gerards I I will definitely uh travel safely it's um yeah I'm still still in in sh that uh because time just passes weird when you're tired but yeah everybody I hope you have a wonderful day I'll try to do a stream when I'm after I'm a bit more rested um yeah I look forward to chatting soon take care everyone