Anyone change a P500?

[michael16136]

I do not as a rule take taxis in Davao, since I have a car here and pretty much drive anywhere I need to go. In Manila and other areas however, where I do take taxis, when the taxi driver tells me he has no change, I ask always if the ride is then free.  Somehow, he always manages to find the change. Must be a miracle!

[trevor]

Hi all,While we are on the subject of money. I have a quick question. How do you guys secure your money and other valuables at home? Does anyone have a safe, or a strong box with lock and key?
Reason i ask this is because we had some negative experience while we were there the last time.

Trevor

Hi all,While we are on the subject of money. I have a quick question. How do you guys secure your money and other valuables at home? Does anyone have a safe, or a strong box with lock and key?
Reason i ask this is because we had some negative experience while we were there the last time.

Trevor

We keep just enough money for daily use, and the rest stays in the bank until we need it. Our house, like a lot of Philippine, properties is well protected. Every window has iron bars, including the porch which also has lockable iron gates. The house is surrounded with a high wall with spikes on top with double metal gates for the car. Being friendly with the neighbours also helps.

Colin

[Flt Simulation]

trevor ...

I don\'t have a safe in my house. I live in a secure gated community and we don\'t have house robberies here.

However, when I was single and coming to the Philippines for vacations, I of course would stay in hotels. Back then I would always select a hotel that had either a room safe or at least a safe at the front desk I could put my money and passport in. Your pretty safe doing it this way.

I used to hear of guys that would get money stolen from there hotel rooms, but in many cases, it was found out that it was not the hotel staff stealing money, but the girl the guy picked up in a bar and had in his room for the night ... In other words ... in \"inside job\".

Maids are also known to steal money you have laying around in your house, so that is something to consider when living here ... My wife says we don\'t need a maid, so I don\'t have to worry about that. I can\'t give you any advice on how to hire an honest maid (I have no idea).

I guess that if my house was not as secure as I would like, I would get a small safe for the house ... but the safe also needs to be secure so they don\'t take the whole thing with them.

Good luck,
Ron

[trevor]

Thanks guys for the response. Well we have our house in a family compound with three other houses close.
I know it was an inside job from a trusted family member. Which really shocked me. Because we are very generous to the family, but this one individual think that it was their right to help themself of our belongings without given permission. Only found out who it was after my wife treathen to call a family meeting and have a lie detector test done. Then this individual confessed and ask for forgiveness.
Wife let her keep the money but she will never set foot in our house again. Living there is just a temporary thing for us as we plan to buy a house far away.  We will keep our money in the bank from now on.

Trevor

[fred]

Our house, like a lot of Philippine, properties is well protected. Every window has iron bars, including the porch which also has lockable iron gates. The house is surrounded with a high wall with spikes on top with double metal gates for the car. Being friendly with the neighbours also helps.

Colin

How many quick exits are there in case of fire etc?
I have read of a number of stories when whole families have burned alive because they were caged in like that..Pretty horrific stuff.

[RUFUS]

if you build your house out of concrete and metal, the chances of it burning down are pretty slim...IMO

[michael16136]

I have of course a lockable gate and the house is surrounded by walls. But no bars on the windows. Instead, a 60 kg. Great Dane who stands about 6\'0 on his hind legs and of whom those who pass the gate and see him are terrified. It works for me.

if you build your house out of concrete and metal, the chances of it burning down are pretty slim...IMO

Furniture, clothes, furnishings, beds, bedding etc etc all flammable  Hmm house survives, contents & occupants burnt to a crisp  I think I will stick with a good escape route 

Hi all,While we are on the subject of money. I have a quick question. How do you guys secure your money and other valuables at home? Does anyone have a safe, or a strong box with lock and key?
Reason i ask this is because we had some negative experience while we were there the last time.

Trevor

We keep just enough money for daily use, and the rest stays in the bank until we need it. Our house, like a lot of Philippine, properties is well protected. Every window has iron bars, including the porch which also has lockable iron gates. The house is surrounded with a high wall with spikes on top with double metal gates for the car. Being friendly with the neighbours also helps.

Colin

Colin,

Sorry but that is one of the reasons we chose to live where we do in a gated community. No high walls & most houses don\'t have bars either & in 2 years of being here only some small petty crimes as with any community anywhere.

I couldn\'t live in an area where I felt so unsafe as to need the defensive precautions you have. It would feel like living in a prison of my own making.

I agree with only having enough money in the house for day to day expenses & pay for the weekly shop at SM with my debit card.

[Flt Simulation]

Sorry but that is one of the reasons we chose to live where we do in a gated community. No high walls & most houses don\'t have bars either & in 2 years of being here only some small petty crimes as with any community anywhere.

I couldn\'t live in an area where I felt so unsafe as to need the defensive precautions you have. It would feel like living in a prison of my own making.

UZI ....

I agree with you 100%. I live in a secure gated community, and I don\'t even see bars on the windows here.

However, I have seen neighborhoods over here that have steel bars on all the windows, barbed wire, razor wire or broken glass on top of the fence and even a steel bar going across the inside of the front door when it\'s closed ... If I had to live like I was in a prison camp or the county jail, I would seriously consider moving.

If explosives were not illegal in this country, I would imagine that some folks would be lining the perimeter of there house with land mines too!  ... joke lang

Hi all,While we are on the subject of money. I have a quick question. How do you guys secure your money and other valuables at home? Does anyone have a safe, or a strong box with lock and key?
Reason i ask this is because we had some negative experience while we were there the last time.

Trevor

We keep just enough money for daily use, and the rest stays in the bank until we need it. Our house, like a lot of Philippine, properties is well protected. Every window has iron bars, including the porch which also has lockable iron gates. The house is surrounded with a high wall with spikes on top with double metal gates for the car. Being friendly with the neighbours also helps.

Colin

Colin,

Sorry but that is one of the reasons we chose to live where we do in a gated community. No high walls & most houses don\'t have bars either & in 2 years of being here only some small petty crimes as with any community anywhere.

I couldn\'t live in an area where I felt so unsafe as to need the defensive precautions you have. It would feel like living in a prison of my own making.

I agree with only having enough money in the house for day to day expenses & pay for the weekly shop at SM with my debit card.

Keith,

This is a rented house, I did not make it that way. However, the house we rented in Ayala Alabang was exactly the same and you could not get a more secure gated community than that. I will not go that far when I build my own house, I will just have a guard with an Uzi at the front gate 

I have never felt unsafe in living in the Philippines, and not felt the need to live in a gated community.

Colin

Our house, like a lot of Philippine, properties is well protected. Every window has iron bars, including the porch which also has lockable iron gates. The house is surrounded with a high wall with spikes on top with double metal gates for the car. Being friendly with the neighbours also helps.

Colin

How many quick exits are there in case of fire etc?
I have read of a number of stories when whole families have burned alive because they were caged in like that..Pretty horrific stuff.

Fred,

This bungalow has 3 exits, the front door, a side door through the dirty kitchen and a rear door through the maids room.

The house we rented in Ayala Alabang was more of a problem. There were 4 exits downstairs, but all the hinged upstairs bedroom bars were jammed solid with rust and paint and there were no keys for the padlocks. We had to get the owner to free them plus all the opening windows in the house.

Colin

Keith,

This is a rented house, I did not make it that way. However, the house we rented in Ayala Alabang was exactly the same and you could not get a more secure gated community than that. I will not go that far when I build my own house, I will just have a guard with an Uzi at the front gate 

I have never felt unsafe in living in the Philippines, and not felt the need to live in a gated community.

Colin

Colin,

Good for you mate! I get what you mean with rented. For me, there is too much paranoia here over house security. A neighbours house recently was being rented & the renters couldn\'t get the key to work because the lock was so dry. We tried all sorts to get in, including using a hammer to try & break a small window to no avail. Ended up with a worker taking 30 mins of patient fiddling with bent wire (like locked out of car) to get a window latch to open.

Decent doors & windows with proper locks plus outside sensor lights is enough. As in the UK, most burglaries are opportunistic.

[RUFUS]

if you build your house out of concrete and metal, the chances of it burning down are pretty slim...IMO

Furniture, clothes, furnishings, beds, bedding etc etc all flammable  Hmm house survives, contents & occupants burnt to a crisp  I think I will stick with a good escape route 

The vast majorities of household fires are started by wiring or in the kitchen , so I recommend that all your furnishings be also made from concrete and metal and your beddings and clothings be made from nomex... problem solved no crispy people