I'm Writing a Book

Announcing the Book

0:28 Guys, I thought I'd hop on here for a quick stream. I'm actually writing a book, take the glasses off, get rid of that reflection. I'm actually writing a book on just like a kind of a guide of moving to the Philippines. And I thought I'd just do a stream announcing it.

0:47 I like to have it done by the end of February. We'll see how that goes. It's a primary focus for me right now, so I'm trying to get up every day and write. It's coming along nicely. I have about 40 pages roughly written.

1:15 When it's done, I'll be sure to mention it, talk about it. I'll throw a link in the description of my videos once it's done. Moving forward, just to give everybody an opportunity to have that. The book is not being written for people already living here. I think they don't need a guide.

1:35 But for anybody considering moving to the Philippines, I think it's a solid resource for them. And it's a way for you to help support the channel if that's a priority for you. After it's done, at some point, I'd like to write a Thailand guide as well.

1:56 These two countries seem to be two of the most popular in Southeast Asia that people talk about wanting to spend time in. Both countries are wonderful in different ways, and they seem to be the two that I get the most questions about. So I just want to get some of this housekeeping out of the way.

2:16 I will announce the book when it's done, and yeah, it's going to take a little bit of time. It's going to take some of my focus. My uploads, I'll try to still stick to like every two or three days, but it's really important for me to get this done.

2:35 I just really want to get this done because it should answer a lot of questions that I get, and also provide people with a different, formatted set of information. Some people prefer to read over watching videos, or want something they can have offline if they have a flight coming up.

3:00 Maybe they're doing some traveling and won't have internet access, then they'd like to have that book. Other people maybe they just like to read. But anyway guys, just throw any questions or thoughts you have down in the comments section. Happy to talk.

Book Details and Philippines Guide

3:23 That was one of the things I wanted to get out of the way is discussing the book. I'll probably talk a bit more about that until we get some comments or some people sharing their thoughts. Yeah, I'm still sorting out so I found a publisher or a way to self-publish, I should say. I'll probably use that resource to put it out there.

3:57 I'm excited about it. It's a lot of fun. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. There's been a few different subjects I wanted to tackle, and I think getting a Philippines guide out there would be helpful for a lot of my American audience that are wanting to better understand what it's like to live over here.

4:17 And what that looks like and have an honest resource, not just trying to sell them on the idea, but also including some of the pitfalls or some of the things that people run into in regards to coming over here. Maybe other people want to come do it for a year.

4:39 That's kind of where I'm at. I've been here for about six months, plan to stay another six months and take some time to assess moving forward. Do I want to do education here like nursing school, which I've talked about, or do I want to continue my travels?

4:56 I think the Philippines is fantastic, but I also think there's a lot of fantastic options out there. I'm never going to be the one to say that this is the only fantastic place or the only nice place to live or to spend time. But it is a great option.

5:12 And I think for Americans, the visa situation makes it very attractive, knowing that they can stay in compliance up to three years as a tourist. You could see a lot in three years. I don't think you could see everything in the Philippines in three years, but you can really, really see a lot.

5:47 I'll probably throw the link this live. I'm going to try to go for an hour. I've got to go film something today, and so after this live stream, then I'm going to be going.

6:33 I'm just doing some sharing of this stream on my Facebook.

Live Chat and Weather

6:46 Great. So yeah, anybody have any questions or thoughts? Feel free to drop anything in the chat. Like I said, I'd like to go for an hour. We'll see. My neighbor is going to be helping me to do this filming thing.

7:15 Yesterday we had a brownout here. I'm a little bit scattered trying to get caught up. That's where we don't have electricity for a while, and we got to find other things to do on those days. So I kind of ran around town. Everybody was at the mall, or one of the malls, I should say, because they have generators.

7:33 They keep the electricity running, and so everybody crowds into the malls and places like that. I went and hung out with a friend of mine and just, you know, had a nice day. It turned into a nice day. It was a little bit stressful.

8:11 Also, can everybody hear me? I'm haven't gotten any chats, so I'm not sure anybody is commenting or chatting. So I just want to make sure people can hear me. So if somebody could give a thumbs up.

8:27 I just don't want to be wasting everybody's time if they can't hear me. Okay, hey Roy, good to see you. Thanks so much. Yeah, I was just wasn't sure if it was broken on my end. We have some people, but I don't know about the timing.

8:45 It's getting to be like later morning, which means it's later too back in the States. But yeah, it's kind of rainy. It's been rainy, and then the sun peaks out, and then it starts raining again. It should be an interesting weather day.

9:23 Today, yeah, we're nearing the end of January. I can't believe how fast time is passing.

9:36 I don't know why I'm so tired today. Guys, I'm sorry, I just feel like I had a lot of caffeine yesterday. So maybe that's it. I had like four or five caffeine drinks. I had like four cups of coffee and one energy drink. Maybe I had five. I had a lot of coffee yesterday.

10:17 How was everybody's weekend? Did everybody have a good weekend, or anybody have any plans for this week?

10:32 I'm still waiting on my passport renewal. I'm hoping it comes soon. It's probably still going to be at least a few more weeks.

10:45 TJ says, 'I shoveled snow.' That sounds tough, TJ. I'm sorry to hear that. I heard that the US has been getting hit by snowstorms.

11:18 Oh, I see you're in Canada. Okay, yeah, then you guys got really hit hard by snow. One of my buddies here, Chad, he was talking about winters in Canada, not missing them. I hung out with him on Friday night with some other mutual friends of ours, and yeah, that winter weather is no joke.

11:41 It's something I take for granted here that we don't really have winter. I wear hoodies like people always ask me why are you wearing hoodies and long sleeves. I wear them to protect my skin from the sun, but it's not because of temperature, and it's not to try to stay warm.

11:56 In fact, it definitely makes me probably feel hotter than what I need to, but I see it as a tradeoff to try to protect my skin and just be cautious about that.

12:21 So I guess you mostly shoveled snow out of your driveway, TJ, right? Like, your city probably has a plow service or that plows the main roads, but you're responsible for your property.

12:49 I've never been to Toronto, but I've always wanted to go. I have been to Windsor, and yeah, of course, it's been over 10 years since I've been to Canada. But wow, that's a lot. I don't know if I've experienced that.

13:05 I lived in Colorado for several years, and so when I lived in Colorado, we definitely got a lot of snow, especially when I was in the more mountainous areas. They did a pretty good job of clearing the highways and interstates.

13:25 But especially if I was visiting places like Breckenridge, then the snow would pile up so high. Fortunately, in Denver and the Grand Junction area, the snow kind of melted away and disappeared relatively quickly.

13:57 Yeah, how's the temperature?

14:06 Yeah, just my driveway, sorry. I got to text back. Yeah, just my driveway, more than a foot. I have a snowblower, but I prefer to get some exercise.

14:20 Yeah, I agree. I think getting the exercise is a great idea. It helps to stay in shape, right? I could just hire people here and do meetups, but I walk a lot because, you know, benefiting from the exercise. I think it's good for my health to just like walk around.

14:45 I'm going to start maybe even today. I need to check in with a friend. I'm going to start running at the track. There's a track here in Dumaguete, and I'd like to start running over there.

Cold Weather and Carnivore Diet

15:03 It's been really cold, but warmed up to around 32 degrees Fahrenheit, 0 Celsius. That is frigid. Oh man, if I go back to the US to visit at some point, I'm not looking forward to encountering those temperatures.

15:16 That is wow. I can't imagine. I used to live in some cold places, but it's been so long since I've lived in cold places that I'm not looking forward to that. And I've heard it feels even colder when you get used to living in the tropics.

15:34 So yeah, I couldn't imagine that. I don't blame you there for having curiosity about Southeast Asia. I don't know how the Filipino Canadians do it, right? Because there's Filipinos that live in Canada. I'm thinking that's got to be like the opposite.

15:48 That's warm. I barbecued.

15:57 Wow, I will tell you, TJ, that I found that to be warm in Colorado. So Colorado is cold like half the year. 32 was not bad. I found anything like 20 or above was not that bad. Once it got down to like 10 Fahrenheit, that was pretty cold, and I would just stay inside and wait for the snowstorm to pass.

16:31 So the filming I was going to do today got pushed back. We're going to do it Friday. We're going to push it back to Friday, which is fine. I think it'll be good to do that.

16:43 I think it'll be good to do that. That'll give me a chance to edit today and write more. It's with the rain, I'll probably stay inside most of today. I do need to go out and get some things done, but I don't know my schedule work anyway.

17:03 What are you barbecuing tonight, TJ? What are you cooking up? I may do an early lunch around 45 minutes from now. There's a place I like to go to called Mr. Sizzler, and if you go there before 11:00 a.m., they give you a free coffee with your meal. So I like to go there before 11:00, and then I get the entree and then I have a nice cup of coffee to give me a bit of a boost.

17:50 That's something that is harder to find here. Steak, you can find it, but it's one of two things: one, the quality can be so-so, or two, you pay a premium. I eat a carnivore diet, nothing but meat and eggs.

18:06 I could never survive. Yeah, so a couple of my friends do something similar to carnivore, not like full-on carnivore. They would do probably more what you call like keto, which I've done before. Basically, you'd be very limited.

18:24 Now, I will give the Philippines credit. A lot of the dishes that I've had are like meat and rice. So if you cut out rice, which they're going to look at you like you're growing an extra head, but if you cut out rice, a number of the dishes can be carnivore-friendly.

18:40 So like one thing that I like to pick up at a restaurant here in town, my favorite restaurant in town is I get tuna belly and kinilau. The tuna belly, they don't even serve it with rice; you have to buy rice separately. They'll give you like a big piece of tuna and then they'll put it in like a plastic container to go. And then I order a kinilau, which is the fresh tuna.

19:07 So that tuna is grilled, and then with the fresh tuna, they chop it up and they put in onions, tomatoes, peppers. So you could get that. You know, you could get like grilled meat, you just have to find the places that don't add sugar.

Filipino Food and Healthy Eating

19:24 And there's a fair amount of places that at least here in Dumaguete, they don't use sugar to cook their meat. So I think it could be more friendly than Thailand in some ways for a carnivore. Basically, a lot of the dishes, like I said, going for the ones where you trust it. You know, you can even ask, like, does this dish have sugar on it or in it?

19:51 And certain establishments I found that cater more to foreigners, they're better about it. Like they know, especially for retirees, older guys that may be especially concerned about diet, that they don't want that.

20:07 And then the other thing, a number of my friends do here. Like one of my buddies I hung out with yesterday, he cooks almost 99% of his meals. He says, I want to control what I put in my body, so I just buy the meat and then cook it myself.

20:23 So it's not easy. I do think it's, I think if you're willing to do it yourself, it can be easier than some other parts of Southeast Asia. But yeah, a lot of my friends go to the import grocery store called Rustans. I'll just go ahead and drop the name down in the chat, and it's a chain throughout the Philippines, and they sell like a lot of Costco products.

20:49 And then they sell a lot of imported steaks. Paul, old dog was doing a semi-carnivore. Yeah, so that was one of my friends that comes to mind. He goes to Rustans and he'll go and buy, you know, 10 steaks at a time, or 20, or 15, or all of them sometimes. He'll just buy all of them.

21:09 Sorry Paul, I hope I'm not tattletailing on you, but yeah, he'll just buy a bunch of steaks and then every day he'll just grill one up, or maybe his wife helps him sometimes, and then he just eats that. He pays a premium for that.

21:26 But I think for people who are concerned about diet, used to paying a premium to follow their diet, and so that's certainly an option. Yeah, Thailand has amazing food, but I would say I felt like western-style food was more expensive in Thailand than here.

21:46 Because like here, there's a place I like to go to where I can get a filet mignon for about, is it $7.50? The owner of Rustans also owns this restaurant called Moon Cafe. And the steaks are cheaper in Moon Cafe or Cafe Racer than they are in off the shelf. I don't understand it, I don't begin to try to understand it, but they're somehow cheaper in the restaurant than they are if you buy them and take them home.

22:22 So typically I'll just go to one of those two restaurants. One of the places like that, and I'll have a steak that way, and they cook it in line with my preferences.

22:38 I think I would just eat Filipino food to keep expenses low. Which Filipino dish is the healthiest? I lean toward kinilaw. I think kinilaw is underrated. I don't ever hear people talk about it. Maybe because I'm part Japanese and I'm used to sushi, but kinilaw, let's see.

22:58 I would say too, like any of the meats grilled, like you can do grilled chicken here. Grilled pork is popular here. The main thing you want to do is cut out the sauces. I find that Filipino food is designed to be customized. It's designed for people to add sauce or to use sauce based on their preference.

23:22 And so if you don't add like sweet sauce or like a gravy, then it's much healthier. What they get credit for, I'll say a lot of people make this claim of it not being healthy. And to me, yeah, certain preparations not going to be the healthiest, but if you have some more control over it, there's nothing unhealthy about grilled chicken.

23:43 As far as like from my perspective, I'm not a nutritionist, not a diet expert, but grilled chicken is grilled chicken. Grilled chicken is in many different countries around the world, and I think like, you know, just like I said, grilled meat.

24:06 You know, calamansi juice is nice with it. Like they have this calamansi fruit. You squeeze some of that, that's a nice flavor. You do have, I do think that the health-conscious person should moderate their consumption of rice. I like the taste of rice, I'm used to it, but it basically turns to sugar when you eat it.

24:23 By the way, guys, please give us a thumbs up. We've got 13 folks in here or 12 folks in here, so that would help with the YouTube algorithm. But yeah, I think like cutting down on like treats. You know, there's a lot of amazing Filipino desserts. I think a lot of them are fantastic, but they're not right for the very health-conscious person.

24:49 Added sugar is, you know, most people would agree it's not a good thing to consume, especially in excess. And it's a relaxed atmosphere here too, and people are, I find people are not very judgmental. So like, you, the expat in the Philippines, really does have to be meticulous about planning out their diet, their access to a healthier diet, knowing what they should and shouldn't eat.

25:22 Like grilled chicken, I think is a great option. Fried chicken, not so healthy. And I did eat a lot of fried chicken when I got here, and I still eat it probably more often than I should. But I've tried to opt for more grilled options when I can, try to reduce, you know, desserts. Like try not to have dessert every day. I try to keep some fresh fruit.

25:48 Fresh fruits around, but I mean, fruits turn into sugar. So you know, you're eating a lot of fruits. It can, there's some overlap there with eating too many desserts. And then like I said, the dessert options here are one of the best in the world that I've experienced. I mean, they really do. I guess it's because of the sugar production. They produce a lot of sugar here.

26:15 Hey Mr. Dave, good to see you. How are you doing?

26:34 You know, these bananas are popular. I get like, I don't know, maybe eight or 10 of these for 20 to 30 pesos, depending on the size.

26:45 How are you doing, Mr. Dave? What are you up to? By the way, we've got almost 20 people in here. Give us a thumbs up if you can. Yeah, it's a nice morning. It's kind of raining off and on here. I'm not sure about where you're at, Mr. Dave, but it's, um, yeah, it's a nice, it's a nice day.

Cost of Living and Travel in the Philippines

27:19 How do you survive? Oh, one thing about food is, I will say food does seem to be more expensive than in some of the surrounding countries. If you want to eat healthy here, I think it means you're focused on meat and protein, and they are cheaper than back home. But you're not going to have like, you know, grilled fish for 50 cents or something like that.

27:45 You're not going to be able to have like a steak for a dollar. These things will cost more, but certainly still cheaper than having these things back home, right? Like I have swordfish maybe once a month or every other month. I get that for five bucks, including rice and some like a salsa, and that's, you know, five bucks versus having that would be $30 in the US.

28:10 How do you survive currently in the Philippines? I'm not sure what you mean, Scott. Dexter says sunny and Cebu. That's good, man. I'm, uh, when I was in Cebu, the temperature was really nice. It was cooler than Dumaguete. I liked that a lot in Cebu.

28:32 Economically, yeah, I have savings. So I worked in tech and saved a lot of money. Two, I have income from YouTube, and it's a lot cheaper for me to live here than back home. You know, my rent's like $140 a month, where my rent back home was well over $1,000 a month.

29:12 My electric bill here is like probably $30 to $40 a month. Spend probably around $10 a day on food. So, you know, my expenses here are around $600 per month. I'm used to spending well over $3,000 a month in America.

29:37 So, you know, if I have $10,000, just as an example, that could last me a year, where $10,000 will just fall through your fingertips.

29:52 I'm an insomniac, and unfortunately, I'm still awake watching the NFL games on my laptop here in Thailand. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Mr. Dave. Who's playing in the NFL right now? I don't know much about it. I like Asian people in America. I think, at least in my case, was heavily discouraged from having any interest in football, so I just don't know that much about it.

30:18 I still don't fully understand it, but yeah, Jose, I was there last year and I...

30:23 Yeah, Jose, I was there last year and I would eat one whole lechon chicken sometimes. Pork is the healthiest diet because meat is nutrient-dense. I've always felt best when I'm eating a lot of meat. Jose, like I did keto for a while, I lost a lot of weight and I just felt a lot better, slept better, had more energy.

30:49 Yeah, how long will it sustain you? I prefer not to answer my exact resource, Scott. That's a personal question that I don't want to put out there for many reasons.

31:06 Here in Bangkok, I will say I could afford to go back to nursing school here. I thought about doing the medical school route, but I don't want people to know about my exact situation because it's none of their business.

31:26 Nicholas says, here in Bangkok, PM 2.5 is incredibly high. The population is unbearable. That's something I love about the Philippines, Nicholas, is that the air quality is great. I mean, you get especially with the ocean breeze.

31:39 You know, some people say it's a bit dusty in Daggett. I noticed a major difference when I came here from Thailand. That was probably my biggest challenge in Thailand, if I'm being honest, is that there were issues with the burning season, and I definitely felt it like in my body, in my lungs.

31:57 I wasn't sure how bad it would be, but last year I ended up flying to Southern Thailand, and it was just a concern for sure.

32:35 I'll have a month to travel as an exploratory visit, debating whether to try to see as many places as possible or spending like a week in each place.

32:46 That sounds really nice, Phillip. I think you'll enjoy yourself.

33:02 Phillip, this is what I did for my first visit to the Philippines: I picked three places for roughly 10 days each. I did Cagayan de Oro, which is more of an industrial city. I did Camiguin Island, which is like tourist mode. And then I did Cebu City, which is a big city.

33:21 So you may select, say, like three places in 10 days each, and that'll give you a little bit of a buffer in between the destinations. Right? You'll have like a day of travel in between each one. That'll give you time to settle down. You won't feel too rushed.

33:34 Travel does seem to be a bit more time-consuming in the Philippines. Sometimes flights get canceled. I've had buses get delayed. I've had ferries take longer than what I thought that they would take.

33:48 So that might be a good option is picking three different places that give you like a taste of different things, right? Like a tourist spot, a small to medium-sized city, and then a big city. A lot of people find themselves needing to go to the big cities here because one, healthcare, or two, they're the gateway, like Cebu and Manila are the entry and exit points to the country.

34:35 Nicholas, yeah, it's not too bad here. I mean, it's not perfect. I'll never say anywhere is perfect. Certainly, places like Japan or Scandinavian countries are probably your peak as far as air quality. But you know, I like it here a lot. I like that I can smell trees and flowers, and it's really nice in that regard.

35:16 Jose says, how about starting a healthcare staffing agency instead of studying nursing? I don't know anything about healthcare, Jose. Like my parents passed when I was pretty young, and so I didn't have any outside view into healthcare, but I'd rather have a baseline experience before I start the business.

Travel Tips and Packing

35:39 That way I could learn the industry a bit more and know the regulations, know the rules, the requirements, what they're looking for, that kind of thing.

35:54 That sounds like a good idea, nice variety. Now the challenge is to settle on just three or four places. Yeah, and that way you get a sense of like different places, right? Some people might say, I only want cities, so I go to Manila, Cebu, and Davao, but then they don't know about the tourist areas or the smaller cities.

36:10 Some people may say only small cities, they don't get so having distinctly different places will give you a sense of the variety of what's on offer. And then you can always come back and do another discovery trip and try a few more places you haven't been.

36:25 This trip, I've been to Doon, I've been back to Cebu, and I plan to go to Siquijor. I'd like to make it to Elo Elo. I'd like to make it to Bohol. We'll see how things go.

36:59 After four months in the Mindanao province, it was exciting to have a five-hour layover in Manila. So refreshing. So I could care less about being near an international airport.

37:12 Yeah, I mean, especially in a country that's set up in some ways for tourism, like here, Mr. Dave, I think it's fairly straightforward to get to Manila. Everybody kind of funnels into Cebu or Manila. And so wherever you are in the country, you could probably hop on a bus and then get to a ferry or a smaller airport and then get there.

37:41 It's not like the US where there's a lack of public transit options. And if you're in the middle of nowhere, you're going to pay an arm and a leg. Like you're going to pay for an Uber to get to a bus to then get to a small city, to then get to a larger city, and then you get out.

38:00 It's more like, okay, get to this town where there's an airport or a ferry, and then, I don't know, the cost is just so much less. And so even if it's not always as fast, it's like, whatever, I'll... and you become accustomed to a slower pace here.

38:16 So I find Manila to be exciting, and or I should say, I find the big cities. I haven't spent time in Manila, but I spent time in Cebu. I find it to be exciting and dynamic and a lot of fun.

38:44 Yeah, that was a good point. Jose, let's say I got my nursing education and I did it for, I don't know, a couple of years. I would be happy to take a closer look at the staffing agency idea because you really need leverage if you want to build wealth. You're not going to build wealth selling your time for money.

39:08 It just puts a cap on your income potential, where if you start a business, you've got more accountability. Of course, you've got more responsibility, but you're able to earn a lot more and to build something more substantial to free up your time.

39:25 So I think that's a great point. I would just want to have that firsthand experience so I know what I'm getting myself into and I know how to deliver a quality service, make sure I can take care of people, make sure people are happy. And a big one is following rules.

39:39 Like in the US, healthcare is super highly regulated, and I would want to make sure I know how to follow all the rules and be in compliance.

40:06 I travel out of a small backpack, Phillip. Like I've been traveling for, shoot, I'll be right back. I've been traveling with this backpack for a year and a half. I carry a tote bag as well.

40:24 But yeah, I just use this backpack for the last year and a half. I think the big thing is packing. Like I don't know, three or four sets of clothing, maybe five. I do laundry at least once a week.

40:42 But I have more than just three. I have probably like an outfit for every day, and then I just go once a week and do laundry.

40:51 I would say a lot of the things, the big thing is electronics. Like bring your cell phone, bring a power bank. I should do a video on that actually, what to pack for a discovery.

41:14 So, power bank. Thank you, Vano. I appreciate it. Yeah, thumbs up guys if you can. So yeah, power bank, any electronics. Don't expect to be able to find them easily here in the Philippines. It can be fairly complicated to purchase electronics.

41:34 I would say, you know, if you have, I'm not sure, Phillip, if you're American, I didn't confirm that, but bring $100 bills. The larger bills, you'll have an easier time exchanging. They won't take imperfect bills.

41:48 So I have, like I have, I still have this $60 that I brought, and these are imperfect. And so Thailand wouldn't take them. I haven't tried to exchange them here. Maybe I'll try to exchange these here and see what happens, but Thailand wouldn't accept them. So perfect $100 bills in an envelope.

42:13 And you know, if you're coming for a month, maybe you need a thousand. They take electronic payments for a lot of things, not in person, but like, let's say you book your hotel in advance, you book your flight, you won't have to pay cash for those. You could pay online with a credit card or a debit card.

42:34 So maybe you bring a thousand, maybe $1500, and you could exchange, say, $500 at a time. So let's say you get to the end of the month and you spent more on a credit card or debit card than you... just take the $500, you know, back with you. Or let's say you spend $800 in cash.

42:51 Better to be, I always say, better to be prepared for the worst than to be trying to come up with some money last minute because you overspent a bit.

43:03 Who was it? I talked to somebody recently. Yeah, I talked... I'm not going to name him because I don't want to embarrass him, but a friend of mine recently on his first trip to the Philippines, his discovery trip, he made some mistakes. He didn't prepare adequately. He ran out of money.

43:28 He had money in the West, or he had money in it, like, but he didn't have access. He didn't have any way to send himself money. So he ran out of money before he ran out of time. So for his last week or two, he was living really hard up here in the Philippines.

43:40 And then he flew back, and of course, everything was fine. But like, doing your test run, coming overprepared, not in terms of stuff, but really capital, like cash. A lot of things you can buy here, like a lot of people say bring this, bring that. Your basic stuff you can buy here, like snorkeling equipment, for example, is easy to find, especially in the bigger cities here.

44:05 Clothing sizes are going to be a little bit off, so you might bring like the shoes you need. But a lot, even sizing, it just takes time. You're going to pay with your time. So if you don't pay with your money by bringing it with you, you'll pay with your time. Clothing can be a little bit hard to...

44:23 Clothing can be a little bit hard to find. I've struggled to figure out the sizes I need. Now I've got it down, but it's taken me some time to figure that out. So, being prepared with the things that are specific to you is important.

Amazon and Electronics in the Philippines

44:34 Dexter says power banks are not supposed to be on US flights. I had to leave mine. Interesting, they let me bring mine, but they've broken. They got fried by dirty electricity. So, I've had to buy them, but I've been buying multiple faulty power banks here. That's why I hesitate to recommend people buy them here.

44:59 That's just one type of item that I haven't had success with here. I bought from multiple different vendors, different stores. Like, I bought power banks three different times here, and all of them have turned out to be faulty. So, that's one of those items that I would trust more if you can.

45:18 I don't know if a carrier will be okay with it or not, but I found them to be acceptable to take through as long as they're in my carry-on, not in my checked luggage. That's what I've heard the difference is: you can't bring power banks in your checked luggage, but if they're on your person, as long as they're under a certain size, I think it's 30,000 mAh. I think the limit is like 20,000, so if they're 10 to 20,000, they're tolerated.

45:48 Let anybody watching this on replay know down in the comments if that's acceptable or not. I'm not sure what the limit is, but yeah, that's something to think about.

46:40 I like to buy this. Oh, hey Eve, good to see you. I'm doing well. MadCat 36, does Amazon deliver to your area and can you get American-sized shoes and clothing?

46:50 Yes, Amazon does. I'll show you guys a box actually right here. I'm not going to show the... let's see here. Let me just make sure I've got the address hidden. Yeah, so I've got this right here, and they do deliver to my area. I can't buy, so that power bank, funny enough, power banks should be its own video, but I can't have a power bank shipped here.

47:21 But they do deliver here. Amazon does deliver here. I have ordered a number of different things. You can order on Amazon Americanized clothing and shoes. For shoes, you're going to pay a shipping premium. And for clothing, like the clothing and the shoes that I like to wear, like my white shirts, they're charging like $15 shipping to the Philippines. The shoes I like, Adidas shoes, they're charging like $12 shipping.

47:53 So it seems like with apparel, the shipping price doesn't really apply to the... Amazon like, you know, the Prime deals, right? Where the smaller items it does. So if you're, you know, be prepared to pay like a premium on shipping for apparel and for shoes. I'm not sure why that is.

48:22 Maybe they just don't get the deal that they get on shipping for smaller items. But this is another product I need to order. This is sunscreen stick. So I need to add one of these to my current order. And I just compile a cart, and then when it's not apparel, it's not shoes, once I go above this, I think it's like a $60 or $70 limit for free shipping right now. I don't know, the price fluctuates, but once I get over that limit, then I just check out.

48:54 I go through, double-check, make sure everything in there is still relevant to me, and then I place the order. And sometimes they come in multiple shipments. It's kind of confusing, but I learned that from Gio. For those who don't know Gio, who does the channel Gio in the Philippines, I talked to him about some of my challenges with online shopping here, and he told me, 'Just buy on Amazon.' He said, 'Everything I want, I just try to buy on Amazon,' and that has been the most effective way for him.

49:25 You wait a little bit longer, but you know you're getting an experience that you're more familiar with compared to other options.

49:36 Does Amazon have a warehouse in the Philippines? I'm not sure about that. I know they contract with DHL, there are a few different shipping companies, but there's one. Let me check my phone because they always text me whenever they're bringing me something. LBC. So LBC is the company I've used to handle my passport renewal, but then Amazon also contracts with them to do Amazon product deliveries.

50:02 Guys, please give us a thumbs up if you haven't already. We've got 22 folks in here that would help with the algorithm. Yeah, Amazon, you know, great option for making purchases here.

50:34 I know a lot of people use them for online shopping. The customer service with them is also something you're familiar with. Like if you have any issues, you can reach out to them, and you'll be able to handle any questions or concerns you have. But yeah, I hope that answers your questions, guys.

AI in Writing and Travel Experiences

50:51 I mean, I didn't realize that Amazon would be so seamless in other countries, but I've used Amazon in Colombia, I've used Amazon in Thailand, I've used Amazon here in the Philippines. Did I? I don't know if I used Amazon when I was living in Peru.

51:10 Kirk asks, 'Hey Alex, do book authors actually use AI to help them write?' Yeah, so I'm writing a book, and I am using AI a bit to help with the writing process. I'm not having AI write the entire book for me.

51:28 I think it's good to get frameworks down, right? So for me, being ADHD, sometimes I don't know where to begin with creative projects. Like I have video ideas, but I don't know how to construct them. Fortunately, I've had friends that have stepped in and said, 'This is how you build your idea out.'

51:48 But yeah, I think AI is great for a framework. I don't necessarily like the idea of just having AI write everything and then just turning that out. But as far as getting a framework, yeah, like for me, I'm like, 'Okay, tell me the topics that are most relevant to people,' and then we go through that.

52:09 And then I delete what they've written because sometimes what they produced makes no sense. What AI has produced makes no sense, but it's given me the topics, right? It's like, 'Okay, well, people care about this, people care about that.'

52:23 Because I've spent six months in the Philippines, I've forgotten what it's like to be new here. Some people would say six months is still new; I would disagree with that. I've got eyes, ears, a mouth, a nose. I know I can get information through my senses.

52:40 So for me, I just can't relate as much to the person who's fresh off the plane. In fact, I can often spot them because they're usually in a hurry, they're walking really fast, they are kind of aggressive, they have that kind of wild look in their eyes that a lot of people in the west have these days due to stress and being overwhelmed by the pressure of bills and just staying on the treadmill in the rat race.

53:08 But yeah, that's part of what the goal is there: to just have a resource for people that they don't know where to begin. And I need to expand it too. Like, sometimes I'll take a paragraph or two and feed it to AI and say, 'Reformat this or organize this,' because I want it to be very structured.

53:31 Because I'm kind of more free-flowing, and I want to make sure that I have it organized so that it's valuable, because the information needs to be organized for the person who purchases the...

53:52 Yeah, so Dexter, great point. Amazon does have a building in Cebu. They have, they do a lot of customer service, so they're these call centers here in the Philippines. Cebu, Davao, Makati has a few, but Cebu and Manila are especially known for them. I think Davao has some as well.

54:05 Where when you call customer service in the US, you can often end up, especially for Amazon, I know Chase Bank has a call center there, then you end up talking to people in the Philippines. I've had it with several different American banks, several different American retailers, or talking to a person in the Philippines. And I actually ask sometimes, I get the courage to ask, 'Are you in the Philippines?' And sometimes you'll be here and you'll call them in the US, and then you'll connect with somebody in the Philippines.

54:39 So it'll be somebody in Cebu, or it will be somebody elsewhere. But guys, I'm going to step away. I have a lot of caffeine, I'm gonna hit the restroom, I'll be right back.

56:16 MadCat, in hindsight, what items do you wish you would have brought with you before leaving the US?

56:29 I think the challenge there, MadCat, is that if I had brought more, I would have had to check an extra bag. For me, the cost of an extra bag is not the end of the world. The bigger deal is lugging the stuff around, right? Part of me is like, man, I wish I would have brought an extra pair of shoes or extra clothes.

56:49 A lot of people give me flack because they think I wear one of these white long-sleeve shirts, but actually, I brought like, I think I bought four of them. And so, you know, I could wear, I could go through that for... I could do laundry twice a week, right? That's what I would do in Thailand. Wear each one for four days, then throw on my jacket, go wash the four. So twice a week I'm doing laundry, I have a clean shirt on every day.

57:19 So that's kind of the challenges. I packed this bag full, and anything more, I would have had to get a bigger backpack. When I started traveling, I used to use a backpack about twice this size. So I used a huge backpack, and the more I travel, the more I shrink down what I bring.

57:43 I focus on toiletries that... Thank you for asking that question, actually, MadCat. I would say the big things are, if you like a certain kind of deodorant, bring some extra deodorant. It's hard for me to find the deodorant I like from back home here. I also find sunscreen is expensive in this part of the world, so bringing extra sunscreen.

58:04 I don't like the tube sunscreen; I think it smells weird and it feels weird on my skin. So I like the sunscreen stick. It looks like a stick of deodorant, and so I just apply it like that. And this stuff goes a long way. I find it... this stuff goes a long...

58:30 Toiletry items go a long way, so I would say toiletries are a big one. What else depends on how long you're coming for. If you're coming for six months to a year, bring enough clothes, but clothes do wear out. After you get landed and settled a bit, try to find some solid clothing retailers.

58:51 I like to go to places like Le's Plaza and Uniqlo. If you go to Robinson's Mall, the quality is great, but you will pay a premium. Places like Uniqlo offer a great service, but it's not going to be the streamlined experience you get if you pay a premium. Those premium retailers can cost you, and they charge a premium for the service they provide.

59:37 Finding some more modestly priced retailers is helpful. Socks are another one; I find it's hard for me to find socks I like. Back in the US, Burlington socks cost $3 a pair, but they're thick and last a long time.

Philippines vs. Colombia Comparison

1:00:09 Frameworks sound like good topics and structure. I agree, Kirk. Philip asks if I've traveled to many other countries and how Colombia compares to the Philippines. I find the Philippines safer than Colombia, but probably a little bit more expensive when it comes to accommodation.

1:00:38 It's kind of hard to say, though. Colombia has gotten more expensive; I was there about three years ago and heard it's gotten a lot more expensive. The weather is more what I'm used to in Colombia; it's not as tropical, especially if you're at altitude like in Medellin or Bogota.

1:01:24 It's not quite as hot. I apologize, I spaced out there. I think it's safer here in the Philippines. When I was in Colombia, a lot of my friends who are from there constantly warned me about safety. I didn't have any major incidents, but I had one sketchy encounter in Medellin.

1:01:43 I lived in a really nice part of the city, but I walked into a small industrial neighborhood and had a sketchy encounter. I never got straight up stolen from, but you just have a sense of unease there, if I'm being honest. I've heard the same thing from other travelers.

1:02:04 I never had any issues, but other people have had some issues there. Safety is a concern for me. I think the visa is also easier in the Philippines for Americans, and the Philippines feels more American in some ways than Colombia did.

1:02:20 Colombia is very beautiful; I love Colombia and would be happy to go back there at some point. But I just can't shake that feeling that it's, you know, I know Doug lived there for a long time and never had any issues. Your mileage may vary.

1:02:38 I think for some guys that have safety issues in Colombia, they're really into the nightlife scene. I'm not into the nightlife scene at all, so maybe that's why I didn't have issues where I feel like nightlife in the Philippines is a little bit less risky, just based on my observations.

1:02:58 I can only speak from what I've read or seen about the issues in Colombia. My personal experience was fine; I had no issues. I was there for about three months between the two biggest cities. Maybe it's because I could pass for Colombian, and I heard that from a few friends.

1:03:21 Part of it may be that you pass, so I'm not sure if it's worth doing a discovery trip. I think a lot of these places are worth going to check out. Give it a month, maybe three weeks to a month, and you get a sense of whether you like it or not.

1:03:40 Be careful if you do go to Colombia. Philip, not to flash valuables, it's just something to be mindful of. Mr. Dave, I'm a 36-year-old American man and I've spent two and a half years in the Philippines since 2016. Very nice.

1:03:57 Mr. Dave, J-reg changes in the US are different per state. Got it. Jose, Big E, I took a course on AI recently. I feel like I've only scratched the surface on all the ways it can be helpful for me. Yeah, AI is an incredible tool; it amplifies your effort so much.

1:04:11 I plan to keep using it and working with it, increasing my understanding of it and my ability to use it. God, maybe you can contact John Smo. I actually ran into John when I was in Cebu a few weeks ago. John is a friend of mine; he's a great guy.

1:04:37 He's a hardworking guy; he's providing a lot of great opportunities to Filipinos who work for his business. I didn't know he had an RN staffing business. I need to talk to people more. Part of me feels like I like to get to know people on a personal basis.

1:04:57 I should be more salesy, but I feel like if I just talk to him about business, he'll think I'm wanting something from him. For me, it's more about the friendship aspect, and then maybe business arises. But it's fair, right? We've all got to make money to survive.

1:05:17 I'll talk to John Moore. I've been meaning to connect with John Moore. I thought about going up to Cebu for like a month. So yeah, I'll have to follow up with John. I appreciate that, Jose. It would be a good way to gain knowledge.

1:05:31 I also wouldn't want to push him to say, 'Hey, I want to compete with you, help me get started as a competitor.' But John's like a friendly guy; he's a warm person. Yeah, take care, TJ. Good to chat with you. Have a good evening. I know it's getting late there on the East Coast.

1:05:55 Coast or near the East Coast of Canada. Writing a book, I just joined. I missed your announcements. Sunday is my big moving day. Wonderful, Doug. Have a good time in Tayai. Be sure to give us an update after you get settled into Tayai, how you like it compared to Mati.

1:06:14 A friend of mine and a member of this channel is based in Tanay in Cavite. He suggests that I come check it out at some point, so that's definitely on my radar. Maybe if I make it up there, I could spend a month in the area and catch up with you, Doug, and then also some other folks there.

1:06:31 Jose, that would be a way to gain enough confidence and knowledge into the business. He charges $150 per consulting. I got it, got it. Thank you, Jose. I appreciate it. I didn't know that, but that's reasonable considering the value of his time and expertise.

1:06:56 I like John a lot; he's been very nice to me, very personal. I was supposed to go on his channel, but I had to dip out of town. I didn't plan ahead very well for that trip; it was kind of last minute due to my passport renewal being rejected. But yeah, Doug says speaking of Colombia.

1:07:14 Oh, Biggie says, like you, I like to develop relationships organically. I agree, Biggie. Let's see, speaking of Colombia, yeah, the long-term visa is tough. 180 days per year as a tourist. It's slightly cheaper, bigger apartments for the same money. I was there years ago and found it very safe.

1:07:44 So, I think accommodation is a bit like you get more for your dollar in Colombia. It is hard to get the year-round visa, right? So you get 180 days as a tourist, but then you probably want to go to Peru, maybe Mexico. Ecuador is having some challenges right now, but maybe you could do half the year in Colombia, half the year in Peru.

1:08:10 I love Peru. Maybe it was just the Asian influence in Peru, but I found it more introverted. In Colombia, I found more outgoing. So for me, as an introvert, I found it easier to kind of mesh with Peru. I still like Colombia a lot and learned a lot in Colombia.

Remote Work and Business Challenges

1:08:36 I had some great experiences, but hey everybody, hey Janet, good to see you. Janet, check out Janet's channel, everybody. She does some interesting live streams, and more specifically, Dumaguete rentals if you're trying to find a place in Dumaguete. Janet's keep kicking over my water bottle.

1:08:58 Janet's Channel, Dagat Rentals, is a great resource for you to get a sense of the apartments and houses on offer, what you have to consider your options if you want to move here to Dagat. Invisible American man, yeah, so the challenge with a remote job, there's a few problems with that.

1:09:23 Invisible American man, one, why would a company hire an American if they can hire somebody else at a much lower rate? I've had places I've worked out in the past; they would fire Americans and then hire people in these other countries at a much lower rate. So for them, it doesn't really make financial sense to pay extra for talent if they've got a cheaper option.

1:09:52 I've had a few offer me like $500 a month to work full-time, or $700 a month to work full-time. You know, that's I'm better off not working at all or starting my own business than to work for that amount of money. If I'm working full-time, especially in sales roles, the commission they're offering is just a pittance.

1:10:21 So there's no hacks like that. I wish that was the case, but the companies have they're always one step ahead of the employee. They're never going to pay the employee a US market rate and let you live overseas unless you have an extremely hard-to-find skill set. You're never going to earn US market rate and pull off living in a cheaper country.

1:10:51 They just don't, the system does not want to support that. It sounds awesome; a lot of people have suggested that to me, but it's never people actually doing that. It's never actually people that are able to pull that off. Most of the people that can pull that off keep it on the DL because they don't want other people competing with them.

1:11:14 Competing with them, they may not want their company to find out if they may be using a VPN setup. It's, I wish it were that simple, but you know, yeah, there's no finessing these companies. They often begrudgingly pay American wages, and that's part of why I'm looking at healthcare actually.

1:11:43 A lot of tech jobs are getting outsourced. A previous employer of mine fired an engineering team and hired their replacements in Poland. They fired a lot of their California-based staff and rehired in cheaper parts of the US, so there's a race to the bottom. I think we're technically in a situation where there's just an oversupply of labor because the global population has expanded so dramatically.

1:12:16 Then, there's just too many people looking for work, especially right now in the US. There's a tech recession where there's a lot of unemployed people trying to find work. That's why you're seeing wages come back down.

1:12:33 I've been out of work for a year and a half, and there's a lot of people in this situation. I've been offered not enough money to really make it worth my while. I had one company offer me a sales job in California, $30 an hour, no commission, to live in the Bay Area. Are you kidding me? $30 an hour, I'm going to live in my car to earn $30 an hour to live in the Bay Area and do a sales job with no commission?

1:13:09 So there's no incentive for performance. The hack is to own the business. That's the only way to really get ahead in the US: either have a super rare, high-demand skill set that's gatekept by regulation, like medical, or a lawyer. There are certain professions that set up arbitrary barriers to entry because the people in charge want to control the industry.

1:13:46 They make it arbitrarily difficult through lure to enter that profession because they don't want people getting into a bunch of debt and then not being able to pay it back. Then those people go and tell others, 'Don't go to law school, don't go to medical school,' because you'll get a bunch of debt you can't pay back. Those professors will struggle to get customers in the form of students, and the system starts to get cracks in it.

1:14:18 That's why those industries remain lucrative: people have an incentive to maintain those positions being lucrative. Even Big E says, even in America, we have locality pay. I live in a cheaper area of the US and get paid a lot less than those who live in DC, for example.

1:14:43 When I was in California, I had co-workers in Texas, and they would complain about me getting more pay. Then I was the first to get cut in a layoff, me and other California co-workers. Doug says, 'I booked a return to Colombia. Have a safe trip to Colombia, Doug.'

1:15:07 I wasn't sure about the Philippines when I came, so packed luggage will be nice to get back. Colombia is awesome, I love Colombia, I'd be happy to go back there at some point. I think you'll have a great time in Colombia, Doug.

1:15:19 Owning the business, that's part of the reason I'm getting more into content creation: being able to work my own hours, having control. You can't get fired as a content creator, assuming you follow terms of service, which are easy to follow. It's not like a job where you get laid off, get fired, or get your hours reduced.

1:15:41 They move you around, and they're paying you to provide a service. Here, it's more about getting paid based on the value I create. That's a bigger thing. AI is going to take out all the high-paying tech jobs.

1:16:03 I think AI and outsourcing are going to impact the income potential in tech. You'll still be able to start a business, but as far as working for somebody else, they're going to continue to try to nerf that because that's just the way the system works.

1:16:23 Jose asks, 'Have you been to Paraguay?' I haven't been to Paraguay. $90k was the poverty line in the Bay Area five years ago. I would say it's more like $150k minimum now in the Bay Area. I don't understand where they expect people to live on $30 an hour and work in the San Jose area.

1:16:44 I guess you could live in a bunk bed situation, rent a bunk bed. But what if you're... I don't know. It's just such a mess. It's not sustainable, but that's the way it's set up.

Entrepreneurship and Quality of Life

1:17:02 That's part of the reason I'm here: to be able to pursue my entrepreneurial goals. I can just stretch my savings a lot further here in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia in general. Long-term, I expect the channel will keep growing, and I'll be able to offer more. I think this book will be part of the value that I'm able to offer.

1:17:32 Invisible American Man, I'm flying to Motti on Wednesday for four weeks. I have a problem in a business that I own with after-hours, weekend, holiday call taking for service in the standby power industry. I need the call taker to be an expert in Genera Power Systems. The only way to make that happen is to train them myself.

1:17:51 I would agree, Invisible American Man. Like you have to train. Training is part and parcel of business challenges, and the fact that you're willing to train them yourself and acknowledge that's a challenge is amazing. Several jobs I've had offered no training, so it was 'hit the ground running or don't.'

1:18:14 That could be stressful as an employee, trying to make people happy without being prepared to do so. But that's where you come in, and you take accountability for that, and that's a beautiful thing to see. Big E, risk mitigation for AI taking over is learning machine learning to teach AI how to operate. That's a great point, Biggie.

1:18:35 Yeah, I mean, when I lived in the Bay Area more recently, there was an issue with crews. There was a company, GM, that was funding that. They had an incident, and a lot of those places, like a lot of the AI, does have risks associated.

1:19:10 By the way, guys, can you hear music? They're playing music downstairs now. I just want to make sure that's not coming through on your end, because it's hard for me to gauge how loud it is. Okay, thank you so much, guys. I appreciate that because I just don't want to have copyright music at all.

1:19:30 But yeah, Invisible Man, I got it. The alternative is to have someone who may not have the best attitude, who may not be super happy with their life. I'm going to turn on the aircon because it's distracting me.

1:20:14 And to be fair, with customer service, you can't scale it like YouTube. You can scale right, you can serve more and more people. Programming, you can serve more and more people. That's the benefit of media or software: they're scalable, like film. You make one great film, millions of people can watch it many times over and enjoy it.

1:20:35 Where customer service is one-to-one. You've got one person helping one person, and it's just... you gotta serve a lot of people to build wealth. I think that's the issue with customer service: there's just a limit on it.

1:20:56 Exactly, customers demand that the person be an expert that they're talking to. But I found that, you know, sometimes they just lose their patience or become frustrated when the person they're talking to is not an expert. But often, the expert in the system is working on system design, making the system more efficient.

1:21:27 People seem to be working at the edge of their competency too. As soon as somebody gets pretty confident on the system, then they get promoted, because they don't want to be doing the same job forever. That is the fly in the ointment of offshore customer service.

1:21:49 Totally agree, Invisible Man. I've had some minor disagreements with offshore customer service where they're trying to follow a script. They don't understand the software problem I'm dealing with. I'm telling them, 'Look, I understand how software works, I understand to some extent why this is broken, and I want you to fix it.'

1:22:14 But they're saying, 'I have a script I'm reading off of. I can basically just parrot lines from the script, and that's the extent to which I can help.' Then it goes through an escalation process, and I talk to their boss, and their boss sends me to another team because their boss doesn't know what's going on.

1:22:31 Then they create a help desk ticket, and an hour later I get a solution. That's fine if it's not important, but if you're trying to run a business, taking multiple hours to solve what is a relatively inconsequential problem can be a headache.

1:22:51 Trucker Captain, hey guys, shout out to Captain Trucker. He's got a really interesting channel with a lot of unique takes on the Philippines. I was working and slept in a car for a year in the Bay Area and Las Vegas before I came to the Philippines for the first time.

1:23:06 There's no shame in sleeping in a car with the cost of housing. If I became a nurse, I would consider it. I would consider it if I could shower at the hospital, if I could do laundry at the hospital or near the hospital. As long as you're not like throwing... I don't see any problem with it.

1:23:27 I don't see any problem with sleeping in a car due to the housing shortage, the artificially created housing shortage. There's a difference between the Working Poor and people who are like bums. There's a huge difference in that. You know, the people who had judged some of the homeless in America, I would say look back at the Hoovervilles of the Great Depression. You had tons of people who were good, honest, decent people that, because of greater economic issues, just didn't have housing.

1:24:02 As long as you're trying to move forward, trying to find solutions, trying to learn skills or get ahead, there should be no shame in that. It's not the same as, yeah, a really short less than 30.

1:24:20 I'm not sure what you mean, invisible American man. RV, yeah, I mean, RV. Like there's a difference between, I'm going to park here, I'm going to throw my trash out the window, I'm going to be a nuisance to the neighborhood, I'm going to scare people, I'm going to be disheveled. And the guy who's going to show up to work every day on time, I'm going to work hard, I'm going to save my money, I'm going to invest my money.

Living in the Bay Area vs. Abroad

1:24:51 America to me today is more of what I would call an economic zone. It's more of a place to go and make money, less of a place to really enjoy life. I think a lot of people are citing that their quality of life is going down.

1:25:07 And it's, you know, if you're able to put away money, take that money to a country where the cost of living is more modest, where you feel like, wow, the weather's better, people are friendlier, I get to enjoy some lifestyle choices that I couldn't enjoy back home. Like for me, being able to walk to the beach is amazing.

1:25:26 I could never afford to walk to the beach. I could never live in a place where I could afford to walk to the beach in the US. I mean, to be walking distance from the beach in the US, you're paying thousands of months in rent. You're probably paying a premium for like dining out, any kind of service you need, on a vehicle, like everything is going to come at a premium in any kind of beach community.

1:25:57 Sure, yeah. I mean, you could live in Oakland near the port, but that's a dangerous area where there's a lot of crime problems. Most people would not be happy living near the port of Oakland.

1:26:14 RV in a gym members. Yeah, you take, you get a gym membership, you can go and shower, you get regular haircuts, you shave. I need to shave, actually. I'm deciding I'm going to move more toward being clean-shaven. I think a lot of people prefer that look.

1:26:35 I had an RV for three years up in the Bay. Yeah, nothing wrong with that. I mean, it's a very economical option if you're in an area like the Bay Area where the weather is very mild. Then, you know, you're not going to freeze. It's not you're not going to be boiling in there either. It's a fine option, especially for a bachelor.

1:26:52 I think the calculus is a little bit different if you're trying to raise a family, but I don't think California is a very easy place to do that. Anyway, so yeah, invisible American man.

1:27:04 Right on, Captain Trucker. Trucker says, and '08, even $30 an hour was a joke in the Bay. Yeah, I mean, that's just you can eat, you know, but like most people expect to do more than to just be able to eat.

1:27:24 You're not saving much. You're certainly not putting away much for an emergency, right? So yeah, okay, you got your food, maybe you got like a room in a house or a bunk bed in a house, but what if you have an unexpected expense? It's not good.

1:27:39 I stayed in Hayward at times. Pretty rough. Yeah, I'm familiar with Hayward. I always, trucker, I always call Hayward 'Wayward.' I always joke around they need to change the name of Hayward to Wayward. I've had some interesting experiences in Hayward, like last time I was in Hayward, somebody knocked the mirror off my car.

1:28:01 Fortunately, they didn't ding like the actual door, but yeah, they took the I came, I walked out to my car one morning, and my mirror is like hanging off. And so I had to get it replaced, and I just replaced it a month before.

1:28:16 Philly says, I agree, the US is a great place to make a living, but not a great place to enjoy your life. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people are just in survival mode in the US. They're living paycheck to paycheck, even if they're making a lot of money. They feel pressure to keep up with the Joneses. They feel they need to be interesting, they need to look cool.

1:28:44 Yeah, Hayward, like I think it's, uh, not a bad place. Like, I've lived in different parts of Hayward, and I think it's, it's, what's the word? Your mileage may vary. Right, some parts of Hayward are, um, I felt really nice, and then other parts of Hayward may struggle with some challenges.

1:29:08 And you got access to the Bay Area job market, and that's the best part about being in the Bay Area, or one of the best parts about being in the Bay Area is that it's got a ton of economic opportunity if you're trying to get ahead.

1:29:17 For what it's worth, I found the Bay Area, I far prefer the Bay Area to my hometown. I grew up in the southern US, and I felt like the Bay Area was way more egalitarian, way more opportunity for me to get ahead. People treated me, even though people were stressed out, I felt people were just more productive.

1:29:37 They were more open-minded. Um, I loved my time in the Bay Area, and if I had to go back and work, if I could find a job that would pay me enough to live there and to get ahead, I wouldn't mind going back to do so because I just felt like it was a much more efficient place to live than where I'm from.

1:29:57 People were more educated, not just like formally educated, but people also just like had more intellectual curiosity. I could talk to people about different subjects that were interesting, where back in my hometown, not everybody. There were very intelligent people where I'm from, but you really got to seek them.

1:30:37 Sunscreen must always be on your ears as well. Lots of cancers on ears. Thank you for the heads up, Ed. I appreciate that. I'll put some on my ears. I don't put it on my ears, and so, yeah, now I'm going to do that. I'm going to make it a point to put it on my ears.

1:30:58 And it, uh, it rubs off too. Like if I sweat a lot, sometimes this stuff will come off. But yeah, invisible American man.

1:31:14 Hauling your motorbike on the back of court. Oh, Philippines business model. 20-year-old Isuzu box truck converted to RV with lithium-ion battery bank and solar array on the roof. Sell these rigs to expats who want to wander around island to island, hauling your motorbike on the back of course. Yeah, that's an interesting idea, invisible American man.

1:31:34 I have heard of a little bit. I haven't seen them, but I have heard of people doing like van life here, where they want to see different beaches or they want to post up in different places. There's a lot to see here, like way more that I think gets put out there because a lot of people only mention a few of the hotspot cities or tourist destinations.

1:31:54 But there's a lot of cool spots in the Philippines that like nobody ever talks about. And I'm sure the expats that have found those places want to keep those on the DL. But there's a lot of cool places. There's so many cool places in the Philippines that just aren't on the public radar. They're harder to get to. I admit some of the cooler places, you're just going to be going real remote. You're going to be taking a long bus ride and a ferry. You're not going to have the shopping options there that you want.

1:32:26 But if you're an adventurer, if you want to explore, like this country is freaking incredible.

1:32:49 Mr. Dave asks, what is the ethnicity of Eastern Dreamers? So I'm, uh, Indian, like India Indian, and then Japanese, and also, uh, white. So like half Indian, 30% Japanese, and 20% white. And I know that doesn't make sense, how are you not a quarter? But I did my DNA test, and that's what they provided to me. So I guess when I came out, I came out with a little bit more weight toward East Asian.

1:33:18 1% Korean in there. I so I have a Korean, probably great-great-great-great-grandparent or something like that. But I always just say Indian and Japanese because I was raised by my grandma from Japan. So culturally, I'm, I feel more, yeah, definitely Asian-American.

1:33:52 And yeah, uh, let's see. I still like the Bay Area. It's one of my favorite spots in the whole country. I've been to every state and dozens of cities. I had a lot of fun there in my 20s living in the RV and playing drums. That's so cool, trucker.

Bay Area Elitism and Authenticity

1:34:01 Yeah, I love the Bay Area. It's my favorite area of the country. I've lived in, I lived in Colorado for several years. I grew up in the South, and when I found the Bay Area, I just felt like home. Um, I still have a lot of friends in the Bay Area. I still like, I like the natural beauty, I like the weather, I like the food scene, I like the urban landscape as far as just being kind of densely populated, being able to hop on public transportation.

1:34:41 Jose says, Hayward was great for me. Have you been to East Palo Alto or Richmond or Stockton? Those are pretty bad places. That's a great point, Jose. I, uh, I have been to Stockton, and I've been to Richmond. Um, I and I've been to East Palo Alto too.

1:35:12 And, uh, yeah, I mean, you know, I think it depends on individual experience as well. Like depending on where I went, um, I never had any like major, major incidents in Hayward, but I did have an incident at a Starbucks where I got into an argument with this guy because he accused me of like taking his stuff, and he was sitting at a seat, and I sat down at one of the other seats at the table, and he got really upset about it.

1:35:47 And so that, you know, that shouldn't, that doesn't reflect on everyone. I certainly had some good experiences in Hayward too. To compliment it, one of the most generous people I met in the Bay Area, his shop is in Hayward. He helped me to, uh, get some work done in my car at a very modest price. He like really helped me out a lot. He had helped me years back, and he helped me again when I went back.

1:36:16 So, um, I don't know. I think, too, Jose, like I had difficult experiences in the Bay based on the cost of living. I still loved it, but that kind of colored my experience at times in a negative way, uh, because of, I don't know, maybe there was just.

1:36:34 I don't know, maybe there was just like a chip on my shoulder from being an out-of-towner. A lot of Asian-Americans in the Bay Area grew up in the Bay, so they're local. Where I always, you know, you don't have the Bay Area accent, you don't have the kind of savvy that people get from growing up there. You know, I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder, whether I was in Hayward or Berkeley or in San Francisco. I just wanted to belong, right? I always felt like it was so cool and the people are cool and insightful and educated and worldly and international. And, you know, I always felt like a bit of the country bumpkin in some ways, coming from the southern US, where when I would bring up where I was from, people would say, 'Oh, that's flyover country. Welcome to the Bay, welcome to the real America or welcome to the real city.'

1:37:38 And I didn't always have that experience. I felt like Hayward was more relatable, people were more down-to-earth. But I wanted to kind of shake that background of mine a little bit because, you know, the southern US doesn't have the best reputation. For some people, some people love it, but it's kind of off the beaten track.

1:38:14 The Rock is from Hayward, very cool. Jose, I didn't know that. The Rock was from Hayward. And yeah, so, you know, sometimes I think about that experience I had in that Starbucks. I really like the parks in Hayward, I like the hills in Hayward. I felt safer, much safer in Hayward than in Oakland. I felt more welcomed in Hayward.

1:39:01 I think some of the critique, and maybe this is just me, but in the Bay Area, I felt like I've got to keep my job. And so I've got to say what people want to hear. In sales, like, you kind of, it rewards people-pleasing behavior, and so you kind of just say whatever people want to hear. I had leadership or even friends that were elitist. So while Hayward felt much more relatable to me, I felt like to keep my opportunities going, I had to like whatever you liked and I had to dislike whatever you didn't like and just parrot back whatever was being said or whatever the general attitude was.

1:39:47 So if I met somebody that didn't like Hayward, I didn't like Hayward either. If I met somebody, they don't like Oakland, but I like Oakland. Okay, I don't like Hayward, but I like Oakland, even though they're bordering cities. They have a lot in common. They're both Bay Area cities that are diverse and have a lot of people from all over the world. I just, you know, I felt like I had to lose myself to make money.

1:40:22 And I feel like a lot of people feel that way in the US. They have to lose what makes them unique to get ahead financially. I had many more positive experiences in Hayward than negative. Like I love the parks there. There's a lot of beautiful parks in Hayward that don't get enough attention. Also, a buddy of mine who lives more towards San Jose, we went driving in the mountains or the hills east of Hayward. Beautiful hills, we had some great times in his car. He drove kind of a sporty car, and so you go up there and ride around, and he's whipping around the corners and having a lot of fun.

1:41:07 I felt like it was a hidden gem where I could be around people I could relate to more, where it wasn't so elitist. But I also felt like the culture of deception, at least in some ways, meant that I had to just kind of like parrot what I heard from other people to be accepted. And I would notice when I would say something people didn't like, because they wouldn't necessarily come out and say something, but they'd kind of be a little bit passive-aggressive and just look at you like, 'What?'

1:41:48 And it would bite me in the butt sometimes too. Like I actually had some great times in Oakland, and then I'd have co-workers that didn't like Oakland at all. And so then I'd say, 'Oh yeah, Oakland sucks.' And then I find out my leadership, 'Oh no, we like Oakland.' It's like, okay, well, no matter what I say here, somebody's gonna have a problem with it. But I also don't want to make the wrong people mad because then my job is at risk. It's just tough.

Life in the Bay Area and Future Plans

1:42:20 It's tough. I mean, it ultimately all worked out for my benefit. Yeah, trucker says, 'I want to see you in a confrontation, hidden argument on Hinge.' That would be great. Yeah, I try not to be, I try to be pretty level-headed over here. But if I go back to the States, I mean, that's very common in the States.

1:42:42 Even in SF, there's a sense of elitism. We used to talk about that. It was supposed to be ultra-progressive and welcoming, but in fact, it was a rich city with many rich people. Yeah, definitely. Trucker, it's you definitely get the South Park did a great episode on it called 'The Smug,' the San Francisco smug. And I encountered that quite a bit. I encountered quite a bit of elitism and smug attitudes.

1:43:13 I found that I got along a lot better with immigrants or more recent immigrants than I did with the more elite people, like people that that was their dream to move to the Bay and work there and had a lot of gratitude for the opportunity versus the people that took it for granted and, 'Oh well, whatever, it's just the Bay.' You know, and I just thought it was like this. I felt like when I got to the Bay Area, I had made it. Like there was part of me that felt like I'd made it in life, so there was insecurity. But then there was also the sense of like, 'Wow, I'm not in the Midwest or South anymore.'

1:43:52 And I had other friends felt the same way. I met other Asian-Americans that, yeah, when my family got here, we got sent to like somewhere in the Midwest or somewhere in the Southeast. And then when we got our education, we got to move to Cal, we got to move to California or we got to move to Washington or Oregon or New York on the East Coast, Boston. And so...

1:44:21 I felt like I needed to adopt the elitist attitude to make the right connections, but then it also cost you because you come across as inauthentic. But for me, it was a lot of it was about survival because my family background is so messed up. For me, it wasn't an option of, 'Okay, if you fail here, you can go back home and move in with your folks.' It was like, 'No, if you fail here, you're going to be on the streets.' And the streets are not a forgiving place to be.

1:44:54 And due to my upbringing, my background, I've always struggled to trust people in general, and that's only gotten worse over time. So it was kind of a make-or-break situation. And I knew if I fail here, I'll have put away enough money, I'll book my flight to Southeast Asia, where I can have a cheaper life and plan my next steps. Because I figure tech is going to be in turmoil for a while.

1:45:26 I affectionately call my daughter 'Country Bumpkin' because her southern accent is heavier than mine. That's funny. There is so much elitism in the tender line, I'd agree with that, Jose. Definitely true. Not in the tender line, San Francisco has changed a lot. Many of the shops have closed down. Yeah, it does feel a bit weird to be in this city that's so densely populated or has the potential to be so densely populated, but then many neighborhoods are kind of empty and lacking in vibrancy. And, you know, kind of feels like a ghost town in some places, and it didn't feel that way when I first visited there 10 years ago.

1:46:05 But it's gotten to be more feeling that way in more recent years, especially post-pandemic. It's hard surviving up there and getting ahead as a young man. You have to conform on some level. It's not easy. I kind of got into a subculture of musician friends up there. It's a tough place. Yeah, trucker, I agree. Like, you know, if you're from there, you have a multigenerational household, then it's a little bit different. Like I know a lot of Filipino people in the Bay Area live in multigenerational households. They'll live with grandparents, parents, children, and they make it work that way, right? They got 10 people in a house, all working very hard to get ahead.

1:46:47 Chinese Americans, same deal, they live in multigenerational households. Latino American, same deal. But for me, being this odd man out, I didn't have those options. And so I had to live in like a shoebox apartment, had to park like a mile away from my apartment. Thank you so much, Biggie. Have a great rest of your day or rest of your evening, and not sure where you are in the world, but please have a good one. But yeah, it's not easy to save money up there either. I mean, every time you step on public transit, $2. You know, you transfer, $2. Meal, $15.

1:47:24 You know, I didn't have a kitchen in my apartment, so I would get a like a heating element, which was against the rules, but I would put in like a hot plate and I would cook on that. And you're just doing a lot of things like this. The amazing things are easy to do in the Bay Area, like going to a beautiful beach or going to a museum or taking a ride on a cable car, surfing, or whatever it is that you want to do, skiing. That's freaking amazing. Easy to do. The normal stuff is a lot harder, going to the DMV, going grocery shopping, finding a place to park. Your basic day-to-day life stuff is just a lot more challenging there.

1:48:08 And I think the stress it puts on people is palpable. You can see people are stressed out, they're rushing, they're in a hurry all the time, trying to get things done as quickly as possible. Like I'd go to the bank on my lunch break. I lived a few blocks away. My boss would be eating in meetings. Just the definition of the rat race these days. I don't think it's always been that way, but definitely in recent decades, it's become more and more that way.

1:48:47 And I still love it. I mean, like I said, the Bay Area, East Bay, very, very good to me. Hayward, Oakland, Berkeley, all very, very good to me. I wouldn't be where I am today without those places, so I have to express gratitude.

1:49:05 I have to express gratitude for them, but guys, I'll probably wind down in the next few minutes. My voice is shot.

1:49:31 Do you have any last thoughts or questions or comments? I'd be happy to answer them. Looking to the future, thank you, Trucker. That's a great point.

1:49:55 Great discussion, Alex, and everyone. Thanks so much, Jose. I appreciate that. Thank you all so much for joining today.

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