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The Philippines offers a compelling lifestyle for expats due to its lower cost of living, friendly culture, and the opportunities it presents for personal and professional growth, particularly through online businesses and content creation.
The host explains his decision to extend his stay in the Philippines, citing the enjoyable YouTube community, the friendships he's made in Dumaguete, and the significantly lower cost of living compared to his home country. He details how his expenses for rent, food, and transportation are a fraction of what they would be in the US, making his savings last five times longer.
He discusses the practicalities of daily life, including transportation via jeepneys and trikes, and touches upon supplementing his income through online English tutoring. The host also reflects on the challenges and opportunities in content creation, the importance of audio quality, and the potential for voiceover versus real-time reactions in videos. He mentions upcoming filming for a media group, which he sees as a learning experience to improve his own content.
The conversation delves into the unique appeal of the Philippines, comparing it to other countries and highlighting its blend of familiarity and foreignness, largely due to the prevalence of English. The host shares his positive interactions with locals, noting their shyness but also their warmth and resilience. He also discusses the challenges of finding housing due to increased demand and touches upon infrastructure issues like water supply, while emphasizing the overall positive trajectory and improving internet infrastructure in the country.
Further discussions cover the 'American rat race' and the financial pressures young men face in Western countries, contrasting it with the perceived opportunities and quality of life in the Philippines. The host expresses his love for the country, its people, and its potential, seeing it as a place with a bright future. He also shares his future travel plans, including potential work in Alaska and a visit to Indonesia, demonstrating a desire for continued growth and exploration.
Expats often choose to stay longer in the Philippines due to a significantly lower cost of living compared to Western countries, allowing savings to last much longer. The welcoming culture, widespread use of English, and opportunities for personal and professional growth, especially through online ventures, also contribute to extended stays.
The cost of living in the Philippines is remarkably lower for expats, with expenses for rent, food, and transportation being a fraction of what they would be in Western nations. This affordability allows individuals to stretch their savings considerably further, enhancing their quality of life.
Life in the Philippines can be very good for foreigners, offering a vibrant culture, natural beauty, and warm, friendly people. While challenges like traffic exist, the widespread use of English and the welcoming atmosphere make integration easier for expats.
Yes, digital nomads can thrive in the Philippines, leveraging its affordable cost of living and improving internet infrastructure. Platforms like YouTube and online businesses provide location independence and income streams not tied to a physical presence.
Key benefits include a significantly lower cost of living, a welcoming and friendly culture where English is widely spoken, and opportunities for personal and professional growth. The country also offers a unique blend of familiarity and foreignness, along with beautiful natural landscapes.
Expats often supplement their income through online English tutoring, content creation on platforms like YouTube, or by running their own online businesses. These methods offer location independence and the potential for income growth, making the Philippines an attractive base.
0:17 Hey, what's up everybody? I wanted to continue from yesterday. I had to end early because some karaoke came about, and I just got a little bit paranoid about the potential for getting some copyright issues. But this morning seems pretty quiet. I've also woken up earlier today than I did yesterday, so it seems like a good time to do a live stream. It's also starting to rain here in Bong, so a great time too to do a live stream because it seems like on rainy days, the Philippines becomes quieter. I don't know if it's just me, but I've talked to some people here about it, and they say there's this sense here in the Philippines that if you go out in the rain, you're risking getting sick, even though it's not cold and there's no snow. That does seem to be a common theme here. I don't know how much truth is in that, but either way, it does seem to result in more chill days.
1:42 So yeah, I'm enjoying it. It's nice here. Some people might be wondering why I'm staying longer here in the Philippines, and really, it comes down to a few things. One, I'm really enjoying YouTube. YouTube has just been a lot of fun. It's connected me with a lot of wonderful people I never would have met otherwise, people that watch some of the same channels that I do. But then also, having the fortune or the benefit to meet some guys that I think are really talented. Hey Tony, welcome! Thank you guys so much for joining. I wanted to do one to kind of make up for yesterday's short stop.
2:26 A couple of things happened yesterday when I was doing the live stream. One is the karaoke, which you guys let me know wasn't too loud, but I know sometimes karaoke can get a little bit out of hand. You know, sometimes it starts off at a moderate volume and it just keeps going up and up until it could be a bit overwhelming. But then the other thing that popped up was that Paul actually mentioned to me he was in town at a local cafe, and I wanted to go meet up with him. So yeah, that went well. It was great to see him and great to meet up with him and hang out and just share experiences.
3:28 Feel free, guys, to ask. So as far as why I'm staying, one is the YouTube, two is the friends I've made here in Dumaguete. Three is, you know, the job market's still iffy, and as far as just my expenses, they're a fraction of what they would be back home. So if I look at it from a purely budget perspective, I spend probably about 20% of what I'd be spending back home. So if I have X amount of dollars in savings and investments, it's going to go five times farther here.
4:06 My rent is a couple hundred bucks a month, like 200 bucks a month, where in California it's more like $1,000 a month. In Tennessee, it might be even more than $1,000 a month. My food here runs me about $300 a month, whereas back in the States, I'm spending more like $600, $700 a month. My transportation here runs me about $30 a month, and back in the States, it runs me about $300 a month. And that's being conservative, really. If you look at cost per mile in the states, 50 cents a mile, probably now 60 cents a mile, probably costs me more than $300 a month when I factor in the oil change, the tire replacements, all that stuff.
5:01 Where here, I just pay for a jeepney or a trike. I pay about 20 pesos to go to town, to go to DTI, because I'm outside of DTI. And then I pay 30 pesos to come home after hours. So at a certain point, the jeepneys, the big trucks, stop running, and you got to take a trike, a smaller vehicle. In fact, why don't I show you guys what a jeepney looks like? Some of you may be... I know Tony is in North America.
5:49 Well, these aren't exactly the right kind of jeeps, but I'll share anyway. So this is... they're showing the big. Okay, so this is more like what I ride to go to Dumaguete City. And I usually climb up here in the passenger, the driver's passenger door. I see it as like I'm a big American, maybe I'm a little bit entitled, but I hop in the driver's seat and hop in. Ride to town, it's about 20 pesos. Let me just get an... 35 cents. So I pay 35 cents to ride about 10 kilometers to town. And then when I come home, typically, these guys stop running around, I would say, 6:30, 7 p.m.
6:39 So if I come back home after that, which is common, I'm typically coming home at like, I don't know, 10, 11 p.m. at night. Then I pay 30 pesos, which is about 52 cents. So 87 cents per day. I round up to 30 bucks because usually a couple times a month, I'll go up to Valencia, which is up in the mountains. And let me see, it takes me two rides to get there and two rides back, so that costs a little bit more. Yeah, these are the trikes that I ride home every night. And typically, we'll have like, okay, this isn't... they have the modified ones that carry like 10 people. And so one of these can fit like... I know it sounds weird, it looks weird. There we go. Okay, this is how I get home every night. I'm fine with it. It's not a big deal to me. It's kind of fun because you know you get to interact with the people and you kind of better understand the...
7:41 Philip. Oh, hey Tony, is it still a dark screen? Thank you for the heads up. Okay, good, good. Yeah, so this is how I ride home. Yeah, so great, great. Thank you for the heads up, Doug and Tony. So Vano says, 'Rode one yesterday for the first time, went to the Valencia Sunday market.' How did you like the Sunday market, Vano? Because I went like a couple months ago and I just got there way too late. So I'm hearing you want to get there early if you want to get the best selection of vegetables and you want to see all these different people. So one of these days, I've got to get up there at like 6:00 a.m. and really have the full experience.
8:35 How's the English shooting going? So I did that yesterday, Tony, and I got some solid lessons in. I taught off and on for about five hours, and it was fine. I'd like to add another platform. So there's a couple of other platforms that I'm going to research and check out, just to supplement my YouTube income until YouTube gets to a point where it totally covers my bills, which I could see happening. I mean, the channel is growing super fast. I've got... I'm filming this documentary on Wednesday. Speaking of which, after this stream, I'm going to be... well, hopefully the rain is done. So I need to check out the forecast.
9:24 Hopefully it'll be done by like another hour or two. It doesn't look like it's going to be that bad today. But I've got to go to town and get some clothes for filming because normally I'm dressed kind of casually here. Clothes are the weather is hard on clothes here. But yeah, I need to go to town and get some clothes. So I think after this, I'll be going to town to get some clothes for the filming I'm doing tomorrow. Not tomorrow, sorry, Wednesday. I'm doing filming Wednesday with this media group, and it should be interesting. This is going to be my first time doing more of a professional production. I plan to ask them a bunch of questions to try to learn to improve my own content. But yeah, that should be fun.
10:25 Oh, wow, Tony's an NHL fan. You know, Tony, it's funny you mentioned that. I grew up being a fan of NHL. I was a fan of several different NHL teams, and I don't know why I always liked hockey. Strange, because I grew up in the South, right? Where in the southern US, it's... I don't know, it just seems like more of a northern thing, or a Canadian thing, right? I mean, Canada's hockey is huge in Canada. Need to have more coffee, by the way, guys. I'm going to take a sip here.
11:12 Also, I buy these packets because they're super convenient. It's faster than making brewed coffee. You just pour boiling water on the powder in the packet. And, you know, not your fanciest coffee in the world, not your best, but I don't know, I got into this stuff when I was in Malaysia, and it's just super easy.
11:41 Did you... wow, former NHL? So I don't know if you're kind of teasing us, Tony. Is it true, Doug, that you played hockey? Even if you're just a fan, that's cool with me. It's such a small world. I've always thought hockey was incredible though, because these guys have the agility and the stamina and having to skate. And also, you know, it just seems like a really demanding sport. I mean, I guess you could say that about every sport, but there's to me, it's this combination of having the grace to skate very well, but then also having the aggression to, you know, to win, to get the puck in the goal, and sometimes you see them get into a little brawl. That was one of the... you know, one of the times...
12:45 Oh, okay. So you played for 30 years, but not at the NHL level. And you... wow, so you got to see the Penguins play? That's awesome. Yeah, Penguins. Mario Lemieux, who was a star player for the Penguins. I know he was from Canada, but I thought he... yeah, he did play for the Penguins. Yeah, I wrote a book about his background and his story when I was younger, just talking about how he got into it. And yeah, really, really good stuff. I gotta start watching hockey sometimes. It's been a while since I watched it. Maybe just being in these tropical countries...
13:39 But you don't see here in the Philippines is you don't see hockey. They probably have a place in Manila. Let me look that up. Actually, Manila ice hockey. So they do have an ice rink at SM Asia. So they have some hockey in Manila, but yeah, I think it would be like kind of... I don't know, one of those things like one of my buddies, he's here in Southeast Asia, and his wife has never seen snow. So he wants to show her snow. And I think it's got to be such an interesting... you know, interesting... I don't know if 'contradiction' is the right word.
14:23 But yeah, hey Lincoln, attempt number two. Before Mariah Carey starts blasting, yeah. So fortunately, I think we're here on Monday, so I think people are going to be going to work and not so much karaoke this morning. I don't think. And funny enough, I actually like karaoke. It doesn't really bother me. I actually enjoy it. I think it's kind of cheery and kind of fun.
14:58 The part that you could say bugs me is more so just wanting to have a good present, a good experience for you guys, right? So yeah, there's a lot of noise here that it doesn't bother me that much because I become more sensitive to noise when I'm back home because of how stressed out I am. So I find that the more stressed out I am, the more that noise tends to kind of bother me or get under my skin.
15:27 Where the more time I spend in Southeast Asia, the more I compress and relax, and things that would really bother me back home just don't bother me here. So now there are days where noise gets under my skin, but it's not like back home where I really just don't like the noise back home. And it's also different; people here are typically having a good time. Back home, when it gets noisy, it's typically because there's some issues going on.
15:58 Yeah, I'll definitely take a look at Doug Gilmore a little bit, probably on my ride to town. Tony, whenever I ride to town, then I'll do some reading. I usually try to read or listen to a podcast.
16:17 Yeah, I'll just listen to a podcast or I'll read something on my phone. It takes usually about a half hour for me to travel 10 kilometers, maybe 40 minutes because the Jeepney that I ride typically, it's like a stop and a start. So they've got certain stops that they make, like they stop at certain crossings to pick up passengers, to give people a chance to get on.
16:38 Some people also are not going all the way to Dumaguete City, and so they are. And this is something I should go into more detail on. I'll make a note to go into more detail on the members' livestream because I could actually kind of show you the route that I take to get to town to give you a better sense of how I use the Jeepneys. I don't want to show where I live on this one because, you know, these get hundreds of views and replay, and I prefer for people to not know exactly where I live.
17:08 But for the members, absolutely, I could show you how I use, you know, the route I take basically to get to town. I'm not uncomfortable with that. But yeah, so they stop and start, so it takes me about 30 to 40 minutes to get to town. And on that route, I'll read something on my phone or I'll listen to a podcast.
17:30 So I'll definitely, maybe I could watch. I'm sure Doug Gilmore's probably done an interview now with the rise of YouTube. You can watch interviews of everybody, which is really awesome. I love that about YouTube is that you can get access to the insight and the mindset of all these different people that in the past, you know, maybe you'd get a 30-second clip on TV, maybe they do an interview if there were like a Tiger Woods level or I don't know, Wayne Gretzky level or something like that.
17:59 There are a lot of talented people that had a lot of success that I think we could all benefit from learning about. Yes, I followed Doug Gilmore. I used his number 93 when I played. Awesome. Yeah, that's what a small world. It's interesting, there are multiple Doug Gilmores out there.
18:22 And I don't know if I've ever met a few people with my last name. I don't know if I've ever met anybody with my exact name. But yeah, I'll keep that in mind. Guys, Lincoln says, I love the karaoke, but you made a great point last night about exploring around unless you just voice over everything. And that's doable. I mean, if there's more demand or I perceive that the audience would enjoy me doing voiceover style videos, I'm happy to do that.
18:47 I need to get better at them. So I've done a couple, and I've done it a little bit. But it comes across, the voiceover sometimes can be a little bit awkward because maybe it's just me. I feel like my timing is a little bit off. I'd rather, I like to kind of react in real time. And with the voiceovers, I'm sometimes having to fill space or to cut clips shorter than what I'd like them to be.
19:16 And so you're having to kind of like target how long you want your audio to go to match your video clips, where typically I'm more focused on the audio than I am the video part because the audio, like people will watch a crappy, not so good video, a crappy video with good audio, but nobody wants to watch a video with bad audio. It just, great. Like I know this too from personal experience where I've tried to watch a video and the audio is kind of iffy.
19:52 Maybe they're a new tuber, they're new to YouTube, and immediately I'm like, ah, no. Or if they're using like only AI voiceovers, I'm like, ah, no. I just, you know, it just sounds kind of, for whatever reason in my mind, it just doesn't sound right.
20:08 But yeah, Doug says, I messaged you yesterday about Malibay. I went down to Valencia when I was there. Seems to be a shortage of apartments for rent on Facebook Marketplace and even Airbnb. Climate is great. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, I'm in touch with this spot, Doug, that they've said they've got a place for rent for 15,000 pesos per month, which is, let's see, about $262 US.
20:42 About $361 Canadian dollars. I am gonna, I may like try to bargain him down a little bit. I may throw out there, hey, I know you got it listed for 15K, would you do it for 12K? But yeah, a lot of certain places in the Philippines are experiencing this shortage that I didn't see at all five years ago.
21:07 Five years ago, felt like you could go into any town, or most towns, maybe outside of Metro Manila, but even Cebu, like, and just find a place, not really have to think about it. There was more places to live than demand. But now, with this influx of people, it's, uh, you know, it's not as easy to find a place as it was five years ago, that's for sure.
21:36 Doug, I asked my buddy about it who lives or who works in Malibay, and he said, ah, just kind of look around. You know, he said it's basically, I think in his mind, like he didn't know if I'd be comfortable with a Filipino-style apartment. I don't know that I would be in DTI because of the heat. It's just Dumaguete just can get really hot on the non-rainy days, whereas if you're in Badian, if you're in Moalboal, then it's cooler up there.
22:10 So would I be more comfortable with a Filipino-style apartment? Yeah, if it's, if it's does, you're not dealing with the extraordinary heat, then you're not kind of sitting in like a sweatbox. Then yeah, I think I'd be more comfortable with a more Filipino-style apartment. Maybe it's a situation where I go down there for a month.
22:36 See, Tony says, so the tutoring is through a school or an app thing? Like, oh, yeah. Um, yeah, so I do. I use Cambly. Um, and, uh, yeah, I use Cambly. So it's okay, honestly. I don't really like.
23:04 There's some challenges with it. There's some things that I don't really like about the platform, but, you know, once a week, it's tolerable. Sometimes, like, the conversations can get a bit repetitive because, oh, you know, it's just very introductory stuff. And I'm not at all looking down upon it. There's not, I think the challenge with teaching English or tutoring English, there's not like a path forward, right?
23:36 So with YouTube, you build the channel, you grow your subscriber base, you expand the ways in which you can offer value to people. Maybe you do t-shirts, maybe you do consults, maybe you have memberships. And you can do collaborations. There's many different directions you could take YouTube, and I enjoy it as well. I just enjoy YouTube overall.
24:06 I feel very blessed to have met the people that I've met through YouTube, guys like Paul. I just hung out with Paul yesterday. Old dog, new tricks. I've been watching his channel for five years now. It's just still a shock to me I could go meet that guy. Of course, Mike from Mike's Philippine Retirement, another guy that's been really good to me. And then Chad, Chad Foster. You know, those three guys I've really connected well with.
24:35 And there's other guys too, I'm not going to, but as far as YouTubers go, those guys have been wonderful, taking me under their wing, helping me to grow how I think about things and change the way I do things and try to go in different directions.
24:53 But with teaching English, you're selling your time for money. And so that you're not, like, paying into social security, you're not contributing to retirement accounts. It's kind of like the inputs are tied to the outputs. So I've got X amount of time, I get X amount of money. With YouTube or your own business, the inputs are not tied to the output. So if I make a really good video and 10,000 people enjoy it, that's awesome. I didn't work any harder on that video than I did for a video that gets 500 views.
25:25 So you need that kind of asymmetry to grow. And I just don't see that asymmetry with teaching English. You teach one person at a time, maybe you can teach a small group, but you're kind of limited as far as your ceiling. And you'll hear this too from people that teach English in countries like China, for example, where you're not going to necessarily take the English job and like move up the ladder.
25:55 I mean, what I'm saying is, there's nothing wrong with it, and I'm happily do it, you know, a few days per week to make some extra cash. But I do keep in mind, hey, this is something where it's nice for extra money. It's not necessarily something that I'm going to become an admin or I'm going to get a corporate job where I'm, you know, working on English teaching programs. So that's kind of the kind of.
26:20 The tutoring is through a school. The place I just rented yesterday is 12,000 pesos a month, but it's small. It's also near downtown. Are you going to lease to get that 12,000 pesos a month? Because that's a pretty reasonable price point. That's what I pay here in Bongao. I rent the top half of a house, but if I decide to stay longer, I wouldn't mind trying to find a place a little bit closer to town.
27:04 It takes me a while to get out here and to town. Being closer to town could be more convenient based on my lifestyle habits and patterns. Doug says there seems to be a water issue: cloudy and slight odor to the tap water. I went to one development outside town and they only had water three hours a day.
27:40 Yeah, that's tough. Doug, definitely then you want to use bottled water. I'm sure you're familiar; get like a water delivery service. Yeah, that makes sense. It's definitely something to think about.
27:55 I did ask my friend who lives in Malai. By the way, guys, please give us a thumbs up; it really helps with the algorithm. Sorry for bugging you guys, but I just wanted to throw that out there because we have 17 people watching.
28:11 With only three hours of water a day, it's got to be inconvenient to shower, right? Because you can only get a shower in within that three-hour window, so you've got to be very specific. The water was off yesterday morning when I got up to shower or just to start my day, and the water was not on. That can be a concern here for sure.
28:43 Lincoln says, 'Any word yet on that radio thing? Is it still too soon to speak on?' I should have more information next weekend, so feel free to ask away about it, Lincoln. I'll be filming with them Wednesday morning; they get here from Manila. We've got a location booked where we're going to meet up and film.
29:11 Then we're going to go and do some filming for b-roll. They're going to come out here to the house and film me at home, which should be interesting. I've never filmed at home; I generally try to avoid it. I mean, I do these streams at home, but I just like some level of privacy.
29:36 There's a fine line between sharing my life but also not doxing myself. I don't want some weirdos showing up. I've had YouTuber friends tell me, 'Hey, I don't put my location out there anymore because I've had people show up expecting to meet me.' I know my channel is modest right now, but I expect it will be bigger in the future, and I just have to be careful about that.
30:13 Doug says, 'I lived in the mountains in Colombia for four years before coming to the Philippines and loved the cooler weather. They spoke English; I would have never left.' Yeah, Doug, I feel the same way. I loved Colombia; I spent about three months there back in 2021 between Medellin and Bogota, and I loved it a lot.
30:34 The English was one of the only challenges there in Colombia. I loved the weather; I actually liked the food a lot. I used to go to this really nice farm-to-table restaurant called... I can't think of the name of it.
31:12 It was somewhere around here, but it was this farm-to-table restaurant, really incredible. I'd go there every day for lunch. Really good stuff. I mean, really, really good stuff. Huge fan of Colombia, Doug.
31:36 I hope I get to go back there at some point in the future. It was, I liked it a lot. I felt like it was another place that, to me, lived up to the hype. I love the architecture in Medellin and Bogota. I like a lot of those Spanish influences as far as architecture goes.
31:55 That's part of the appeal of the Philippines: that it does feel like a Latin country in Asia. It's clearly not Thailand, Malaysia, or Japan; it's really its own thing. That's part of the appeal of the Philippines, the big one being English, but also the visual aspect.
32:21 I talk about the Philippines; I say this a lot: it's the uncanny valley. It looks kind of familiar, but it's on the edge of familiarity and unfamiliarity, and you get this sense you're like, 'Okay, I'm home,' because people are speaking English. But I'm not home because people are different from the people that we would find in a Western democracy.
32:42 So yeah, it's definitely an interesting vibe. W says, 'Hi from Queens, New York.' Hey, welcome to the stream. What's the scoop on Ground Zero? Did you go there? Did you meet Goldfinger yet?
32:55 I haven't met Goldfinger yet, but Vano has met Goldfinger. I'd like to meet Goldfinger; I think Goldfinger is the only person I haven't met yet in Daggett. Everybody else, I've met or, you know, I met Filipina P, hung out with Filipina P, of course Paul. I consider Paul a friend and a mentor in a way, Mike as well, Chad.
33:29 Who else have I met here? P was the one that I was most surprised about. She was a character; we went and had some snacks, and she introduced me to a friend of hers who I've been chatting with for a while, which I should have done a video about, but I didn't.
33:52 I need to do a video on that. I've had a few friends tell me, 'What? You met P and you didn't do a video on it?' But when I met her, I saw another vlogger shove a camera in her face, and that was what started that interaction. I walked by her and did a double-take because I'm like, 'Wait, I know her.'
34:12 I was like, 'Okay, I'm gonna go.' She was filming, so I thought I'll go sit down and watch them film for a while. I'll give her plenty of space because, you know, she gets a lot of attention, and not all of it's wanted, I think. So I thought I'll just wait until she hits a good pause point.
34:30 But yeah, yeah, I... oh, Kelly. Yeah, I ran into Kelly as well. Lincoln asks, 'Okay, so MV, do you ever have a Filipino straight up approach you out there?' No. So MV, if you have that happen, it may be a ladyboy. Straight up means like, it's kind of just like an emphasis. It's millennial speak, I think.
35:03 I know it because I've used that phrasing. But yeah, no, Filipinos tend to be shy. I do like to interact a little bit in public, like wave and smile, and they'll start laughing. It's a lot of fun. I don't know if that'll be that way forever, but I have many positive interactions with Filipinos.
35:38 Typically, I'll engage them a little bit. One of the ways that I do it is I'll see that they're laughing and joking around, and then I'll laugh too. They're like, 'Oh wow, the foreigner thinks it's funny too.' I think sometimes they're kind of used to being in this bubble where they differentiate themselves from foreigners.
35:59 In America, Americans come in all colors, shapes, and sizes. You know, for better or worse, it's multicultural, multi-ethnic. So 'American' doesn't really, I don't think of a certain visual when I think of American. Americans tend to be a little bit bigger; I'm a little bit heavy-set or have been off and on over the years.
36:25 Overall, 'American' can mean a lot of different things visually, whereas 'Filipino' most people have a certain idea of what they might think. They may have interacted with a Filipino person and they're like, 'Okay, they've got certain features.' They're an Austronesian person, right? They've got certain features that I think of.
36:47 But yeah, so no, Filipinos generally are quite shy. You have to engage them; they're not going to come up and flirt with you. If they do, maybe it may not be a Filipina in the traditional sense, maybe a trans person. But once again, nothing wrong with that; I'm a 'live and let live' kind of guy.
37:16 I think that's just part of the Philippines. Foreigners have to accept it's not going to be on us to try to change the Philippines. The ideal is for the Philippines to change us, not for us to change the Philippines.
37:37 Oh dang, they're doing Cribs, MTV Cribs. Yeah, that'll be interesting to show the house. I've already let the host family know. I rent from a host family here; they've got this family compound, and I already let them know, 'Hey, they're going to be bringing a camera crew out here.' I just want to let you know, be prepared for people to show up with these big cameras.
38:00 That's going to be interesting because we're probably going to ride out here on trikes because there's no cabs in Daggett. So we're gonna be riding on trikes out here. That's hilarious.
38:10 Tomorrow, I'm gonna go get a haircut. I'm gonna get my beard trimmed so it looks professional for filming. And yeah, I'm a little bit nervous. I'll be honest with you, Lincoln, I'm a little bit intimidated to be on this program that the channel's channel is displayed in 16 million households.
38:33 So it is kind of intimidating for me to potentially have that kind of reach. I don't know if it'll go on live television; I know it'll go on their YouTube channel, but I suspect it will go on live television.
38:57 But yeah, I'll have a link. I should be able to get a link when they post it on YouTube. I'll provide a link and I may even do a reaction video to my...
39:07 And I may even do a reaction video to my own experience or a followup discussing what it was like. I'm excited, I think it's going to be really interesting. I'm nervous but excited about it.
39:41 They had quite a few respondents, and I guess I was able to make a better case for myself. It should be interesting.
39:55 I'll be sure to share a link. I'll probably post a link on my community page. I don't know how long it'll take for them to edit it and have it ready for release.
40:11 I'm going to stay in touch with the producer about it, just like, 'Hey, when you get a chance, holler at me about that.' I'm excited about it. I think it'll be interesting.
40:22 The production quality is going to be a lot better than what I can put together at this stage, and I should learn a lot. The big thing for me with this is just learning a lot and upgrading my skill set, trying to get better at this.
40:42 Maybe even getting some feedback like, 'Hey, what can I do to make my channel better? How can I make it a better experience for the audience? How can I take it to the next level?'
40:51 I learned a lot from P. Just hanging out with P for an evening with her and her friend group, she's a character. I ran into her totally by accident, and she's a high-energy person.
41:16 She puts a lot of work into her channel and makes it look easy because I think a lot of people find her relatable or can appreciate her content. Obviously, she's got hundreds of thousands of subscribers, but she works really hard at it.
41:31 There's a lot I could say positively about my interactions with P. But yeah, let me get caught up on some of these comments here.
41:47 Doug says, 'I was about an hour north of Bogota and Kahayan. Temps at night as lows 50, highs in the day, normally lows 70s. Was about 8,000 elevation.' That sounds really nice, Doug. I'm going to have to look into Kahayan. I didn't really explore outside the cities in Colombia, but I should have.
42:07 I had a friend invite me to a town about an hour and a half away from Medellin. Did P have her American man with her? Yeah, so I don't want to speak for P. This isn't me critiquing her. I suspect she's single right now.
42:26 Some people have said that maybe she's met someone else, but I saw her just with her kind of her crew. She's got a production crew, somebody that does camera work for her, and another person who helps organize things. So I didn't see any American men with her.
42:44 It was just her and her crew, her local folks that are helping her with production. Doug says, 'Liked Baguio but way too crowded and expensive.'
42:56 Yeah, Doug, I've seen some videos of Baguio, and it looks really busy. It looks like there's a ton of people there. As far as prices go, yeah, it's a place where everybody that wants cooler weather goes there because it's one of the few options you have for those lower temperatures at that higher altitude, and so it really has driven up the prices.
43:27 It's funny, you learn about Malaybalay. I think the secret's getting out about Malaybalay. A regular guy went there, and my buddy tried to convince me to go up there five years ago, but I was still a little bit nervous because at that time, I'd heard some of the horror stories coming out of parts of Mindanao.
43:48 So I was hesitant to leave Cagayan de Oro. Now, I'd be happy to go up there, so I may go up there, but I don't want to leave Dadiangas. I mean, that's what I'm struggling with right now is I don't want to leave Dadiangas because I have so many friends here and I've met so many wonderful people.
44:07 But I have done not everything I've wanted to do here. I've met a lot of people that I've wanted to meet. There's still a lot for me to do here in Dadiangas.
44:27 You're getting kind of this bubble feeling here in Dadiangas where you feel like you're somehow on another planet. It just feels very removed from reality because of how nice it is, how you have beautiful nature, Western conveniences, cool local people, and cool foreigners.
44:46 You kind of get in this sense of every day, some people would say Groundhog Day, but it's just so comfortable. And for me, I think comfort sometimes can be a problem. I can get too comfortable in life, and it's a benefit for me to check out some other places.
45:04 Lincoln says, 'Let me try to catch up a bit here.' L says, 'I ran into Sizzy Kelly and Duma.' I don't know if you know her. Yeah, so I've actually hung out. I've met her and her boyfriend David a couple times. I actually ran into David Saturday and hung out with him for a bit.
45:26 He's also from the States, so we had a lot to talk about. And yeah, I mean, I enjoy both of them. They've both been nice to me.
45:39 I think Kelly works really, really hard at what she does, and she's got a lot of grit and determination to have had the growth that she's had. She was at like 13k subs a year ago, and now she's past 80k.
45:57 So she puts a lot of effort into it, and I respect the amount of work that she puts into it because it's not easy. Before I got into YouTubing, I thought it looked easy, not that it would be easy to do, but it's just they're doing all the work for you. It's kind of this abstraction; you see the screen, everything is curated. There's a ton that goes on behind the scenes to make a quality piece of content.
46:30 Urban says, 'What American man she wanted the olive skin Easter dream?' Beno says, 'I've seen a YouTuber or someone they've interviewed six days in a row.'
46:41 Yeah, Beno, I keep running into more people. I was recently at a location here in town and ran into somebody that had been interviewed before. I want to interview this guy; he'd make an interesting interview. He runs the local NA chapter, so I think you have some interesting stuff to talk about. He's done one interview in the past, but I need to reach out to him again. He's a welcoming guy.
47:18 Billy says, 'Have you been to Cebu?' Yeah, Billy, so I went to Cebu five years ago. Cebu is great; it's got the big city vibe, some of the best food scenes in the country, a lot of nice places to eat. You can feel a bit crowded, though. Traffic can be tough in Cebu.
47:41 I sat on the Mactan Bridge for like a solid 30 minutes. It took me probably close to two hours to get from the airport to the hotel. This ride took me about, and you can see we're not even in major traffic right now because it's late morning, after rush hour. It'll take you to go seven miles 45 minutes.
48:23 When I did this, I landed in Cebu at rush hour. This ride took me, I think, two hours, maybe an hour and a half. So I sat in a cab for an hour, and I thought, 'Seven miles in America, depending on where you're at, that might take you, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes.'
48:37 So you've got to be prepared in Cebu for hardcore traffic. It can be really overwhelming, but there's a lot to love about Cebu. I have some friends that love Cebu; they live in Cebu. If you're looking to date, I think Cebu is awesome because you just have a sheer large number of people.
49:04 But yeah, MV, so yeah, I'll drop a link. Describe Dumaguete: is it mainly for guys over 50?
49:19 Yeah, so Billy, I don't think so. I think historically that has been the case where it's mostly appealed to guys over 50 years old, but now there's a newer generation coming in. I think the younger guys are like, 'Wow, we don't have to necessarily go there to retire. It's got a lot of its own merits.'
49:41 It's got a lot of cool stuff about it. There's a ton of diving around here, so if you're interested in diving, you can do that here. There's a lot of hiking around here if you like to go hiking. There's some great hiking.
49:58 There's a lot of outdoorsy stuff that some of my older friends kind of hold off from because they may be concerned about getting injured or may not have the same level of stamina they had when they were younger guys. I think that Dumaguete is friendly to all ages now.
50:16 I am technically, in Chad's words, a baby here. Me being 32, I'm very young here still, but I think that will change. I see young guys here more and more. I think Dumaguete just punches above its weight. It's got so much on offer in what's a small city that I think younger guys should give it a chance.
50:43 I could see younger guys being like, 'Ah, it's too small for me. I'd rather live in BGC or I'd rather live in Cebu.' Nothing wrong with that, but I think it's worth giving a shot. Before I came here, I thought it was going to have like a party vibe, but it doesn't. It doesn't have the nightlife that Pattaya has.
51:02 There's like a few bars in town, but it's, you know, it's sleepy. I mean, it's still kind of a sleepy town in a lot of ways. Things wind down fairly early. So yeah, Billy, I would say it's worth checking out. I think it's got something for everyone.
51:31 There's a lot to love about MTI, and there are people here from all over the country too. Even though you still see an international vibe here, there are people from all over the Philippines. Like my host family, the mom is from Zamboanga, which is in Southern Mindanao, and the dad is from Bacolod. Bacolod is in the northern part of the island, and Zamboanga is in Mindanao. So you meet people from other parts of the country, and it's really interesting in that way.
52:03 Nicholas says 90 Day Fiancé. No, Nicholas, I'm not going to be on 90 Day Fiancé. I delayed my vacation by three months. I got it. I need a directional microphone. Yeah, that's a good call. I'd like to get a shotgun mic. That would be interesting because a shotgun mic basically picks up this narrow bar, like almost like a tube of sound, and doesn't focus on stuff outside of it. So that's one thing I'm going to look at. I need to look at Lazada to try to get one of those.
52:43 W says, do you think she was educated or lived in the US for command of the language? It's great, and her accent is that of someone who grew up in the West. I think P had an American boyfriend or Western boyfriend for a while. I think that's part of what helped her to develop that, but she's also worked on it a lot. We also talked about it, and she said her Filipino accent comes out, so she makes a conscious effort to neutralize her accent, which I do as well, by the way.
53:16 For those who don't know, I grew up in Nashville. I grew up in the southern US, and a number of the people that I grew up around, especially people like 50 plus, they talk like this. They have a country accent, and some of that can bleed over into my English. But I always had pressure from my grandma growing up, 'Hey, you need to neutralize that because you don't know where you're going to go in life.' People have certain negative perceptions of country accents and any accent that's not neutral, like a Mid-Atlantic accent or a California accent. People are going to have certain kinds of perceptions about it, and often negative, unfortunately. It's the world we live in.
54:06 With P, she's got such an international audience that it helps her to neutralize it because she's got people watching her all over the world. She's got people in Australia watching her, people in Canada, people in the UK, people in Japan, people in South Africa, people in Brazil. So she wants to be as neutral as possible, and that's something I've gotten compliments on many times. English teaching actually helped me with this, so I wanted to shout out to Tony about this. English teaching helped me to go for a more and more neutral accent so that I could communicate effectively with lots of different people and they can really understand what I'm saying.
54:47 I get a lot of compliments too from Filipinos and also from my Thai friends that they can understand me very well. So it's really a conscious effort from people who are in media that care, because I really care, to make sure that we're able to so that. Yeah, in short, well, I think that she, it's a conscious effort for P to neutralize her accent, but that also, she's dated an American for a long time. That kind of helped her to neutralize it inadvertently, by accident, or unintentionally. That's the word I'm looking for.
55:27 Becoming Filipino also needed a vlog in Malai. Yeah, that guy is great. That guy's got such a positive vibe, and I think it's cool to show some parts of the Philippines that a lot of foreigners don't see.
55:41 Lincoln says, did that station reach out to you, or did you fill something out on their Facebook or something? No, so thanks to subscribers like you, Lincoln, they actually reached out to me. So I've always thought my channel's tiny. I don't know if it's ever going to get too big. Define big. Some people would say big is a million plus subscribers. Some people would say 100k is big. Some people would say 10k is big. For me, under 3,000 subscribers, I'm still quite small.
56:10 But they reached out to me. They sent me an email saying, 'Hey, we're coming to the Philippines, or we're going to film in the Philippines. We like your channel. Are you open to being interviewed?' And I said, 'Yeah, let's do it. Let's set it up.' They gave me all the details, linked their channel, and explained to me what they want to cover. I was like, 'Sure, I'm fine with it.'
56:39 So yeah, I didn't reach out to them. In fact, I prefer it this way. So a lot of the times that you see me collab with people or work with other people or even interview people, most of those people have suggested it to me. Most of the time, I treat people like cats. It's got to be their idea, right? So if you notice when you try to pet a cat, they'll be skittish and run away. But then if the cat approaches you and rubs up against your leg, they want you to pet them.
57:11 It's not quite exactly like that, but I try to let people know, 'Hey, I'm a YouTuber.' And then naturally, that gives them a chance, 'Hey, you know, I've got this story, you want to cover it on your channel?' Yeah, sure, let's do it. But I don't ever want it to be transactional with my YouTube. Maybe I'll change my mind about that, but I don't like the idea of, like, I know some YouTubers, they'll come up to you, 'Hey, do you want to make my channel?' Oh, no, I'm not interested, man. They'll immediately turn around and walk away.
57:40 No, I like to talk to people. I like the social element. So yeah, YouTube has so much work and knowledge behind the scenes. I've been filing hours of background music that I can use legally for free, but I'm one to two months out from starting. Yeah, I think P studied YouTube for two years before she got started, and that's part of why her content is so successful is she put a lot of effort into understanding the platform.
58:06 I've been watching YouTube since high school. I started watching videos in high school. No, no, I was in middle school. So I started watching YouTube about 18 years ago. Feel so old. 17, 18 years ago. Never thought I'd be a content creator, but I enjoy the platform so much. I watch or listen to YouTube back in the States about 40 hours a week, and probably still close to that here.
58:35 But yeah, I looked at my usage time on YouTube, about 40 hours a week, listening to music on YouTube, listening to videos in the background, podcasts on YouTube, watching some of my favorite content creators. I love the platform. I think it's my favorite social media platform. It's such a powerful tool. I wouldn't be who I am today without YouTube. I wouldn't have learned all the things that I've learned. I wouldn't have connected with all these wonderful people.
59:07 So yeah, I'm a fan of it. W says, where were you during the pandemic? How long before you traveled again? That's a great question, W. So I was actually in East Bangkok. So let me pull this up. I could actually show you. So I was in this neighborhood, I was in East Bangkok during the pandemic. And then ultimately, we're east of downtown or city center. So this is more like the city, like Suhum. Down here is the current line. So this is like north between the city and the airport.
59:51 Yeah, so between the city and the airport. And I flew back in March of 2020. I was in the US for about eight or nine months. Was super miserable because I just don't like being in the United States. So in the very beginning of February 2021, I flew to Colombia. I was down there for three months, and then I went to Peru for another two and a half months, and then three months. And then I came back to America late June 2021.
1:00:31 And then started working. So yeah, I was home for about 10 months before I left again and went to South America. Had a great time in South America. Be happy to go back there at some point in the future. But I needed to.
1:01:17 Valencia. Above Dumaguete, I hear it's cooler, but my impression is it's still kind of hot. The elevation isn't very high. I'm thinking about checking out Guti next. Yeah, Doug, I've had a few friends tell me that they really like it. Definitely worth checking out. I found Valencia, the town proper, isn't that much cooler. That's something that kind of threw me off. Everybody was telling me how much cooler it is. I think you really need to go up into the mountains to get the better temperatures.
1:01:48 In Valencia, it was still kind of hot. I think if you go up into the hills, it gets better. If you go under tree cover, it gets better. But yeah, the yeah, check. Let us know how Guti goes. I've had several friends I really enjoy it.
1:02:11 My lease expires at the end of November, and I need to decide to extend. Ah, I got it. Are you in Malay? Bai, maybe I'm wrong about that. I think I missed out on where you mentioned you're staying. You may not want to share that, and that's okay too.
1:02:32 Metch says, Shopee, please, I'm a shareholder. We'll keep Shopee in mind. Lincoln says, I'm 40. I was making music videos with anime clips for the forum sites. Existed. Wow, very cool. Mr. Dave says, I'm a handsome man. Thank you, Mr. Dave. That's very kind of you. I really appreciate that.
1:03:02 But yeah, um, it looks like it's clearing up a bit. That's nice. So when I get ready to head to town to buy some clothes, should be nice. Probably stop and do lunch first, and then I'll walk down to this department store my friend told me about that's got some great deals on clothes. I prefer to shop where the locals shop.
1:03:31 It's not quite Ukai UK, though. I asked some friends about the Ukai stores, and they mentioned to me, hey, great for.
1:03:38 They mentioned to me, "Hey, great for Filipinas, uh, lots of ladies' clothes for men. H, not so good. You're not going to find what you're looking for. The sizing may be off, uh, the clothes might not be in the condition like that they're going to last a while." So I'm going to go to this other department store my friend told me about that has great prices. When I was down there, I saw my trike driver, actually, I saw the gentleman who I ride home with. I shouldn't say ride home with, who gives me a ride home, uh, every day or at least a third of the days. They all alternate to do these, but I saw him there. I'm like, "Okay, if the local folks are shopping here, this is a place where you're getting a lot of value for your money." And so I'll go down there and check out what they got. I'm normally a guy that I don't like shopping. I just find it to be time-consuming, but I want to wear something decent for this episode I'm filming because it has a lot of potential to, well, one, it's going to be permanent, right? It's going to be around forever. They warned me, "Hey, the topic is a little bit controversial. Are you comfortable because you might get some flack for this?" And I'm thinking, "Okay, well, better dress nicely at least to offset it."
1:05:05 Yeah, guys, feel free to chime in with any comments or thoughts you have. I'll probably go until around 10:00 a.m. We'll probably go for another 20-25 minutes, and then that way I'll leave. I'll get down to the mall around 11 o'clock. I'm going to be going to Robinson's Mall, uh, get some lunch and then and need to buy some more coffee. So I'll pick, I'll go downstairs to the grocery store, pick up some coffee and then.
1:05:43 Um, it's, uh, what else? So Robinson's, lunch, coffee. I'm good on data. My data plan is fine. So I won't need to buy any data. Um, I don't know if I'm going to have any more caffeine. I like to sometimes buy energy drinks at, uh, at Robinson's because, yeah, caffeine helps when you're when you're trying to move forward.
1:06:16 See, trying to plan my day out, it's hard because the Philippines is a very spontaneous country. So for those who haven't been here yet, you just don't know what's going to happen. Like for me, I go down to Daggetti, I have no idea who I'm going to run into. I run into people every single day and you stop and talk. It's different from the US where people don't want to talk, they're in too much of a rush. Here, I meet people all the time, and I just start talking to people. Sometimes it's the jeepney driver, sometimes it's a random person in the mall, sometimes people come up to me and start talking to me because they recognize me from some content that I've contributed to. And so you just never can tell what your day is going to look like.
1:06:55 100%. You also have to have patience. A lot of guys, they come here from the US, the UK, Australia, and they're thinking, "Okay, I'm going to go to the mall and I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna go get this errand done, go by the bank, I'm gonna go to the grocery store." And they get like two of those things done where back home they're used to, bam, bam, bam, bam, they get everything done because traffic can be a little bit, you know, a little bit different than what we're used to. I don't even think it's that, like, it's not awful. I mean, I've driven in Los Angeles traffic, and if you want to know bad traffic, LA traffic is the worst I've ever experienced.
1:07:41 Um, Lincoln says, "Just don't overdress. You don't want to look like..." Yeah, yeah. Um, I might overdress a bit, Lincoln, just because I.
1:07:57 I'll, I'm, I should be happy to discuss it after. There's a few reasons for it. Um, but the, you know, the content is kind of covering somewhat related to digital nomads. Oh, I can, I feel like I can share it. It is on the topic of passport bros. And so, um, you know, I want to put my best foot forward. I don't consider myself 100% sent. That's a component of my experience. I have to be honest, I am, uh, you know, a straight guy and I am currently single. Is dating a component? It didn't start out that way.
1:08:39 Um, I came here to the Philippines to meet my virtual assistant and to hang out with him, meet him and his family. Um, and, you know, his wife's a lovely lady. Uh, but in the process of doing so, they were like, "Hey, if you're single, we got to set you up." You know, if you come here to the Philippines and you're a single guy and you make Filipino friends, even foreigner friends, they will constantly be trying to set you up with a nice lady, assuming that's what you're seeking or what you're interested in. That's what I'm interested in. Uh, it's, you can't stay single here forever. I think I shouldn't say that. Many guys will struggle to stay single here forever. There's just so much, uh, interest in you meeting a nice woman.
1:09:23 And, um, yeah.
1:09:26 Um, yeah, Rossing Blog says, "Hope you could stay more longer in our country." Thank you so much, Rossing. I love the Philippines. You have the most beautiful country in the world. It's absolutely gorgeous. Every day I wake up and see beautiful palm trees out my window, and I see and I interact with the lovely Filipino people, and they teach me something new all the time. I'm constantly learning from Filipino people, the way that they have this emotional intelligence and the way that they, uh, they're so resilient and so strong. I think some of the strongest people in the world. It's incredible.
1:10:07 Um, the, the gratitude that a lot of Filipinos express for very basic things is, uh, yeah, I love this country. It's, uh, yeah, I love this country. It's I love this country so much. And the way that the people have welcomed me with open arms. You know, Rossing, when I first came here five years ago, uh, I was suspicious. I was thinking, "Why are these people so nice? Why are they being so nice to me?" Because I just didn't understand it. I mean, American people can be very rude. And to come here and have people be so sweet and friendly, uh, really taught me a lot. It was like, there is an alternative way to live. There's a different way to approach life. There's a different way to treat people. And I really admire the people here. And, uh, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm so, I hope I can stay longer to Rossing. And I know even if I do have to leave eventually to go back to work, I know I'll be back. I know that my destiny is at least partially here in the Philippines.
1:11:12 Um, assuming, um, you know, assuming they'll have me, of course. I'm here based on the goodwill of the Filipino people. And, uh, I want to maintain that goodwill. And, um, yeah, it just, I, I want to do my part to contribute. I want to do my part to put money in the pockets of Filipinos. And, um, yeah, I mean, that's, that's part of the benefit of the vlog to me is trying to encourage foreigners to come here and to enjoy this country, um, because it's the future. It just seems so bright here from my perspective, anyway. I get the sense that this country is on the up and up. I mean, even in five years since I last came, the internet has improved a ton. It's mind-blowing to me because when I came here five years ago, man, the internet was, could be a struggle. And now it's like zooming fast. I think now it's faster than what I get in America. I'm like, man, you guys are making leaps and bounds to improve and to develop and to grow, and it's, uh, it's impressive. It's nothing short of impressive.
1:12:21 So thank you so much, Rossing. Uh, Doug says, "I'm in Quezon City. It's hot here, traffic's bad, but reasonable cost of living. It's tolerable. I have a furnished two-bedroom for 22k." That's reasonable, Doug. Um, I want to do a month in Manila eventually. I know some people would ask why. I found some Airbnbs in Manila for a very modest price. And I know, like I talked to Mike about it, and Mike said, "Hey, I could set you up with the circuit, you could hit X, Y, and Z folks." And, you know, it'd be an opportunity, but make it, you know, organize it because Manila is hectic. It's the most densely populated city in the world. But there is opportunity there to network, to vlog, to collaborate with people. But you want to kind of set things up such that you're able to make the most of it because the quality of life for me is hard to beat here in DTI. I love the small town feeling. I struggle a bit in the mega cities because I grew up in a city of about two million people, so Manila feels very much big city to me.
1:13:45 Um, and Lincoln says, "Yeah, everybody had the perfect woman for me. My visit there was strictly to assess whether I wanted to live there forever." Yeah, it's funny, Lincoln. You're going to get asked, "Are you single?" all the time. Even yesterday on the, on the jeepney ride home, um, you know, there are some really nice-looking ladies sitting across from me on the jeepney. And it's, um, it's just such a romantic place. Like, I think of Thailand as a very romantic country. I think the Philippines is at least equally romantic as Thailand. It's, you just see couples everywhere. You see, from my perspective, you see people in love everywhere. You see, like, love just seems to be a big theme here. And I think we're missing that a lot in the West. I think a lot of us are struggling in that department in the West. And so to come here and have a different experience is really very wonderful.
1:14:51 Uh, Cars says, "Maybe you should reach out to Better Bachelor. His channel focuses on, uh, challenges of young men." Um, you're in a position to offer an alternative. You know what? I might send him an email. Um, I wouldn't mind, you know, collabbing with him. I have mixed feelings, um, about, you know, I look at it like more focused on the pull factors than the push factors. I think sometimes we expats can feel pushed away from our home countries, and that's valid. I want to validate that first off. Validate this idea that there's a lot of problems in the United States, the UK, Canada, Australia, where a lot of people, um, young men, but then also guys of typical retirement age feel pushed away. But a lot of what I also like to focus is the pull factors, right? I'm pulled to this place that's teeming with life, see birds and cows and dogs and roosters and all these different animals here that I never interact with back home. Cats. Um, the weather, right? It's hot and it's.
1:16:09 The weather here, it's hot and it's sunny. To me, it reminds me of what I imagine Hawaii would be like: the palm trees, the mountains, the oceans. It's such a gorgeous country, visually appealing. All my senses are activated here.
1:16:29 Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm too naive or too optimistic, but I try to look at the pull factors. Sometimes people feel like they're pushed out of America into the Philippines, but I feel like I'm being pulled to the Philippines by the beautiful women, the friendly and kind people, the generosity, and the social element. I constantly have opportunities to socialize and don't feel lonely here at all.
1:17:04 I have yet to meet another American here in Quezon. I've seen a few here and there in the malls, but no one is talkative. I think that's an element of the big city, where people are kind of stressed out and crowded together. They may feel a bit skeptical, and some of those people likely have jobs around Quezon or Manila, so they feel like they need to rush.
1:17:29 I still think it's probably a very cool city, but I like the slow pace of Dumaguete. I like the chilled-out vibe that you get here, which may not be as present in some of the larger cities. I do want to check out Manila, Davao, and Iloilo; those are the three top cities for me. Baguio is up there, but Manila is a higher priority.
1:17:59 I think both the Philippines and America offer unique advantages. Why not take advantage of both? I think it's important to consider the earning potential in America; it's still higher than in many other countries. There's still an opportunity to earn a lot, though with the cost of living ratio, it's hard to hold onto your money because things are so expensive in America.
1:18:44 As for the comment about young men lacking purpose or family in America, a lot of young men these days are effectively priced out of having a family. People lecture them, saying they need to get it together, but they don't consider how much money it actually costs. I've asked friends how much money they think is needed to support a family, and I've heard ranges from $200,000 to $500,000 a year to provide adequate support, including a mortgage, a reliable car, diapers, food, and maybe after-school activities or tutoring.
1:19:57 The median household income in the US is around $80,000 a year, assuming both parents are working. This is far less than the $200,000 to $500,000 a year needed. I know people trying to support a family on $100,000 or less a year, and if they don't have substantial support from extended family, it's a daily struggle. They're working 60 hours a week, can't afford to hire help, and are constantly cooking, cleaning, and doing home improvements, with no time to relax.
1:21:01 It's a constant rat race, and you never have time to enjoy it. Even if you make $200,000 to $500,000 a year, which requires a lot of work, you're still working constantly. Nobody pays that much to just sit around. It's like options that I don't have to exercise, but I can if I want to.
1:21:28 Lincoln mentioned thinking before speaking and that I'm a great person to show that not all young guys have bad intentions. I think some people like the 'freak show' element, seeing people leave. I think some of it is propaganda. The US doesn't want people to leave, in my opinion, because they pay taxes. Even if they don't earn a lot, they still pay consumption taxes, sales taxes, taxes on entertainment, food, and hidden taxes like inflation.
1:22:31 So, I'm happy to show that people have different intentions. For me, it's about pursuing relationships, not about something else. It depends on your quality of life in America. If you have a miserable quality of life, which is the case for me and many young men, you struggle badly with mental health, well-being, and positive emotions because you're so stressed out. A lot of people have this low-grade depression.
1:23:10 The ideal is actually building an online business and making money regardless of location; being location independent. This allows you to go to any country and earn income there. That's the real ideal because I know a lot of unhappy people can only do things so fast. It's part of why there are so many problems in America: people are expected to be more and more efficient.
1:23:46 Doug mentioned wanting to spend six months in Colombia and six months in the Philippines, but a roundtrip ticket is almost $2,000 with a 33-hour flight. His fiancée can get a three-month tourist visa with extensions. That sounds nice, like half and half would be fantastic. You get life in the Americas and life in the Philippines. I personally think the ideal for a lot of people would be half and half, giving them time to reset and live in a place they're more accustomed to.
1:24:26 Other people want to be full-time in one place, and I don't blame them. I think there are so many good options. For two people, the flights are just too expensive, around $4,000, and that doesn't include rent, especially when renting on a shorter-term basis or doing six-month contracts, which are typically more expensive than year-long contracts.
1:25:08 What is everyone getting into this week? I know it's late night in America and late morning here in the Philippines. Lincoln, I hate to hear you're getting a cold. Hopefully, my body isn't still achy by work in the morning. I hope you're feeling better by morning. A cold was going around here a few weeks ago; I caught a light cold and fortunately got over it, but I was feeling kind of run down myself.
1:26:44 Cars mentioned his Filipina is applying for a US tourist visa, wanting increased options. That's a good point; it's always good to have optionality. That's part of my interest in slow travel: trying to find places in the world where I could live. There are a few other places that are top of mind, places I've been that I would happily go live if I need be. You'll never regret having some other options; hopefully, we never have to use them, but it's nice to have that in the back of your mind.
1:27:33 It's not a bad idea, and the US isn't, you know, I'm not one of these people who tries to bash the US. Am I happy there? No, I'm not happy there. Is there still a lot to love about the US? Yeah, I mean, I miss the weather in California; I miss that Mediterranean climate and the cool weather because it's hot here in the Philippines. It's a tropical country, and you have to be prepared for really hot weather if you want to stay here. It's something that not everybody will adjust to as well as some others.
1:28:28 Maybe I'll go a little bit longer if there's interest. A bunch more people just popped in. I guess I can go a little bit longer, but I need to talk about something else. So, Wednesday, I'll film soon as I get the link for that. I'll be sure to share it on my Community page. That should be interesting. I've got some planning to do and trying to think about what I want to talk about or how I want to approach it.
1:28:52 Thank you so much, Cars. I really appreciate that. That's very kind and considerate of you. I'm very fortunate to have found this country and to have had the growth on YouTube that I've had. I've also met so many nice people through the platform, through interviews, and through traveling.
1:29:21 I've got some ideas for next year, some ideas of places that I want to go. I wouldn't mind doing something I thought about doing, guys, is going and doing some seasonal work in Alaska to just go and make a sack of money. I need to be clear about this: a lot of people have thrown around the idea that I'm about to run out of money any day, but I'd like to periodically supplement what I've got to prevent it from going down, maintaining a certain baseline amount, ideally increasing it.
1:30:02 I've never been to Alaska and I've always wanted to go. They've got these seasonal jobs up there because most people when they visit Alaska, they just go in the summer to experience it. I think it would be really cool to go up there and work for a summer. Housing is cheap, food is basically free for a lot of these jobs. You just work a lot and you put away a lot of money.
1:30:38 Once that's finished, you know, once the season's over, I want to go to Indonesia. Indonesia's been on my radar, and so that might pay for some time in Indonesia. But yeah, I think I'm going to wind down, guys. It's been a wonderful live stream. I wanted to make up for yesterday morning because I felt like it ended abruptly and I didn't really get a chance to talk to folks.
1:31:11 Thank you all so much for watching. If you're watching a replay of this, please subscribe to the channel down below. If you haven't already, give us a thumbs up; it helps with the YouTube algorithm. And comment on anything you saw in this replay if you'd like to share your thoughts. They're always helpful in generating discussion, and we will see you guys next time.
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