I Don't Like This About Living In The Philippines

Introduction to Philippines Challenges

0:01 Hey YouTube, Alex here. And in today's video, I want to ask the question: What do I not like about the Philippines? This is, of course, a controversial question, right? Because I'm a foreigner, I'm an American, and I am living here in the Philippines as a tourist, exploring the country. And overall, I love the Philippines. The people here are super welcoming, they're super kind. I often feel that a bad day in the Philippines is better than a good day in the United States where I'm from.

0:28 All that being said, life here is not perfect. It's not paradise, contrary to what some vloggers will put out there. There are some challenges here, like there are in any country. And I thought I'd discuss some of the challenges that I have here. This video is not meant to disparage the Philippines. This video is not meant to disparage any Filipino people. This video is not meant to disparage anyone here. I love the Philippines, let me be very clear about that. I'll say it one more time: I love the Philippines. This is, in my opinion, the most beautiful country in the world with among the friendliest people in the world. And with each of these criticisms, I have a positive counterbalance. I don't look at any place as perfect or imperfect. Rather, there are tradeoffs in every aspect of life. So I hope you enjoy this video, and without further ado, let's get into it.

Dealing with Other Expats

1:22 Reason number five is the other foreigners, the other expats. I often say we're not sitting our best over here, and you'll find that to be the case if you talk to enough expats. Some guys are great guys, like Mike, guys like Paul. These guys are doing it right. They're making a positive impression on the country, they're helping to increase tourism. There are other guys that you'll meet here that are totally socially inept. They have high conflict personalities, they may have personality disorders, they've got dependencies, they've got these issues such that they don't fit in back home. They don't fit in here because the culture here is tolerant and accepting, then they get away with stuff here they would never get away with back home. They're just difficult people, and a lot of expats are this way.

2:04 I mean, for some of us, we run into enough of our fellow expats here in the Philippines, we don't want to meet anymore. I'm becoming more and more selective of the guys that I hang out with and the places I go. There's some places that I really liked to go when I first got here, and now I realize they attract the crazies. And those places, while they have their own appeal, I don't want to go hang out with those people because it's just not a pleasant experience. I'm going to run into some expats behaving badly, some paras, some people who are running away from something. For some reason, the expat communities here, it can be especially toxic. I think in some cases, more so than any other country that I've lived in or visited. If you know why or if you have a sense of why that is, let us know down in the comments below. But yeah, you meet a lot of guys here who they're just, they are just unpleasant to be around, unpleasant to talk to. You wouldn't have been friends with them back home, and you wish they had stayed back home instead of bringing their problems over here.

3:02 Brad Dev, one of my favorite Thailand YouTubers, says a Thai person might rip you off for 100 baht, about $3, and an expat will sell you a business that doesn't exist. And so that's one of the things you have to be on guard here. To me, more so than any Filipino I've met, is I have to be on guard about other foreigners. Some of these guys are great, a lot of them are not. A lot of them have some serious problems, and they're here to try to run away from them. Maybe they have a criminal record, maybe they have some financial obligations they're trying to get away from, maybe they've got debts back home, maybe they burned all their bridges back home. There's some guys that when you ask them why they're here, they've always got a vague answer. They're super guarded, 'Oh, well, you know, I'm here because I'm here.' They'll give you these circular answers where you're wondering, 'Dude, why can't you just answer the question? What did you do that you can't just answer a simple question?' Make something up. Like that's the weird part to me is some of them can't even make something up. They've got to like talk in circles and flip it back on you, and they'll answer your question with another question.

4:07 You meet a lot of strange expats here in the Philippines, and out of all the reasons that I don't like the Philippines, that is the first one that comes to mind. Not the worst, dealing with some of these guys is really frustrating. And eventually, if you stand in an area long enough, you'll figure out who you do and don't want to be around. There's plenty of guys here in Daggetti I don't want to be around. I don't want to hang around them. It's nothing personal, it's just we're not going to get along, and us hanging out is a waste of our time. I've seen and heard about much more expat conflict here in the Philippines than I did in any other country I've been to, whether it be Spain, whether it be Thailand, whether it be Cambodia. If you come here, be prepared for some straight-up weirdos where they're seeking a place where people will overlook their interpersonal issues.

The Slow Pace of Life

4:51 Finally, I have the experience, why are they willing to accept that guy? And I realized, well, they're willing to accept me, they're probably willing to accept a guy like that. Reason number four: a slow pace. If you spend any measurable amount of time here and you're coming from the US, you're coming from the UK, you will inevitably run into a situation where you're just shaking your head like, 'Why is this taking so long?' I have that experience periodically, less so since I've adjusted more to it. But there have been times at the store where I just gave up my cart. 'Ah, you know what, it's not worth the wait. I don't want it, I don't need it that badly to stand here for 15, 20, 30, 45 minutes.' I've done a lot of waiting. Some places are worse than others, some times of day are worse than others, some stores are better or worse than others.

5:38 If you come to the Philippines, be prepared for a slow pace. Be prepared for things to take a lot longer than what you're accustomed to. It's something that still bugs me sometimes at restaurants, for example, where you place your order and they slip in at the last second, 'Oh sir, it'll be 30 minutes.' I don't know, almost like they don't want to tell you that before you order. Not that it's a big deal to me, like it's not even that it's a big deal. I always bring my laptop, I have things that I could be doing while I wait. It's almost like sometimes they know that that's going to be a bother for some people. They're used to guys being impatient, and they still have to get that information in there. And so that's a big one where you're thinking, 'Why not just let me know in advance?' Like some people, they may have some other obligation, some kind of appointment to make, and they would just say, 'Oh, okay, well, it's not a good fit for me right now. I'll come back tomorrow. I'll come back tonight after my appointment,' whatever it may be.

6:29 It's not just the slow pace, it's like the having to overreact later to deal with it, or having to constantly course-correct for tourists who are used to faster-paced lifestyles. I'm used to going to a restaurant, especially like a fast-casual restaurant, from the time I walk in the door to the time I get my food is usually like five minutes or less. Sometimes I'm going back to work, sometimes I'm out the door already. It's not this like, 'Okay, sir, it'll be a while.' Okay, I mean, there have been times where I've waited like an hour for takeout. That is unheard of in the United States. If it was that extreme, like if they were super short-staffed and somebody called out, they would let you know like at the start of the conversation, 'Hey, I just want to let you know it's going to be an hour, just be prepared because we're super understaffed tonight.' But in some cases, I don't get that notice. I just don't hear anything, and I just sit there and sit there, and I keep looking up, and I keep looking up, and eventually I get my takeout. But you're almost in some cases feel like you're held hostage by the slow pace here because in that case, I can't leave. I've already given them my money. I can't just go off to another establishment. I may be planning to go home after that. Basically, I'm stuck there.

7:41 So sometimes a slow pace not only does it bug you from an efficiency perspective where you're used to things being super efficient back in the US, but you also get kind of trapped. Like, 'Okay, I've got to get these items at the store.' Okay, I could either give these items up, or I could give up 30 minutes of time, or 45 minutes of time. 'Oh, I placed a takeout order. I can either give up my food, or I can give up an indeterminate amount of time.' Sometimes, unfortunately, it's not always like that, but the inconsistency there with the pacing, it does get frustrating sometimes. I mean, drivers purchase snacks in traffic. It's so different from what I'm used to, where drivers in the US, there's so many restrictions and a push for deadlines and people trying to do things as efficiently as possible. They don't stop for anything unless they're legally mandated to stop, and typically they're not snacking or eating either.

8:31 So that was something to get used to is sometimes traffic here is so thick and slows people down so much that it takes on this character of its own where it's like, 'Okay, we expect to be stuck in traffic.' So people in the community will be like, 'Okay, well, these people are stuck in traffic, let's go sell them stuff.' So that's another thing you'll see here is that the traffic is so slow-paced that you will see people vending to drivers. And that's not as common in the US. I've seen it a little bit in the US, but not as much as here. That's another element of the slower-paced life that you do see here, which it could be frustrating. I mean, having a driver pull over to do something of personal...

9:10 I want to go home. Like, I don't want to stop for this. I just want to go home. Be prepared if you come here to the Philippines that things are not going to move at the same pace you're used to in the United States. You're going to find yourself shaking your head, 'Why are they doing it this way? Why are they doing it that way?' There's a much more efficient way to do things. Why don't they just do it the more efficient way?

9:31 Some people will say, 'Oh, don't complain. If you don't like it, go somewhere else.' We're trained to be efficient. Like the guys who can afford to stay here in the Philippines, many of them have gotten their finances in order. Especially for younger guys, they're trained to be efficient. Like at work, when we're working, we're managed to be more effective, to be more efficient, and there's penalties for doing things inefficiently. So we're trained to have this attitude of getting things done as fast as we can.

10:01 And so when we see people doing things in a way that's less time-efficient than what we're used to, it immediately triggers those memories of working and being pressured to do things better. Where here, there is at times more of a 'manana' culture. There's more of a social element. I see people socializing all the time, and there's probably part of me that envies that, right? Where, you know, back in the US, we're not paying you to hang out, to see people, be able to have more leisure, more socializing in their lives.

10:27 Some of us do feel a little bit envious because we watched big chunks of our life go by that we needed to sell to pay bills. And to see people not have that kind of crazy look in their eyes like they've got to get things done as fast as possible, 24/7, 365. Yeah, it's not just the lack of efficiency, it's also the implication that we did things super efficiently to benefit our managers or somebody else.

Navigating Crowds and Density

10:50 The next point, point number three, is the crowds. If you spend any measurable amount of time here in the Philippines, especially for Americans, of course, I'm American-centric. Yes, American, not North American, not USA, American. American. Woo! You may have grown up in a suburban area like I did. You may have grown up in a rural area like some of my friends have. Be prepared for anywhere you go in the Philippines to have far more crowds than what you're used to in the United States, probably even in Western Europe too.

11:20 Manila is the most densely populated city in the world, and even within the country itself, outside of Manila, you're going to run into people all over the place at all hours. And it does make you feel safe in one sense because you know you're not going to be isolated. Like if you, I don't know, fall down and twist your ankle or whatever happens, there's going to be people around. But the flip side of that is you're going to constantly be bumping into people. You're constantly going to be queuing in line with people, whether it be lines to order food, lines to get your food, lines to sit down at a restaurant, traffic itself. There's always going to be waiting associated with the crowds in the Philippines.

12:00 The economy is doing super well. It's super vibrant, and so people have disposable income here. People have money to go spend at restaurants. They have money to go shopping and they can enjoy themselves, which means that they'll probably be joining you at different things that you want to do. Something that really bugs me: do not expect to go anywhere in the Philippines without crowds. It's not easy for me to find a place to film. If you haven't guessed, and part of that is just the crowds.

12:27 It's so densely populated. I personally feel that it's harder to have privacy here. I have people stop me on the street probably every other day. It's getting to be more and more frequent where, 'Hey, I saw you on a vlog. Hey, I saw you here. I saw you there.' That's just a constant occurrence. You're going to deal with crowds here. You're going to deal with anywhere where people want to go. You're not going to be alone.

12:46 For me, as more of an introvert, as somebody who likes my alone time, that's something I don't like. Uh, I don't like having to be around crowds all the time. You might think, 'Oh, well, just go to nicer establishments.' Well, with the booming economy, sometimes the nicer establishments are just as crowded as those that are more budget-friendly.

13:06 Don't expect that, 'Oh, I'm going to go spend some money and it's going to be fine.' No, chances are it's still going to be busy. You know, one of the things that comes to mind is I have friends that tell me, 'Well, I used to go to these restaurants here in town 10 years ago, they were full of other foreigners.' These days, they're full of Filipinos. So, with the booming economy, the tradeoff of that is that you're going to deal with crowds.

13:28 It reminds me of the United States in the '90s when people had more money and the culture was more friendly. You'd go out and businesses would be crowded. Now, I think you only get that sense in the really big cities. You don't really get that vibrancy in some of the smaller cities. Even then, some of the crowds in the big cities in America, they don't behave very well. So, the difference being that Filipinos do behave in crowds. They do try to be decent, but there's no way around it. You're going to bump into people. You're going to have to dodge people.

13:55 You're probably going to run into people. You're probably going to accidentally cause somebody to drop or spill something if they're not paying attention or you're not paying attention. You run into them. That gets old. I mean, in the United States, especially some of the smaller towns I've lived in, you go to the store, you have a big birth, you go down the aisle, you can take your time. You're not running into people. You're not having to get out of the way. It's sparsely populated. It's an older population that is not as nimble on their feet.

14:21 That's a big contrast for me coming here where there's tons of people, and a lot of them are young, so they've got a lot of energy. Sometimes it does get frustrating where you're thinking, 'I just don't want to go out and run into people, step around people, have to be walking around cars, walking through densely packed traffic.' Crowds are everywhere here. There's no way around it, unless maybe you're in BGC. I've heard the sidewalks are super wide there, but for much of the country, be prepared for crowds.

14:47 Be prepared for bigger crowds than you've ever experienced, more dense crowds than you've experienced. Be prepared. You go to the ATM, 'Oh yeah, I'll just pop by the ATM.' There's 10 people in line trying to withdraw their paychecks. 'Oh, I'm just going to go down to the mall.' Be prepared to wait. The crowds translate to wait time. They translate to the slower pace because you have to account for dealing with crowds.

15:10 Back home, if you go to a restaurant, restaurants are so expensive in the United States nowadays. If the service is halfway decent, you'll be seated immediately. You'll be able to order your meal, you'll get your meal in an efficient manner. Here, because a lot more people can afford to go to restaurants, then you're going to wait. I mean, something else I don't like about the crowds: you feel like you're going to trip over people.

15:32 One of the things that comes to mind that people say is, 'You know, somebody is experienced in the Philippines because they start looking down instead of looking up.' And that's because you've got kids running around, you've got debris in the way, you've got the presence of humanity in your midst. And if you look up, you're liable to trip over something, whether it be a dog, a cat, toys, a kid, who knows what could be in the way. But due to the crowding, you don't have the same freedom of movement that you're probably used to if you're an American.

15:58 Where we're used to having the ability to go out, move around at ease, drive on big, wide roads, and really have that freedom of movement. So for me, coming from the US where I'm used to my personal space, I'm used to people giving me a wide berth, it's been an adjustment to have people get close to they would. They stand closer behind you in line because they're just used to being around lots of people.

16:18 I've heard people explain it to me: Filipinos usually grow up in small homes and living in close proximity to their families. They might have 10 people in a two-room house. And so for them, crowds aren't a big deal. Crowds are a way of life. But for me, I'm not used to that. When I grew up, I had my own bedroom. I'm accustomed to having personal space. I'm not used to people standing close to me in line. I'm not used to the crowds being everywhere.

16:43 I'm not used to an environment where people don't mind running into each other, people standing close to me in line, bumping into people at the store, having to sidestep people, having to dodge people. It just gets old. It really does. And with crowds comes noise, which will be the last reason. So stay tuned in this video to get to my top reason I don't like the Philippines.

Infrastructure Issues and Brownouts

17:04 Almost anytime you've got people, you've got noise. The Philippines is no exception. The next reason is infrastructure. The infrastructure is simply not comparable. Now, the US used to have really good infrastructure, not so much these days. The infrastructure in the Philippines is not always on point. We have brownouts here.

17:20 Something I don't like is getting a notice, 'Hey, there's going to be a brownout this day of the week from 6:00 AM until 6:00 PM. You're just not going to have electricity. You're not going to have wireless internet.' That's not a thing in the United States. Even in California, with its grid problems, I've never experienced a brownout. Occasionally, where I grew up in the southern US, we'd have tornadoes that would knock power out, typically it'd come back on within a few hours. We'd light some candles and that would be sufficient to exist until the power came back on.

17:51 I've heard that in South Africa, they have load shedding. I don't know if it's the same thing here. Be prepared for infrastructure challenges. It's the same with walking around. I'm accustomed to Northern California, especially the San Francisco area, where I...

18:03 Especially San Francisco, where I could walk around easily. San Francisco is super walkable. The suburbs are also very walkable. You can easily get to parks, restaurants, businesses. Cars generally respect pedestrians. It's very nice to be a pedestrian here.

18:16 You're going to bust your ankles here. You're going to step up and down. There's not going to be a clear crosswalk. People are not necessarily going to want to stop for you in the crosswalk. A lot of people are good about it, but it's not the same pedestrian-first culture that you might be used to in the United States.

18:29 If you're from New York, Boston, San Francisco, these cities have solid pedestrian infrastructure. For me, I walk anyway because I need the exercise, but I'd be lying if I said I enjoy it as much as I enjoy walking around cities like San Francisco and other walkable cities in the Bay Area.

18:46 I don't like when I'm in the Philippines, I'm walking on a sidewalk and the sidewalk just disappears. You're wondering what happened to the rest of it. That's something that can bug me.

18:54 Also, the Philippines being a developing country, infrastructure is often a work in progress. They're working on it, they're trying to put it in, it takes time. The United States has already been built. As a friend of mine says, back home, here they're still building things.

19:10 So yeah, you might be walking down a street and the sidewalk is really good for like half of it, and then the second half of it is gravel. You're stepping down, and it's not necessarily designed for people to walk around. It's oriented toward motorbikes, and that makes sense.

19:27 I mean, people here got to ride motorbikes to work. It's how they commute. Most people ain't walking to work here. So that's something to keep in mind if you do want to come here.

19:36 It's not just the physical infrastructure of walking around, but also the brownouts. I mean, it's a reason why before I go to bed most nights, I try to charge up all my devices in case there's a brownout. At least I've got my cell phone as a hotspot, my laptop's charged up, so I can still be productive.

19:51 That's something to be aware of if you live in an area that does get brownouts. Hey, you may have some infrastructure challenges that you need to be mindful of. It's certainly been an adjustment for me because the power goes out.

20:02 In the US, I've lived in different parts of the country, that's a big deal. People are furious, people are calling. It's just something that you have to accept about living here.

The Constant Noise

20:10 All these reasons have been bad, but this is the one that takes the cake, and that is the noise. If you live in the Philippines and you're expecting peace and quiet, you will lose your mind.

20:22 Okay, the noise here is noisier than almost any other country I've been to. Even the United States seems quiet by comparison, and I find the United States to be generally a noisy country. You've got the people of Walmart, you've got the people blasting music, you've got the people rolling coal, you've got a generally unsophisticated attitude on the part of a large chunk of Americans.

20:43 Here in the Philippines, people associate noise with fun. Where in the US, we associate it with generally being an irritant. I mean, in my hometown, rich people will move into a certain neighborhood for the culture and then they'll start complaining about the music venues being too loud and then get the music venue shut down.

20:57 Nashville doesn't have near the number of music venues that it used to because people just complain about noise incessantly. Well, here, nobody complains about noise. Very few people here see noise as a problem, and the vast majority associate it with fun.

21:11 If I'm having a good time, I want to be noisy. I want to express my joy and my love for life, my vigor, my vitality. I'm going to do karaoke at 1:00 or 2:00 AM. I don't care who's listening. I don't care who has to be up at work tomorrow.

21:24 I'm going to have my roosters, even for no reason. I'm going to have multiple roosters, three, four roosters. I don't care that it's 7:00 in the morning. I'm going to play amplified music. Do not have an expectation of peace and quiet here in the Philippines.

21:39 You're going to hear amplified motors, you're going to hear karaoke, you're going to hear roosters, you're going to hear construction, you're going to hear people mowing grass, you're going to hear people hammering away. You're going to hear people working, you're going to hear people shouting.

21:53 Any way in which a person can reasonably make noise, expect for that to happen. Expect for that to be a thing. It's not like the US where people are going to be sympathetic if you don't like the noise.

22:00 You're not going to get sympathy in most cases for not liking karaoke, not liking roosters, not liking people shouting, or modifying their engines to be particularly loud. It's just super, super noisy.

22:15 And I've heard that this was not as much of a problem in the past when the country was not as densely populated. It's become more of an issue, and expect too, you go out to a restaurant. It doesn't matter if it's a nice restaurant, you'll be thinking, oh, it'll be quiet here and it'll be peaceful.

22:30 And then they start to get busy. I guess they want to increase turnover, or they want to make for a lively atmosphere, and the music will start getting louder. People will start talking louder. They turn it up louder until you're shouting over the music to be heard.

22:42 And you hear it all the time where people will go hoarse from having to talk so loud over music that nobody asked for. You hear the birds. I've been in establishments where it was just me and a small group of friends were the only people in the establishment, the only patrons.

22:57 And we're sitting there having a nice, relaxing conversation, and then the music comes on. None of us went and asked for the music to come on. Nobody suggested, hey, wouldn't some music be good to go with this conversation?

23:10 Okay, that's not sufficient. They turn it up. Now we're having to talk over the loud music, and inevitably, one of us has to go over and say, hey, can you turn it down just so we can have a conversation?

23:20 Now, in America, they would tell you, get lost, because they're doing it to try to get you to leave. It's not the same purpose. People here really enjoy music. They really enjoy being social, having a fun environment.

23:31 Sometimes they'll be a bit apologetic and they will turn it down. You can tell their feelings could be a bit hurt by this. Now, I have noticed some more Western establishments, Western-style places, to not play amplified music.

23:43 But even then, sometimes they'll play it when they're getting busy, I think, and they'll turn it up. And you're thinking, man, I'm really paying a premium to be here, but with that amplified music, it's no longer a relaxing experience.

23:56 And so I got to find other options to rotate through because I don't want to listen to this. I want to be alone with my thoughts. I want to relax. I want to have a calm, relaxing cup of coffee, maybe get some work done, maybe do some editing, maybe do some graphic design, whatever it may be.

24:12 And that amplified music just takes you out of it. It's distracting. I use noise-canceling earphones, and I can often hear music through my noise-canceling earphones. It's so loud that it overrides the noise-canceling effect.

24:26 And I have AirPods, also had Bose headphones, and they're a necessity if you're going to come here and you're like me and you don't love the constant din. Have some noise-canceling audio equipment. It'll help take the edge off. It'll help cut it down a bit.

24:41 It's not perfect, it's not foolproof. Noise will still get through. It makes it not quite as bad as without that technology. If you enjoyed this video, if this video resonated with you, let me know what you think down in the comments.

24:53 What bothers you about the Philippines? It doesn't have to be Dumaguete specifically. I think there's a lot to love here, but there's no place in the world without its challenges or things that we're not used to. And these are some of the things that bug me from time to time.

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