I'm Writing a Book

hey what's up guys I thought I'd hop on here for a quick stream I'm actually writing a book take the glasses off get rid of that reflection I'm actually writing a book on just like a kind of a

guide of moving to the Philippines and I thought I'd just do a stream announcing it um like to have it done by the end of February we'll see how that goes I'm uh it's a primary focus for me

right now so I'm trying to get up every day and write and uh it it's it's coming along nicely I have about 40 pages roughly written um and it's um yeah when it's done I'll be sure to to

mention it talk about it I'll throw a link uh in the description of my videos once it's done moving forward uh just to give everybody an opportunity to have that uh the book is not written or not being

written for people already living here I think for people already living here uh they don't need a guide but for anybody considering moving to the Philippines I think it's a solid um you know it's a solid it should

be a solid resource for them and it's a way for you to help support the channel if that's a priority for you after it's done at some point I'd like to write a Thailand guide as well these two

countries seem to be two of the most popular in Southeast Asia that people talk about wanting to spend time in uh both countries are wonderful in different ways and they seem to be the two that I get the

most questions about so I just want to get some of this housekeeping out of the way um I will announce those I will announce the book when it's done and uh yeah it's gonna it's going to take a

little bit of time it's going to take some of my focus uh my uploads I'll try to still stick to two like every two or three days um but it's really important for me to get this done U

I just really want to get this done because it should answer a lot of questions that I get uh and and also provide people with um a different little bit different like formatted um set of information right Some

people prefer to read over watching videos um some people want something they can have offline right if they have a flight coming up maybe they're doing some traveling and they won't have internet access then they'd like to have

that book um other people maybe they um I don't know some people just like to read um but anyway guys just throw any questions or thoughts you have down in the comments section happy to to talk I just

that was one of the things I wanted to get out of the way is discussing the book I'll probably talk a bit more about that until we get some uh comments or some people sharing their thoughts um yeah

I've still I'm I'm still sorting out so I found a publisher or a way to self-publish I should say I'll probably use that resource to put it out there and um what else what else yeah I'm excited about

it it's a lot of fun you know it's um it's something wanted to do for a long time there's been a few different subjects I wanted to tackle and I think getting a Philippines guide out there uh you

know it's I think it'd be helpful for a lot of my American audience that uh they're wanting to better understand what it's like to live over here and what that looks like and have a an honest resource not

just you know totally trying to sell them on the idea but also including some of the uh maybe pitfalls or some of the things that people run into uh in regards to coming over here and maybe other people

want to come do it for a year you know that's kind of where I'm at is I I'll be so I'm I've been here for about six months plan to stay another six months and take some time to

assess moving forward do I want to do education here like nursing school which I've talked about um or do I want to continue my travels I I think the Philippines is fantastic um but I o think there's a

lot of fantastic options out there I'm never going to be the one to say that this is the only fantastic place or the only a nice place to live or to spend time um but it is a great

option right and I think for Americans the Visa uh situation it makes it very attractive knowing that they can stay in compliance up to three years as a tourist really see I mean you could see a lot in

this in three years I don't think you could see everything in the Philippines in three years but you can really really see a lot here I'll probably um throw the link this live I'm G to try to go

for an hour I've got to go I'm uh I've got to go film something today and so after this live stream then I'm going to be going to um I'm going to be going to film I'm just doing

some sharing of this stream on my Facebook guys great so yeah anybody have any questions or thoughts feel free to um to drop anything in the uh in the in the chat I'll like I said I'd like to

go for an hour we'll see my neighbor is going to be helping me to uh uh do this uh this this filming thing um yeah so yesterday we had a prown out here I'm a little bit scattered trying

to get caught up uh that's where we don't have electricity for a while and we got to find other things to do on those days so I kind of ran around town everybody was at the mall uh or

one of the malls I should say because they have generators they uh turn on the electri they keep the electric electricity running and so everybody crowds into the malls and and places like that I went and hung out

with a friend of mine and just you know had a nice day uh turn I should say it turned into a nice day it was a little bit stressful um but [Music] also can everybody hear me I'm I'm

haven't gotten any chats so I'm not sure anybody uh commenting or uh chatting so I just want to make sure people can hear me so if somebody could give a thumbs up um I just don't want to be

wasting everybody's time time if um they can't hear me okay hey Roy good to see you thanks so much yeah I was just wasn't sure if it was broken on my end we have uh yeah some people but

I don't know about the timing it's getting to be like later morning um which means it's later it's getting later too back in the States but um yeah it's um it it's kind of rainy it's been rainy and

then the Sun Peaks out and then it starts raining again uh it's should be an interesting weather day today it's um yeah we're nearing the end of January I can't believe how fast time is passing and it's uh

yeah I don't know why I'm so tired today guys I'm sorry I just feel [Music] like I had a lot of caffeine yesterday so maybe that's it I had like four or five caffeine drinks I had a bunch

of Co I had like four cups of coffee and one energy drink maybe I had five I had a lot of coffee yesterday how was everybody's weekend I everybody have a good weekend or anybody have any plans for

this week I'm still waiting on my passport renewal I'm hoping it uh it comes um yeah hoping it comes soon uh it's probably still going to be at least a few more weeks TJ says I shoveled snow that

sounds tough TJ I'm sorry to hear that I heard that the US has been getting hit by snowstorms it's oh I see you're in you're in Canada okay yeah then you guys got really hit hard by snow um

one of my buddies here Chad he was talking about you know Winters and Canada not missing them I hung out with him on Friday night with some other mutual friends of ours and uh yeah that winter weather is

no joke it's something I take for granted here that we don't really have winter like it's you know I wear hoodies like people always ask me why are you wearing hoodies and long sleeves I wear them to uh

protect my skin from the Sun H but it's not because of temperature and it's not to try to stay warm and in fact it definitely makes me probably feel hotter than what I need to but I see it

as a tradeoff to try to uh protect my skin and and just be cautious about that so I guess you mostly shoveled snow out of your driveway TJ right like uh you your city probably has like a plow

service or that plows the main roads but that you're responsible for your uh property I've never been to Toronto but I've always wanted to go I have been to Windsor and um yeah of course it's been 10 years

over 10 years since I've been to Canada but wow that's a lot I don't know if I no I've experienced that yeah I forgot I lived in Colorado for several years and so when I lived in Colorado um

it um it we definitely got a lot of snow especially when I was in the more mountainous areas uh they did a pretty good job of like clearing the highways clearing the interstates but especially if I was like

visiting France in the mountains places like Breen Ridge then the snow would pile up so high fortunately in Denver and in uh like Delta Grand Junction area then the snow kind of melted away and it you know it

would disappear um relatively quickly but uh yeah how's the how is the uh temperature yeah just my driver or just yeah just my driveway sorry I got to text back um yeah just my drive way more than a

foot I have a snowblower but I prefer to get some exercise yeah I agree I think that getting the exercise TJ's great idea it's um helps to stay in shape right like I I could just hire trikes here

and do meete but I walk a lot because of you know benefiting from the exercise I think it it's good for my health to just like walk around and uh I'm GNA start maybe even today I need to

check in with a friend I'm going to start running at the track there's a track here in Dumaguete and I'd like to start um I'd like to start running over there it's been really cold but warmed up to

around 32 degrees F 0 Celsius that is frigid oh man if I go back to the US to visit at some point I'm not looking forward to uh encountering those temperatures that is wow I can't imagine I I

can't imagine I used to live in some cold places but it's been so long since I've lived in cold places that uh I'm not looking forward to that and I've heard feels even colder when you get used to

living in the tropics so yeah I couldn't imagine that I don't blame you there for having curiosity about southeast Asia um I don't know how the Filipino Canadians do it right because there's Filipinos that uh they live in

Canada I'm thinking that's got to be like the opposite um that's warm I barbecued wow I will tell you TJ that would I found that to be warm in Colorado so Colorado is cold like half the year 32

was not bad I found anything like 20 or above was not that bad once it got down to like 10 zero um Fahrenheit to 10 Fahrenheit that was pretty cold and I would just stay inside and wait for

the snowstorm to um to pass so the the filming I was going to do today got pushed back um we're going to do it uh Friday we're going to push it back to Friday which is fine I uh

I think it'll be good to do that that'll give me a chance to edit today and write more um it's with the rain I'll probably stay inside most of today I need to go I do need to go

out um and get some things done but it's uh I don't know my schedule work anyway what are you barbecuing tonight TJ what are you cooking up I may do an oh steak that sounds really good I may

do an early lunch uh around 45 minutes from now there's a place I like to go to um it called Mr Sizzler and and if you go there before 11:00 a.m. then they give you a free coffee with

your meal uh so I like to go there before 11: and then I get the entree and then I have a a nice cup of coffee to uh yeah give me a a bit of a boost that's something

that is harder to find here TJ is steak you can find it but it's one of two things one the quality can be so so uh or two um you pay a premium um I eat a carnivore diet

nothing but meat and eggs I could never survive Philippines yeah so a couple of my friends do something similar to carnivore not like fullon carnivore they would do probably more what you call like keto which I've done before

um basically you'd be very limited um now I will I will give the Philippines credit a lot of the dishes that I've had are like meat and rice so if you cut out rice which they're going to look

at you like you're growing an extra head but if you cut out rice a number of the dishes can be uh carnivore friendly so like one thing that I like to pick up at a restaurant here in town

uh my favorite restaurant in town is I get uh tuna belly and tuna belly and kinilau and the tuna belly they don't even serve it with rice you have to buy rice separately they'll give you like a big

like piece of tuna uh and then they'll put it in like a plastic pepper workare container to go and then I order a Kinny la which is the fresh tuna so that tuna is grilled and then with the

fresh tuna they chop it up and they put in onions tomatoes peppers uh so you could get that you know you could get like grilled meat you just have to you just have to find the places that don't

add sugar and there's a fair amount of places that at least here in dumag Yeti they don't use sugar uh to cook their meat and so um I I think it could be more friendly than Thailand in some

ways um for a carnivore basically a lot of the dishes like I said going for the ones um where you trust it you know you can even ask like does this have does this dish have sugar on it

or in it uh and certain establishments I found that cater more to foreigners they're they're better about it like they know you know especially for uh retirees like older guys that may be um especially concerned about diet that

they don't want that and then the other thing a number of my friends do here like one of my buddies I hung out with yesterday he cooks almost like 99% of his meals he cooks he says I don't

I want to control what I put in my body so I just buy the meat um and then cook it myself um so it it's it's not easy um I do think it's I think if you're willing to

do it yourself it can be easier um than some other parts of Southeast Asia but yeah a lot of my friends go to the import grocery store called vrist I'll just go ahead and drop the name down in

the chat and it's a chain throughout the Philippines and they sell like a lot of Costco products uh and then they sell a lot of imported Stakes Paul old dog was doing a semic carnival yeah so that was

one of my friends that comes to mind is he goes to bchris and he'll go and buy you know 10 staks at a time or 20 or 15 or all of them sometimes he'll just buy all of them

sorry Paul I hope I'm not tattletail on you but yeah he'll just buy a bunch of steaks and then every day he'll just Grill you know Grill one up or maybe his wife helps him sometimes and then he

just eats that he pays a premium for that uh but I think for people who are concerned about diet used to paying a premium to follow their diet and so um that's certainly an option yeah Thailand has amazing

food but I I would say I felt like uh western style food was more expensive in Thailand than here because like here there's a place I like to go to where I can get a filet minion for about

is it7 and a half dollars the owner of bchris also owns this b a restaurant called Moon Cafe uh and the the steaks are cheaper in Moon cafe or Cafe Racer than they are in um than they are

off the shelf I don't understand it I don't begin to try to understand it but they're somehow cheaper in the restaurant than they are if you buy them and take them home uh so typically I'll just go to

one of those two restaurants uh one of the the places like that and I'll have a steak that way and they cook it in line with u my preferences I think I would just eat Filipino food to keep

expenses low which Filipino dish is the healthiest I lean toward Kenny philli I think kennyo is underrated I don't ever hear people talk about it I maybe because I'm part Japanese and I'm used to Sushi but um Kenny

Lao let's see uh I I would say too like any of the meats grilled like you can do grilled chicken here um grilled pork is popular here uh main thing you want to do is is cut out the

sauces I find that Filipino food is designed to be customized it's designed for people to add sauce or to use sauce based on their preference and so if you don't add like sweet sauce or like a gravy uh

then it's much healthier what they get credit for I'll say a lot of people make this claim of it um not being healthy and to me yeah certain preparations not going to be the healthiest but if you have

some more control over it um there's nothing unhealthy about grilled chicken as far as like from from my perspective I not a nutritionist not a diet expert but uh grilled chicken is grilled chicken grilled chickens in many different

countries around the world and I I think like you know just like I said grilled meat um you know kalaman juice is nice with it like they have this calamansi fruit you squeeze some of that that's a nice

flavor you do have I do think that the health conscious person should moderate their consumption of rice um I like the taste of rice I'm used to it but it basically it turns to sugar when you um eat

it by the way guys please give us a thumbs up we've got 13 folks in here or 12 folks in here um so that would help with the YouTube algorithm but yeah I think like cutting cutting down on

like treats you know there's a lot of amazing Filipino desserts I think a lot of them are fantastic but they're not uh they're not right for the very health conscious person right um added sugar is you know most

people would agree it's not a good thing to consume especially in excess uh and it's a relaxed atmosphere here too and people are I find people are not very judgmental so like you the expat in the Philippines really

does have to um be meticulous about planning out their diet their access to a healthier diet uh knowing what they should and shouldn't eat um like grilled chicken I think is a great option Fried Chicken not so healthy

and I did eat a lot of fried chicken when I got here uh and I still eat it probably more often than I should uh but I've tried to opt for more grilled options when I can try to

uh reduce you know desserts like try not to have dessert every day I try to keep some fresh fruit uh fresh fruits around but I mean fruits turn into sugar so you know you're eating you're eating a lot

of fruits it can there's some overlap there with eating too many desserts um and then like I said the dessert options here are one of the best in the world that I've experienced I mean they they really do

I guess it's because of the sugar production they I think they do produce a lot of sugar here um hey Mr Dave good to see you how are you doing today like I'll show you guys um you know

these bananas are uh popular I get like I don't know maybe eight or 10 of these for 20 to 30 pesos depending on the size um how are you doing Mr Dave what are you up to by the

way we've got almost 20 people in here give us a thumbs up if you can um yeah it's a nice morning it's it's kind of raining off and on here I'm not sure about where you're at Mr Dave

but it's um yeah it's a nice it's a nice day how do you survive um oh one thing about food is Philip I will say food does seem to be more expensive than in some of the surrounding countries

um if you want to eat healthy here I think it it means you you're focused on um meat and protein and they are cheaper than back home but you're not going to have like you know grilled fish for

50 cents or something like that um you're not going to be able to have like a steak for a dollar uh these things will cost more but certainly still cheaper than having these things back home right um like

I have sword fish maybe once a month or every other month I get that for five bucks uh including rice and a some like a a salsa and that's you know five bucks versus having that would be 30

bucks in the US how do you survive currently in the Philippines I'm not sure what you mean Scott um Dexter says sunny and Sabu that's good man I'm uh I when I was in Sabu the temperature was really

nice it was cooler than dumag I liked that a lot in SAU uh economically yeah I have um one I have savings so I worked in Tech and saved a lot of money uh two I have income from

YouTube um and it's a lot cheaper for me to live here than back home you know I my rent's like $140 a month um where my rent back home was well over $1,000 a month uh my electric bill

here is like probably $ 30 to $40 a month spend probably around $10 a day on food um so you know my expenses here around $600 per month I'm used to spending well over $3,000 a month in America

uh so you know if I have 10 grand just as an example that could last me a year where 10 grand will just fall through your fingertips um I'm an insomniac and unfortunately I'm still awake watching the NFL

games on my laptop here in Thailand oh I'm sorry to hear that Mr Dave who's playing in the NFL right now I don't know much about it uh I like Asian people in America I think um at least

in my case was heavily discouraged from being having any interest in football so I just don't know that much about it I still don't fully understand it but uh yeah Jose I was there last year and I would

eat one whole lechon chicken sometimes Lon pork Conor is the healthiest diet because meat is nutrient dense I've always felt best when I'm eating a lot of um meet Jose like I did keto for a while I lost

a lot of weight and I just felt a lot better slept better had more energy and um yeah how long will it sustain you uh I prefer not to answer my exact uh resource Scott that's a personal question

that I I don't want to put out there for uh many reasons here in Bangkok uh I will say I could afford to go back to nursing school here um and I thought about doing the medical school route

uh but I don't I don't want people to know how about my exact situation because it's uh none of their business uh Nicholas says here in Bangkok PM 2.5 five is incredibly High population is unbearable that's something I

love about the Philippines Nicholas is that the air quality is great I mean you get especially with the ocean breeze um you know some people say it's a bit Dusty in dag Getti I noticed a major difference when

I came here from Thailand um that was probably my biggest challenge in Thailand if I'm being honest is that there was issues with the Burning Season and it uh I definitely felt it like in my body in my

lungs and I wasn't sure how bad it would be but last year I ended up flying to Southern Thailand and it was just um you know it was a concern for sure like um and let's see I'll have

a oh I'll have a month to travel as an exploratory visit debating whether to try to see as many places as possible or spending like a week in each place um that sounds really nice Phillip I think you'll

enjoy yourself maybe I Philip this is what I did for my first visit to the Philippines is I picked I did three places for 10 days each roughly 10 days each I did kagay and deoro which is more

of an industrial city I did uh kigan Island which is like tourist mode and then I did Sabu City which is a big city so you may select say like three places in 10 days each and that'll give

you a little bit of a buffer in between um the destinations right you'll have like a day of travel in between each one that'll give you time to settle down you won't feel too rushed travel does seem to

be a bit more timec consuming in the Philippines sometimes flights get canceled I've had flights get cancelled I've had buses get delayed I've had fairies take longer than what I thought that they would take so uh that might

be a good option is picking three different places that give you like a taste of different things right like tourist spot small to mediumsized city and then big city a lot of people find themselves needing to go to

the big cities here because one healthc care or two they're the Gateway like Sabu and Manila are the entry and exit exit points to the uh country uh Nicholas yeah it's it's not too bad here I mean it's

not I'll never say anywhere is perfect um certainly like places like Japan or Scandinavian countries are probably your Peak as far as air quality but uh you know it's I like it here a lot I like that I

can smell trees and flowers and it's um yeah it's really nice in that regard uh Jose says how about starting a healthc care staffing agency instead of studying ner nursing um I don't know anything about healthc care Jose

like my parents passed when I was pretty young and so I didn't you know I had some outside view into healthc care but I uh I'd rather have a ba some baseline experience before I start the business that

way I could learn the industry a bit more and uh know the regulations know the rules the requirements uh what's they're looking for that kind of thing sounds like a good idea nice variety now the challenge is to

settle on just three or four four places yeah and that way you get a sense of like different places right some people might say I only want cities so I go to Manila SAU and Deva but then they

don't know about the tourist areas or the smaller cities some people may say only small cities they don't get so having like distinctly different places will give you a sense of the variety of what's on offer uh and

then you can always come back and do another Discovery trip and try a few more places you haven't been this like this trip I've been to doag I've been back to Sabu um and I plan to go to

sikor I'd like to make it to Elo Elo I'd like to make it to bolid um we'll see how things go after 4 months in the mindo province it was exciting to have a 5H hour layover in Manila

so refreshing so I could care less about being near an International Airport yeah I mean you know especially in a country that's set up in some ways for tourism like here Mr Dave I think it's easy to um

it's easy to like what's the word it's fairly straightforward to get to Manila like everybody kind of funnels into Sabu or Manila um and so wherever you are in the country you could probably hop on a bus and

then get to a ferry or a smaller airport and then get there it's uh it's not like the US where there's a lack of public transit options and if you're in the middle of nowhere you're going to pay

an arm and a leg uh like you're going to pay for an Uber to get to a bus to then get to a small City to then get to a larger City and then you get out it's more

like okay get to this town where there's an airport or a ferry and then I don't know it the cost is just so much less and so even if it's not always as fast it's like ah whatever I'll

and you become accustomed to a slower Pace here uh so I find Manila to be exciting and and or I should say I find the big cities I haven't spent time in Manila but I spent time in Sabu

I find it to be exciting and dynamic and uh a lot of fun yeah that was a good uh let's see Jose that was a good point um and I could start back to your question or your yeah

your question Jose let's say I got my nursing education and I did it for I don't know a couple years years I would be happy to take a look a closer look at the staffing agency idea uh because

you really need leverage if you want to build wealth you're not going to build wealth selling your time for money uh it just puts a cap on your income potential where if you start a business you got more

accountability um of course you got more responsibility but you're able to earn a lot more and to build something more substantial to free up your time right um so I think that's a great point I would just want

to have that firsthand EXP experience so I know what I'm getting myself into and I know how to deliver a quality service make sure I can take care of people make sure people are happy and uh a big

one is following rules like in the US healthc care is super highly regulated and I would want to make sure I know how to follow all the rules and and um yeah that's the main thing just maintaining being

in compliance uh I travel out a let's see I travel out of a small backpack Phillip like I've been traveling for shoot um one second I'll be right back I've been traveling with this backpack for a year and

a half uh I carry a tote kind of a tote bag as well um but yeah I just I use this backpack for the last year and a half uh I think the big thing is packing like I

don't know three or four sets of clothing maybe five I do laundry at least once a week uh but I have more than just three I have probably I I have like an outfit for every day and then

I just go once a week and do laundry I would say a lot of the things the big thing is electronics like bring your cell phone bring a power bank I should do a video on that actually what

to pack for a discovery I'm going to make a note of that what to p um yeah so so power bank um thank you vano I appreciate it yeah thumbs up guys if you can um so yeah Power

Bank any Electronics don't expect to be able to find them easily here in the Philippines it can be fairly complicated to purchase Electronics um I would say you know if you have I'm not sure Philip if you're American

I didn't confirm that but bring $100 bills the larger bills you'll have an easier time exchanging um they won't take imperfect bills so I have let's [Music] see like I have I still have this $60 that I brought

and these are imperfect and so Thailand wouldn't take them I haven't tried to exchange them here maybe I'll try to exchange these here and see what happens but Thailand wouldn't accept them so perfect $100 bills in an envelope

and you know if you're coming for a month maybe maybe you need a thousand they take electronic payments for a lot of things like not in person but like let's say you book your hotel in advance you book

your flight you won't have to pay cash like for those you you could pay online with a credit card or a debit card uh so maybe you bring a th maybe maybe $1500 and you could exchange say 500

at a time so let's say you get to the end of the month and you spent more on a credit card or debit card then you just take the 500 you know back with you or let's say you

spend 800 in in cash um better to be I always say better to be prepared for the worst than to uh be trying to come up with some money last minute because he overspent a bit um who was

it I talked to somebody recently yeah I talked I'm not going to name him because I don't want to embarrass him but a friend of mine recently on his first trip to the Philippines his Discovery trip he made

some mistakes he didn't prepare adequately he ran out of money he had money in um in the west or he had money in it like but he didn't have access he didn't have any way to send himself money

so he ran out of time he ran out of money before he ran out of time so for his last week or two he was living really hard up here in the Philippines and then he flew back and

of course everything was fine but like doing your test run uh coming overprepared not in terms of stuff but really Capital like cash a lot of things you can buy here like a lot of people say bring this

bring that you're basic stuff you can buy here like snorkeling equipment for example easy to find especially in the bigger cities here clothing sizes are going to be a little bit off so you might bring like the shoes

you need but a lot even sizing um it just takes time you're going to pay with your time so if you don't pay with your money by bringing it with you you'll uh you'll pay with your time clothing

can be a little bit hard to find I've struggled to figure out the sizes I need now I've got it down now I've got but it's taken me some time to figure that out so um being prepared with

with the things that are specific to you um Dexter says power banks are not supposed to be on US flights I had to leave mine interesting they they let me bring mine uh but they've broken I they they

got Fried by Dirty electricity and so uh I've had to buy them but I've been I bought multiple faulty power Banks here um so that's why I hesit to recommend people buy them here is that's just one type

of item that I haven't had success with here I bought from multiple different vendors uh different stores like I bought power Banks three different times here and all of them have turned out to be faulty uh so that's

one of those items that I would trust more if you can I don't know like if you're a carrier will be okay with it or not but um I found them to be acceptable to take through as long

as they're in my carry-on not in my checked luggage that's what I've heard the difference is is that you can't bring the power Banks and your checked luggage but if they're on your person as long as they're under

a certain size there's this I think it's 30,000 Ma I think the limit is like 20,000 so if they're 20,000 if they're 10 to 20,000 uh they're tolerated let anybody watching this on replay let us know down in

the comments if that's acceptable or not I'm not sure if uh what the limit is but yeah that's something to um to think about I I like to uh yeah buy this oh hey Eve good to see you

I'm doing well uh MadCat 36 does Amazon deliver to your area and can you get American size shoes and closeth to them yes Amazon does I'll show you guys a box actually right here I'm not going to show

the let's see here let me just make sure I've got the uh address Hidden yeah so I've got this yeah right here and uh they do deliver to my area I can't buy so that power bank funny enough

power bank should be its own video but uh I can't have a power bank shipped here but uh they um they do deliver here Amazon does deliver here I have ordered a number of different things you you can

order on Amazon Americanized clothing and shoes for shoes you're going to pay a shipping premium uh and for clo like the clothing and the shoes that I like to wear like you know my white shirts that I like

to wear here they're charging like 15 bucks shipping to the Philippines the shoes I like Adidas shoes or Adidas shoes they're charging like 12 bucks shipping so it seems like with apparel the shipping price is not doesn't really

apply to the Amazon um what's the word like you know the the prime deals right where the smaller items it does so if you're you know be prepared to pay like a premium on shipping for uh for a

parel and for shoes I'm not sure why that is H maybe they just don't get the deal that they get on shipping the uh smaller items but like this is another product I need to order this is uh

sunscreen stick so I need to toss I need to add one of these to my current order and I just compile a cart and then when it's not apparel it's not shoes once I go above this I think

it's like a $60 or $70 uh limit for free shipping right now I don't the price fluctuates but once I get over that limit then I just check out I go through double check make sure everything in there

is still relevant to me and then I I place the order and sometimes they like come in multiple shipments it's kind of confusing but I learned that from Gio for those who don't know Gio who does uh the

channel Gio in the Philippines I talked to him about some of my challenges with online shopping here and he told me just buy on Amazon he said everything I he he wants he just tries to buy on Amazon

and that has been the most effective way for him you wait a little bit longer but you know you're getting an experience that you're more familiar with um compared to other options does Amazon have a warehouse in the

Philippines that I'm not sure about I know they contract with the DHL there's a few different shipping companies but there's one let me check my phone because they always text me whenever they're bringing me some LBC so LBC

is the company I've used to handle my passport renewal uh but then Amazon I think also contract contracts with them to do Amazon product deliveries guys please give us a thumbs up if you haven't already we've got 22

folks in here that would help with the uh the distribution of this video and the algorithm yeah Amazon you know great option for making purchases here um I know a lot of a lot of people use them for

online shopping um the customer service with them is also something you're familiar with like if you have any issues you can reach out to them and you'll be able to uh handle any questions or concerns you have but

yeah I hope that answers your questions guys I mean I I didn't realize that Amazon would be so seamless in other countries but I've used Amazon in Colombia I've used Amazon in Thailand I've used Amazon here in the

Philippines did I I don't know if I used Amazon when I was living in Peru um Kirk asks hey Alex do book authors actually use AI to help them write yeah so I'm I'm writing a book and I

am using AI a bit to help with the constru the writing process I'm not having AI right the entire book for me uh I think it's good to get Frameworks down right so like for me being ADHD sometimes

I don't know where to begin with creative projects like I have video ideas but I don't know how to construct them now fortunately I've had friends that have stepped in and said this is how you build your idea

out uh but um yeah I I think AI is great for a framework I don't I don't necessarily like the idea of just having AI like write every and then just turning that out um but uh as far

as getting a framework yeah like for me I'm like okay tell me the topics that are most relevant to people and then we go through that and then I I delete what they've written because sometimes what they produced

makes no sense what AI has produced makes no sense but it's given me the topics right it's like okay well people care about this people care about that because you know i' I've spent six months in the Philippines

I forgotten what it's like to be new here um some people would say six months is still new I would disagree with that I've got eyes I've got ears I've got a mouth I've got nose I know I

I can get information through my senses so um for me I just can't relate as much to the person who's fresh off the plane in fact I can often spot them because they're usually in a hurry they're walking

really fast they are kind of aggressive they have that kind of wild look in their eyes that a lot of people uh in the west have these days duee to stress and and being overwhelmed by the pressure of

bills and and just staying on the treadmill in the rat race but uh yeah I so that's part of what the goal is there is to just have a resource for people that they don't know where to begin

and I need to expand it too like sometimes too I'll take um I'll take a paragraph or two and I'll feed it to Ai and I'll say reform format this or organize this because I want it to be

very structured because I'm kind of more free flowing and I want to make sure that I have it organized so that it's valuable because the information needs to be organized for the person who purchases the book um yeah

so Dexter great Point Amazon does have a building in Sabu they have uh they do a lot of customer service so so they're these call centers here in the Philippines Sabu doag Getti has a few but Sabu and

Manila are especially known for them I think Deva has some as well where when you call customer service in the US you can often end up especially for Amazon I know Chase Bank has a call center there then

you end up talking to uh people in the Philippines I've had it with several different American Banks several different uh American retailers or talking to a person in the Philippines and I actually ask sometimes I get the courage

to ask are you in the Philippines and sometimes you'll be here and you'll call them in the US and then you'll connect with somebody in the Philippines so it'll be somebody in Sabu or it will be somebody elsewhere

but guys I'm going to step away I have a lot of caffeine I'm gonna hit the restroom I'll be right [Music] back for for [Music] all right guys I'm back um let's see [Music] here mad cat in hindsight

what items do you wish you would have brought with you before leaving the US [Music] I think the challenge there MadCat is that if I had brought more I would have had to check an extra bag for me

the cost of an extra bag is not the end of the world the bigger deal is um is lugging the stuff around right like part of me is like man I wish I would have brought an extra pair

of shoes or extra clothes um like a lot of people give me Flack because they think I wear one of these white long sleeve shirts right but actually I B I brought like like I think I bought four

of them and so uh you know I could wear I could go through that for I could do laundry twice a week right that's what I would do in Thailand um wear each one for four days then throw

on my jacket go wash the four so twice a week I'm doing laundry I have a clean shirt on every day um so that's kind of the challenges I packed the uh I packed this bag uh full and

anything more I would have had to get a bigger backpack when I started traveling I used to use a backpack about twice this size so I used a huge backpack and I the more I travel the more I

I shrink down what I bring I focus on toiletries that thank you for asking that question actually Matt mad cat I would say the big things are if you like a certain kind of deodorant bring some extra deodorant

it's hard for me to find the deodorant I like uh from back home here I also find sunscreen is expensive in this part of the world so bringing extra sunscreen I don't like the tube sunscreen I think it

smells weird and it feels weird on my skin so I like the um I like the sunscreen stick it looks like a stick of deodorant and so I just apply it like that and uh This Is It goes

a long way I find it this this stuff goes a long way so yeah I would say toiletry is are a big one what else depends on how long you're coming to like if you're coming for 6 months

to a year you know bring enough clothes but clothes do wear out so uh after you get here you you get landed settled a bit try to find some solid clothing retailers I like to go to places like

Le's Plaza and what else um uniop so if you go to Robinson's Mall the quality is great but you will pay a premium for places like uni so um going to more you know I don't know if budget

retailers is the right word but like it's not going to be the streamlined experience in some ways that you're going to get if you go and pay a premium but I mean those some of those premium retailers can

cost you know they they can charge a a premium for the service they provide right they provide a really great service and so uh that's something that could be helpful is um is finding some of those more modest

modestly priced retailers like uh these socks uh well these are socks aren't a good example um socks are another one like I find it's hard for me to find the socks I I like I like Burlington socks back

in the US and those cost $3 a pair uh but they're thick and they last a long time uh Kirk says framework and optional Frameworks sound good topics and then structure I agree Kirk Philip says I didn't realize

you had also traveled to many other countries I've also considered checking out Colombia how does it compared to the Philippines I find the Philippines safer than Colombia I find the Philippines probably um a little bit more expensive I

think Philippines is a little bit more expensive than Colombia when it comes to accommodation uh but it's I don't know it's kind of hard to say though like Colombia if you want Colombia's gotten more expensive I I was

there about three years ago so I've heard it's gotten a lot more expensive it's um I think the weather is more what I'm used to in Colombia it's not as quite as tropical especially if you're at altitude and

like medine or bogat it's um it's yeah it's not quite as expensive or it's not quite as sorry it's not quite as hot I don't I lost I spaced out there I apologize I I think it's safer here

in the Philippines when I was in Colombia a lot of my friends who are from there constantly warn me about safety I didn't have any major major incidents I had one issue that was kind of sketchy and medine

I I lived in a really nice part of the city but I walked into an industrial small industrial neighborhood and had a kind of a sketchy encounter I never got straight up like um stolen from but you know

you just have a kind of sense of unease there if I'm being honest and I've heard the same thing from other Travelers and um like I said I never had any issues there but other people have had some

issues there safety is a concern for me I think the Visa is also easier in the Philippines for Americans and the Philippines feels more American in some ways than Colombia did um Colombia is very beautiful I love Colombia

I'd be happy to go back there it's some point but I just can't shake that feeling that like it's you know I know Doug lived there for a long time um he never had any issues your mileage may

vary I I think for some guys that have safety issues in Colombia they're really into the nightlife scene I'm not into the nightlife scene at all so maybe that's why I didn't have issues where I feel like nightlife

in the Philippines is a little bit less risky just based on my observations um you know I I can only speak from what I've read or seen about as far as the the issues in Colombia um my personal

experience was fine I was I had no issues I was there for about three yeah about three months between the two biggest cities and maybe it's because I I could pass for Colombia and I I heard that from

a few friends part of it may be that you pass so I'm you know I'm not sure like it's worth doing a discovery trip I think a lot of these plays is worth going to check out give it

a month um maybe give it a few weeks three weeks to a month and you get a sense like do I like this do I not like this be careful if you are if you do go to Columbia

Philip not to flash valuables it's just something to be mindful of Mr Dave I'm a 36-year old American man and I've spent two and a half years in the Philippines since 2016 very nice Mr Dave J reg changes

in US is different per state got it Jose Big E I took a course on AI recently I feel like I've only scratched the surface on how all the ways can be helpful for me yeah AI is an

incredible tool it amplifies your effort so much I plan to keep using it and plan to keep working with it uh increase my understanding of it and my ability to um use it God at maybe you can contact

John Smo so I actually ran into John when I was in Sabu a few weeks ago so John is a friend of mine he's a great guy um he is really a hardworking guy he's providing a lot of

great opportunities to Filipinos who work for his business um I didn't know he had an RN Staffing business I I don't know see I I need to talk to people more I part of me feels like I I

I like to get to know people on a personal basis I should be more salesy but I feel like ah if I just talk to him about business he'll think I'm wanting something from him where for me it's

it's more about the Friendship aspect uh and then like you know maybe business Aris but it's it's fair right I mean we've all got to make money to survive I'll talk to John Moore I've been meaning to connect

with John Moore I thought about going up to Sabu for like a month so um yeah I'll have to follow up with John I appreciate that Jose and it would be a good way to gain knowledge I I

also wouldn't want to to like um you know kind of push him to like hey I want to compete with you help me get get started as a competitor uh but John's like a a friendly guy he's a

worm person um yeah take care TJ good to chat with you have a good evening I know it's getting late there in on the East Coast Coast or near the east coast of Canada um writing a book I

just joined I missed your announcements Sunday is my big Moving Day wonderful Doug have a good time in toai be sure to give us an update after you get settled into tayai how you like it compared to maati

a friend of mine and a member of this channel actually is based in tanza in kabit He suggests that I come check it out at some point so that's definitely on my radio maybe if I make it up

there I could spend a month in in the in the area and catch up with you Doug and then also some other folks there Jose that would be a way to gain enough confidence and knowledge and confidence into

the business he charges 150 per Consulting I got it got it thank you Jose I appreciate I didn't know that but um that's uh yeah that's reasonable um considering the value of his time his expertise and I I

like John a lot he's he's been very nice to me um very personal I was supposed to go on his channel but I had to dip out of town I didn't like plan ahead very well for that trip

it was kind of last minute due to my uh passport renewal being rejected but yeah Doug says speaking of colum oh biggie says like you I like to develop relationships organically I agree biggie um let's see speaking of

Colombia yeah long-term Visa is tough 180 days per year as a tourist it's slightly cheaper bigger apartments for the same money I was there years and found it very safe yeah so I think accommodation is a bit like

you get more for your dollar in Colombia um it is hard to get the year round Visa right so you get 180 days as a tourist but then you probably want to go to Peru um maybe Mexico uh

Ecuador is having some challenges right now but like maybe you could do half the year Colombia half the year Peru I love Peru um maybe it was just like the Asian influence in Peru but I found it like

um I I found it just like more introverted in P where colia I found more outgoing um so for me as an introvert I found it easier to kind of mesh with Peru I I still like Colombia a

lot and I learned a lot in Colombia had some great experiences but um hey everybody hey Janet good to see you Janet check out Janet's Channel everybody she does some interesting live streams and and more specifically dumag rentals

if you're trying to find a place in dumag Janet's keep kicking over my water bottle Janet's Channel daget rentals is a great resource for you to get a sense of uh the apartments and houses on offer what you

can um you know what you have to consider your options uh if you want to move here to [Music] dagate um invisible American man yeah so the challenge with a remote job there's a few problems with that invisible

American man one why would a company hire an American if they can hire somebody else at a much lower rate I've had places I've worked out in the past they would fire Americans and then they would hire uh

people in these other countries at a much lower rate so for them it doesn't really make Financial sense to pay extra for talent uh if they've got a cheaper option and I've had a few offer you know offer

me like $500 a month to work full-time or $700 a month to work full-time um you know that's I'm better off not working at all or starting my own business than to work for that amount of money uh

if I'm working full-time especially in like sales roles and the commission they're offering is just a pittance um so there's there's no hacks like that uh I wish that was the case but the companies have they're always one

step ahead of the employee they're never going to pay a US market rate and let you live overseas unless you are very specialized like unless you have an extremely hard to find skill set you're never going to earn

US market rate and pull off living um in a cheaper country they just don't the system does not want to support that like it's it sounds awesome a lot of people have suggested that to me but it's never

people actually doing that it's never actually people that are able to uh pull that off most of the people that can pull that off keep it on a DL because they don't want other people competing with them they

don't want um they may not want their company to find out like if they may be using a VPN setup it's I wish it were that simple but you know yeah um there's no finessing these companies they you

know they often begrudgingly pay American wages and um that's part of why I'm looking at healthc care actually is I a lot of tech jobs are getting outsourced um a previous employer of mine they fired an engineering team

and they hired their Replacements in uh Poland they fired a lot of their uh California based staff and and rehired in cheaper parts of the US so there's a race to the bottom I I think we're technically in

a situation where there's just an overs supply of labor because the population has expanded so dramatically the global population is expanded so dramatically then um there's just too many people looking for work especially right now in the US

there's a recession a tech recession where there's lot lot of unemployed people trying to find work um that's why you're seeing wages come back down um you know I've talked to number like I've been out of work for

a year and a half there's a lot of people in this situation um I've been offered not enough money to really make it worth my while like you know earning i h heck I I had one company uh

offer me a sales job in California I'm not going to name the company 30 $ an hour no commission to live in the Bay Area are you kidding me $30 an hour I'm going to live in my car

to earn $30 an hour to live in the Bay Area uh and do a Commission job or do a sales job but with no commission so there's no incentive for performance um I mean the yeah that's that's the

hack is to own the business that's the only way to really get ahead in the US is one either have a super rare highend demand skill set that's gatekeep gatee kept by regulation like medical uh that's gatee kept

they the a lawyer right there's certain professions that they they set up arbitrary uh barriers to entry to enter that POS that profession because the people in charge they want to control right they want to have control over

the industry so they make it arbitrarily difficult through lure um to enter that profession because they don't they don't want to one of the things they're afraid of is people getting into a bunch of debt and then not

being able to pay it back uh because then those people go and tell people look don't go to the don't go to law school don't go to medical school uh because you're going to get a bunch of debt

that you can't pay back and so then those professors uh you know will struggle to get customers in the form of students and so the system starts to kind of get cracks in it um so that's why those

Industries remain lucrative is that people uh people have an incentive to maintain th those positions being as L being lucrative um yeah even Big E says even in America we have locality pay I live in a cheaper area

of the US and I get paid a lot less than those who live in DC for example yeah when I was in California I had co-workers in Texas and um they would complain about me getting more pay and

then I was the first to get CAU in a layout me and other californ co-workers are the first to get cut uh in a layoff Doug says I got I booked a return to Columbia have a safe trip

to Colombia Doug um I wasn't sure about the Philippines when I came so packed L will be nice to get back yeah Colombia is awesome I love Colombia I'd be happy to go back there at some point I

think you'll have a great time in Colombia Doug but yeah owning the business I mean that's that's part of the reason I'm getting more into content creation is being able to work my own hours having control you can't

get fired as a content creator assuming you follow terms of service which are easy to follow then it's not like a job where a job you get laid off you get fired you um you get your hours reduced

um they move you around you're you know they're paying you to provide a service where here it's more about getting paid based on the value I create um yeah that's a big bigger thing AI is going to take

out all the high-paying tech jobs yeah I think Ai and um and Outsourcing are going to impact uh the income potential in Tech you'll still be able to start a business but as far as working for somebody else

they're going to continue to try to Nerf that uh because that's just you know that's just the way the system works Jose asks have you been to Paraguay I haven't been to Paraguay 90k was the poverty line in

the Bara 5 years ago I would say it's more like 150k minimum now in the Bay Area yeah I mean I'm not I don't understand what they where they expect people to live on $30 an hour uh and

expect people to work in the San Jose area I mean I guess you could live in a bunk bed situation you could rent a bunk bed but like okay what if you're what do you you know I don't

it's just such a mess um it's not sustainable but that that's the way you know that's the way it's set up that's part of the reason I'm here is to be able to pursue my entrepreneurial goals I can

just stretch my savings a lot further here in the Philippines um and in Southeast Asia in general you know longterm I expect the channel will keep growing and I'll be able to offer more I think this book will

be part of the value that I'm able to offer and uh yeah uh invisible American man I'm flying to motti on Wednesday for four weeks I have a problem in a business that I own with after hours weekend

holiday call taking for service in the standby power industry I need the call taker to be an expert in Genera Power Systems the only way to make that happen is to train them myself I would agree invisible American

man like you have to train training is is part and parcel of business challenges and the fact that you're willing to train them yourself and that you acknowledge that's a challenge is amazing uh several jobs I've had have

offered no training um so it was hit the ground running or don't and you know uh that could be stressful as an employee trying to make people happy without being prepared to do so uh but that's where you

you come in and you you take accountability for that and that's a beautiful thing to uh to see Big E risk mitigation for AI taking over is learning machine learning to teach AI how to operate that's a great

Point biggie yeah I mean when I lived in Bay Area more recently uh um then yeah it it there were there was an issue with crws there was a company GM was funding that uh they had an incident

um and a lot of those uh yeah a lot of those places like a lot of the AI does have uh risks Associated by the way guys can you hear music they they're playing music uh downstairs now I

just want to make sure that that's not coming through on your end CU it's hard for me to gauge how loud it is okay thank you so much much guys I appreciate that because I I just don't want

to have copyright music at all but um yeah invisible man I uh I got it yeah I mean the alternative is to is to have someone who um who may not have the best attitude uh who may not

be super happy with her life I I'm going to turn on yeah it's I'm going to turn on the Aon because it's it's distracting me and I mean to be fair too with customer service like it's you can't

scale it like YouTube you can scale right you can serve more and more people uh programming you can serve more and more people that's the benefit of media or of software is that they're scalable like film right you

know you make one great film millions and millions of people can watch it many times over and enjoy it where a customer service it's oneto one you've got one person helping one person and it's just uh you know

it's you can you gotta you got to serve a lot of people to build wealth and so I think that's the issue is with customer service is there's just a limit on it and I think it could be

yeah exactly customers demand that the person be an expert that they're talking to um but and I found like it's um I found that you know sometimes they just they lose their they can lose their patience or become

frustrated when the person they're talking to is not an expert uh but often the expert in the system is working on like system design making the system more efficient uh you know people it seems like people are working

at the edge of their competency too so like people are uh you know as soon as somebody gets pretty confident on the the system then they get promoted right like they don't want to be doing the same job

forever that is the fly in the ointment of offshore customer service yeah totally I agree invisible man I've had some minor disagreements with offshore customers service where they're trying to follow a script they don't understand the software problem

I'm dealing with right like I'm telling them look I understand how software works I understand uh to some extent why this is broken in the way that it's broken and I want you to fix it but they're saying

like I have a script I'm reading off of I I can basically just parot lines from the script and that's the extent to which I I can I can help uh and then it goes through an escalation process

and then I talk to their boss and then their boss sends me to another team because their boss doesn't know what's going on and then they create a help desk ticket uh and then an hour later I get

a solution and and that's fine if it's not important but you know if you're running trying to run a business taking multiple hours to solve what is a relatively inconsequential problem yeah it just uh it can be a

headache trucker Captain trucker hey guys shout out to Captain trecker he's got a really interesting Channel a lot of unique takes on the Philippines I was working and slept in a car for a year in the Bay Area

and Las Vegas before I came to the Philippines for the first time yeah and there's there's no shame in in sleeping in a car like with the cost of housing uh if I became a nurse I would consider

it I would you know I would consider if I could shower at the hospital if I could do laundry at the hospital or near the hospital uh as long as you're not like throwing like I don't see any

problem with sleeping in a car due to the housing shortage the artificially created housing shortage um there's a difference between be uh the Working Poor and people who are like bums um there's a huge difference in that there

I mean uh you know the people who had judged the some of the homeless in America I would say look back at like the Hoovervilles of the Great Depression you had tons of people who were good honest decent

people that um because of Greater economic issues just didn't have housing as long as you're trying to to move forward you're trying to find Solutions trying to to learn skills or get ahead uh there should be no shame

in that it's not the same as um yeah a really short less than [Music] 30 um not sure what you mean invisible American man uh RV yeah I mean RV like there's there's a difference between I'm going to

park here I'm going to throw my trash out the window I'm going to um you know be a nuisance to the neighborhood I'm going to to scare people I'm going to be disheveled uh and I'm gonna and and

the guy who I'm gonna show up to work every day on time I'm gonna work hard I'm going to save my money I'm going to invest my money you know America to me today is more of what I

would call an economic zone it's more of a place to go and make money less of a place to really enjoy life I think a lot of people are citing that their quality of life is going down and

um it's you know if you're able to put away money take that money to a country where the cost of living is more modest where you feel like wow the weather's better people are friendlier I get to enjoy

some lifestyle choices that I couldn't enjoy back home like for me being able to walk to the beach amazing I could never afford to walk to the beach I could never live in a place where I could afford

to walk to the beach uh in the in the US I mean to to be walking distance from the beach in the US you're paying thousands of month in rent uh you're probably paying a pre you're probably paying

a premium for like dining out uh any kind of service you need on a vehicle like everything is going to come in a premium in any kind of Beach Community sure yeah I mean you could live in Oakland

near the port but that's a dangerous area where there's a lot of crime problems most people would not be happy uh living near the Port of [Music] Oakland RV in a gym members yeah you take you get a

gym membership you can go and shower you get regular haircuts you shave I need to shave actually I'm deciding I'm going to move more toward being clean shaven I think a lot of people prefer that look um I

had an RV for three years up in the bay yeah nothing wrong with that I mean it's a very economical option if you're in an area like the bay area where the weather is very mild uh then you

know you're not going to freeze um it's not you're not going to be boiling in there either it's a fine option especially for a bachelor I think the the calculus is a little bit different if you're trying to

raise a family but I don't think California is a very easy place to do that anyway um so yeah invisible American man um right on Captain trucker trucker says and two in' 08 even 30 an hour was a

joke in the bay yeah I mean that's just you can eat you know but like most people expect to do more than to just be able to eat uh you're not saving much you're certainly not putting away much

for an emergency right so yeah okay you got your food maybe you got like a room in a house or a bunk bed in a house but like what if you have an unexpected expense it's it's not um

it's not good I stayed in Hayward at times pretty ra yeah I'm familiar with with Hayward I always trucker I always call Hayward Wayward I always joke around they need to change the name of Hayward to Wayward uh

I've had some interesting experiences in Hayward like last time I was in Hayward somebody knocked the mirror off my car fortunately they didn't ding like the actual door but yeah they took the I came I walked out to

my car one morning and my mirror is like hanging off and so I had to get it replaced and I just replaced it a month before um philli says I agree the US is a great place to make

a living but not a great place to enjoy your life yeah I mean a lot of of people are just in survival mode in the US they're living paycheck to paycheck even if they're making a lot of money

they feel pressure to keep up with the Joneses they feel they need to be interesting they need to look cool um yeah Hayward like I think it's it's uh not a a bad place like I I enjo I've

lived in h different parts of Hayward and I think it's it's what's the word your mileage may vary right some parts of Hayward are um I felt really nice and then other parts of Heyward May struggle with some

challenges um and you got access to the Bay Area job market and that's the best part about being in the Bay Area or one of the best parts about being in the Bay Area is that it's got a

ton of Economic Opportunity if you're trying to get ahead for what it's worth I found the Bay Area I far prefer the Bay Area to my hometown I grew up in the southern us and I felt like the

Bay Area was way more egalitarian way more opportunity for me to get ahead uh people treated me even though people were stressed out um I felt people were just more productive they were more open-minded um I loved my

time in the bar Bara and if I had to go back and work if I could find a job that would pay me enough to live there and to get ahead I wouldn't mind going back uh to do

so because I just felt like it was a much more efficient place to live than where I'm from uh people were more educated not just like formally educated but people also just like had more intellectual curiosity I could

talk to people about different subjects that were interesting where back in my hometown not everybody uh there were very intelligent people where I'm from but you really got to seek him out um uh sunscreen must always be on

your also be on your ears as well lots of cancers on ears thank you for the heads up Ed I appreciate that I'll put some on my ears I don't put it on my ears and so um yeah

now I'm going to do that I'm going to make it a point to put it on my ears um and it uh it rubs off too like if I sweat a lot sometimes this stuff will come off uh

but yeah invisible American man um hauling your motor bike on the back of Court oh Philippines business model 20-year-old Isuzu Box Truck converted to RV with lithium ion battery bank and solar array on the roof sell these rigs

to expats who want to wander around Island to Island hauling your motorbike on the back of course yeah that's an interesting idea invisible American man uh I have heard of a little bit I haven't seen them but I

have heard of people doing like van life here uh where they want to see different beaches or they want to post up in different places there's a lot to see here like way more that I think gets put

out there because a lot of people only mention a few of the hotspot cities or tourist destinations but there's a lot of cool spots in the Philippines that like nobody ever talks about and I'm sure the expats that

have found those places want to keep those on the DL but there's a lot of cool places there's so many cool places in the Philippines that just aren't on on the public radar they're H you know they're harder

to get to I admit some of the cooler places you're just going to be going real remote you're going to be taking a long bus ride and a ferry you're not going to have the shopping options there that

you want but if you're an adventurer if you want to explore like this country is freaking incredible uh Mr Dave asks what is the ethnicity of Eastern dreamers so I'm uh Indian like India Indian uh and then Japanese

and also uh White so like half Indian 30% Japanese and 20% white and I know that doesn't make sense how are you not a quarter but I did my DNA test and that's what they provided to me so

I guess when I came out I came out with a little bit more weight toward uh East Asian uh 1% Korean in there I so I have a Korean probably great great great great grandparent or something like that

but I always just say Indian and Japanese because I was raised by my grandma from Japan uh so culturally I'm I feel more yeah definitely uh Asian-American and yeah uh let's see I still like the Bay Area it's

one of my favorite spots in the whole country I've been to every state and dozens of cities I had a lot of fun there in my 20s living in the RV and playing drums that's so cool trucker yeah

I love the Bay Area I i' it's my favorite area of the country I've lived in I lived in Colorado for several years I grew up in the South and when I found the Bay Area I just felt

like home um I still have a lot of friends in the Bay Area I still like I like the natural beauty I like the weather I like the food scene I like the urban like landscape as far as

just being kind of densely populated being able to um hop on public transportation Jose says Heyward was great for me have you been to East paloalto or Richmond or Stockton those are pretty bad places um that's a great

Point Jose I uh I have been to Stockton and I I've been to Richmond um I and I've been to East palal too and uh yeah I mean you know I think it depends on individual experience as well

like depending on where I went um I never had any like major major incidents in Hayward but I did have an incident at a Starbucks where I got into an argument with this guy because he accused me of

like taking his stuff and he was sitting at a seat and I sat down at one of the other seats at the table and he got really upset about it um and so that you know that shouldn't that

doesn't reflect on everyone I certainly had some good experiences in Heyward to I to compliment it one of the most generous people I met in the baraya his shop is in Hayward he helped me to um get some

work done in my car at a very modest price he like really helped me out a lot he had helped me years back and he helped me again when I went back so um I don't know I think

too Jose like I had difficult experiences in the bay based on the cost of living I still loved it but that kind of colored my experience at times in a negative way uh because of I don't know maybe

there was just like a chip on my shoulder from being an out of towerer uh a lot of asian-americans in the Bay Area grew up in the bay so like they're local where I always you know oh you

don't have the bay bay area accent uh you don't have the kind of Savvy that people get from growing up there it um you know I I had a little bit of a chip on the shoulder whether I

was in Hayward or Berkeley or in San Francisco where like I don't know I just I wanted to belong right I always felt like it was so cool and like the people are cool and insightful and educated and

worldly and international and you know I always felt like um a bit like the country bumpkin in some ways coming from the southern us where when I would bring up where I was from people would say oh that's

flyover country you're from flyover country welcome to the Bay like Welcome to the Real America or Welcome to the Real City and uh I didn't always have that experience I felt like Hayward was more relatable people were more

down to earth uh but I wanted to kind of shake that that background of mind a little bit because you know the southern us just doesn't have the best reputation um for for some people some people love it

uh but it's it's kind of off the Beaten Track where yeah um the rock is from Hayward very cool Jose I didn't know that the rock was from uh Hayward um and yeah so you know sometimes I I

think about uh sometimes I think about that Jose with that that experience I had in that Starbucks um I really like the parks in Hayward I like the hills in Hayward I felt safer much safer in Hayward than

in Oakland um I felt more welcomed in Hayward um I think some of some of the critique and maybe this is just me but like in the baraya I felt like I've got to keep my job and so

I've got to say what and in sales like you kind of it it rewards people pleasing behavior and so you kind of just say whatever people want to hear and I had uh at times Le leadership or even

friends that were like elitist as trucker is saying and so while Hayward felt much more relatable to me I felt like to keep my opportunities going I had to like whatever you liked and I had to dislike whatever

you didn't like and just parot back whatever was being said or whatever the general attitude was so if I met somebody that didn't like Hayward I didn't like Hayward either if I met somebody didn't like go but but

I would have people I don't like Hayward but I like Oakland okay I don't like Hayward but I like o even though they're they're they're bordering cities they have a lot in common uh they're have more in common

than they don't have in common they're both Bay Area cities that uh are diverse and have a lot of people from all over the world I just uh you know I felt like I had to lose myself to

make money and I feel feel like a lot of people feel that way uh in the US they have to lose what makes them unique to get ahead financially uh I had many more positive experiences in Hayward than

negative like I love the parks there there's a lot of beautiful parks in Hayward that don't get enough attention also a buddy of mine who lives um more towards San Jose we went driving in the mountains or the

hills like uh east of Hayward beautiful Hills we we did some great we had some great times in his uh in his car he drove kind of a one of his cars is kind of sporty and so you

go up there and like ride around and he's whipping around the corners and having a lot of fun um I I felt like it was a Hidden Gem where I could be around people I could relate to more

where it wasn't so elitist but I also felt like the culture of deception at least in in um in some ways meant that I had to just kind of like parrot what I heard from other people to to

be accepted um and I would notice when I would say something people didn't like right because they wouldn't necessarily come out and say something but they'd kind of be a little bit passive aggressive and and just look at

you like what um and it would bite me in the butt sometimes too like I actually had some great times in Oakland and I would uh and but then I'd have I'd have uh co-workers that didn't like Oakland

at all and so then I oh yeah Oakland sucks and then I find out my leadership oh no we like Oakland it's like okay well no matter what I say here somebody's gonna have a problem with it but

like I also don't want to make the wrong people mad because then my job is at risk it's just um it's tough It's uh it's tough I mean It ultimately all worked out for my benefit uh but it

yeah uh trucker says I want to see you in a confrontation hidden argument Alex on hinge that would be great yeah I try not to be I try to be pretty levelheaded over here but if I go back

to the States I mean that's very common in the states um even in SF there's a sense of elitism we used to talk about that it was supposed to be ultra uh Progressive and welcoming but in fact it

was a rich city with many rich people yeah definitely truck uh it's you definitely get the the uh South Park did a great episode on it called the smug the San Francisco smug and I encountered that quite a

bit I encountered quite a bit of elitism and and smug attitudes uh I found that I got along a lot better with immigrants uh or more recent immigrants than I did with the more Elite people like people that

that was was their dream to move to the barrier and work there and had a lot of gratitude for the opportunity versus the people that took it for granted and oh well whatever it's just it's just the bay

you know and um I just thought it was like this I felt like when I got to the Bay Area um I had made it like there was part of me that felt like ID made it in life

so there was insecurity but then there was also the sense of like wow I'm not in the midwest or South anymore uh and I had other friends felt the same way I met other asian-americans that yeah when my

family got here we got sent to like somewhere in the midwest or somewhere in the Southeast and then when we got our education we got to go to Cal we got to move to California or we got to

move to Washington or Oregon or New York on the East Coast Boston and so um yeah I've got to I sometimes I had I felt like I needed to adopt the elitist attitude to make the right connections but

then it also cost you because you come across as inauthentic but for me it was a lot of it was about survival because my family background is so messed up for me it wasn't an option of okay if

you fail here you can go back home and go move in with your folks it was like no if you fail here you're going to be on the streets and the streets are not a forgiving place to be

and uh I you know due to my upbringing my background I've always struggled to trust people in general and that's only gotten worse over time uh so it was kind of a make or break situation and I knew

if I fail here I'll I'll have put away enough money I'll book my flight to Southeast Asia uh where I can um you know where I can have a a cheaper life and plan my next steps because I

figure Tech is going to be um in turmoil for a while I biggie I affectionally call my daughter Country Bumpkin because her southern accent is heavier than mine that's funny uh there is so alism in the tender line

I'd agree with that Jose definitely true not in the tender Line San Francisco has changed a lot many of the shops have closed down yeah it does feel a bit weird to be in this city that's so densely

populated or like has the potential to be so densely populated but then many neighborhoods are kind of empty and lacking in vibrancy and uh you know kind of feels like a ghost town in some places and it didn't

feel that way when I first visited there 10 years ago but uh it's gotten to be more feeling that way uh in more recent years especially post pandemic it's hard surviving up there and getting ahead as young man

you have to conform on some level it's not easy I kind of got into a subculture of musician friends up up there it's tough Place yeah trucker I agree like you know if you're from there you got multigenerational

household then it's a little bit different like I know a lot of Filipino people in the Bay Area live in multigenerational households they'll live with grandparents parents children and they make it work that way right they got 10

people in a house all working very hard to get ahead uh Chinese Americans same deal they live in multigenerational households Latino American same deal but for me being this odd man out I I didn't have those options and

so I had to live in like a shoebox apartment had to park like a mile away from my apartment thank you so much biggie have a great rest of your day or rest of your evening and not sure

where you are in the world but please have a good one uh but yeah it's not easy to save money up there either I mean every time you step on public transit $2 uh you you know you transfer

$2 uh meal $15 you know I didn't have a kitchen in my apartment so I would get a like a heating element which was against the rules but I would put in like a a hot plate and I

would cook on that and you're just doing a lot of things like this the amazing things are easy to do in the Bay Area like going to a beautiful beach or going to a museum or taking a ride

on a cable car uh surfing or whatever it is that you want to do skiing that's freaking amazing easy to do the normal stuff is a lot harder going to the DMV going grocery shopping um finding a place

to park um your your basic day-to-day life stuff is just a lot more challenging there and I think the stress it puts on people is palpable you can see people are stressed out they're rushing they're in a hurry

all the time uh trying to get things done as quickly as possible like I'd go to the bank on my lunch break I would uh I lived a few block like my boss would be eating um eating in

meetings like just definition of the Rat Race these days I don't think it's always been that way but definitely in recent decades it's become more and more that way and I still love it I mean like I said

the Bay Area East Bay very very good to me Hayward Oakland Berk all very very good to me um I wouldn't be where I am today without those places so I I have to Express gratitude for them but

guys I'll probably wind down in the next few minutes my voice is shot um any any uh last thoughts or or questions or comments I'd be happy to uh answer them be well looking look to the future thank

you trucker that's a great um a great point great discussion Alex and everyone thanks so much Jose I appreciate that thank you all so much for for joining today um if you're watching this on replay guys give it

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this please subscribe to the channel down below and we'll see you all soon thanks everybody byebye