Another Wonderful Day in the Philippines

Intro and Morning Routine

0:08 Hey, what's up guys? We are live to you, coming to you from Tagaytay. I'm just going to grab some water here. How's everybody doing today? We've already got a viewer. Welcome, welcome. I am doing well. I just went to Lantao for the breakfast buffet on the weekend. Fantastic value for money. Yeah, that's my favorite restaurant in Tagaytay.

0:49 Sorry about that, we'll just wait a couple of minutes, let more people filter in. Feel free to start chatting and share anything that's on your mind. It's going to be a beautiful day here in the Philippines. It's already off to a good start.

1:10 Hey Rick, how are you doing this morning? Not sure where you're at. It's morning here in the Philippines, and I am just combining bottles of water here. I get these five-gallon jugs for 30 pesos, and I then distribute them to these smaller plastic bottles. Probably not the best, I'm probably full of microplastics, but I'll survive for now.

1:51 How's the weather in Southern California? How's the weather down there? It's a Friday night there in Southern California. Yeah, it rained a lot last night. The rain really came down hard, and I find it kind of relaxing to definitely see some of the evidence of last night's rain this morning walking around.

Breakfast Buffet and Travel

2:30 Yeah, that winter weather in California is really nice, very much milder than back on the East Coast. And yeah, that sounds really nice. I'm a little envious of having a little bit cooler weather. It doesn't really cool off here in Dumaguete, so that kind of surprised me because I noticed it cooled off in some other parts of the Philippines, but it doesn't really seem to cool off here. So that's been an adjustment for me, a little bit different from my expectations.

3:04 I asked a friend about it, 'Hey, does it cool off here?' because I noticed some other places I've been in the Philippines, it seems to cool off in December, January. And he said, 'No, I don't think it cools off at all here.' But it was nice where I went for breakfast this morning. They have the air conditioning working hard, and so it was very comfortable in there, and I didn't notice the heat at all. So it's definitely a pleasant environment to eat.

3:33 Their breakfast buffet is fantastic value for anybody watching this on replay or watching this live now. Yeah, they have a great breakfast buffet. It's like 300 pesos. Let me Google it. It's 299 pesos, about $5.14. And they've got bacon, eggs, pancakes, toast, coffee, hot chocolate, papaya, watermelon, some sausage, also longganisa. So yeah, a great variety there.

4:19 I've been visiting Panac and Batangas for 30 days every year since 2022. That's awesome. You know, one of my subscribers mentioned to me I should go check out Bangis or Batangas. I'm not sure which is the proper pronunciation, but they mentioned that it's really nice and that they enjoy it there a lot. I've seen photographs.

4:55 In fact, I can pull up some photographs here. Let's just see here. Share the screen. Batangas, yeah. I mean, this looks gorgeous, man. Like, and you've got the tall volcano there. When I was last in the Philippines, the tall volcano erupted, and that was kind of a cause for concern. I think I was on one of the last flights out of Manila, actually.

Batangas City and Expat Life

5:19 Hey, good morning, Ramsey. Ramsey is another wonderful subscriber from the Middle East. And this is the first time I'm cool. Yeah, so this is Batangas, everybody. And Pan City, so it's more urbanized. It looks like there's a lot of skyscrapers here, and it's much more of like a business district.

6:03 I saw one of the little links here mentioned that it's a fashion capital, so I guess you could go shopping there. You get some nice clothing. A lot of people here in the Philippines have a fantastic sense of style, and so if you want to look your best, you probably want to go to Pan.

6:22 Rick, I'm curious, like, how did you find out about the Philippines? Did you meet like a Filipino in Southern California? I'm always curious about people's like, how they learn about the Philippines. Most of my friends in the States, they either worked with Filipino people, like in healthcare, or they were married to a Filipino.

6:49 I happen to grow up with some Filipinas, like half or some half, some like 100%. So that was where I became initially familiarized. And then I got to be an adult, and what finally prompted my visit was that I hired a Filipino guy to help me in my business, and he worked really hard for me, and he convinced me to come to the Philippines.

7:22 And yeah, the rest is history. So actually, this is like my five-year anniversary of my first visit. I was here five years ago, spent Christmas and New Year's Eve here. Ramsey says it would be a pleasure seeing you in the Philippines someday. I'm inspired by your journey. Thank you so much, Ramsey. I appreciate that.

7:41 Yeah, the support has been incredible. I've been shocked at how fast the channel is growing, and it's just really wonderful to have so many people encouraging me to keep going. By the way, guys, please give us a thumbs up. I see we've got 10 folks in here. If you can, that helps to spread the video around.

8:02 And yeah, it'll be great. We'll meet up one day. Ramsey says, 'How's your New Year?' My New Year was good. I went down to the Boulevard and met up with some friends down there, and we enjoyed the fireworks. It was great. It was kind of a little bit more low-key, I think, than last year. Last year was a little bit more lively, there were more people down there.

8:36 But you know, this year was nice to see the fireworks, and the city came out. It was really chill. It was a lot more relaxing than some New Years I've attended back in the States, where we're sitting on the interstate for like two hours trying to get home.

9:00 Alex, you mentioned before that there's a lot of variety of food in Dumaguete. So I was wondering if there's Indonesian, Malaysian, or Mindanaw food there. Very good question, Kirk. Let me look that up.

9:27 So no Indonesian food. Let me see. Malaysian. Ah, there was a Malaysian restaurant here, but they closed.

9:58 Yeah, so there's, I don't think there's any of those choices here, unfortunately, Kirk. I know that's got to be a bit of a disappointment. For those cuisines, you probably want to look at, let me see if Malate City has any of those.

10:24 So Malate has some of these options. If I were you, I would look at Baguio City. It's in the north part of this island, and they're a bit bigger city, more like 600,000 people, about four times the size of Dumaguete. And that's probably where you could find your craving satisfied for Indonesian food. And if they have Indonesian food, they probably have some Malaysian dishes there too.

10:54 I'm not as sure about Mindanaw food. Rick, I also follow Paul Old Dog. Yeah, Paul is a wonderful guy. He's been really, really good to me. I can't say enough nice things about Paul. I hope to get together with him sometime in the next couple weeks. I know he's got a lot going on right now.

11:18 But yeah, Paul, wonderful guy, and I'm sure I'll see him soon. Romy L, thumbs up. I liked your live already. Thank you so much, Ramsey. I appreciate everybody, by the way, that's giving us a thumbs up. I watched your interview with him, and then I started following you. Thank you so much, Rick.

11:35 Yeah, I always have fun when I sit down and chat with him. He's probably the only person, or one of the only people I've met, that most of the time when I see Paul, when I walk away, my stomach is hurting from laughing so hard. He just has this way of always making me laugh. He has a great sense of humor.

11:59 I'm talking like I almost want to tell him, 'Just shut up, Paul, my stomach hurts, I can't stop laughing.' He just, I was on a date actually, and he had called me to invite me to a party, and he just has this way of joking around. So I start, he starts laughing, and the way he laughs is really unique.

12:22 And so then I start laughing, and the girl has this look in her eyes because I'm talking on the phone. And then eventually, we wrap up, and I go back to spending time with her. And she said, 'I don't like that.' And I'm like, 'What do you mean you don't like that? Your laughter is demonic.'

12:47 Oh man, it's um, I'll never forget that. That's one of the funniest things that's ever happened to me on a date in the Philippines was talking to Paul and offending my date by our laughter.

13:02 Let's see. Philip Massie, any happy New Year? Thank you so much, Philly. Happy New Year to you as well. Thank you for joining us today. Any big plans for 2025? I'm just going to keep vlogging. I got to keep consistently putting out content.

13:20 I've got one in the tank. I'm trying to decide if I want to upload it today or if I want to upload it tomorrow. And I've got a bunch of, I'm always behind on editing. So I, every day I film like one or two videos, and every other day I edit. And editing is the real work when it comes to YouTube.

13:39 I find the filming part to be fun and entertaining, and I think a lot of YouTubers could probably attest to this. We don't get paid to record or to film. We actually get compensated for the editing aspect because that's what could really be, I'll just say it, it could be tedious because you're having to watch something you've already done, you've already recorded, some cases scripted, and you're going back through it piece by piece by piece and chopping it up and mixing it up.

Channel Growth and Future Plans

14:18 So you're reliving, you're looking backwards, right? And I think for a lot of us, we're looking at the future or we're trying to stay in the present. But with editing, inherently, you're looking backwards. So the big one is to just keep working on the channel and to keep growing the channel.

14:34 To keep putting out content. I've got a bunch of ideas. I've been really thrilled with the growth of the channel. I hit my goal right before midnight on December 31st. So the goal was to hit 4,000 subscribers by the end of December, and I hit that.

14:53 By the end of December, I hit that goal about an hour and a half before midnight. I hit 4,000 subscribers, and then the first few days of this month, I got a ton of subscribers.

15:05 I think every time I do a video complimenting the Philippines, I get a really positive response from a lot of Filipino people. They tend to be very gracious and very supportive and encouraging, and they have been a big part of the success of this channel. I can't overstate that the Filipino people have been really good to me, and I look forward to making more content.

15:29 I've got two audiences: the X-pat audience and the Filipino audience. I'm not sure how to merge that because my videos either cater to one or the other. I find that there's some overlap, but not as much as you might think.

15:53 I've got another video I need to record, but I want to talk about some of the nicest things that Filipino people have done for me. Big plans just keep working on putting out videos.

16:10 I've toyed with the idea of going to Indonesia, maybe in the summer when it's the hottest season here. I've heard it may cool off a bit in Indonesia. I need to do more research on that and figure out if that's accurate or not.

16:23 I've got a buddy over there, and a buddy heading over there in a month or so. Both have told me, 'Man, you've got to check it out.' It's the last big country in Southeast Asia that I have yet to visit. I've been to every other big country in Southeast Asia.

16:46 There's only a few, so I haven't been to Brunei, but Brunei is quite modest in size. Most people aren't thinking of moving to Brunei from what I can tell. Laos is I'm interested in, but it's kind of country living with a population of a million, so more modest-sized. And then Myanmar is not on the table right now.

17:07 Indonesia is the last big one that I need to go see, and then I feel like I'm more qualified to talk about Southeast Asia moving forward, to be able to give a perspective. I know somebody asked me to do a Philippines versus Thailand video, which needs to happen eventually.

17:30 It's worth consideration. I'd probably pick five or 10 criteria, lean toward 10, and compare them. Things like cost of living, activities, food, language, you know, basic stuff.

17:50 But you know, this is something you bring up an interesting point too. As far as big plans go, this lifestyle is normalized to me, but it's not normalized to all my audience members. I've got plenty of American audience members that this is all new to them.

18:08 Sometimes it's hard for me to shift my perspective from the way I see things. I was talking about this with Chad yesterday. I saw my buddy Chad, if you guys haven't seen his channel, Chad Foster Explorers, he's got great stuff. But I was talking to him yesterday, and I was like, for us, this lifestyle is normal.

18:31 For our audience members, it's not necessarily normal. So the things that we think are unremarkable or normal day-to-day life could be really wild to them. So it's been a learning process for me to try to figure out what would make interesting content versus what is normal for me.

18:48 What's going to be significant to the audience versus what's significant to me? What are your thoughts between Thailand and Philippines for a single guy in his early 30s to live in, date, plus vlogging or trading? Which is good? I've been to Cebu, I love the Philippines.

Philippines vs. Thailand and Travel

19:03 I like both Thailand and Philippines. I think it depends on your priorities. I would say for dating, the Philippines has a leg up because of English. English makes dating... you have a certain layer there that in Thailand, I personally feel like you're limited to Bangkok.

19:29 There's plenty of English in Bangkok, contrary to what people will say. I personally found plenty of English in the big city. It's like any other big city in the world; you've got the most ambitious people there, people that have a corporate career. My friends in Bangkok, I've got three good friends in Thailand, each from Bangkok, and they have fantastic English. We can talk about all kinds of different topics.

19:57 They can follow me very well; we have a good connection. But I don't expect to meet laypeople out and about throughout Thailand that have that level of English. Where in the Philippines, especially if you're dating in cities of substantial size, then you're going to have an easier time there.

20:21 I would say, and I hesitate to give advice, Ramsey, because I think both are good. I think ultimately, it would benefit you a lot to experience both. I've had people ask, 'Are they overrated?' I'm like, no, they're the most popular, or two of the most popular, for good reason because they are such relaxed places and the people are very welcoming and friendly.

20:45 They offer a lot. I mean, these I could spend the rest of my life between the Philippines and Thailand. I could probably see most of what I want to see in Thailand and most of what I want to see in the Philippines in about 10 years, if I gave each country about 10 years a piece.

21:06 But that's a long enough timeline, I think. Try each one, you know? Try one for six months, try the other for six months, and get a sense of the benefits. I could talk about it from my perspective, but I don't fully understand each of my audience members on an individual basis.

21:34 What I find interesting may not be as interesting to you. I like museums, I like architecture. Those are two of the big appeals for me. Dating, I've dated plenty in both countries. I find a lot of lovely ladies in Thailand and a lot of lovely ladies here in the Philippines as well.

21:57 Where exactly in the Bay Area are you from? I'm originally from Hollister, California, just southeast of Gilroy. Now I live in Manila. Hey Martin, so I'm actually from the southern US. I'm originally from the southern US. I moved out to California for work, and I was living in the East Bay Area, like the Oakland area, that general area, East Bay.

22:26 I miss it from time to time. There's a lot to love about the Bay Area, beautiful area, so much opportunity. And I may go back there for work at some point. I'm debating on it.

22:40 My vlogging is going well, and I like vlogging a lot. But part of me feels like I have unfinished business in the States. There are some loose ends I need to tie up there.

22:58 I do prefer living in Southeast Asia. Yeah, Cagayan de Oro and Mindanao too, probably has those varieties of food. Have you been to Mindanao yet?

23:05 Yes, so Kirk, I have been to Mindanao. Cagayan de Oro was the first place I ever went in the Philippines. So five years ago, I came here to the Philippines to meet my virtual assistant, who's from Cagayan de Oro. And that was a great experience.

23:23 Now, Cagayan de Oro is not as touristic; it's more of an industrial city, more of a place where things are made and there's support. But yeah, CDO is a cool city. It's, you know, not tourist mode, not vacation mode, but it's the hub of Northern Mindanao.

23:52 I did feel like the dining scene was underrated in CDO. I had fantastic Italian food in Cagayan de Oro, great wings, like chicken wings.

24:07 There's some nice malls, like they have a new SM, well, it was new five years ago. I still call it new, a new SM mall. And really an up-and-coming city. I think there's a lot of growth in Cagayan de Oro. I've heard the city population has grown a lot in the last few years.

24:29 Hey, shout out to Vano, thank you so much, man. Vano is a member of the channel, a very generous supporter of the channel, helping to make this content possible. We want to thank him and thank all of our channel members for their generous support.

24:44 That helps me to focus on making good content for you all and to continue to grow the channel. It's really been rewarding and enjoyable, and I look forward to continuing to produce more content.

Reversible Decisions and New Camera

25:03 I'm actually coming in March to look at Bohol, El Nido, and maybe CDO, maybe. Or we'll finish the trip in Davao, where my girlfriend is from, looking to maybe retire there.

25:18 All of those sound like great options, David. I think you'll enjoy yourself. I've been to, of course, I live in Dagupan, and I've been to CDO. Haven't yet been to Bohol or El Nido, but I do want to check out both of those.

25:31 Very good. Rick says congratulations. Thank you so much, Rick. David says, 'Will be my second time there. My first trip last year, I told myself, yeah, I can do this.'

25:42 That's so powerful, David. I talk about this not enough, but a lot of people are nervous to come here, and I always say it's a reversible decision. Right? If at any point I decided, you know what, this isn't for me, or I don't really care for this, or I want to do something different, I could get on a plane and head out tomorrow, right?

26:10 So it's very much a reversible decision. I learned about that because Jeff Bezos talked about it in an interview, where he said the reversible decisions we shouldn't worry about as much. If we could just go back on the decision, it's not the end of the world.

26:22 Most of us, if we were to come here to the Philippines and find out it's not for us, it's too hot, the pace is a little bit too relaxed for my preference, then we can just get on a plane or bus or boat or ferry or whatever, and we could go to a different part of the country, or we could go to another part of the country.

26:42 I've discussed this in depth where I talk about I'm not sure if Dumaguete is right for me long term. And let me explain that. I love Dumaguete, but Dumaguete is a city where people come to relax. People come here to retire, they come here to slow down.

26:58 And I'm in a time of my life where I need to be working really hard.

27:02 I need to be working really hard, I need to be producing value for people. There's a little bit of an offset with the pacing where I'm in go-go-go mode, and a lot of foreigners are coming here to just slow down. They want to enjoy their time; they don't need to produce anymore. They've paid into Social Security, maybe a pension program, worked a full career or multiple careers.

27:28 That can be a disconnect for me. That's not the fault of the city or other retired people or foreigners; it's just a matter of where we're at in life, our goals, and where we're headed. That being said, it's a cool city. I love the contrast of having the vibrant urban landscape with being able to get out to the beaches or up into the mountains in about half an hour.

27:57 I love the community I've developed here. I have so many friends here, more friends than I've ever had in my life. All of that would be very hard for me to give up, to be able to just walk into town and run into somebody I know totally unplanned. I run into people all the time in town; I just walk around and run into people I know.

28:20 Hey Tony, good to see you. Welcome. Welcome. I hope you're doing well today, Tony, or tonight. I'm doing well. It's so good to see you. For those who don't know, Tony has been an early supporter of this channel and just a really wonderful guy. When I first started doing these live streams, it was just me and Tony, like a one-on-one conversation.

28:46 To see now we have over 20 people on here, it's humbling. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Kirk. I really appreciate that. Thank you so much for your Super Chat. That's very generous. Thank you so much, Kirk, for supporting the channel. I definitely appreciate that.

29:22 I've got some things that I purchased recently for the channel, like a memory card. I'm looking at getting another hard drive and potentially some additional camera equipment in the coming months. Chad told me he just got the Osmo Action 5, and I've been filming with the Osmo Action 4.

29:49 I got this one last year in Thailand, and I thought about getting the new one. We'll see what happens. The Osmo Pocket is kind of fragile, so I like the Osmo Action though. They're hearty pieces of equipment; they could take a beating, and the quality is fantastic. I like the wide angle too; it gives a little bit of a different look.

30:25 All right, let me get to some comments here. Billy asks, "Do you see more younger expats in Dumaguete, like in their 30s?" Yeah, I think more and more younger guys are coming here. They might not be here permanently. I don't have a pension, and I don't know anybody my age that has a pension or is drawing Social Security, outside of extenuating circumstances.

30:48 Now, I did draw Social Security after my mom passed away when I was eight. My grandma drew it on her behalf, and then from about 18 to 19, I was drawing it. I think I drew until I was 19, so I've technically drawn Social Security because my mom never got to. But she did pay into the system.

31:17 Yeah, I do see more younger guys coming here. I've been watching Paul for five years now; I think he's been vlogging for six or seven. I started watching him because, for a lot of young guys, we don't have positive male role models in the US. I felt that what I admired about Paul was that he didn't give up; he didn't quit.

31:45 He went through a lot and just got back up and kept going, and I really admired that a lot. David says, "I appreciate how articulate and detailed you are on your videos; it really paints a clearer picture for someone who is not there." Thank you so much, David. That's a very kind compliment. I really appreciate that.

Channel Goals and Expat Community

32:07 That's definitely a goal with the channel: to normalize this for different kinds of people. I think at one time, you had to be pretty adventurous to be an expat, and I still think you do to some extent. But I think it's like, sometimes there could be a bit of gatekeeping about it.

32:29 I think a lot of people would benefit from trying it out, exploring different places, seeing different places, meeting different people, learning about different cultures. I got tired of being back in the US and having people tell me, "Oh, I watched a video about this country, and this is how it is there." I'm telling them it ain't like that.

32:50 You actually go there to that country or that place, meet and talk to people, and get boots-on-the-ground experience. You learn it's not what that media organization wanted to put out there; it's a different thing entirely. That's what I try to do: not be as biased as maybe some vloggers who have an axe to grind.

33:21 Some bloggers want to push a certain narrative. Some people believe in American superiority or Western superiority, and I try not to have that kind of mindset in my videos, as much as I've seen in some other content creators.

33:47 Jerry says, "What's up? Hanging out in Cebu 10 months now with the new family. Good work, young man. I got two sons in the US, a little older than you." Oh, that's very nice, Jerry. It sounds like you're having a nice time in Cebu. I want to make a trip up to Cebu, but I need to get my passport back.

34:03 I'm waiting on my passport renewal; it should be coming hopefully in the next few weeks. We'll see how that goes. I sent it off Christmas Eve, and I'm just waiting for them to call me. Hopefully, by the end of this month, I'll get my passport back in the mail. Maybe that's something if I get a friend that's got to renew, maybe I could record their process or their experience.

34:34 By the way, guys, we had more people jump on here. Please give us a thumbs up if you can; it helps with the algorithm showing this video to more people. Orion asks, "Do you feel, do you find that living there longer, like a few months plus, becomes more important to be around expats to make friends, or is it doable with Filipinos in more remote places?"

34:56 So, Orion, I think the big thing is there are a few challenges with province living. I actually have in the queue a video to talk about this: why I could not live in the province long-term. Let me make another note of that because there's a lot I could say about that.

35:19 For me, there are a few reasons why I couldn't live in a more remote place. One is I like a variety of food. In the more remote areas, you're not going to have the Western-style restaurants. I also like Filipino food, but in a more remote town, they might not have any restaurants if everybody is living on a farm and producing their own food.

35:46 They're not really in the market for a restaurant. Here in Dumaguete, I'm still discovering new restaurants. I've been here for almost six months and I'm still finding new places I like to eat. I'm still discovering a lot of new places, and there are new restaurants opening on a fairly regular basis.

36:06 There are still some places I really want to try that I haven't yet been to. That's not something you're going to have access to in a more remote place. I know of some people that do live in more remote places; typically, what they've got to do is drive to a bigger city like Cebu or Dumaguete and go to a Western-style grocery.

36:30 They load up and do maybe a couple of trips a month, but that can be very expensive to buy tons of Western-style groceries twice a month. It's not like you're piecing it out meal by meal. You're not having the customizable option: "For lunch, I'll have Filipino food; for dinner, I'll have Western." Or for lunch, I'll have Western; for dinner, I'll have Filipino.

37:01 In Dumaguete, I can be at several hundred different restaurants in about 10 minutes on a trike. So that adds a certain amount of customizable food options. The other thing is shared experience.

37:17 Here in the Philippines, there is no divorce. I've not been divorced, but I have been through a tough breakup. The challenge of being in a more remote area or only hanging out with Filipino people... I do have numerous Filipino friends, probably more than half of my friends are Filipino. But sometimes you want to commiserate, right? Sometimes you want to complain about something.

37:55 Like your career, if you had a certain type of career in an industry that may not exist here, it could be easier to have that. Also, in the US, a lot of us come here because we don't want to be around some of the difficult people in the US. I find that the people here are easier to get along with.

38:13 So yeah, that shared experience is really important, I think, for a lot of expats. I get along great with Filipino people, like 99.99% of the Filipino people I meet. I get along great with them, and we have fun conversations and can talk about different things.

38:35 But you know, they're not going to immigration for example, right? So if they're a citizen here, that's not something they have to account for. If I have a question related to immigration, I'm not going to ask a Filipino friend because they've never needed to go down there. Versus an expat needing to go down there periodically.

38:59 Some other examples would be: I found a lot of my Filipino friends aren't super into...

39:03 Filipino friends aren't super into Western food. For whatever reason, it's just not meeting their preference. So if I want to go have a friend go out to Western food with me, then we're not going to have a Filipino friend to join me for that. I'd welcome them if I had a Filipino friend that wanted to have more Western-style cuisine. I'd be totally cool with that, but that's another example where it's easier for me to convince a Western friend to go have Western food.

39:52 Wow, thank you so much for the kind support, Matt. I really appreciate that. That's so generous. Thank you so much, Matt. For those who don't know, Matt and I are buddies in real life. Matt is a Filipino American guy, and he has just been a really kind friend to me. We met through an online group, and I appreciate it.

40:41 And yeah, so another layer to that is like I'm not really big on sarcasm. I didn't grow up with it. My grandmother was from Japan. So this is where I could say I side with Filipino people more: I have Western friends that make sarcastic jokes, but Filipinos don't do that. So that's an area where I get along more with my Filipino friends because, for me, I just don't understand sarcasm. I try to understand it, and I can kind of understand it. It's a muscle some of my Western friends are helping me work out.

41:30 But that's an area where, you know, Filipino people don't use that. I don't know. Maybe the perception is they think of it as hurtful, but I like that when they say something, they mean it. And yeah, so that's I think personally expats should have both Filipino friends and foreigner friends, and then maybe even Filipino American friends or Filipino Canadian friends, friends that have lived in both worlds and can understand both mindsets.

Friendships and Cultural Differences

42:12 I also see myself as third culture. Being Asian-American, I'm not really Asian, and I'm not really American. I'm this third thing. So having a foot in both worlds, you get this third angle that a lot of people here don't have. A lot of people here have the American way of seeing things or the Filipino way of seeing things, but they don't have the third where they see it from both.

42:49 But that, I hope that answers your question. I think it's valuable to have both. My first friend here in the Philippines was a Filipino guy. We met through a group where I hired him as a virtual assistant. This is a guy named Zyell, and Zyell is a fantastic guy. We're still friends today. He lives in Mindanao, and I haven't been down there, but I would like to go back down there and see him.

43:23 He worked very hard for me and was very effective. Otherwise, we'd still be working together. He was a very honest man, and so my first friend here in the Philippines was and is a Filipino man. We've been friends for gosh, like seven years now. I can't believe it. I need to send him a message to actually catch up with him.

43:46 We've been friends for about seven years. I had some friendships with Filipino Americans, but I feel that the pace in America is such that it's harder to build deeper friendships these days. Maybe less so in the past, but I feel like in America, because the cost of living is so high, we're in such a rush. We're trying to get things done, and we've got to prioritize productivity, and friendships can take a backseat to that.

44:15 It's not because we don't get along or don't want to hang out, it's because we've got to pay bills, pay rent, pay groceries, transportation. The focus on the economic aspect seems to override other things. Where here in the Philippines, there's a more, I can't speak for everybody, but for me, there's a better work-life balance for vlogging. I can take some time off and slow down on some days to spend more time with friends.

44:50 In the US, I can't do that if I'm working for somebody else. I can get in trouble at work if I'm not working hard or maximizing value for my employer. And I don't want to anyway. If somebody's paying in the US, they're probably paying you a lot of money, and I want to give them more than what they're paying for, as much as possible.

45:17 Very cold, icy, and snowy where I am. Oh, Tony, that sounds rough. Like I do have some Filipino people tell me from time to time that they would like to experience the cold and the snow, and I'm like, 'No, I don't think you do.' I don't think you want to experience the cold and the snow, not for very long.

45:43 But yeah, it's definitely part of life back home, and I'll be keeping you in my thoughts. Tony says, 'Yeah, yes, it's like Alex and I were two nerds first week of grade nine, and now Alex is a popular guy in grade 12, but he never forgets his first bud from before he was popular.' Oh, Tony, I know you're doing very well and helping a lot of students and people get ahead and move forward in their careers.

46:11 And what I help is be high visibility. But I can really appreciate your kind words, Jerry. You're right, after 40-plus years of working, I was done. Ready or not, I had more money than I needed. My wife got sick, my dad got sick. That was it for me. I needed to change.

46:30 Yeah, I think that's a great point, Jerry. Like people need to change. They need to mix it up. It's not for everybody, but like I always say, you know, if any of us ever get tired, like as Americans or Canadians, Brits, Australians, presuming we haven't given our citizenship up, we could just get on a plane and go back home.

46:51 Now, I know there's a financial implication with that, there's a social implication with that. It sounds quite easy, but the reality is, you know, it is. Now I worry about going back at this point to some extent because of culture shock. I think I would feel very alien in the US. I think it would be very confusing, it would be extremely stressful.

47:18 I know I would survive it, but the US is in a difficult space right now. The cost of living is very high, so tensions are very high. The economy is in a weird place right now. And you know, I would go back for a good job opportunity, and I do miss my friends. But besides my friends and job opportunities, I don't miss anything about the US, if I'm being honest.

47:49 If I'm being transparent, I prefer living in Asia. I like the culture, I like the non-confrontational people. The weather is so-so. To be honest, this part of Asia can be kind of hot, same in Thailand and Vietnam. But if I compare across the board, I fit in better culturally here. I like the food better here. I like the social climate here better. Of course, I like the cost of living here better.

48:25 I like the walkability factor. I like being able to walk around the city. I like that people spend a lot more time outdoors. I like that I could just walk around and run into people. There's just a lot I like about life over here, and that could be a video in and of itself. Maybe I'll do that video, like why do I prefer living over here?

48:56 Let's actually go ahead and add that to the queue. Why do I prefer living here? You should try cooking. Good for dating. Yeah, Kirk. So I don't have a kitchen here, so this apartment's pretty modest size. I could get a heating element, I could get a pan, but my studio is pretty small. It works great for me as a bachelor, but I think that's a fair point. Cooking can be great for dating.

49:32 You know, there's definitely a lot of markets around town. I know some friends of mine that are couples, they cook a lot more often. It's the girlfriend cooking for the guy, I'm going to be honest. But yeah, I enjoy cooking. I think I just don't like the cleanup part as much. But yeah, cooking, you've got a lot of fresh ingredients here. I mean, the markets here are really nice.

49:56 Even on Christmas, I went down to the fresh market in the center of Dumaguete. They had all kinds of vendors with fish, with chicken, with fruits, vegetables. It's a good point, CT, for sure. What do you think is a maximum age gap if you want to bring her to the states? Assume you're 40. I just don't know that you're going to get acceptance there.

50:22 I think five years. To be honest, I think any more than five to 10 years, you're going to get social pressure. You're going to get people judging you. You're going to get people critiquing you, unless you live in a rural area and really isolate from people. People in the US tend to be very judgmental, at least where I'm from. I'm from the southern US, that's just been my experience.

50:57 Maybe other people have had a different experience, but I find that most people are not going to support an age-gap relationship unless you are a celebrity, like a Bill Gates, or you're a very famous individual. Then, you know, I just don't see the plus. In the US, people aren't supportive of relationships anyway. You've got a lot of people that don't have a positive view of relationships.

51:26 They're going to be even, let's say, just take the age gap out of the equation. People are going to be telling her, 'You can do better.' People are going to tell the guy, 'Why do you put up with this? Why do you put up with that? Don't be this, don't be that.' The US in general is just not, in my opinion, conducive for healthy, happy relationships. I think that, at least from what I witnessed growing up...

Expat Drama and Community Toxicity

51:57 The socioeconomic pressures there put a lot of strain on relationships. Unless you are very, very well-to-do, then it's going to be a struggle. I know I'm biased; I've had some guys say, 'Look, if you're five or 10 years apart, it's not a big deal.' But I just know what I've seen in terms of relationship difficulties. Your experience may be different, but that's just my thought on it.

52:27 Jerry Stanley's wife passed, Dad passed, 401k got done gone because of that. Life just left. Anyway, it's never going to be perfect, but life can be great. Point, Jerry. Tony says, 'Alex, never badmouth anyone. Stay away from the tendency to backbite and gossip each other.'

52:45 Yeah, I don't need to talk bad about other people. I look at it like it's not really creating value to tear people down. It's not helping anybody. I've had people try to tear me down already, and you know, I look at it like half of me is flattered that they think I'm so important that I'm worth trying to tear down. The other half is like, 'Ah, that's kind of sad that that's the best use of your time.'

53:16 I consider my time to be very valuable, very finite, and I'm not focused on people beyond like my audience and potential audience. So if somebody's tearing me down, they're not going to watch my vlogs, they're not going to enjoy my vlogs, they're not somebody I can help out, so I'm not worried about them.

53:42 Usually, Filipino women will be very appreciative if you bring them to the States, but understand there's a chance if you marry a Filipina woman, you also marry their entire family. And that means you have to bring them all. That's a great point. You know, Soju understands the culture far better than I do, guys, and he can speak to this better than myself.

54:05 I'm biased, like I said, about the US, and I can only speak from my experiences. But that being said, I knew of several American men married to Filipinas with very stable and happy relationships from what I could tell. I mean, I grew up with around three women who had American fathers and Filipina moms, and from what I could tell, they were very happy, very successful, been married for a very long time and enjoyed it.

54:39 So maybe it also depends on the community you're in. Maybe it depends also on your social circle. When I talk about like the pressures on relationships, I'm looking at a very high level. I'm not saying, 'Oh, it's because the guy's American or the girl's Filipina.' I just think about the US and the pressures or stresses of living in the US and how it impacts us all.

55:13 There's always a lot of drama in Dumaguete. Do you see that as part of the expat culture there? Yeah, so I think it's the case. I think that there's a lot of drama in Dumaguete because you've got a lot of guys with more time on their hands than they've ever had in their lives. Guys that worked really hard their whole life and now they've got 10, 12 hours a day during the week that they normally were occupied.

55:38 They had to be at work, they had to take the kids to school, they had extracurriculars, maybe they were part of a religious community, maybe they went to church on a regular basis. They had all these obligations, and then they come to Dumaguete and find that they have none of these obligations. And their body is used to getting up and going.

56:06 And so they have this sense of trying to get something done, but there's no real way to be productive here because we can't work here as foreigners without a work permit. We're not permitted to work. You can't even volunteer here without the proper permit and visa. So some people have suggested, 'Alex, why to go volunteer?' I would need to get a permit for that, and I would need to swap my visa, so I would not be able to do that on a tourist visa.

56:35 So we're very limited in what we can and can't do, and so they have this pent-up energy. And then also there's the testosterone bit. I mean, I had a conversation with a friend recently, you know, some guys come here and they take testosterone, and they may not fully understand what they're doing. They may not be super educated about healthy usage of that.

57:07 And so they get amped up and they get prone to aggression or prone to frustration, and they don't have a healthy outlet. They know that if they were to mistreat a Filipino person, Filipino people will stick together. If an expat thinks he's going to mistreat a Filipino person, he could very likely end up on the receiving end of a lot of... it's not going to end well.

57:40 I don't want to get in trouble with YouTube, but the expat, I did a video on this like, 'Why do expats treat each other badly?' which I'd recommend checking out if you haven't already watched it. But expats, they feel entitled to treat each other badly and say things to each other that they would never say to a Filipino person because they instinctively know, 'Oh, okay, well, if I mistreat this person, they've got hundreds of thousands of people, millions of people willing to back them up.'

58:13 Who will take their side, and it ain't going to end well for me. Where if I mistreat the expat, the expat's in a more vulnerable position. He may not have connections to a family here. If he's fresh off the plane, he's not married, doesn't have brothers-in-law or sisters-in-law or cousins-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, he's much more isolated, so he's more of an easy target.

58:39 And so that's why I think that's these are some of the reasons why I think Dumaguete can have a lot of expat drama. And that's why I'm very selective about the expats I hang out with. I mentioned it before, I have maybe five or 10 expat friends and a lot of expat acquaintances. Where with Filipinos, I can't really count how many Filipino friends I have. I get along with 99.9% of the Filipinos I meet.

59:12 And I have no reason to think otherwise. Where, like, I'll mention it, but one of my blogger friends who's got a channel, he has people that he thinks of his friends or that he thought of his friends that go behind his back and troll him very viciously and attack him. And they're envious of him, I think. Like there's a lot of different reasons for that.

59:40 But a lot of these communities can become toxic, and so I'm very selective about who I hang out with. And I consistently re-evaluate the people that I hang out with. Like, I'm a fan of Mike, I'm a fan of Paul, I'm a fan of Chad, and then there's several other guys I'm friends with that aren't on YouTube at all that I'm good friends with.

1:00:02 But I'm consistently evaluating that, like, do these people really like me? Do they really want me to succeed? Or are they, for some reason, envious? I have some guys that are envious of me because I'm kind of the baby in town. At 32, I'm pretty young for expat standards. And I think it's an arbitrary distinction because, like, who cares if I'm young?

1:00:38 But yeah, I would say you just want to be very, very careful about any expat community you get into. Just be cautious, proceed with caution, really think things through, evaluate. Do I have shared values with these people? Are we at the same place in life? Are they kind of like, are they rude? Like, do I like them, or am I lonely?

1:00:58 Because some guys will hang out with other guys they don't really maybe have a lot in common with, but they feel lonely, they feel isolated, they want people to talk to. Maybe they've struggled to connect with local culture, maybe they've struggled to fully understand local culture, for whatever reason they have felt like they're struggling.

Living in Asia vs. The US

1:01:26 And some expats can be kind of needy. Unfortunately, there is like some toxicity in some communities here. But I try to talk about like systems, not people. Tony mentioned it before, I look at it like it's the system. You have people are individually responsible, but they all may also be acting out in a way that they were trained in a toxic family system, like some of us coming from the West.

1:01:55 We grew up in a toxic family system and we're trained to, you know, act in that way or behave in that manner. And yeah, we don't know how to behave. So some of us, like I said, some of us just don't know how to behave over here.

1:02:16 Beautiful evening here in Contra Costa County. Oh, that's wonderful, Kirk. I'm very familiar with Contra Costa County. Yeah, it's a very beautiful part of the United States in my opinion, maybe the most beautiful part of the United States.

1:02:30 Do you cook your own meals, vegan? I don't, so I don't cook at all. I cooked a little bit in Thailand, but I find here the bigger cost. So in the US, I found on average, it's the labor that's expensive, the ingredients are cheaper. Here, I find the ingredients are more expensive and the labor is cheaper.

1:02:58 So the differential between me cooking at home versus eating in a restaurant, especially as a bachelor, it would be a little bit different if I was feeding two to four people, then it would make a lot more sense to cook more meals at home. But for me, as a single guy, it I think it makes more sense time-wise to go get takeout or to go step into restaurants and have a meal.

1:03:20 Some may disagree, that's just what I found. Especially here, like I said, it being cheaper than the States. When I was in the States, I did cook more at home because it is quite expensive, even for just a bachelor single guy to eat at a restaurant.

1:03:37 CBGB, you would fit right in. In Japan? Yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate that. I think that that's Ed. I love Japan. Japan is a beautiful country. I'd love to go back. I found...

1:03:50 The only roommate I've had, one of the only roommates I've had that I really could get along with, was Japanese. Because I'm fine with going like a week without talking, but a lot of people are not. A lot of people lose their mind to have that limited amount of socializing, but I'm totally comfortable with that. I like myself, I like the thoughts in my head, and it's I prefer to have a community, but I think it's a superpower to be happy on your own. Japan is a culture that's friendly to that. You have a lot of restaurants that cater to solo travelers or business people on lunch break. I like Japan a lot, I'd love to go back. It's a beautiful country, very safe, wonderful place.

1:04:40 I've never been to Japan, but a lot of what I know about the Japanese culture appeals to me. People are very polite in Japan, people are very considerate of others. It's a very clean country, it's very safe. It is a little bit faster-paced, right? It's not going to have the Southeast Asia laid-back vibe. But right now, with the exchange rate, one US dollar is 160 Yen, it's a fantastic time to go to Japan. They're getting tons of tourism, and for good reason.

1:05:16 That's one of the ways in which Soju and I actually bonded was our mutual love for Japan. Because he took a trip there around the same time I took a trip there. It's like a different world. I mean, it's very clean, it's very safe, the people are polite and considerate of others. Sometimes these things don't apply so much in the United States.

1:05:39 I heard another vlogger state that there are too many foreigners now in Dumaguete. Do you feel like it's getting saturated? Do you feel it's trending in a negative manner because of that? Some might say that there's a few things that I would say go against that, and then a few things that would support that.

1:05:59 One, unfortunately, some foreigners do pass on naturally with an older population geared toward retirement age. Some people just unfortunately pass on. You live here long enough, you'll know somebody that has a major health crisis and is no longer with us. And then the other part, some foreigners get tired of it, they decide, 'I'm going to move elsewhere in the Philippines.' I'm going to move to Cebu City, I'm going to move to Davao. I know that Gio recently decided to move to Bohol City. And so, some people get tired of it and move on.

1:06:39 On the other hand, more new people show up every day. Every single day, guys land here at the airport, guys land here from the ferry. Guys will come here and meet a nice woman here in the Philippines, and then they'll want to live in a city that caters more to foreigners. And so they'll bring that lady here to Dumaguete. I look at it like it's a good landing spot. I don't think it's the end-all-be-all. I don't think everybody would be happy here in Dumaguete.

1:07:12 But if you want what I call tutorial mode, you've never lived outside of the US, you've never really traveled a lot, it tends to be very friendly to those types of people. For me, I've traveled in Latin America, a little bit in Africa, in Europe, all over the United States, and throughout Southeast Asia. So I've traveled a lot, and Dumaguete to me is like super easy mode.

1:07:33 But if you're a person that this is your first time leaving the US, you want to go to a place where people speak English, where you have plenty of Western food, you can easily get different services done without much resistance at an affordable price. I think Dumaguete still offers great value for money.

Dumaguete: Pros and Cons

1:07:54 Is it the best value for money in the Philippines? I don't think so, because you're paying for the high level of English. DTI has some of the highest rates of English fluency in the entire country. And so when you come here to Dumaguete, there's not as much of a barrier. Did he understand what I said? And the Filipino is wondering, 'Did he understand what I said?' Some Filipinos can be a little shy about their English, a little bit self-conscious, like, 'Maybe the foreigner may not fully understand what I meant by that.' And I find a lot of Filipino people endearing, and that includes here in Dumaguete as well.

1:08:39 And so that's where I think Dumaguete really, I use the phrase, punches above its weight. You've got a city of about 150,000 people, but the English proficiency is there. There's plenty of Western-style restaurants, which I underestimated how much I like that until I went to a more provincial area a few months ago. The whole time I'm thinking, 'Man, I miss Dumaguete,' because there was a great restaurant there, but there was like one great restaurant.

1:09:12 Because, like I said, for the Filipino people that grow their own food, if they're a farmer, then they don't need to worry about the restaurant. My stepdad grew up on a farm in the US and he said, 'We never went out to eat. Why would we go out to eat? We grow all this delicious food here. We don't need to go out to a restaurant when we produce our own food.' So there's not much of a market for restaurants. Whereas in Dumaguete, they know a lot of foreigners are living in a more urban environment. They probably don't have the space to grow their own fruits and vegetables. Maybe if they're retirement age, farming could be very physically demanding. So some retired foreigners may feel like, 'You know what, I'm not capable of farming. I may have some back issues, I may have some dexterity issues, some cardiovascular illness.'

1:10:02 And so that's where Dumaguete, you know, like I said, English proficiency, Western-style food, easy access to services, airport, right? If they want to fly anywhere, they can fly to Manila or to Cebu very easily from here, and then from there anywhere in the country. You don't have the headaches of a big city like Manila. Manila, you know, is the most densely populated city in the world. So if somebody's wanting to slow down, I don't think they're going to find that in Manila. That's just my personal opinion.

1:10:36 I think Manila is a major business capital, major business hub. It's a place where people are moving from, not just all over the Philippines, but even from different countries to work in business or attend an educational institution. Whereas Dumaguete is very much a place where people come to relax. It is one of the most relaxed cities I've ever been to. It's very chilled out.

1:11:01 I love that when I run into friends here, we have time to talk. We have time to socialize. Sometimes I get back into work mode, I have a flashback, I'm like, 'Can we talk right now? Is it cool, or do you got to get back to work?' 'No, I'm retired. I don't have anywhere to be. I don't have anything to do. Let's have a conversation.' Or, 'Hey man, you want to meet up for lunch next week?' Half the time I see some of my friends, they hit me up, they're like, 'Hey, I'm going to be down at the coffee shop in like three hours.' 'Okay man, I'll meet you down there.' Or, 'Oh hey man, I'm gonna be in your neighborhood in like an hour and a half. You want to meet up?' 'Sure, I'll take a break, I'll come out and see you and hang out.'

1:11:46 And so I happen to be very pro-Dumaguete for myself. I don't think it's a good option for everybody. I think a lot of people would benefit from starting here and branching out, like have a base here. I've got a buddy that considers Dumaguete to be his base, and he travels to other parts of the Philippines from here. He likes that he comes back here, he knows his way around town, he has contacts here, but he still wants to travel and he doesn't want to be in a big city. So it's a good option for him.

1:13:22 All right guys, I am back. Okay, so let's get it caught up here. But I do think, you know, I think Dumaguete is ever-changing, and it'll be a good fit for some people. Other people will find there's too many foreigners.

Best Cities for Work and Travel

1:13:37 I'm never going to be one of those people that thinks, 'Oh, I hate this city,' or 'This is the best city ever.' I think different cities are good for different people at different times in their life. For me, when I get to that level financially, I'm strongly going to consider Cebu City or Manila because I think those are the best working cities. Or Davao, I think those are the best working cities if you're trying to work and you're trying to be productive and you've got certain goals. You know, those are the cities that have the biggest sort of business scene in the country. Cebu and Manila are also what I call the gateways of the Philippines. Everybody coming to the Philippines or leaving the Philippines is going to come through either Manila or through Cebu.

1:14:30 So for me right now, the goal is to just keep building the blog here in Dumaguete, where I have a lot of friends that are willing to teach me and bring me under their wing. Guys, I'd really enjoy being around. I'd hang out with them anyway, but the fact that they're willing to take time out of their day to show me the ropes and to teach me about how to be a better YouTuber. There's just a lot of people here in Dumaguete that have been very good to me.

1:15:01 And I try not to focus too much on the negative anymore than is my natural proclivity, because I am so appreciative of the people that have been so good to me here. Mike, Chad, Paul, and many more people who are not public figures. So I want to be mindful of that and respect their privacy, but people have been very, very good to me here. And I think, you know, Dumaguete to me offers the best of both worlds. I have the access to nature, there is access to provincial areas, but you have a nice urban landscape. You have a vibrant, densely populated city. I can get anywhere in town in like 10, 15 minutes, maybe a bit longer in rush hour, definitely a bit longer if I'm walking, but still.

1:15:50 It's not as busy as like a Cebu or a Manila. Let me get caught up here. Asia is amazing to live in many aspects. It makes us feel behind, so if you can make American money living in Asia, that is alive. I agree so much. So, the ideal is to make US dollars and spend in Philippine pesos or spend in Thai baht, spend in Indonesian rupiah, spend in Malaysian ringgit, spend in Japanese Yen, because Asian countries have a sense of order. That's something that I like a lot about living in Asia. There is a sense of order. The US feels very chaotic at times, like you don't know what's going to happen. That can be good when you're young and trying to make money, but I find that as I get older, I have less and less tolerance for the chaos in the US. It just becomes very stressful. People's behavior becomes more and more unpredictable in the US, and you can see the stress in people's eyes in the US. It's really tough.

1:17:01 Yeah, guys, feel free to add more to the comments. I'm getting caught up here. The older you are, the more okay the gap. Ah, good. Okay. Yeah, so Soju has a lot of insight into this more so than I do. And yeah, like, for whatever reason, a 50 and a 70-year-old is looked at as more socially acceptable than say, a 25-year-old and a 55-year-old. So that's something I'd point out. The older the people, then the less the age gap seems to be a big deal. I can't speak from personal experience.

1:17:42 Yeah, what do you think about a girlfriend or wife having a Philippine passport? Other countries have better passports that would allow your partner to travel to more countries without a visa. Yeah, I think there's nothing wrong with that, Kirk. If you want to get your partner a US passport, I'm not. You mentioned you're from Contra Costa County. Then that can be a great thing if you want to travel with your partner, if you want to take her to other countries. I can't speak for the experience of having a Philippine passport, but I do know that typically the strongest passports are, I can name ten, or five of the strongest off the top of my head. Singaporean passport is strongest in the world, Japanese usually number two, US is number three, Canadian is like number four, British is number five. Basically, East Asian, European passports and American passports tend to be the strongest passports in the world.

1:18:50 And I think there's nothing wrong with that. If you want to help her, I know it's probably time-consuming, but if you're somebody that wants to travel with your partner, I think it's worthwhile to try to get her a stronger passport. I know that some guys have talked about the issue of offloading, like they want to travel with their girlfriend. This is kind of the thing that sticks out the most. There's a perception that a guy might want to travel with his girlfriend or his wife, but then they may be offloaded for whatever reason. The determination has been made that there's some level of suspicion or whatever it may be. I don't know, I'm not a decision-maker there, so I can't speak to criteria or anything like that. But yeah, if you have a passport from the US, maybe Canada, Australia, British passport, then you reduce the odds of that happening or even eliminate the odds of that happening.

Philippines Culture and Healing

1:19:55 And plus too, you might want to travel outside of Southeast Asia. I think it's probably fine if you're talking Thailand or Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia. But if you're talking about, hey, let's go to Europe, outside of Spain, because there is reciprocity between the Philippines and Spain. So I've heard Filipino people can actually more easily go to Spain. I have a Filipino friend actually, and she's in Spain right now teaching English. She's a great friend, we connected when I was here last time, and she's loving Spain. I met a couple of Filipinas here in Cebu actually that work in Spain for about 40 years. So there is still a relationship there. But aside from Spain, then I think that's going to be a challenge.

1:20:53 Mr. Schafer, Mike looks like he is burning out on YouTube with his latest nightmare video. I'll take a look at it. I saw Mike yesterday, and he's just... Mike's a very hardworking guy, and he's a very resilient guy. He's a guy that seems to just have this strength and motivation to just keep moving forward. So I can't speak to his level of burnout. I haven't talked about it much with him, but I'll definitely keep that in mind.

1:21:30 Mr. Schafer. Philip Massie, you can cook breakfast at home for me. I'm not a big breakfast guy, so normally what I do for breakfast is I like to have coffee or caffeine of some kind. I'm a real big caffeine guy. I've never been a big breakfast guy, like even growing up, Philip. For me, I don't know, I just typically like this morning for me to go and have that buffet. Totally atypical, not typical for me at all to have a big breakfast. I try to work, and then I'll do lunch, and I'll do dinner. But yeah, normally I don't do breakfast a lot, but I have friends that do big breakfast every day. Like one of my buddies here, he does hash browns, longanisa, which is like kind of a sausage and eggs every day for breakfast. So definitely, if you're a person that's big on breakfast, you can do breakfast here and do mate. They get hash browns at Robinson's, I think. Robinson's grocery store carries hash browns. I think they import potatoes or they import the frozen hash browns. They're able to cook them in a skillet.

1:22:45 Thank you so much, David. I really appreciate your support. That's so nice of you. Thank you so much for helping to support the channel, and I'm glad that this information is valuable for you. I try to be as honest as possible. You know, I have people sometimes wanting me to like be overly critical on the Philippines. And actually, I'll go into why I don't. One, I'm not Filipino. And so I don't like the idea. I say this a lot, we as Americans, we don't like it when people from outside the US come to the US or online and, oh, Americans this or Americans that. And I try to extend the same courtesy to the Filipinos. So like, if I don't want somebody critiquing the US who's not American, then I feel like it's also out of place for me as an American to critique the Filipinos or to critique the Philippines.

1:23:55 I see it as if I really had a major challenge here, I could be gone tomorrow. Are there some minor day-to-day challenges or struggles? Sure, that's true in any country. And believe me, I have plenty of challenges that I experienced back in the US. But overall, life here is good. It's been very healing for me on a personal level because sometimes in the US, we get this sense that everybody's a success story. Every single person in the US is like a star athlete or a genius scientist or a brilliant businessman. And sometimes it feels like the average American struggles a bit, that the average American may not feel as validated. And when I come here and I talk to my expat friends about I've been through this or I've been through that in the US, when I talk about these things, you get the message a lot, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, toughen up, dude. You know, you need to just try harder. But here, when I talk about my struggles, people are like, yeah man, you know, I've been through similar things, or yeah man, I agree, and you feel validated. And then you can move forward. You don't feel like you're kind of stuck in this seeking like acknowledgement or anything like that here. And so that's been very healing for me in the Philippines and Cebu in particular. But I think you could have a similar experience in Cebu or Manila or other parts of the country.

Filipino Culture and Resilience

1:25:23 But yeah, I like it here overall a lot. Is everyday perfect? No. I mean, recently we had like two weeks solid of rain, and you guys could tell in one of my recent videos, I got to feeling a bit down because, you know, two weeks straight of rain, that could wear on a lot of different people, right? It gets to feeling a bit dreary. But now, like, beautiful sunny day. I mean, it's gorgeous. I'll probably go out this afternoon or this evening.

1:25:53 Wow, thank you so much, Jason. I really appreciate that, guys. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. I can't thank you enough. It's, it's, yeah, thank you guys so much. You know, all of the support that I'm getting from you guys is greatly appreciated, and it means a lot to me that, you know, I'm able to provide value. And continuing on that thought, like I feel that, you know, people here have been very good to me. Like, so sometimes in the US, here's an example to give the Filipinos some credit where it's due.

1:26:59 Yes, Peter, absolutely. That's a very good point. And I'm not going to get too much into it because if I, problem with acknowledging it too much, Peter, is it invites more and more of it. Unfortunately, there's a lot of people out there that have a lot of things going on upstairs, and I can't help them. You know, I'm not a psychologist, I'm not a counselor. I have studied psychology, but you know, I'm not in a position to support them. But yeah, there are certainly people out there that, for whatever reason, they don't like me. I think some of it is they feel like if we talk about the Philippines, then too many people will come here, and it will ruin the Philippines. I'm a fan of more people coming here as tourists. I'm a fan of people spending money in Filipino-owned businesses. I'm a fan of people staying in Filipino-owned guesthouses. I'm a fan of people hiring Filipinos for tourism services, for guides, for scuba diving. I'm a fan of people spending money here in the Philippines, and also of educating people.

1:28:12 Philippines and also of educating people right? Because, like, you know, I've heard of some stories of people that they come here and they think, 'Oh, Philippines, Manila, I'm going to go straight to Manila.' And they land in Manila and they think, 'Wow, I'm not a big city person. I need to leave the Philippines.' Where, if they had discovered Dagat or they had discovered a smaller city, a different part of the country, maybe they went straight to a diving resort or something like that.

1:28:45 The wildest thing to me, Peter, is that the Philippines is a nationality. So, Filipino is not an ethnic group. It's not like Japan or Korea. Those are two obvious examples. It's not like Japan or Korea or China where there's a clear ethnic association. Filipinos come from many different tribes, many different ethnic backgrounds, many different mixtures of ethnic backgrounds. There are indigenous Filipinos, there are Chinese Filipinos, there are Japanese Filipinos.

1:29:22 Like Jose Rizal, he had indigenous blood. He had Spanish blood, he had Japanese blood, and he had Chinese blood. You know, I'm mixed like that too. I have Indian, Japanese, English, British, and then also Irish and like 1% Korean in there too. So, that's what I think is so beautiful about the Philippines: if you are a person of mixed ethnic background, which many American people are, then, you know, like American is a nationality. There's no American race. You've got Americans of many different colors, stripes, backgrounds, mixtures.

1:30:17 And so foreigners have been coming to the Philippines for a very, very long time. It's a beautiful country with thousands of gorgeous tropical islands, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, lovely seafood, tropical palm trees. In more recent years, vibrant, interesting urban landscapes. It's such a cool place. It's got this mysteriousness.

1:30:42 I remember when I landed in the Philippines five years ago, I was like, 'Where am I? This has got to be one of the most mysterious places I've been.' And I still get that sense here. It's like the Wild West. It's got a frontier vibe. You've got these interesting characters, and it's kind of just this tapestry of many different people coming together in a place that's really cool.

Philippines as a Travel Destination

1:31:14 And I like the Philippines a lot. It's, um, the only thing that stopped me from coming back sooner was that when I came here five years ago, I did have challenges with the Wi-Fi. That was something that I want to mention: I had some challenges uploading. I was trying to get started on YouTube five years ago, and I would try to do an upload, it would tell me 36 hours. And I'm like, 'Okay.' And so we get to 18 hours of upload, and then the upload would freeze and crash, and I'd have to start the upload again.

1:31:49 So I thought, if they sort out the Wi-Fi here, which is a very solvable problem, this country is, I mean, it's a no-brainer for me. And so, in recent years, in the last five years, the Wi-Fi infrastructure has improved dramatically. I mean, it's like a different country. And they also have Starlink, which is really big here. So, it's become an incredibly appealing place to be.

1:32:17 Drew, thank you so much for the Super Chat. Let me, uh, let's see. Oh, I can't. Can I reply to it? Below. Thank you so much, Drew. I love coffee. The coffee scene here in Dagat is awesome. They actually produce coffee here too. They do the Robusta beans, which are the same as what they have in Vietnam. And the Robusta beans are like high caffeine content. So if you want coffee, I know Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand are renowned for their coffee scene, but the Philippines has a very, what I would call, underrated coffee scene.

1:33:03 It's, they've got cafes everywhere. I would say within a mile of my apartment, there's probably 20 to 30 places I could get a cup of coffee, all the way from instant coffee, which I know some people don't care for, all the way to canned coffee, to French pressed coffee, to pour-overs. I mean, all like every price point you could spend in my area. You could spend as little as free, included with a meal. I go to one restaurant where you can actually get your coffee included as part of your meal set, all the way up to you could spend at Tom and Tom's or Ground Zero. You could spend like 200 pesos on a cup of coffee.

1:34:05 So Dagat offers a very strong range of coffee. I found the French Press is good value. You're spending about $2, right at that $2 mark for the French Press style. Some people don't care for it. I have a friend that says he doesn't like the French Press, it's not for him. But for me, it's like a solid carafe, and I can get like two cups out of it. And it's a very relaxing environment that they serve it at. So I'm a fan of the coffee scene here.

1:34:43 Peter says the best coffee I've had in Asia is in Hanoi. And I need to catch, I need to go. I need to run back up because I missed a few comments. Our friend, friends James and Karen, as well as Cars hopped in here to share some comments. Vietnam, the coffee was awesome. I did find, Peter, that it was oriented toward dessert style, which was a little bit of throwing me off because I think of coffee as a breakfast thing. I like the coconut coffee I found, like I found that in Dang. The coffee was fantastic, very strong, some of the strongest coffee, probably the strongest coffee I've had in the world, like stronger than coffee in the US.

1:35:29 My favorite as far as the best tasting cup of coffee I've had in Asia may have been in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, when I was staying in Phnom Penh. I spent a little under a month total in Phnom Penh. I found the guy that supplies all of the coffee shops in Phnom Penh, and he has like a shop where he distributes all the coffee. And it was, it's wild to see. Let me see if I can find it on here. I'm going to just try to find if I can find the... I don't know if he's still... that may be something I... it's not popping up for me. But there's a coffee shop, there's a guy in Phnom Penh that he distributes coffee throughout the city, and that's one of the best cups of coffee I've ever had in Southeast Asia.

1:36:37 And he would also, like he had a chair in the corner of this like distribution facility, and you could buy a cup of coffee and sit there and watch all the people packing the bags and grinding the coffee and roasting the coffee. And just seeing his operation, really an entrepreneurial guy. And I'd love to go back. He's very welcoming, and I enjoyed that experience a lot.

Coffee Scene and Food Safety

1:36:58 Vietnam is fantastic. I don't think Dagat gets enough credit for its coffee scene. A lot of people talk about Ground Zero, and Ground Zero is a very cool spot. But, you know, Ground Zero is one of the top places among many great places. Tom and Tom's is great. The Revel, they do solid coffee. What else? There's Don Macchiato, isn't a place I like to go. It's not fancy, it's a kiosk, and they don't have really much of a seating area. But you can get a coffee there for 39 pesos, caramel macchiato.

1:37:47 Yeah, the coffee scene in Dagat doesn't get enough credit, and I love the coffee here. Let me, let me get caught up here, guys, on James and Karen Adventures. So yeah, shout out to James and Karen, guys. They do really fun, light-hearted content. I really like their content. James is American, Karen is Filipina, and they are a married couple living in Panay Island. And I just, I can, you know, sometimes I can be a bit too serious. It's a Japanese thing. Sometimes Japanese people can just be too serious. And they're so light-hearted, they're so fun. And when I want to de-stress or like relax, I like to watch James and Karen. Definitely check them out if you are not yet familiar with them.

1:38:40 Kirk, sometime. Kirk, Kirk, some. I need to drink more water, a little bit too caffeinated. So I had like four caffeine drinks this morning. Kirk, so sometimes the best local restaurants are in public markets or farmers markets. Do you find that to be true? Do they have that guy of good food in public markets in Dagat?

1:39:11 I'd say, you know, I haven't really tried those as much. It's one of the rules I came up with for myself is that I have, I got really sick from, and I'm, I'm glad I, that spurred my thought because it reminded me, no offense Kirk, it did remind me of an unfortunate experience I had in Thailand. So that's if I sounded a bit short there, I'm like, 'Oh, so what happened?' Kirk was that when I was in Thailand, I got really bad food poisoning. This was in Chiang Mai. I'm not going to specify the restaurant that I got food poisoning because I'm not sure which one it was. But I got really bad food poisoning, and I was laying in bed sick for like a couple days. I had cold sweats, really 24 hours, but I had to recover the next day as well. And I just ordered smoothies on Grab app and just laid in bed and drank smoothies and tried to rehydrate. I was, I felt very ill, and I thought about going to the hospital. I didn't go to the hospital, but if it had persisted, I would have.

1:40:19 And so the day, a couple days later after I recovered, I Googled like, 'Hey, I got really sick in Thailand. How do I prevent this from happening again?' Because this was a really bad experience. And everything I read told me to avoid, to only order made-to-order food. So one of the rules I came up with for myself was that I'd only go for made-to-order food. And I found in the public markets, it's kind of made in a big batch and then it's served like cafeteria style. And I suspect that's what, that's how I got sick. So that's just what I wanted to share with you.

1:41:09 Let's see here. Let's see. Oh, okay, great. Sometimes the comments are lagging a bit, guys. Let's zoom back up here. But yeah, that was, that was the concern. I haven't had that experience in some other.

1:41:25 I had that experience in some other countries like in Peru. I've found that countries like in Peru, I've found that that was fine and they do made-to-order style food. Uh, in Peru, at the public markets, but I did want to warn you that if you have a sensitive stomach and normally, I don't like, normally there's stuff I've eaten that will make other people sick that I, maybe it's just being Indian where my stomach can just handle it. But I've never been that sick from food before.

1:41:50 And so I would caution you in Southeast Asia in general. Now, I haven't gotten sick here in the Philippines, but one of the rules I came up with for myself is I typically go for made-to-order food only. And some buffets can be that way, like I noticed with the buffet I ate at this morning, they resupply with hot food and so they're very concerned about quality control. And I've had this experience at buffets throughout the Philippines where they are doing a wonderful job.

1:42:22 Like my initial reaction is, oh, it's not made to order, but they it is kind of made to order, surprisingly. So that's something I'd call out to you, Kirk. Is anywhere in Southeast Asia, if you can help it, try to stick to made-to-order. It costs a bit more, but I think it's one of those things that is worth it.

Value for Money and Local Customs

1:42:40 Just because, like, you know, I just feel terrible. Like if I suggested you to have that and then you get ill, because this is no fun being ill anywhere in the world, but especially here where you're probably far from home. And it's, yeah, it's just tough.

1:43:01 Yesterday, we charted a boat for ocean fishing, 20 miles offshore. The water was 500 meters deep. All day with a deckhand was $344. Some would say I paid too much, but this would be $2,000 in the US. Yeah, of course, I don't think you paid too much.

1:43:18 I remember I took a fishing trip with my stepdad, this was like probably 15 years ago, and we paid $40 or $50 per person. And this was with a boat with a bunch of other people. So if you enjoyed it, if you had a good time, that sounds very reasonable.

1:43:36 I find the Philippines to be gorgeous and to offer some of the best value for money of any country I've been to. Some people call it expensive for what it is, but I'm like, you're on tropical islands, everything has to be shipped. A lot of things have to be shipped in.

1:43:55 It's, you know, you compare anything in the Philippines to like a Hawaii, then you're going to be impressed price-wise here. I'm really happy here.

1:44:08 Can you get Arabica rather than Robusta coffee in Dumaguete or anywhere in Southeast Asia? So Kirk, I think you can. What I would suggest there is for you to go to like the import grocery store. So that's a situation where you'd either want to go to the import grocery store or if you can find an online vendor, that's where you should be able to get your Arabica as opposed to the Robusta.

1:44:37 Because the Robusta can be very, very strong. And sometimes I'm not in the mood for it either. Sometimes I'm like, I don't need that much energy, right? Sometimes I need to just have a kind of a chill day. And for that purpose, I think that the Arabica is a better fit.

1:45:01 And so for you, if I were over here, I would be looking at BC Chris. I'll throw the name of, they're like the Western import grocery store here. I'd also take a look at Robinson's grocery store. That's a big chain, and one of those two places should carry it. Both are located throughout the country.

1:45:23 And then the third option I'd recommend for you is looking for import. Now, I know certain things can't be imported. I'm in the market right now for a power bank, and you can't ship power banks. So I'm learning the hard way that you can't ship power banks internationally.

1:45:41 So I'm learning the hard way that I might not be able to get the power banks that I'm in the market for. Let's see here.

1:45:55 The one big deal breaker for me in the Philippines is you can't smoke or vape outside. It's a crazy rule. I didn't know that. Interesting. I do see people smoking outside, so I was at a mall recently, the last couple days, I noticed they have a smoking area. So, yeah, I'm not sure as much about that one.

1:46:23 Also guys, I am getting caught up here on comments. So feel free to throw any comments down below. I don't know if I want to refresh the page, it may just be kind of backed up here.

1:46:49 Sorry about that guys. So, I think it just froze up. I'm not sure why, but I apologize about that guys. I don't know what happened there. But yeah, feel free to chime in with any comments or thoughts. It looks like we're reconnected here.

1:47:00 Car says, I noticed that my Asawa and her family leave food out all day without refrigeration. I'm thinking about bacteria. Filipinos aren't affected, but foreigners are. Yeah, so that's what I would call out to you, Kirk, is that the Filipinos, I noticed like they can eat it, no problem. I think they're accustomed to it. Their gut bacteria is fine with that. For us foreigners, I think we just have a higher sensitivity to some of those things.

Struggles and Resilience in the Philippines

1:47:32 And it's worth, you know, it's worth like, maybe holding off on some of those just out of caution. But yeah, guys, feel free to chime in with any comments or thoughts. No, we have almost 30 people with us right now. So we're right at the end of the comments that we've gotten so far. So if anybody has any thoughts or wants to chime in, I'm happy to keep rolling.

1:48:31 It's hard seeing people suffering even to eat. Have you noticed that affecting you much? That's a great question, David. I know my friend Captain Trucker has called that out.

1:48:43 Have you noticed it affecting me much? Maybe it's because I, I don't want to claim that I'm a victim, but I had a tough upbringing. And so for me, I connect in some ways about that.

1:49:09 There were times where I didn't have enough to eat growing up in the US. I was always kind of the skinny kid, and people would pick on me as a result. I grew up with a single mom, and there were numerous times where I just ate microwave food, which is not the healthiest, not the best.

1:49:34 So as far as some of the struggle goes, there are certain ways. I you know, I used to like eat lunch off or breakfast or lunch a lot growing up. I'd have dinner, but you know, I was, what's the word? In some ways, I was anoretic growing up. I'm not going to get too much into that in this video because, like I said, I don't find the victim narrative to be helpful.

1:50:12 It does, it is hard. It is hard. There's no easy answer for that, David. It's, uh, there are a few things I'll say. One is that the Filipino people tend to be very resilient. They tend to be very strong and tough people. They tend to be able to handle situations where we would crumble or fall apart, with a smile, with a lot of strength.

1:50:47 It's, I'm not justifying it, I'm not defending it. It is difficult. I found Filipino people to be extremely, like I said, extremely resilient, able to move forward in the face of terrible odds or terrible circumstances. It's something I admire about the Filipino people, that even with not enough food, not substantial shelter, that they can somehow make it through.

1:51:26 They can still have the positive emotion to work hard to help their families. I think that in some ways, this may be a Buddhist mindset, but that life is suffering. And in the US, while we have a lot of material comforts being met, I found that we in the US suffer from isolation, from loneliness, where the Filipino people, at least the Filipino people I know or see, they're not as often suffering from loneliness or isolation.

1:52:04 Filipino people tend to also not complain. They tend to not speak negatively about their circumstances. I've had numerous Filipino people come up to me and tell me, oh, Dumaguete is so cheap. And you know, I make eye contact with them, and I don't say this in a condescending manner, but I let him know, hey, I know it's a struggle for the Filipino people. I know Dumaguete is actually expensive by Filipino standards.

1:52:31 And I know that for you, you don't quite have the luxury that a lot of foreigners have to go to the restaurants, the fancy coffee shops. And I want you to know that I have gratitude for the hard work that your people do to make this a positive experience for the foreigner. The fact that we can go to a restaurant and have like a swordfish dinner for the equivalent of $5 US, where for you, that might be half a day's wages to have that kind of meal.

1:53:04 I try not to take it for granted. I try to be mindful that there is struggle here. I try to learn from it and I try to use that to not be totally negative on the US. I think some expats tend to be real negative on their home country, and I separate. I'm negative on the experiences we've had that have driven us over here. Like if a friend has been through divorce, I'm not going to be like, oh, you know what, man, he went through a difficult experience back there that was really hard. He's found coming here to be a solution.

1:53:48 I'm not like, oh man, America is so terrible, so terrible that we have this economic surplus where we can afford to live here without working. Like a lot of nuance, there's a lot of nuance there in the discussion. I find a lot of expat topics or expat vlogs don't fully acknowledge and they don't kind of see the gray area there.

1:54:12 My hope is that the economy continues to grow fast here. I've seen a lot of improvements here in the last five years. I do want to mention, David, like I came here five years ago, and it seems like, you know, maybe it's just me, maybe it's my rose-colored glasses. It seems like the poverty is going down. It seems like the economic growth is still very strong here.

1:54:37 I remember dating a woman in Cebu, and when I met her, she was living in a boarding house. And then a couple years later, she's living in a nice apartment. So she actually got promoted in her call center role and has moved up the ladder to where now she's, you know, she's like, improved her her.

1:55:01 She's improved her circumstance, so I think as more people come to the Philippines and more people spend money in Filipino businesses, it will help people. I do think it's important to be mindful of that struggle, not to take it for granted, and to understand that there are people struggling here who have a unique struggle.

1:55:25 I think every country has what I call a unique struggle. Some people would say the material struggle is most important, but I would say somebody going through a mental health crisis in the US is also a valid struggle, from the isolation, from the substance abuse, or something like that.

1:55:58 We all have our own struggles. It's not to minimize one struggle or say one is more or less important than the other. It does weigh heavy on my heart at times, but I try not to dwell on it because I have to accept it as part of reality.

Wealth, Happiness, and Economic Growth

1:56:16 If I'm going to be fully transparent, I've lived in California, and in California, there is a lot of suffering there as far as the homeless or houseless crisis, depending on your feelings about it. There's a lot of struggle in that way.

1:56:36 Now, I know some people would say those people in California are more willing, but I don't know if willing is the right word. I don't know if the right word is choice. I have mixed feelings about the idea of choice.

1:56:50 I think most people would not choose that kind of lifestyle, but some would say that the California people have certain programs. It's a very complex discussion.

1:57:12 This holiday season, I started building a decentralized social media network based on user privacy. Everything will be encrypted, and there will be no central servers to track people and sell their data.

1:57:24 That's great, Peter. Keep us posted on that. I'd love to learn more about that, and when your project's ready for launch, feel free to send me an email. I'd be happy to check it out.

1:57:35 I don't have anything scheduled yet, Kirk. I do want to get my passport in, as my passport is out for renewal. As soon as that's in, I'm looking at Cebu as being my next trip. I've got some people I need to meet with up there.

1:57:54 Sabu is probably going to be it, just not sure on dates yet, maybe February or March. But we'll see, because I may need to go to Manila to transfer my passport stamp from my old passport to my new passport.

1:58:26 Filipinos do seem much happier as a whole. I agree, David, 100%. My family is going through 10 kilos of rice in four days. I have plenty of meat, vegetables, and fruits available.

1:58:39 Maybe there's an undiscovered happiness ingredient in rice. That's a good point, Kirk. I love rice; rice is life.

1:58:55 I like that aspect of living here a lot, that we have so many good restaurants that are serving up different kinds of rice dishes.

1:59:25 There have been links between climate and poverty through culture. On average, places with temperatures between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius are much wealthier than hot places.

1:59:34 I think there's something to be said about that, Peter. Where, you know, some places that are colder, they've got a harsh winter that means people are forced to kind of band together.

1:59:48 But yeah, I mean, there's a lot that could be said about that.

2:00:00 Simultaneously, it's kind of funny. We find a lot of people, they want a vacation, so they may build wealth in the colder place and then they want a vacation in the warmer place, like Texas, Florida, or even South America, Central America, the Philippines, Southeast Asia.

2:00:22 So, yeah, I think there's something to be said about the cold winter and implications of having a really cold winter, having to work together to make it through. Also, it being pretty hard if, I don't know, there's a lot to be said about that.

2:00:40 But I can appreciate your sentiment as far as wealth building. And also, you know, I think in the colder place, things are much more tied into the farming cycle, right? So things have to be organized and planned in a very cold place.

2:00:59 Because if you miss the harvest in a cold place, you may have three to six months, maybe longer, eight months or nine months in parts of Northern Europe, where there is no production of grains or goods or food products that could be stored and last through the winter.

2:01:19 And basically provide sustenance when you're not able to do that. So also, something to be said about the role of agriculture and capitalism.

2:01:26 Prior to agriculture, we lived in hunter-gatherer societies. People couldn't really store grains to be sold at a later date. Meat had to be eaten on the spot or within a short duration.

2:01:42 With agriculture, you can store grain, you can accumulate wealth, you can spread the food throughout the year, so you could be productive throughout the year. That's a really interesting topic for sure.

Weekend Plans and Farewell

2:01:56 David says, how long have you been in the Philippines? So I got here in August. I've been here just under five months, actually, and it's been a wonderful five months. It's flown by so fast.

2:02:12 Will you be making a video on your passport renewal? I need to renew mine next year too. I didn't record some important parts of it, but what I could do is go to the places.

2:02:26 So I could go to the print shop and film myself at the print shop, explaining to people, hey, email yourself this paperwork and this document, go to the print shop, print it off. Then you'll go to, like I used, I tried to use Air21, but they said they're not processing renewals anymore.

2:02:51 So then I went to, it's not DHL, it's another service at one of the malls here in town. Mailed it to Manila. When I get it back, then I'll have to, I'll probably use a service rather than make a trip to Manila. I'll probably just hire a service in town that will take my passport to Manila, get the stamp transferred, and then bring me back the passport.

2:03:15 But it's a good topic, Kirk. I don't think anybody's covered it. Yeah, guys, I'll probably wind down here in the next few minutes because my voice is starting to go, and it's been a wonderful stream, everybody. I appreciate everybody joining us today. It's been a lot of fun.

2:03:31 And I can't thank everyone enough for supporting the channel. But if you guys want to get in your last questions or thoughts or topics, wealth is subjective. If a person has enough food to live and is happy the way things are, they might be happier than someone who is rich. Nobody took their money beyond the grave.

2:03:52 I absolutely agree, Peter. Wealth is subjective. I have had this discussion so many times on this channel. I pointed out to someone this is on my last stream, they kept saying success or not success. I'm like, well, define success.

2:04:14 I think every person has a different definition of success. Every person has a different definition of wealth. I pointed out that for, you know, the CEO of the company I used to work out, if he were in the room of Bill Gates, with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, Elon Musk, he might feel like a bum.

2:04:34 But if he was in a room full of, I don't know, some of the homeless or houseless people, he might feel like, you know, the most successful guy on the planet. So it is very subjective.

2:04:46 I think wealth, enough wealth depends on the individual's goals and what that person needs to be happy. What that person wants to be happy. What that person is capable of producing.

2:04:58 Not everybody has the same capability to produce an identical amount of wealth. We measure it in dollars, but yeah, it's a good point, Peter. David, thank you for your time. Thank you so much for your support, David. I appreciate it.

2:05:13 Drew, yeah, six months of winter here in the Midwest sucks. I agree, Drew. I mean, it's cold, it's tough. You want to stay inside, you got to bundle up to go outside. Where here, like you could do shorts and a t-shirt year-round. Won't be a problem at all.

2:05:32 I wear long sleeves because I want to protect my skin. I get a lot of questions about that, but I noticed a lot of Filipinos like to cover their skin and protect their skin from the sun. So, yeah, winter can be tough for sure.

2:05:49 What are everybody's plans for the rest of the weekend?

2:06:06 You have a second job? What's your second job, David?

2:06:27 It is very expensive. Yeah, in the US. Oh, you drive the airport shuttle. Got it. You must meet a lot of interesting people that way.

2:06:36 I've thought about taking a driving job in Alaska because I've never been to Alaska, and they have some opportunities up there for drivers.

2:06:55 Peter says, play with my kids and keep working on my project on a Monday. I need to start cracking at my normal G. Got a Peter, that sounds like a nice weekend.

2:07:05 And yeah, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and enjoys their time. Oh, you're north of Denver. Got it. Very cool. Yeah, I lived in Denver for several years, David. I love Denver. It's a chilly city right now. I hope you're staying warm.

2:07:23 Actually, Denver forecast. Fahrenheit. Oh yeah, very. It's cold right now. I hope you're staying warm.

2:07:34 Peter, thank you so much. Kirk, I really appreciate you joining us. David, Peter, Kirk, Soju as well. I think he's hopped off for the evening. Drew, thank you again for the coffee. And thank you as well, Jason. I really appreciate it.

2:07:52 All of you have been so helpful today. Casey, and yeah, thanks so much, everyone. It's greatly appreciated. I hope

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