What I Don't Like About Dumaguete

hey YouTube Alex here and in today's video I want to answer the question what do I not like about dumag Getti now this is a bit of a loaded question because I love tumti it's one of my favorite

cities in the world I thought it would be helpful to discuss some of the challenges here some of the things that may be helpful for you to be aware of before you come here because nowhere is perfect I

think some vloggers tend to gloss over some of these issues they want to share the positives because they want to be nice they want to be positive they want to be helpful and they want to be complimentary the

main thing that prompted this discussion is that on the Boulevard in Dum magetti I get approached by college students they're asking me questions for their business class they'll hand me a survey they'll ask me to speak on camera

and one of the things they'll ask me fairly regularly is what do you not like about dumag Getti and I've answered this question about five different ways that I'd like to share with you the audience cuz I thought

if they're asking it in their class if they're discussing in their class they're curious about the opinions foreigners it could be helpful for me to share my responses with my audience so without further Ado let's get into it

reason number one is the heat if you can't tell dumag Getti can get hot and stay hot dumag Getti has a tropical climate and it tends to be hot and humid particularly during the daytime hours they get cools

off at night but certainly during your normal daytime hours especially peaking between say 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. those seem to be the hottest hours of the day and when you are here you might be thinking oh well

I'm sure it'll cool off eventually I talked to a friend of mine who lives here year round and I asked him hey well doesn't it cool off in December last time I was in the Philippines it seems like

it cooled off in December and he explained to me he felt like it didn't really cool off for me coming from the San Francisco Bay Area I'm accustomed to cool Coastal California weather especially from Northern California where it

never really gets hot in that area it stays in this moderate temperature band year round never gets too hot dumag Getti is not like that dumag Getti does get hot here you'll notice during some of my videos The

Sweat pouring down my face this is something to be mindful of and for me the sun being so bright I do wear these long sleeves to protect my skin that can add to the effect of heat right that

can make you feel hotter than just wearing shorts and a t-shirt so it's not just the heat but it's also the sunlight just being mindful that you are at the equator and for many guys this is a positive

they like the heat they like the sun maybe they lived in a cold area they didn't have access to such weather maybe they grew up in a hot area a place like say Southern Florida and they're accustomed to

this kind of heat and they enjoy being around it but for me it's not what I'm used to it's something that I tolerate on some days more than others cuz I love living in dumag Getti I think there's

so much to love here but if I had to say my top thing that I struggle with sometimes it is the heat I do run the airon in my apartment a lot I tend to like to take a

cesta midday where I can get out of the heat I'll go into a shopping mall may go to a shopping center and just try to find a situation where I'm not in the direct sunlight and I don't feel

like I'm cooking by avoiding this I think this is why when you go out to a place like the boulevard during the day there's not a lot going on you go out there say noon you'll see a few

people maybe some people doing some repairs on some of the infrastructure but you're not going to go out there midday and see crowds and crowds of people whereas you go there at night and there's tons of people out

there especially like Friday Saturday Sunday night Saturday being the peak where they have events sometimes there's tons of people out there where a lot of people feel the same way about the heat they feel like it's overwhelming they

feel like they want to get a break from it they want to go and hide somewhere else to not be sweating I've done some reading about this and I think it also can affect your presentation I think a

lot of Filipino people are welld dressed they dress nicely and if you've put a lot of effort into dressing nicely wearing some nice clothes getting a nice haircut you don't want to be covered in sweat you don't want

to be looking unpresentable you don't want to look less than your best I think that's another reason why so many people including myself are not the biggest fans of the heat here in dumag Getti so if you're going

to come to dumag Getti be prepared for the heat to potentially be too intense for your liking the next point is tropical storms and inclement weather the Philippines last year was ranked the number one country for being prone

to natural disasters and you have have to be mindful if you are going to spend time here in the Philippines that regardless of where you are in the country you are going to experience inclement weather some areas are

better than others dumag Getti is actually not as prone as places like leate the eastern half of the country even the island of lison in the north so if you are here it's less likely to be extreme than

some other places in the country but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen here maybe a month month and a half ago there was inclement weather for like a week it just rained hard every single day you do get

typhoons here and that can be a little bit discouraging you think sunny in tropical dumag Getti it's going to be beautiful weather every day and that's true a lot of the time a lot of the time doag Getti

does have nice weather based on my preferences there are going to be times When Storms come through and you're going to be stuck inside for a week social events May get cancelled I know for the recent bason Festival

I think the Saturday night of that event was actually cancelled because of heavy rains and similar to what I mentioned earlier about the heat a lot of people they're dress nicely they don't want to get their nice clothes

wet the ladies with their beautiful dresses and the men with their nice dressed shirts and pants they're not going to want to get these soaked there's also concern here about if you get wet you're going to be prone

to being sick and so a lot of people they don't want to risk getting sick they don't want to be in a position where they might miss work they may be needing those hours at work to make money

they may have the day off but if there's inclimate weather they could be really discouraged from going out and socializing as a lot of foreigners like like myself we think it's common in the Philippines to be super social

to be outgoing to get together in a group setting but the inclement weather can really work against us at times you will want to be careful here about getting caught in a potential sudden downpour if you see that

there is rain in the forecast it may be hard to gauge exactly when the rain will happen and how much rain you're going to get I have been caught in a downpour here and had to duck for cover

under a trike to try to stay dry and wait out the storm if a storm comes in all of a sudden expect that if you stay in dag Yeti or the Philippines long enough that inclement weather will delay

plans will interrupt plans will push back plans make cancel plans it's just part of the reality of living here it is something that does bum me out sometimes but I have to accept it as part of living here

now this is outside of dumag Getti but I have a friend in Lone right now and they've been without power for 3 days and he is trying to go around town to sort out Wi-Fi so he can let

his extended family around the world know hey we're okay here in lzone this is something to be mindful of that the infrastructure can be impacted by inclement weather it's not just the immediate impact but it's also the after

effects that could be a problem you might be wondering how does inclement weather Manila impact me well Manila is the home of logistics and transportation in the Philippines lots of different goods and services come through Manila and if

an item is impacted or items are impacted by shipping delays due to inclement weather people throughout the country are impacted by these shortages you may go out to your favorite restaurant and your favorite item is out of stock

because it was expected to come on a certain shipment that is no longer happening one of the challenges of dumag Getti is that dumag Getti is impacted by storms as far away as Manila just like much of the

Philippines there are many items that only come through Manila and if the weather is bad enough those items won't make it down here some would say that dumag Getti is a victim of its own success that it's so

popular and has attracted so many people that it's changed one of the consequences of that change is the traffic here I've talked to guys who have lived here for 5 10 years and they've talked about how much traffic

has increased in that time every year more and more people discover dumag Getti more people come here to visit more people want to see dumag Getti in the past it was on various retirement lists I don't know that

it's still on those lists today nonetheless this city gets outsized online press you've got dozens of vloggers here you've got the diving in down you have sikor Island it's a city that gets outsized detention relative to its population

size and I don't see that changing it's a really nice place to live but one of the side effects of all that attention is increased traffic not just your typical vehicle traffic in terms of Trikes and motorbikes and

trucks on the road but also the increased demand for food for transportation for construction of new housing all these factors add vehicles to the road they increase inrease the traffic here I often say you are not in traffic

you are traffic so be prepared if you come here traffic is of concern based on the popularity of the city based on how awesome it is to live here you know there's this other joke that I think about

too oh doag Getti nobody goes there anymore it's too crowded I've gotten the sentiment from some guys oh don't encourage people to come here nobody should move here the Secret's out I mean it's far too late to put

dumag Getti back in the box to add to the traffic you've got four different colleges here in dumag Getti with tons of students and the students need to get around town too right these colleges also have substantial student

populations from all over the country so it's not just your local population of dumag Getti residents but it's also the student population dumag Getti will only increase in popularity in the coming years as cities like Manila and Sabu

become more expensive and people look for more economical Alternatives more small Town Alternatives the nice thing about dumag Getti is that you don't have the big city environment ironically that attracts a lot of people that are not looking

for that big city environment so dag Getti will probably be a bigger and bigger city in the coming years due to more and more construction of housing infrastructure improvements new restaurants it's also a popular destination for Filipino amans

or Filipino Canadians who are retiring and they want to live in the Philippines they don't want to live in Metro Manila they don't want to live in Metro SAU and they want a more small town atmosphere where they

feel like it's a more relaxed pace it's not that hectic day-to-day grind that you're going to experience in a larger City in the Philippines or really anywhere in the world I meet guys here and some gals from all

over the world dumag Getti has wide appeal if you take a drive around town you'll see Cuisine from all over the world you'll see Swiss restaurants you'll see German restaurants you'll see French restaurants Sushi Indian food I imagine

all of those places have some influence from people from those countries who are helping to make the menu who are helping to influence the menu maybe the Filipino owner has spent time in those countries and can when asked

hey where are you going after you finish school here you finish learning this Cuisine they'll tell them hey I'm going to Dag Getti so dag Getti has this outsize presence that isn't going away anytime soon and you are

going to see an increase in traffic I expect traffic to continue to get worse here in D MTI because it's just becoming a better and better City in my opinion there's just more and more on offer they're expanding

the boulevard which looks gorgeous and it's going to be fantastic when they finish those expansion works so as the city amenities increase as the populations of these colleges increases you're going to have more locals you're going to have

more people from around the Philippines and you're going to have more foreigners that all want to come live here I think it's going to continue to be a premier retirement destination even if it doesn't make top 10 lists

there will be more people who want a slower Pace who want a high quality of life who will come here other people have also heard of the city other people also want to live here you're not the first

person to discover Doom meetti these days I'm certainly not the first person to discover Doom MTI I knew about it 5 years ago but I thought ah I want full immersion in the Philippines it seems like there's a

lot of foreigners there maybe I'll check out some other places now that I've been here for several months I get it I get why do meetti is popular it's an easy sell it's one of my favorite cities in

the world but it's the favorite of a lot of people reason number four is expats behaving badly and you've probably seen some of these videos that touch lightly on this I thought I'd see it more often than I

have fortunately this hasn't been as frequent as I would have thought based on some of what I heard about tumti anywhere you encounter a large population who is not from the area they're not going to arrive understanding cultural

norms setting aside returning Filipinos most foreigners are not familiar with the intricacies of Filipino culture they're coming accustomed to the fast pace of life in the west they're not slowed down they're all sped up they're looking around kind

of wide-eyed or kind of wild eyed and I've seen some guys just lose their patience and kind of melt down here and so if you're a person that you don't want to be around other foreigners here in the

Philippines then dumag Getti is probably not the right fit for you some guys they see this Behavior they're embarrassed they think wow Filipinos might think that we all behave badly or we're all disrespect respectful or we're all inconsiderate

and I do think it's valuable for us to set the tone of cultural consideration of cultural sensitivity understanding that we're guests here and we're not entitled to be here and so it's important to be mindful that if you

want to be in a community where the expats are perfect I don't think such a community exists maybe in BGC if you're looking for a totally Filipino atmosphere you won't find that here in dumag Getti there are other

places in the country that I think would be a better fit for you to find that kind of atmosphere where maybe you're the only Foreigner in town maybe you're in a more provincial area that doesn't have the large

presence of foreigners if you do want to live here you're going to see some behavior from expats that is not the best you know where I I joke around we're not sending our best and and some cases that's

true I don't think that's always the case but yeah I mean some of us come with some serious baggage and we haven't really addressed it so if you're somebody who wants a foreigner free City do meetti a't it

you probably want to take a look at some other cities a lot of exits have done the groundwork to find that good place for them and they're not looking to share that information they want to keep their city

on the down low they know the secrets out about dumag Getti and so this is where you'll want to actually get on a bus maybe rent a car and travel around look around the country go to different towns

explore and you can find the right place for you that doesn't have the high concentration of foreigners and I don't like it right I don't like it when I see a foreigner behaving badly here I'm thinking you have

a lot of options in the world if you're not happy here there's so many choices out there I have a handful of cities that I love if it didn't work out here I could go to one of those

places and be just as happy it's not a problem uh fortunately I am happy here in DTI this is something that I I'm aware of because occasionally I do see a foreigner acting badly and I think this bad

behavior contributes to The Stereotype of foreigners here in the Philippines being impatient being arrogant being rude not considering local culture and all around just being a bother in some ways I don't think that's the whole story but when

foreigners act up it definitely adds to that and I've definitely met locals with stories of foreigners not acting on their best behavior not giving a good impression of us foreigners the Filipinos from my experience want you to enjoy

the country they want you to enjoy your time here to come back if you're just a traveler to stay if that's an option for you finally if you want to have that sense that you're a rockstar Foreigner you're

the only Foreigner in town I know some guys really like that some gals really like that you're not going to have that sense here foreigners are a diamond dozen in doag Getti Point number five this is the fifth

and final point it's a point that many of you are probably familiar with if you're used to living back in the States it's not easy to find housing here in dumag Getti this is contrary to what most people

think about when it comes to Southeast Asia that most countries most cities in Southeast Asia are overbuilt right there's more housing Supply than there is demand dumag Getti is not like that dumag is very popular and the desirable

places go fast especially in desirable areas places that people really want to live in dumag Getti places like Valencia places like DN housing in particularly desirable parts of the city always goes fast if you want to be in

the Valencia Hills if you want to be in dawin be prepared to pay a premium and be prepared to move fast it's not like a city like changai where it's very easy to find a place to live you

don't like one building you can easily move to a neighboring building it's not like that here I've heard of people on their way to check out a place and then it gets rented when they're end route so be

prepared for that if you have a specific area that you really want to live in then jump on it you may have to make do with limited options compared to what you become accustomed to in other Southeast Asian

cities I recommend checking out my friend Janet's Channel if you want to see some examples of available real estate here she does a great job of covering different places that are available for R you may find a place

that you'd like to live featured on her Channel don't expect to find perfect housing upon arrival don't expect to have a hundred different options to choose from especially if you're budget conscious it may take you some time to

find the right place for you it certainly took me a while to find the right place for me it took me a while to find housing that I'm happy with where I can be productive where I can have

a comfortable life where I can get a good night's sleep be prepared for it to take you some time to find that I think dag Getti has been somewhat caught off guard by the rapid increase in popularity in

recent years and they weren't expecting things to Skyrocket like this so they are building more housing but you may have to compromise on some level when it comes to housing and that it may take you some time to

find your way around town and figure out okay I like living here I like living there it's not necessarily like Sabu where most people know I want to live in IT Park in Sabu or in Manila you're likely

to be able to just walk around certain Target neighborhoods that you want to live in go from building to building inquire about vacancies DTI doesn't have that high-rise architecture that you see in the bigger cities in the Philippines

like subbu Deva and Manila here there's a few bigger buildings I think Marina spatial spatial Marina you may have heard it called is one of those larger buildings I recently inquired with their leasing department about their availability now

I could be wrong but the person I spoke with said hey we don't have any openings until February so they're a very popular building and it seems like they get a ton of demand so there is demand for

that but I don't know that I see enough options online at the current time that could change but for right now if you're looking for that condo lifestyle like I am right just not as easy to find those

options here they do exist I think they go quick you do pay a premium for that here maybe even more so than the bigger cities because those units are not as readily available as the units in like a

SAU or Manila where there's tons of buildings that meet that description here it's much more like single family homes probably more similar to what you're used to in the US or in Canada where you need to inquire more

on an individual unit basis as opposed to just going up to a big building and asking and along with that does come and with that the housing situation is more spread out you're not going to be able to

just walk down the street and check on 10 different buildings you may go to a neighborhood and three buildings are for rent they're spread four or five blocks apart from each other so that's where it also helps to

have transportation to look at the different options but that's something that you know it could be a challenge to come here to do MTI and to see that because on one hand like I said it's an awesome place

to live on the other hand anytime you have a place that's desirable to live it's more recently accelerated in popularity now I don't think it's as Extreme as the United States because most foreigners living here are not trying

to commute to job right so they can be more flexible some will be in the province some will be in surrounding areas if they were having to commute and needed to be near a certain location early in the

morning until late afternoon then I think that it could pressure it more where a lot of guys come here to slow down they're not tied to working in a certain location so there might be some areas that they

can spread out to that they wouldn't be able to spread out to if they were back home and they needed to keep their commute to say 30 minutes or 45 minutes each way so that's a plus right but

if you come here and you expect like a Thailand situation or even a SAU or a manila situation I think you may be disappointed by the amount of work that's cut out for you to find that place that

you like and a lot of people do find they have to compromise I think more so than in bigger cities you can get away with not riding a motorbike in a Sabu or Manila in my opinion it's harder

to do that here in dumag Getti because of the city being more spread out you may have to focus on on a few options close by if you're not willing to ride where those neighborhoods get a ton of

Demand right there's guys who don't want to ride a motorbike for various reasons they're going to focus on those neighborhoods and limit their search to those options and often be willing to pay a higher price to enjoy that

walkability factor so let me know what you think in the comments section down below I think it's a great City I think it's got a lot of charm there's a lot of interesting things happening here and I think

the future here is exciting give us a thumbs up if you enjoy this content helps with the YouTube algorithm finally subscribe to the channel down below if you want to see more content like this and we'll see you

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