⌛ Some Questions

Hello there I was thinking of some questions so I can prepare for my visit.
1. If you have a medical problem where would you get treatment?
2 If you wanted money accessable what would be the procedure to do? Do they have a Chase Branch there?
3.. I assume all of you drink bottled water --right?
4. And for you people that have been there a long or short time --- what difficulties did u have and what mistakes did u make that you corrected fast.
5. Well it is 22 F here and all I can say is you all seem to enjoying this place and not regretting coming there.
Lasly I apprecaite all the information that I have read and recieved and some day I hope to see and visit you all once I take care of things in GOOD OLD INDIANA!!!!!! tnx yours HJB (Spook12)

 

This is a picture of the under renovation Silliman Medical Center. They have good medical facilities and its old building will be renovated soon and modernized, and new modern facilities and equipment added such as MRI (probably a more sophisticated one), etc. Not yet as excellent as those in the States, but it is being updated to modern standards. Regarding financial transactions, they have modern banks here, and i guess foreigners have no difficulty with financial transactions. But international ones such as Chase is not here yet (hopefully soon). But some establishments accept credit cards of international institutions such as Citibak. Yes, we have bottled here, and there are plenty of water refilling stations in the downtown area.

 

The standard of medical care is quite good. The Docs are well trained and while the equipment may not be cutting edge the prices for care are astonishingly low.
If you use Medicare for health insurance it doesn't work here and some private insurance will not cover you either. So better make a phone call to check on it.
Chase doesn't have any branches here but Bank of the Philippine Islands ATMs work well with Chase check cards. 10,000 pesos max per withdrawal and 2 withdrawals per day. $3.00 fee per transaction and a decent exchange rate. That's a little over $400 and you would have to party awful hard to need more. You can open an account in another bank in the States and use their ATM to double your fun.
Some of us drink tap water without ill effect others have had problems. If you want to be safe bottled water is available everywhere.
The temperature has been averaging in the 80s with quite a bit of rain but it will be warming up soon with less rain. Sure beats a midwest winter and in the hot season it isn't any worse than a lot of midsummer days where you are now. It's hard to beat.

 

lovely place the Philippines

The important thing though is for a foreigner to be able to adjust and understand the Filipino culture one must have at least an open mind. Always be very careful when it comes to your money. Always drink Bottled water or filtered water. Would be happy to tell you everything you need to know in general about the Philippines just PM me you address.

 

The one thing I am not sure about is private health care in Phils.

Done a lot of searching the threads and internet and getting nowhere fast,

that is the main problem, so if i fall ill or break my neck in Phil Iam in the shxt.

 

Generally speaking medical care is good and inexpensive. A lot can depend on where you are when you fall sick or are injured. The major metropolitan areas generally have good hospitals. Silliman in Dumaguete, Chung Hwa in Cebu, and St Lukes in Manila are all good. For any type of planned hospital care you will generally be expected to pay in advance. Call your medical insurance provider to make sure you are covered outside you home country. If you are paying out of pocket and need something like transplant surgery go to thailand. The Philippines still isn't ready for medical tourism.
For retired Americans, Medicare doesn't cover you outside the US, and if the VA is caring for you there is a facility in Manila but you must be 100% service connected disability to take advantage of it. If you are depending on the VA call them to make sure you are elligable for care here. it seems that some guys have come here assuming they were covered and had problems.
As anywhere there are good docs and not so good docs but I haven't met one who wasn't interested in providing the best care possible to his patients.

Kenny

 

Medical: The others answered this pretty well.

Water: Right, don't drink the tap water. Though I don't worry about things like icecubes from the restaurants. I drink and even cook with bottled water at my apartment.

Financial Transactions: I'm with Wells Fargo and I have found that only one group of ATM's here didn't accept my card. The weird thing is that I punched in the number of peso's I wanted and the machine just spit out my card with no message or warning. I had to stand there a few minutes just to make sure the machine wasn't going to make a winner out of the next guy in line. I found the ATM's outside of Lee Superplaza to work well.

If you want to avoid the ATM fee and withdrawal limits you can do a "cash advance" inside BDO (local bank.) They just run your card like a regular transaction and I got a great exchange rate. There was no fee other than maybe they took a slim slice off the exchange rate.

Difficulties and mistakes: The biggest problem I have run into here is telling the trikes where I want to go (many don't understand my English, so I have to take maps with me and point things out) and knowing how much to pay. They don't have meters.

There are a lot of things to know about how they work and I still don't have them down. For example, generally you can get to most places for 8 pesos unless you are going out of downtown and their only passenger. I can get to downtown from my place for 8 pesos but it costs 60 peso's to get back unless I catch a ride at a "terminal."

The other weird thing is the cell phones, which I still don't have totally figured out. I didn't really know what a sim card was before I got here and I buy "load" from the local sari-sari store. Load is basically for prepaid minutes or text messages.

So that is really the basics, transportation and communication. Getting a place to stay is pretty straight forward other than if you don't book ahead of time you will probably get a more expensive room than you had planned for. They never have the cheapest rooms available.

 

Hey Dude can you tells us you impressions of the Philippines yet. I really interested what you think about.

 

Hello Spook. It depends on the kind of medical problem one might have. For general ailments, the hospitals and doctors available within Dumaguete do a very good job of looking after their patients. If you find it unsatisfactory, you can always get a second opinion from another doctor. Othewise, they will refer you to specialists.

I don't know much about money but i hear a Chase bank will be opening right in Manila. Otherwise, Chase Customer Service Representatives and Fraud Specialists are pretty much what the Philippines can assist you with. Hehehe.

That's right. Almost all people nowadays drink bottled water. There is rather a peculiar tasting bottled water by the name of "2big". It tastes just like tap water and the first time i got to drinking it, i was off to the restroom for half a day. The most trusted ones would be Nature's Spring, Wilkins, Nestle, to name a few.

So the rest of the questions i cannot relate to because i've never been out of the Philippines since birth. Hehehehe. But, you might need to buy a reliable map of every city you wish to visit so you will not get lost. And, ask around frequently so you can compare one idea after another and make your own decision.

You don't have to worry about the weather here. It is most of the time, sunny and bright. If it's not rainy and gray. Hehehehe. Otherwise, you will love the perfect weather Philippines can always boast about.

Take Care!

 

I'm going to throw up a site about my thoughts on the Philippines soon. That way I only have to explain it in one place.