Hello Boys and girls, new member

[pakwhan]

 Hello  Iàm Thomas 56 years male, Danish but live in Sweden. Married to a great Filipina for 16 Years +, have been many times in PH.

But its been a while because of Covid-19, but in a few days, we will be back.

Later this year, we would sell our Business and retire (at least part-time in PH, when it's winter in Europe).

We had built a house a long time ago, and need to check up on that.

I guess a lot had happened in the years since we were home last time. I was amazed when I saw on google street view, that our town now has a traffic light, just wow.

We look so much forward to, starting this new part of life. and get so good info from this forum.

Thomas

[Hestecrefter]

Velkommen til forummet pakwhan vannlelon.

Not sure in what part of PI your house is located, but lots of change most places.  I have been a regular visitor since about 1994, lived there for a few years, and, in that time, the population has gone from about 68 million to about 112 million.  So yes, lots of change.  More traffic lights (and the traffic to go with them). 

I was there for 2 months this year.  Will go back in November and stay until February or so,

[RUFUS]

Hello pakwhan and welcome to the forum.
Safe journey back to the Philippines and I hope everything goes wonderful for you!

[JoeLP]

Hello pakwhan.  Welcome to the forum.  Looking forward to the posts you add to this site.

[MotorSarge]

Welcome pakwhan

[pakwhan]

Yes everything goes well, A lot has changed over the last 6 Years.

Many improvements

Fx No form to fill out in the plane before arrival (its all in your One Health Pass)
It took some time to get your OHP checked, But all the Coast Gurd Soldiers took a small group att the time
so most could rest on airport chairs, minimum stress and even some Aircons where running.

Again in Immigration, it was one by one (and not as a family together as normal), hope it would work for those that need a balikbayan visa.

As Usual, there were a lot of people to recive travelers, long queues at the ATMs, and it was hot. But we just took it easy and slow, everything did come back to you about the Philippines.

Outside we found another improvement, A Bus Going directly to Clark/DAU/Angeles, no problems with finding a Taxi/Grab, no negotiation about using meter, trouble with exchanging money etc.
Just enter the Genesis Aircon bus and wait for departure.

The Philippines looked like Normal, But a lot of New Buildings in Metro Manila, and the traffic was quite heavy (High Fuel prices don't seem to have an impact?)

After a few hours we where in Angeles and could walk to our Hotel, Room and Papers was ready so Check inn was fast and easy.

[mikbal]

We're planning on heading back sometime between Oct and Jan. We usually stay in Angeles where we used to live in the 70s and 80s. Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

[pakwhan]

We had booked Room @ booking.com, so there where a room/place ready for us. we would arrive in the evening and didn´t want to run around to find a place to stay.
We stayed at Condotel 950 and it was/is right in the middle of Fields/AC, the Room was what we needed, no Window but with aircon, TV, shower with hot water, clean  so a very good first stay (one Night)
Breakfast was incl. But it was really just a taste (but ready-made on a rooftop bar). We went out to look at the City, very slow business, hardly any tourists (but it was still early evening), Some Bars/Shops had been closed, and some new had come.
But business still seems very quiet, but several places were looking for extra staff, so maybe business is picking up steam. But I am sure it would never be as in the good old days some 20+ years ago, that was a special time, now lost. Sadly I/we saw (i think) many more poor people on the street, and as a guy, you get a lot more attention from women. The next day we went to Dau, to take the Bus up North, again many asking for help, and almost non-tourists/white folks. While driving you could be on your phone (had already a sim card), and internet works much better than before (and at lower rates), but very confusing with all the different plans, with FB, load, tv, TikTok, SMS, etc. I just needed the basics. After a few hours, we arrived at our house (a big surprise to the family), it was like a museum, everything untouched for 6 years, all balikbayan boxs in a row + TVs, furniture was there (but the food was eaten, thank god).  It was warm and the aircon didn´t work, the house needed some repair, but nobody puts money aside for that. The City looked like nothing has changed (but a few shops shut down), But Now the Highway has a (working) Traffic light (but why are the Police still (day) direct traffic ?)

[Gray Wolf]

Welcome to the group Thomas! You sound like you know your way around, so I'll just say relax and enjoy yourself. Have a cold Red Horse on me!