I was Featured on CNA - Happy Holidays - My 2nd Christmas in the Philippines

Morning Routine and Technical Check

0:15 Good morning, everybody. How is everybody doing today? We'll just give it a few minutes to put this stream out there. Kind of an impromptu live this morning. I just had some time, got like an hour or so before I have some other things to handle.

0:45 Hey, what's up? We got a viewer. Welcome. I'm just going to share the stream link on my Facebook page. Feel free to chime in.

1:46 Morning. May not be the ideal time, which is okay. Please let me know if you're watching this on replay, if this time isn't the best for you.

2:49 What are you guys up to this morning or evening, depending on where you are in the world? I am just waking up. I ate something that made me feel a little bit ill yesterday, so I'm just recovering from that.

3:08 I've got my electrolyte powder. So I buy these electrolyte powders. They're called the brand Viva Light, and I like the apple flavor. I just mix one of these in a bottle of water and drink that. It makes me feel a lot better when I am dehydrated.

3:29 I'm going to have one of those maybe right now, actually. I was pretty ill last night, so I could really use the pick-me-up, to be honest.

3:45 Guys, yeah, one sec. I'm going to just mix that up.

4:00 How is everybody doing? We got four people. Feel free to give us a thumbs up. It helps with the algorithm to distribute this video to more people. I'm just going to mix up some more of this electrolyte beverage.

4:18 There we go. It looks like the audio is registering. Maybe it's not.

4:32 Hello, hello. Hello, hello. Huh, that's strange. Guys, please chime in in the chat if you can't hear me because it looks like my mic is picking everything up. I don't know if it's a technical issue.

5:09 Okay, cool. We got one viewer, Phillip. Nice to see you, Phillip. I thought it might be on my end, might be a technical issue, but yeah, good morning.

Life in Dumaguete and Tutoring

5:30 Good morning. I'm doing well. I'm just waking up here in Dumaguete. It's a rainy morning, and yeah, just it's a rainy morning. So I'm just here in my apartment.

5:43 I've got some tutoring to do later today, in about an hour. So I'll go for about an hour for this stream, and then I'll tutor for a couple of hours. I'll probably order a pizza.

5:56 Sunday tends to be my heaviest tutoring day. I tutor like once a week, just like English. Yeah, English tutoring. And it's not too bad, just talking to students.

6:12 It's interesting, like you get to, if I did it more often, I think I would get burnt out. I get to talk to students in China and Korea and Japan, as well as Turkey. Those four countries are the ones that seem to have the most.

6:30 Yeah, it's just a nice way to like make a couple extra bucks. And yeah, yeah.

6:36 That's right. I'm on Cambly once per week, but now that my channel is picking up, like I may reduce. I could see probably by next summer, if the channel keeps growing the way it's been growing, reducing my reliance on Cambly.

7:00 Just because I really enjoy making videos. You know, I really, really enjoy making videos. And I like being out and about.

7:08 By the way, guys, please give us a thumbs up if you want to help distribute this content to more people. But yeah, I like being out and about and I like recording videos.

7:19 With YouTube, of course, I'm here at my apartment on my computer. Where if I'm YouTube doing stuff for YouTube, I'm generally out, outside, and enjoying things.

7:30 I like chill days. A couple times per week, I do have like days where I just sit in my apartment and edit. Yesterday was kind of like that.

7:40 But I like most of my days to be out. Yeah, the rain's really coming down.

7:54 So I did move to the Philippines. I've been here since August, and it's wow, so I've been here for four months. I can't believe it's been four months.

8:07 That's part of what has, if I'm just going to be totally transparent, that's part of what has helped the channel grow so fast. In four months, my channel has over doubled in size, if we just look at subscriber base.

8:23 There's been several guys that have taken me under their wing, and I owe them a great deal of gratitude. Chad Foster Explorers, Chad has been very good to me. Mike of Mike's Philippine Retirement and Paul of Old Dog New Tricks.

8:41 Each of those guys has sat down with me and helped me to improve my skill set, level up. Also featured me on their channel, allowed me to feature them on my channel, and that has really helped my channel grow like very quickly compared to the rate at which it was growing in Thailand and Vietnam.

8:59 Also, just like the feedback. You know, when you're in one of those countries, the YouTube community is not as big as it is here. So you're just not going to have the same opportunity to get feedback and to level up like you are here.

9:18 And so here, I just get tons and tons of feedback, like, hey, do this, don't do that, etc., etc. And so I've been able to level up a lot of different things.

9:29 Things. And then also, I'm starting to try to level up my thumbnail skills. And I think once I get my thumbnails down, my channel will really start to grow even faster.

9:42 But yeah, so I'm in the Philippines for a few different reasons. One is the English is just really awesome here. It's so nice to be able to just go up and talk to people.

9:53 Two, a great community here. Some oddballs too, which I'm gonna try to stay off that subject in the stream, but a lot of great folks here in Dumaguete.

10:08 And then also, what else? I mean, yeah, dating is certainly a factor here in the Philippines, and the visa makes it a lot, lot easier.

10:31 To stay here, right? We can stay up to three years on a tourist visa as an American, and that makes it, you know, very easy. Now they are starting to ask more questions.

10:49 But I'm not worried about it. I've done some dating. I've met some different women. I think that there's just a lot of opportunity there still, like in 2024, if you're trying to meet a nice woman, then.

11:10 It's, yeah, I mean, it's a great, great place for that. And let's see what else.

Comparing Philippines to Thailand and Southeast Asia Travel

11:21 Proin, I love it when you Alex. I love when you speak in a relaxed manner. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.

11:30 Metal Gear, Brave move, man. Yeah, I mean, it's quite a bit different than Thailand. There are some things I miss from Thailand, just to be totally transparent. I miss the Thai cuisine. There is great food here, but Thai food is some of the best in the world.

11:46 Among my favorite cuisines, if I had to list my favorite foods, I would say Japanese, Thai, Indian, Peruvian, and maybe Spanish.

12:00 Spanish or Mexican, kind of depending on the day, but those five are really some of my favorite. And then also in Thailand, I just, I mean, I like the big city vibe. I like Bangkok, and it's one of the greatest cities in the world.

12:16 So there's a few things I miss in Thailand, but here, there's, I mean, it's, there's a lot that the Philippines has to offer as well. And I don't want to discount the Philippines because it's got, you know, like I said, English, nature.

12:28 And yeah, I mean, English and nature are two really big ones that shouldn't be understated. And Thailand was my first love in Southeast Asia, anyway. It was the first country I visited in Southeast Asia, so it's always going to hold a special place in my heart, no matter where I travel in the world.

12:52 It was the first country that I went to for like a month-long trip, a little bit longer trip versus my study abroad or my trip to Mexico. But anyway, Phillip says, did you travel to other Southeast Asian countries?

13:06 Yeah, Phillip, so I've been to, I'll go ahead and list them, just so you guys will know. Malaysia, Singapore. I could do them in alphabetical order.

13:39 I think these are all of them. I'm trying to remember. Yeah, so these are the ones that I've been to in Southeast Asia. The main one that I want to go to, well, main two that I want to go to that I haven't yet are Laos and Indonesia.

13:54 Indonesia may happen next year. It's looking like it's a good option for me to go for a month, just to break things up, to do something different.

14:08 And it's, I mean, I haven't yet been to Indonesia, and a lot of people have been telling me about it. One of my good friends here, he's a huge fan of Indonesia. One of the subscribers of this channel and a friend of mine lives there in Indonesia.

14:23 And so that's like the big, I mean, it's the most populated country in Southeast Asia. You've got Bali, you've got Jakarta. You've got a lot to do in Indonesia.

14:34 And I feel bad I haven't made it there. I think just because it's like it's a little bit more out of the way, if you think about Thailand or you think about Vietnam or even Cambodia. You fly to Taiwan, or you fly to Japan, and you can fly back to the West Coast of America.

14:57 Indonesia is like just a little bit further, where you're a little bit further flight to Taiwan or to Japan to get back to like the West Coast United States.

15:09 Yeah, let me get. Protan, you're doing fine, Alex. Just relax, and the subscribers will come. Don't be in a rush to finish your video. Let us enjoy listening to you.

15:19 Great call. Yeah, I had to change up my editing style because I was really pulling out all the spaces trying to save you all as much time as possible. I didn't quite understand that it makes it not the most pleasant to listen to, so great feedback there.

15:34 And now I'm giving a little bit more space, you know, in the edit, and then it sounds more comfortable, but it's still not having those kind of awkward spaces that happen when I'm filming and I'm trying to think through an idea.

15:49 By the way, we have 15 people watching. Please give us a thumbs up. It helps to distribute this content to more people.

15:57 Yeah, I do have to slow down though. Protagalin, I have a tendency to just try to do things as fast as possible. And you know, some ways that's positive, but other ways you get a rush, or I get a rush, I should say, and I don't do things as effectively as I'd like to do them.

16:18 The oddballs get views. So yeah, in this case, Jay, the oddballs I'm thinking of are people who don't even have channels. People who.

16:30 They, you know, they just, they're well, some people, they want the attention that YouTubers get, but they don't want to.

16:39 YouTubers get, but they don't want to do the work to make it, or they might not have the creative capability to do the work to make interesting content. For me, it took me a long time to get to this point. I uploaded my first video about six and a half years ago and never thought I would have over 3,000 people interested in what I'm doing.

16:59 So it's taken me a long time just to get to a very modest channel size. I think a lot of people get envious of this attention and want to just tear it down. But yeah, I agree with you Jay that people do like stories of failure.

17:18 I feed into it a little bit just for fun, like, 'Oh no, I'm going to run out of money tomorrow.' I was at risk of that. I would buy a flight back to the United States and I wouldn't be doing this live stream, that's for sure.

17:37 There's far more lucrative activities I could do if I was in a really precarious situation. I don't know, you could stay three years on a tourist visa, so that's really high compared to other countries.

18:00 And also, there's other ways too to get longer-term visas here. I think there's a language visa. I don't know if they have a medical visa. Of course, they have the marriage visa, the retirement visa.

18:15 The retirement visa used to apply to people 35 years of age and older, so you could get a retirement visa here at 35. Now that's no longer the case. I think they bumped it up to 50 or 55.

18:30 But by my standards or my experience, scam stories sell like hotcakes. Absolutely, Jay. I mean, scam stories are unfortunately not uncommon here. And I don't think they'll ever fully go away, just the nature of how people are that they want to take advantage of other people. We have to be very cautious.

19:04 Yeah, very cautious about how we move forward. Anyway, Proto Lin, you might want to share your experiences in Thailand and compare it with the Philippines. Have you visited Singapore? What are your views of Singapore?

19:18 Yeah, I love Singapore. It's amazing, super modern, super safe. I really like the food in Singapore. I like the architecture. I think it's one of my favorite places for architecture in Southeast Asia. More specifically, the modern architecture is incredible. It looks like an architect's dream.

19:39 I like the Gardens by the Bay. So much to do in a geographically modestly sized country. I'm a fan. I'm definitely a fan of Singapore. It's special, it's so clean. Yeah, I would love to go back.

20:01 I'll say that. Prot Galen, I'd love to go back to Singapore. I think that it's just a really a testament to human ingenuity. Yeah, I like it a lot. I like watching documentaries.

20:17 Speaking of which, I recently did a documentary with CNA, which is based in Singapore. They were wonderful, and we filmed that a couple of months ago. It was a lot of fun working with them, and I learned a lot.

20:38 I'd like to go back to Singapore. I don't know exactly when that will happen, but I would like to go back, even if for just like a week or a weekend or something like that. Maybe see some other stuff I didn't see.

20:51 It's a great city to just get around very easily because of the public transportation. So for me, I like walking. I'm not as much of a bike rider or whatever, so great in that way to be able to run around.

Living in the Philippines and Travel Experiences

21:13 Yeah, I should compare the Philippines versus Thailand now that I've spent over a year in Thailand and now, in another month, I'll have spent six months in the Philippines. So it would be nice to do some comparisons.

21:29 I heard Ubud, nearby Bali, is nice. Yeah, Ubud is supposed to be nice. There's a lot to see there. And I've heard too, like if you're not as much a fan of the touristic areas around the popular beaches in Bali, then you have some options further out.

21:49 So you have some options that you don't have to be in the tourist hustle and bustle. So if you want more chill beaches, which is more my speed, I'm not as into the most popular tourist strip as I was when I was younger, then I could take a ride over to a different beach. So we'll see how that goes.

22:18 It's appealing to me next year just to mix it up and do something different, try something different, get the creative juices going. I like the Philippines a lot, but variety is truly the spice of life in my opinion.

22:35 By the way, guys, I hate to bug you. I know we have more people hopping on. Please give us a thumbs up. It helps to distribute this in the algorithm.

22:43 Let's see here. There is a certain percentage of crazy people, as Old Dog says. Yeah, totally. I mean, it's small. Phillip, I will say it is quite small, but naturally, you've got lots and lots of people out there, and most of them are great. But the ones that are not so great really stick out.

23:05 They can be particularly loud and disruptive and distracting, versus the people who are wonderful, who are very easy to get along with and communicate with.

23:18 Let's see. I think if you could record in 4K, you might get more subs. There isn't a lot of channels that record in 4K. 1080p can't really capture the beauty of the land. So I am recording in 4K.

23:29 Actually, let's see. Do I have it? It's away right now. I use a DJI Osmo Action 4, and it records in 4K. That being said, I want to get another Osmo Pocket. My last Osmo Pocket broke earlier this year, and I'd like to get a three. So there's the Osmo Pocket 3.

23:51 It's of interest to me. I think it would help to add some varieties, some different shots, different kinds of angles. It's got this handle too that makes it super convenient to do like a walk and talk and that kind of thing. So we'll see.

24:18 I think it would be nice to have that. Jay says, 'Yeah, your topics are good. Malaysia, Singapore, whole of Southeast Asia is great too. But to live as a foreigner in South Korea and Japan?'

24:30 Yeah, I love Japan. Jay, so you may or may not know this, I am part Japanese. I spent a month in Japan about five years ago. I loved it. It's so safe, so clean. Culturally, it's just like not much friction there for me.

24:48 People are very introverted, very polite, very considerate. I am fine with going a long duration of time without talking to people, and so for me, it was really nice in that way. I could just didn't really have to talk to people because that's kind of the norm.

25:04 People are private and living in their heads, which some people might not like. Some people that are more outgoing might not enjoy that, but I loved it. I loved how clean it is.

25:16 Japan to me is like in the future, similar to Norway. You could say Singapore as well. There's a few countries that their level of development is beyond the level of the United States.

25:28 Is the United States advanced? Yeah, New York City, San Francisco, for sure. But aside from a couple of those big cities in the US, the United States feels a little bit behind.

25:40 And so you go to countries like Norway. I haven't been to Norway, I have been to Finland. You go to these places, and it just seems hyperdeveloped and so that's really like super convenient. I enjoy it.

25:55 Some might not enjoy it, I enjoy it a lot. I enjoy the futuristic vibes. I like the architecture. Yeah, Japan's great.

Living in South Korea, Japan, and Malaysia

26:04 Haven't yet been to Korea. I would like to go to Korea. I don't know if I'll make it next year because my passport is expiring and I've got to get a new passport.

26:14 And Indonesia is closer if I go back to the States at some point next year. If I get a new passport, I wouldn't mind stopping in Korea for like a week or something, just to have that experience and take a look around and see what it's about.

26:34 Yeah. I lived in Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea, visited the rest of Asia for work. That's awesome, Jay. Yeah, it's there's a lot to see throughout Asia.

26:53 Malaysia is one that if things really take off for me, Malaysia is a country I could consider myself living in. It's got a pretty high barrier to entry to live there long-term.

27:09 But that country, and then also Singapore, like just super high level of development, very convenient. I like the food a lot. So that's for me, I felt the food was underrated in Malaysia and in Singapore.

27:25 I'm not a party guy at this stage of my life, and so that was a huge appeal to me in Malaysia, is that in some countries you go to in Southeast Asia, you feel that the vibe is like a party. People are coming for vacation to have a good time.

27:40 And there's nothing wrong with that. There's a lot of fun things to do, but for me, I'm not as much into that these days. And so to go to a place where you still have some of the nice things about Southeast Asia, the hot weather, just different things like that, but without the kind of pressure or the party scene, I really like that about Malaysia.

28:04 I felt like I could focus. I was taking some math classes online when I was in Malaysia about five years ago. I can't believe it's been five years, but yeah, so I was taking some math classes online. I just felt like it was super conducive toward me being productive, very, very easy for me to get things done.

28:23 I felt that it's very different from some other places in Southeast Asia where you're trying to study or be productive, and people are like, 'Come on, let's have a good time,' and you feel like a Debbie Downer when people are trying to encourage you to have fun and you're trying to get things done.

28:39 And so, like you said in the next comment, I'm too young to retire. I don't like sitting around and doing nothing.

28:47 For me, going to places that I feel more productive is super helpful. Quigley, hi Eastern Dreamer, enjoying your input and content. Thank you, thank you so much, Quigley. I really appreciate that. Jay, I like the cities in the Philippines. The chaos has its charm. The islands are good for short holidays. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely like there are definitely tradeoffs anywhere you go in the world. I don't look at there being any perfect place in the world. It's just you're trading some advantages and some weaknesses for some other advantages and some other weaknesses.

29:30 I like the hospitality here. I like some of the foreigners here. I like the beautiful nature, but you know, I did that video where I talked about what I don't like or I don't like this in the Philippines. And just like every other place, there's tradeoffs. We have to be mindful of those. I didn't intend for that video to be in a negative manner. I love the Philippines. I think it's just a really charming country in a lot of ways, but I also am not going to be one of those vloggers, or at least I'd prefer not to be one of those vloggers.

30:09 By the way guys, please give us a thumbs up. It really helps to distribute this to more people. But I don't want to be known as one of those vloggers. Maybe I'm off base here. Maybe from a business perspective, it makes more sense to do this, but I just want to build more trust with the audience. And if I come in here and I only ever say positive things and everything's perfect and it's so amazing, it just becomes a little bit deceptive in my opinion.

30:35 And that's where we get some horror stories is that people who are far too underprepared, uneducated, they don't have the insight to figure out where they want to go and they end up really in tough situations. I mean, I think about Elliot Eastman. I wonder how many vlogs he watched that only told him positive things. And I know we can't all be, you know, everybody has to take individual responsibility, but I look at a situation like that and I'm thinking, I wonder what vlog he watched that told him everything was going to be perfect in the Philippines and his life's problems would go away here.

31:19 Because there are places in the Philippines that are not safe for outsiders, for travelers, for foreigners. Now, do I think that is the majority of the country? Absolutely not. I find that probably 80% of the Philippines is safe for travelers, for expats, for retirees. But a small portion of it is a place that you have to be very mindful of your safety. And I won't be going down there.

31:46 So that's just I wanted to share that. I feel like it's important to discuss some of those subjects. Are there a lot of English? Let's go to the mamuk. Yeah, there's so much good food in Malaysia. I was not expecting that to be honest. Where did I go to Malaysia from? I was in Cambodia. Yeah, so I was in Cambodia. I think I was in Cambodia and I flew to KL and I just didn't know much about it. I knew it was a popular city. I knew there's a high level of development, but it just, you know, I didn't know what to expect and I was blown away by the food in Malaysia.

32:40 Scandinavian is great. Yeah, travel more. Just being Philippines. Yeah, I think I'm, I haven't booked anything yet, but I think Indonesia will be next for me.

33:01 Malaysia, English is unofficially the first language. Yeah, everywhere I went to Malaysia, people had great English. It was super convenient in that way. One of my good friends is from Malaysia and his English is impeccable. We could have great conversations and there's no awkwardness there or no challenge there. And I miss that guy. Actually, he's living in Indonesia too, so I would like, I have a few people I would like to go see in Indonesia. And he could, he's lived all over Southeast Asia, so if he picked Indo, then that really speaks to the quality or interest in Indonesia for sure.

33:42 Only problem I see with the Philippines are the typhoons. Yeah, that's a fair point, Metal Gear. I mean, it was raining earlier in the stream. It just poured down rain. The rain can really come down hard here and it's something to be mindful of. That it depends on where you go to in the Philippines. Metal Gear, if you're in the eastern part of the country, it gets hit a lot harder. And the northern part of the country, it gets hit a lot harder.

34:08 Part of the reason it's so popular is it's more in the South, it's more in like the central western part. So these other parts of the islands kind of buffer the typhoons. So Dumaguete tends to not get hit as hard as some other parts of the country. It's considered one of the best weather places in the Philippines. I can actually pull up a map here. Why don't I do that?

35:00 So you can see it's buffered by like Leyte gets hit pretty hard. So Leyte is sparsely populated partly because of the typhoons. That's why you don't see too many big cities in eastern Leyte specifically. You've got Tacloban and Orrok and Catbalogan, but a lot of, you know, they get hit pretty hard. Manila gets hit pretty hard as well. But here in Dumaguete, you know, we've got the buffer of Bohol Island from the north, of course, Mindanao to the South. So there's a lot kind of protecting Dumaguete in terms of.

35:46 Yeah, Malaysia is multicultural. If you blend in the crowd, even as Caucasian, people will believe you're local. Wow, I didn't realize that. That's I did like that. By the way, Jay, about Malaysia, I had people ask me where I was from when I was in Malaysia and I would just tell them I'm from the United States. A lot of people, from what I've heard, call Malaysia the United States of Southeast Asia, and I could see that. I mean, it's very diverse.

36:10 I was surprised at how diverse it was. I mean, Southeast Asian countries in general have a lot of diversity in terms of cultural and ethnic diversity, but Malaysia, it's more distinct. Like I really liked going to Brickfields, which is the Indian neighborhood in KL. I liked going to Petaling Jaya. I went to Ket, which is more, I lived in Ket actually, which is more of a Muslim neighborhood. Why don't I pull up Kuala Lumpur?

36:47 I lived here when I was in Kuala Lumpur. I spent about half of my time in Kuala Lumpur, um, here in Ket, and it's like north, northeast of the city, far like from KLCC. And I could just come down to the South part and hop on one of these tram stops or trams. And yeah, this is a predominantly Muslim neighborhood, so a little bit different vibe from say Brickfields, which is the Indian neighborhood, or like KL Chinatown. And so you just have such a variety in the city.

37:20 And it really, yeah, go back. I loved it. I loved Malaysia. I'd like to see some other parts of Malaysia. My buddy has recommended Malacca. I think that's his hometown. He's recommended Malacca and then I want to check out Penang. Yeah, I want to check out Penang and Langkawi. I made it close to Penang in Thailand, but I didn't get quite there. So I was, I spent time in Hat Yai, which is not that far driving, like probably a half or two if I to drive it.

37:56 But Hat Yai, definitely like in Songkhla, not too far from Malaysia. Very different vibe from the north. They don't dress and look like a tourist. Yeah, I have heard you want to kind of blend in there a little bit more.

Cost of Living and Budgeting in the Philippines

38:13 Philip, that's cool, Jay. Malaysia's on my list of places to consider relocating to. They have a retirement visa in Malaysia. I haven't checked on it to know well.

38:25 Jared, how much savings? Jared, I prefer to keep that private. Mr. Dave, Eastern Dreamer was intelligent, handsome in the CNA doc. Yeah, guys, please go and check that out. I need to go into the comments, but I'm honestly a little nervous about the comments to go into the comments of that documentary and start like responding to the comments to pull people toward the channel because they have a certain formatting that they follow.

38:51 So I couldn't have them plug my channel link in the description of that video, but I was hoping to get a big boost. I don't know if that's going to happen, but yeah, we'll see. I mean, either way, it was a lot of fun. I had so much fun filming with them and I learned a lot about how they do things. They're very, very professional.

39:18 Proto galin, cost of living in Malaysia is definitely low if you have US dollars. Great variety of food choice and infrastructure is good. Healthcare is also good. Yeah, I loved Malaysia. I'd love to go back. I liked that you had, I had like I said, I had some of the things I love about Southeast Asia, but without the major party scene, which at this stage in my life is just, I just don't have quite the energy for it.

39:51 I did check out the Batu Caves. I have a photo with me and a monkey at the Batu Cave because I was there for their big holiday here and it's so intense. The stairs are so steep and you get to see across the Klang Valley. But it was a cool festival.

40:14 Let's see here. Let me scroll down and find a little bit better photo. Yeah, you can get a sense of it. This huge statue and you walk up these stairs that are these beautiful like neon colors and you end up in a cave at the top. And you can really just, and then there's a temple up there as well. It's really one of a kind. I've never seen anything like it, especially so close to a city.

40:58 I've been in Bohol for one week. It's got the friendliest smiles I've ever been to in the Philippines and no traffic issues for a city of 400,000. It's nice, very underrated. Yeah, Mr. Dave, there was a guy vlogging from there and I think when the drama took off and got out of hand, he cut back on it. His name was Red, I think, Red and P or something like that. And he was a retired police officer from Oklahoma.

41:26 But I think he took his channel down. He got up to like 10K and was really producing some interesting content. I liked some of his takes, but he just decided it was in his interest. I could see why too, he wouldn't want to vlog from Bohol because if it's low-key awesome like.

41:43 Because if it's low-key awesome like that, then sometimes you find a jam you don't really want to put out there. Like I have some places that are my favorites that I just try to keep on the DL because I'm thinking, man, if people discover this, how awesome it is, it might be, you know, a little too crowded eventually one day.

42:00 By the way guys, please give us a thumbs up if you have a chance, if you haven't already. We've got 20 folks in here, so that would help with the algorithm distributing this video to more people.

42:13 What's your average budget in US dollars living in Dawati per month? Can do a simple breakdown. Great question, Proto Gin. So I'm spending like 600 US per month here, and some people will think that's crazy. Other people will think that's absurd.

42:30 I mean, my rent for this apartment is $138 per month. My food bill is probably, I probably spent about $250 per month on food. Internet, I spend around $15 per month.

43:07 And I don't know, maybe $10 or $15 per month on toiletries. Yeah, and I could spend more. I came here anticipating it to be more expensive than it has been. I thought, I'll go with this for a couple more years.

43:31 But now, because I managed to get my expenses down so low, it's been awesome because I can grow the channel while living on a very modest budget. And once the channel gets to producing enough income for me to break even, which is, I'm very close to that point, just to be fully transparent, guys, then it's, and I should do a video breaking down the income from the channel now that it's starting to grow and snowball a bit more.

43:57 But that's been my dream for a long time: to have a digital income and to just travel in perpetuity. So that's kind of been the goal now. If I were spending, say, $2,000 per month, that would be much higher. That would be a much higher goal to try to attain, especially early on.

44:16 Because when you're early, you're still learning editing skills, graphic design skills, how to talk to people, how to make interesting content, the pacing of the videos. There's so much to learn when you're starting out.

44:30 So it's, you know, it's not always been easy, but yeah, it's it's very much a privilege. But yeah, like I said, I could spend more than $600 per month. I don't feel like I'm missing out. I live more comfortably here on $600 than I did in California on three or $4,000 per month.

44:52 That's just been my experience. I know some people will feel differently about it, but it's in a lot of ways, it's a more comfortable place to live on that. Now, if you were to ask me what is my ideal or target budget, I would say more like $1,500 per month. That's a lot more comfortable. $2,000 per month, that opens up a lot more options.

45:15 If I go to Subu for a month, I expect to spend double. I expect to spend more like $1,200 just for me because rent is going to be a lot higher, food's going to be a lot higher, transportation is going to be about the same because I'd be looking at it park or IA Center.

45:34 But it's, yeah, that's basically to go. Still very affordable if you do word of mouth, you know. Some people, they complain about how expensive Dawati is, but they go, you know, they rent a place on Airbnb, which I did my first month. But they don't do word of mouth, like ask around, hey, where could I live? Do you know any places open up?

45:59 Options, this and that, and you can find cheaper options. You can also look for specials. Like I've got a place I go to here in Dawati where I can have all you can eat wings for about $5. So I can eat like tons of chicken wings as many as I could reasonably eat for five bucks.

46:20 There's a place I can get steak for like $7.50 with potatoes. There's a lunch special place I go to, about $4.50, I can get a solid variety. There's a lot of budget-friendly options here in Dawati, even in 2024.

46:38 Am I living like a king? No, definitely not. Am I living more comfortably than I would in the US on that amount? Absolutely. I've spent in the US well over $600 per month just on food, not including rent, not including transportation. I mean, just on food alone can be well over $20 per day if you want to eat healthy, if you want to have some convenience, you want to include coffee in that.

47:13 Dave Cool, good morning. I enjoy your videos. I'm a native Bay Area guy enjoying living in Valencia. Hey Dave, good to see you. Yeah, I miss living in the Bay Area some days. There's some elements I really miss about it. Other days, I'm very much glad to be here.

Big City Living and Solo Travel Fatigue

47:30 I think both are great places to live, different things to offer. It's definitely a lot more relaxed here in Dawati compared to the Bay Area, which is very fast-paced these days. If you ever go back to KL, visit the new city, Putra, Cyber Jaya. Let me pull that up actually.

48:00 Oh, so it's like South KL? Is this near the airport? Yeah, okay, I need to stop through here. I've ridden by it on the train. This looks really cool. Yeah, I got to check this out. This looks really cool. I'll definitely check out Cyber Jaya. Thank you so much for mentioning that, Jay.

48:20 I don't think Malaysia is great for dating, despite so many speaking English. That's why I recommend Indo instead, which is better for dating, despite being mostly Muslim.

48:36 Yeah, Mr. Dave, I didn't have any luck trying to date in Malaysia. I tried to meet people, but I felt like Malaysia reminded me more of the US, and that people spend more time indoors. I don't know if it's the heat, I don't know if it's just a lifestyle preference.

48:52 In the Philippines, it's very easy to just go out and meet people on the street. Malaysia, I felt like that was a little bit harder. It seemed like a little bit more formal. So yeah, I think that's a fair point.

49:03 The monkeys in the caves are furious. Yeah, they really want to take your fruit, and they could be temperamental, similar to the monkeys in Southern Thailand. I encountered some monkeys in Hatyai, or more specifically, Songkhla, that were very persistent. They want that fruit.

49:28 Metal Gear says $600 per month is so cheap, can't even find rent for $600 per month in the US. Yeah, even in small towns in the US, Metal Gear, you can't find rent that cheap. And it's, you know, if you were to buy a house, you'd spend more than $600 per month in upkeep. If you look at the taxes, the maintenance, the electric bill, cutting the grass, all the things that you would have to do or spend money on to maintain a home as an owner would probably exceed $600 per month in most states.

50:04 In most situations, I'm sure there are some people that could live in a very, very modest home like in the middle of nowhere and they do all the work, and it somehow works out to be less than that. But I think for most people in most situations, they're going to spend at least that amount trying to just keep up the house with the chores and the mowing the grass and replacing things that break and cleaning supplies.

50:31 I mean, it's expensive to be a homeowner these days. Especially, Josh says, hey, I've been traveling solo for four years and I'm starting to get tired of it. It was fun meeting people at first, but now it feels like an empty lifestyle. Since you and the people you may leave, how do you deal with the fatigue and that feeling of meaninglessness?

50:50 Josh, you may consider taking a trip back home. I don't have that sensation. I don't, I never really felt in love with my hometown, and I went through a lot of tragedy in my life, so I don't really have much back home. I have some friends back home, but I don't have very many meaningful relationships back home. That's just me being totally transparent.

51:14 That's not to discount the people that I'm friends with back home. I'm not putting them down. I'm not suggesting that they're not worth me going back for. But the friends, the people that I'm close to back home that I really admire and look up to, they're very busy and ambitious people.

51:31 So, like, one of my friends right now is building an RV park back home. Another friend is in like a VP role in a corporate job. These guys are super ambitious, super hardworking. Well, I'd love to spend time with them, it's just simply not practical to do to the degree that we would probably like to hang out because they're trying to get stuff done.

51:55 And so for me, I don't really feel the fatigue or the meaninglessness. I look at it like I'm on one big adventure, and that I'm just very fortunate. Like, this is what I've always dreamed about doing. And I'm a year and a half in, maybe my feelings will change in a few years. But for me, the biggest piece of this puzzle to sort out is the financial.

52:22 And once the financial for me is sorted out, which my investments have really done well, so I'm moving in the right direction in terms of finances. Being over here, I don't know that I'm happy to go home to visit. I don't know that I ever really want to live back home again.

52:37 Would I do it to save up some more money? Sure. I'm not opposed to going back to the States if I get a lucrative job offer in tech. But, you know, that lifestyle isn't, it feels pretty meaningless to me as well. Like, I've worked corporate jobs, and you're working super hard to make somebody else a lot of money, and they don't really care. They're just trying to get as much as they can out of you in most cases.

53:07 Because that's just the way business works. So I felt like my life was meaningless before I started traveling, and traveling has added a lot of meaning to my life. But I can see how you could feel that way. I'm not here to invalidate that. I think it's an individual attitude or choice.

53:23 You may consider going back for a while, maybe finding like a 9-to-5 job. You know, some people find this is just part of their life. Like one of my friends that got me into traveling overseas, he convinced me to go to Thailand. He hasn't traveled abroad in a long time, and he's done with that part.

53:39 My friend has done with that part of his life, so I've talked with him about it. He said, you know, I enjoyed traveling in my 20s, but I don't see it being practical for me now. He will do one-off trips and do some stuff here and there, but for him, he was more of a one-and-done guy. I'm going to go to some places, it's going to be a one-and-done for me. If I had to travel the rest of my life, at least where I'm at right now, my feeling on it right now, I wouldn't be upset about it. I wouldn't be disappointed.

54:08 I watched a lot of Anthony Bourdain. I watched who else did I watch? I watched a little bit of that guy Tim, I can't think of his name, Tim, but he did a lot of stuff in Europe. I grew up on the Travel Channel and National Geographic.

54:29 The only thing is, if you would ask me what do you want right now in terms of travel, I'd like to get my income up to a point where I could bounce from place to place and try some more places out. I don't hate Dumaguete. I actually really like Dumaguete. I would like to add some more variety. I would like to go see some other places. I would like to travel and move around more while I'm building my channel.

54:52 It makes sense from a dollar spent versus the amount of growth I can have. By the way, guys, if you're watching this, we have almost 30 people in here. Please give us a thumbs up. It helps with the algorithm. It makes sense financially for me to be here in Dumaguete.

55:07 From a friends perspective, I've made a lot of friends here in Dumaguete. I can't walk down the street without somebody stopping me and recognizing me. Even yesterday, I was in downtown for like an hour, and before I came home, a really lovely gentleman and his, I don't know, they were just dating or married, stopped me and told me they enjoy my videos.

55:28 So, there's the social scene here is incredible. Some people don't like it. There are some, some not so great people here, foreigners specifically, but there's a lot of fantastic people here. And a lot of attraction to living here. I totally get why people pick Dumaguete.

55:56 But yeah, Josh, I do hope that you sorted out for me the people I meet leaving. I look at it like it's beautiful that I had the time that I had with them. It's a little bit different way to look at things, but it's there's an emotionally hard part to that, Josh.

56:10 Maybe it's because I lost people I really care about at a young age that I'm kind of numb to it. It does bum me out sometimes because my friends that are here do talk about that, you know, because some of them are getting up there in age and they're talking about when they're gone. I'm like, I don't want to have this conversation right now. It's emotionally very heavy.

56:31 And they've made me feel like they've helped me a lot, and they've made me feel like I have value. And it is, it can be heavy emotionally, Josh. More so like a lot of people think when you're traveling a long time, it's just one big vacation. And in some ways, it does feel like that, but in other ways, it could be emotionally difficult and stressful.

The Passport Bro Label and Southeast Asia's Appeal

56:59 And yeah, it's, I haven't fully solved all the challenges there. Uh, Tony, hey, good to see you. Tony, I like your new hairstyle and beard. Thank you so much, Tony. When you fly into the Philippines from the USA, which airport do you prefer? Manila, Cebu, can you fly into Clark?

57:22 Yeah, I prefer Cebu. Quickly, I prefer Cebu. Uh, Carissa says, I saw a part of your video on CNA. You are featured there. Featured passport bro, what are your thoughts on this label? I'm seeing American women shaving off their hair for the 4B movement. Crazy time.

57:37 Yeah, I'm happy with the label. I look at it like we live in this modern world where people are free to live all kinds of ways that maybe in the past would be socially unacceptable, and I'm all for it. I look at it like people should be free to make their own choices, and if that includes going abroad, then so be it.

58:08 It's, you know, there's 8 billion people on Earth, and if a person finds love overseas, then I commend them for finding love in a world that's not in the modern world. It's not always so conducive to maintaining happy relationships or setting people up for success in terms of relationships.

58:30 I think more people should go overseas to find love, and that goes for men and women. You know, one of the things I wanted to add, and I don't know what made the cut, is the nuance. If an American woman were to say, I want to go abroad to meet a guy, why is that acceptable? But then if a guy does that, it's not acceptable. You get what I'm saying?

58:50 Like, I think everybody should be able to go wherever they want today, assuming the people involved are consenting adults. I will always stand by that standard. Consenting adults, whatever. Yeah, so that's just, yeah.

59:07 Thank you, Tony. And I'm probably going to shave soon because I'm chatting a couple of women, really getting along with them well, and they're all, each of the women that I've talked to have pushed me to shave it. And so I am thinking about shaving the beard soon. I think I'll look a lot younger, which is more popular here, I think, to look younger.

59:29 But, uh, hey HP 84, good to see you. Welcome, welcome. I think this is your first time on our stream. Great to see you, Mr. Dave. There's no motorcycle taxi in Malaysia. It's kind of boring. I like boy, Mr. Dave.

59:42 To each their own, right? I like that it was really chill and didn't have a lot going on. It felt very calming and relaxing. I could focus very well. Everything was efficient, like I remember when I would go out to eat in Malaysia, I got my food in a timely manner. The price was always very reasonable. It was surprisingly walkable.

1:00:21 A lot of people said, oh, it's only for cars, but I found that it was decidedly walkable. Now, is it easy to go from neighborhood to neighborhood? Not necessarily. Not as easy as maybe some would like, but especially like City Center, KLCC, and the surrounding areas like Bukit Bintang, I found that it was not too bad to walk around, and it felt very, like I felt safe.

1:00:52 I've heard some people have concerns about that. I didn't feel unsafe, and you can go in the shopping malls. I would like to go back at some point. I'm not sure when that will be, but KL. And two of my favorite vloggers are this couple, JP and Amelia. I really like their vlogs, and they were recently in Kuala Lumpur and they said they could live there. So that was another thumbs up from my perspective.

1:01:21 Phillip, I want to know, I want to see how it is to live in a big city. The convenience and low maintenance living seems appealing. I'm thinking about Alabang or BGC, possibly Cebu or Lau Lau could also work out. Yeah, Philip, that's a big part of it for me is that it's, that's what I like about being in Southeast Asia is you can live in cities that in the United States would either be cost prohibitive.

1:01:51 Like I've lived across the bay from San Francisco. San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities on Earth, and so you have to be working a lot to afford that kind of city. And if you take your dollars and you go to Asia, you get, you can have some of these big city experiences without the extreme price point of like a Manhattan or a Miami Beach.

1:02:14 Still not cheap, cheap, but more of a modest price point, and you get a lot of value there. For me, I love big city living, just not in the US, where I think big cities often have some issues with danger, people are rude, often, in just my experience. You may have a different experience. They're kind of impersonal, they're not very vibrant.

1:02:40 So like at 6 p.m., a lot of American cities kind of, what's the word? They're just kind of quiet and empty after dark, where Asian cities activate after dark. Everybody comes out into the streets. They're going to the markets, they're going out to dinner. You have a lot of street-level activation, and so you feel that you're in this vibrant, hustling, and bustling kind of place.

1:03:10 And not only that, but it feels safe. I mean, you don't see weird people hanging out, you don't see graffiti everywhere, you don't see vagrants. You don't have that uneasy feeling that you get in a lot of American big cities. I've definitely spent a lot of time in big cities, and there's just this uneasy feel.

1:03:31 Like I used to work in downtown Oakland, California, and you just don't really feel good being there after dark, especially not alone. Like that was kind of one of my rules of thumb: as soon as the sun starts to go down, it's generally speaking time to get on a train and go back home. I don't really want to be wandering around after dark there.

1:03:54 I mean, you have like certain places that are fine, but you walk away from that place with substantial security presence, and you go back to feeling uneasy. Uh, Kyle says, hey Alex, good to see you, Kyle. Dave, next time I see you, I'll say hello. I just got back from diving in Bohol. Chad was on my Roro. I see vloggers all the time but don't want to disturb them. I like to keep a low profile.

1:04:19 Yeah, feel free to say hi, Dave. But I totally get it if you prefer to keep a low profile. Vlogging certainly can attract some oddballs, not that you're an oddball, but some other folks. So I get a little if you, if I do see you or you do see me, I get a little nervous. I'm like, oh no, I hope this isn't one of the two people that are kind of out there.

1:04:39 But most, 99% of the people that come up and say hi have been wonderful people, and I appreciate their support of the channel and their encouragement and their kindness. It really reminds me of who I'm working for.

1:05:06 I probably will need to wind down here soon, guys. It's, um, I need to do some tutoring. But, uh, thanks for the welcome. I see you as part of a new generation of YouTubers in Southeast Asia that are down to earth.

1:05:26 Southeast savior that are down to earth, non-toxic, and intellectual. Glad you decided to start a channel. Thank you so much, HP. Yeah, I noticed what you're talking about. I didn't know that what I had to offer was that special or interesting here, but the longer I go with this, the more I feel that way. Because to me, it's like, it was an easy decision, but I could tell if some people feel that they're seeing some of the YouTubers that come here, at least in the past, that promote chaotic lifestyles. Let's say that kind of problem kind of feeds itself. It kind of snowballs because people will watch those videos and say, 'Oh, I'm like a mess on two legs, I need to go over there too.' And it's like, no, no, no, there are many legitimate reasons to live in Southeast Asia. It doesn't have to be like an escapist kind of thing.

1:06:25 I worked, I felt like we're pretty good jobs in the US, and I'm not opposed to going back and working again. But in the meantime, it's awesome to live over here. Like in the US, for me being Asian, I love the Asian food over here. And in the US, Asian food is like niche, expensive. You have to go to a big city to get real Asian food. And you're here, that's just a default. Asian food is just the default here. In Dumaguete, they have great Indian food, Korean food, Chinese food, Filipino food, Japanese food. And this is in a major city. So to have that kind of variety is just really fantastic.

1:07:09 Yeah, thanks so much. I appreciate the support, HP 84. Mr. Dave, I remember now that you like boring. I think Indo is slightly boring also. I think Indo is better for dating and friendly. Oh, no worries. Yeah, to each their own. I think Southeast Asia is great in that you have a ton of variety. I often feel that there's something for everyone. For the person who likes to party, they've got that. For the person who likes boring, they've got that. I didn't know about the boring side until people told me, and boring is also subjective. For me, I like boring. I've had times in my life that were very, very exciting, and at this stage, I like peaceful. I like calm.

Comparing Philippine Cities and Inflation

1:07:50 Yeah, like my favorite city in Thailand is Chiang Mai. I also like Hai, both of which are very chill, kind of laid-back cities. Mr. Dave, I ran into JPN Amelia at a fruit market in Cuenca, which is a nice city. Yeah, Ecuador is having some challenges right now. Mr. Dave, I don't think I would recommend it for people watching this, whether live or on repeat. It's just going through some challenging circumstances right now. I didn't go there; I went to Colombia and Peru. I skipped over Ecuador. I think it was starting to have some issues back then, but now it's, I think they're becoming more substantial, and we really have to be mindful of the risk to our safety and wellbeing.

1:08:35 Exactly. I could never afford to live in a big city in the US, and the crime is also a concern. What places in the Philippines have you been so far? How do they compare to Dumaguete? So I've been to Cagayan de Oro, I've been to Camiguin Island, and I've been to Cebu. Cagayan de Oro is more industrial. It's bigger than Dumaguete. It's not really as oriented toward tourism; it's more of a business hub and a port in Northern Mindanao. Camiguin is awesome for tourism. It doesn't have the conveniences that you have in a bigger city like Cagayan de Oro. And Cebu is just a big city.

1:09:13 So Dumaguete, to me, feels like a great balance of the tourism opportunities, the infrastructure of a city, moderate cost of living. And it's like the Three Bears, right? I tried the cold porridge, I tried the hot porridge. Dumaguete is really, feels just right in a lot of ways. I can see why so many people want to live here, and the weather helps too. Not being as buffeted by inclement weather is really nice. Quigley, thanks Alex. And so nice to read the other comments and thoughts. See you again. Good to see you, Quigley. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful day.

1:09:52 But yeah, Cebu is pretty big. If you're not a big city person, which I like big cities, but if you're not a big city person, you know, I think you're going to find Cebu to be a big city. Camiguin, it's nice for vacation, but you're not going to have the shopping options that you have in other places. And then Cagayan de Oro, just more industrial, more catering to people looking to go there and work in industry, as opposed to people looking to work online. And not to say it doesn't have that presence, it's just not as much of a priority, I think.

1:10:36 Did you see that Thailand has a Bronze Membership in the Elite Visa card? I'll check it out. I heard about that. I haven't read into it much. Is US inflation going to affect a lot of these expat places eventually? I don't think so. For a few reasons, and I need to do a video on this actually. One is that in these places, they build plenty of housing. So in Dumaguete, they build plenty of housing. The US has what's called a policy of NIMBYism, 'Not In My Backyard.' So 75% of the housing in the US is single-family homes, and the zoning is such that you cannot build apartments. And so this causes artificial inflation in the US.

1:11:18 Another factor of the artificial inflation is the litigious society. 95% of lawsuits are actually filed in North America, and I suspect the majority of those 95% are filed in the US. So everything has lawyer fees baked in. Anytime you buy anything in the US, make a purchase of any kind, lawyer fees are baked in. It's not these other places are not very litigious. And then number two, or the next point is insurance. In the US, the insurance companies really have a strong hold on every industry, so everybody is paying sky-high insurance prices.

1:12:02 Thank you. No cars. I appreciate it. I need to go over there after this stream and pick up some of those subscribers. Yeah, so yeah, in the US, litigious society, NIMBYism where they don't build new stuff, and then insurance costs. So those three things make inflation in the US much worse. Here, they build new apartments all the time, new housing all the time, so you don't see the same problem. Same in Thailand. I mean, you go to Pattaya, every single block has tons of condo buildings. Bangkok, same way. Throughout Asia, they don't have this US versus Them dynamic to the same extreme. In the US, they do this to prevent people from being able to get into their area.

1:12:54 Make of that what you will, but no, I don't see this kind of inflation hitting here. There will be some inflation due to oil prices, but it's not going to be this runaway inflation in the US that you hear about and you see because people, I mean, the US, you just have totally unrestricted greed and extreme greed. I mean, the greediest people that I've ever met in my life were in the United States. I'm not saying other countries don't have greed issues, but in the US, it's extraordinary because they operate on the premise that they are not, and that's the key differentiator.

1:13:35 So no, I don't see it being that much of an issue, especially if you have US denominated assets. The inflation in the US actually helps expats because other countries have to buy dollars. So the US prints dollars and then basically forces other countries to buy these printed dollars to purchase certain goods like software or oil. So it actually, this sounds terrible, but actually inflation in the US helps expats because the expats that own US assets get higher pay, and then the exchange rate moves in favor of the US dollar.

CNA Feature and YouTube Growth

1:14:16 So when I first came to the Philippines, $1 was 50 pesos. Five years ago, now $1 is almost 60 pesos. So that's actually getting more for my money, or equivalent for my money as I was five years ago. Colombia and Amazon is incredible. It's totally separate from the rest of Colombia. Friendly, cheap, welcoming. I need to go check it out, Mr. Dave. That sounds like a great suggestion.

1:14:48 In Southeast Asia, you can get good food for like a dollar a day. I don't know if I go quite that far. I'd say a more reasonable budget would be like 10 bucks a day if you want to eat meat on a regular basis. If you want to have some vegetables, you're going to want to spend more. But in the US, I would say a reasonable budget is like triple that. I mean, if you want to eat healthy food in the US, you're going to spend a lot more than $10 a day. And that gives you wiggle room if you want to go out to nice meals or you want to, yeah, you have more flexibility there.

1:15:29 But still, $10 a day, you can't buy fast food in the US for $10. You can't buy one fast food meal in the US for $10. You can't eat on the lower budgets, but I think you just end up risking consuming poor quality oil, poor quality meats, and you heighten the risk to your health.

1:15:55 There's a lot of interesting comments in the CNA video. The salesman Jean and me thinks you should post a comment about your channel to pick up subscribers. That's a great point.

1:16:17 Cares? Oh wow, this is 322,000 views. Wow. That is wild. I cannot believe that got 322,000 views in one day. That's a little bit intimidating, but yeah, I should probably go through there. I'm a little bit nervous. I was nervous when we started filming that. Cars, I cannot believe that did that many views.

1:16:48 Yeah, did you hear about what happened in the insurance? Yeah, I heard about that. I heard about dollarization from The New Atlas. Did you do the digital nomad visa where you run your business from a hammock on the beach?

1:17:06 Yeah, I'm out there. All right, holy wow. I'm like, geez, and that's in one day. This video, that video might do, oh man, I gotta send. Oh, this is everything I wanted, and now I'm a little bit nervous about it. I can't believe that. That's just so wild. Wow, 300. I did not expect. I thought maybe it got like 5,000 views or it would get five or 10,000 views, but they, yeah, wow. And that doesn't include the people that watched it on television. So CNA is actually broadcast to 16 million homes.

1:17:55 Geez, wow. I'm like shocked. I will say I was surprised by how many people reached out to me saying

1:18:11 How many people reached out to me saying they watched it? I had a bunch of friends reach out saying, "Hey, did you see it?" or "Hey, I watched it, it was great, you did really well." We filmed for three hours in this hotel room here in Dumaguete for like three hours, and I was just like, they said it was the longest day of filming they've ever had.

1:18:37 I'll drop a link. They got it down to 47 minutes, I'm impressed. So they really pulled out a lot, but that was intense. The producer was awesome, the film crew was awesome. It's really intense.

1:19:21 And jeez, 322,000. So I don't know, I'm not as big on the idea of being on the beach. It's kind of funny to mention this on Coconuts. I'm not as much of a beach person, but I like, yeah, so they approached me. They sent me an email asking if I was open, and I was like, "Yeah, can you fly me to Manila?" and they said, "We'll think about it." Then they came back and said, "Yeah, we're coming down to do it," and so I said, "Okay, awesome, I'm happy to chat with you."

1:20:10 So true, God works in mysterious ways. Thank you so much, Cars, that is a very thoughtful comment. I didn't expect things to be like this. I did not expect it to get that many views. The crew was incredibly professional, very, very good at what they do.

1:20:25 But I was so nervous when we started filming. I was thinking, man, I have no idea how many millions of people are going to watch this. I've never been, I'm nervous talking to Paul the first time, nervous talking to Mike the first time, and this is on television. It's one thing to be in expat communities and be around people that are just like you, but this is like the world. This is showing me to the world.

1:20:52 Did you hear about? Oh yeah, yeah, I just saw it this morning. So for me, the digital nomad lifestyle on Coconuts, what's appealing to me is being in cities. So I'm not as much of a beach guy. I just get tired of the beach. I don't know why, but I just get tired of it, where I don't get tired of being in cities or urban environments.

1:21:18 I like being able to, I like the convenience. Where beach destinations, I found you do struggle at times with the same level of convenience that you would have in a big city. I'm just in utter shock, 322,000 views.

1:21:42 That's awesome. Does that video make us look bad? CNA's. Yeah, so this one is Singapore media. I will watch that later. How did you get the interview? Yeah, so they reached out to me, and I told them I'd love to talk to them. We filmed over two days here in Dumaguete, and it was a lot of fun.

1:22:13 I'm really surprised. My friends have been very encouraging, telling me, "Hey, you're articulate, you're not coming here for the women." But guys, I do need to drop out, I am starting to get hit up for tutoring. Thank you so much, guys, for everything. I really appreciate it. It's been really incredible.

Wrap-up and Future Plans

1:22:49 Sorry Doug, I apologize. I recognize you just hopped in here, but I needed to drop and do some tutoring. Yeah, I'll drop the link. Phillip here, that's, I was on CNA, and I need to just go through and respond to the 3,400 comments. I'll be responding for a long while. Thank you so much, everybody. I really appreciate it.

1:23:15 We'll go for two more minutes because I got, but any last comments or last thoughts, feel free to chime in. And I just got to wrap up because I got some tutoring to do.

1:23:42 Enjoy your cheesecake, Jay. That sounds delicious. I've been craving some cheesecake. Also, there's some really nice cheesecake here in town. Mr. Dave, Eastern Dreamer is friendly. Thank you so much, Mr. Dave. I appreciate that.

1:23:56 I consider it an extraordinary privilege to be with you all today and feel very fortunate to have been featured on CNA. I think the audience will grow a lot, and it's going to be incredible. So, thanks so much, everybody. I really appreciate you.

1:24:17 So if you're watching this on replay, give us a thumbs up. It helps with the YouTube algorithm. If you haven't yet, subscribe to the channel down below and comment what you think. What do you think about the digital nomad lifestyle? Did you get a chance to watch the CNA documentary? If you're coming here from that, I greatly appreciate your support.

1:24:37 Philip says, "Is tutoring lucrative?" Not really, Philip. It's just something to supplement my income while I grow the channel. When my channel gets big enough, I won't be tutoring anymore. It's just something to do for a little extra money. Nothing I'm going to get rich off of, but it's nice to help offset some of my costs.

1:25:04 But yeah, well, anyway, I'm gonna go ahead and wrap up, guys. Thanks so much, everybody. My apologies, by the way, Gerard, I know you just hopped in here, but or sorry Doug, I know you just hopped in here, but I'll try to go live again later this week. We'll see how things go. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye.