Returning to Baguio and Ilocos Sur

Welcome back mugtech. Hope you have a good journey.

Cheers, Steve.

         Went to gate 5 and it did not have a tv.   Found one at gate 6, a Turkish Airlines assembly spot and got to watch the 4th quarter of Sunday Night NFL on NBC.  Saw the Chargers tie the Bengals at 27 and then score with less than 2 minutes left to win 34-27.  A few years ago I got to watch the Lakers lose their season opener on a Tuesday night in October on a similar JFK tv..  The plane loaded starting at 12:20 and was ready to go by 12:45, but takeoff was pushed back to 1:15.  Landed on time in Korea at 6:05 AM local time with the sun just rising, the almost 15 hour flight was in darkness.  Wife and I had aisle seats across from each other, row 39 seats C and D.  Made it easy to get up and walk around without crawling over others.  Seat B, next to me was one of the few empty seats on the plane and it let me spread out.

            The food and service was very good at a good price, we agreed we would fly Korean Air in the future.  The wife liked the spicy octopus and the fried rice.  It was easy enough to get to our 3 hour 30 minute flight by walking to another terminal.  The landing was smooth in Manila, immigration went smoothly also as I got my passport stamped good until 11/18/25.  Was easy enough to get a cab to take us to Victory Liner to secure 2PM        tickets to Baguio.  It was at the bus terminal that I got that welcome to the Philippines feeling.

                When we got to the Victory Liner terminal we got our 2 PM tickets and tried to relax, having had very little sleep since getting up at 8 AM on Sunday in Pennsylvania, about 40 hours ago  At 1:50 they brought a bus for Baguio into the loading dock, and I'm thinking I can climb on board and chill out  WRONG!!!  Turns out it is the 2:30 bus and our tickets are for the 2PM bus.  So by 2:10 the 2:30 bus was full, but it just sat there.  Then at 2:25 a bus which had been sitting n the terminal for 40 minutes, pulled in to be loaded as the 2 PM bus.  We pulled out at 2:32, the loaded 2:30 bus was still sitting there. I guess there is some protocol involved where the 2 PM bus must !save before the 2:30PM bus.

            The bus headed north, using the skyway and other four lane highways and making good time after getting out of Manila.  The wife had been told that it was an express bus straight to Baguio.  We did drop people off and pick people up along the way.  About 70 minutes from Baguio we pulled into a rest stop for a 30 minute dinner break.  As we pulled in I noticed plenty of other buses there, one of them was the 2:30 PM Victory Liner Baguio bus.  Have no idea how they beat us to the food stop.  It was dark and windy and chilly when we pulled into Baguio the family with our van was supposed to meet us there, but they were no where in sight.

@mugtech

I salute you & your wife Mugtech for doing that journey without a hotel break at Incheon or Ninoy Aquino. You both have stamina!

Apparently the airline terminals have all been reorganised. Non Philippine airline International flights are being moved from T3 to T1. Which terminal did you dock in may I ask?

@mugtech

That’s nice about the security check  it’s good to get some extra convenience as you get older.

@mugtech
I salute you & your wife Mugtech for doing that journey without a hotel break at Incheon or Ninoy Aquino. You both have stamina!

Apparently the airline terminals have all been reorganised. Non Philippine airline International flights are being moved from T3 to T1. Which terminal did you dock in may I ask? - @Lotus Eater

I thought it was terminal one, but not sure.  All I wanted to do was get the luggage and get to the bus terminal, was very tired.

          Family was waiting for us at the bus terminal next to the SM Mall. So we took a cab to meet them.  In Baguio there are plenty of cabs available and very cheap, our ride was less than 100 pesos.  Our new townhouse was four km out Negelian Road and then another half mile of winding down hill roads to our place.  Nephews had delivered a bed for us, the only other furniture in the house was a card table with four chairs in the kitchen, a bunkbed frame in the basement, and a narawood sofa and 4 chairs in the living room.  The sofa and chairs were not comfortable and not cheap.  Supposedly we got a good deal from a family member in the business.

           Slept 10 hours and had breakfast by boiling water to pour over farina .  Had brought along a plug in coffee pot and made a list of all the things we were shopping for that day and wasted most of the morning before finally heading into Baguio. First stop was next to Burnham Park where there were Filipino eateries lined up. So we had 11:30 lunch before launching the shopping project.  As usual there was only white rice and not much else available to non meat eaters.  I had bamboo shoots and white rice.  Then we were ready to get over to Harrison and a popular local Department store.

            The day we had on 11/20/24 was 4 hours of shopping at Tiong san Department store.  Bought a 43 inch smart tv, brand name Haier, for 13,000 pesos. About $230 US.  For the same price got a give for high refrigerator/freezer.  A combination clothing washer and drier was priced at $500.  Got a microwave for 4,600 pesos, about $80.  Got foam mattresses for the bunk beds in our basement and kinds of other housekeeping goodies including plates. Cups. Silverware, two rice cookers etc.

          The department store had an overwhelming number of sales people.  Every purchase we made was from a different sales person.  For each appliance purchase we had to sit in on an information session including questions and answers about each product.  We received 800 in peso gift certificates for our appliances purchased, then were informed that the delivery charges for the refrigerator and the washer would be 800 pesos.  Also got 1,500 pesos in store loyalty points which we used on the last purchase so we have loyalty points still pending, am sure we will go back some time soon.  In addition, we received a free product with the purchase of the refrig.  We had our choice of a scale or a mystery box.  We took the box, which had a stainless steel coffee cup and a notepad.  We had to carry the microwave and the tv from the fifth floor to a cab stand and pickup zone on busy Harrison Street.  The employees carried the heavy stuff down for us as nephew sat out front behind the wheel of our van for hours..  We had no tv connection nor WiFi in Baguio, that would wait until our next trip,  for on 11/21 we were headed for Ilocos Sur.

mugtech said . . . . Bought a 43 inch smart tv, brand name Haier, for 13,000 pesos.

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I maybe repeating myself, I just recently bought a TCL 50" QLED for P25,995.

Over the years I owned a 55" Samsung Curved Screen, Devant 50" & a Sharp 50".

This TCL was a problem straight out of the box and TCL service was bad. Within several days the TCL turned itself on & off four times.

I called Ansons where I purchased the TV, their policy was within five days you can get a replacement or refund. They had TCL come out to verify the problem. The service technician gave me several options and to expedite the solution, I had him repair the TV and he replaced two boards.

Then the TV had awful color. I called Ansons again, they contacted TCL and TCL came out to verify. The same technician verified the TV had picture problems.

Several days later Ansons delivered a new tv and took back the defective TV.

          On 11/21 we intended to head straight to Ilocos Sur,  but stopped at Jollibees for an early lunch to go.  I was surprised that the tuna pies were listed at 60 pesos each, up from 50 pesos each in March.  A 20% increase in 9 months seemed excessive.  Then we heard noises in the van and decided to stop in at the local Nissan dealer to have it checked out.  They have a very comfortable service area including a huge wide screen tv set on the NBA Philippines channel.  It was the second quarter and the  Golden State Warriors were running away from the Atlanta Hawks.  They had a 41-22 lead at the end of the first quarter and the Hawks never got closer than 13 points the rest of the game.  It was over at 1PM, and the channel told us to stay tuned for a delayed tape live game with the New York Knicks visiting the Phoenix Suns.

            Unfortunately the Suns had two staters missing and the Knicks made their first 8 shots. Made 9 3 point shots on the first quarter and had a huge lead approaching half time when our van was ready to go.  Made me look forward to getting tv in Baguio in December.  Made the trip to Ilocos in less than five hours, got up the next day and posted the first entry on here.

            Our neighbor, a family member, allowed us to share their WiFi connection.  I had to sit in our bedroom facing the wall which was next to their motum, if I moved away from the wall I lost the signal.  We stayed until we returned to Baguio on 11/28.  We had plenty of family to visit and we had three boxes we had sent last August to unpack.  Among the goodies sent were my reading materials for this trip. 14 novels written by Brad Thor about his American intelligence and black ops specialist Scot Harvath.  He is an ex Navy Seal who then worked for the Whitehouse secret service. Then an agent reporting directly to the president. But after the next election he joined another organization which was not a government agency but was funded by the US and did all kinds of antiterrorism all over the world. I am already through half of the 6th book I am reading since I arrived.  I brought along books numbered 6 through 19 in the series. Read the first 5 books back in PA last summer.

             I like how the stories take in all parts of the world.  One was about India and its troubles with Pakistan and Russia, another took place in Russia near Finland. And there some antiterrorism stories all over the middle east, Europe, and the USA.

           In a recent one in Afghanistan he tells of strange ways things happen there,  with the only explanation being TIA.  This is Afghanistan.  Have a similar thing here, when different things happen my nephew says to me Welcome To The Philippines.  I use WTTP often here, like the Victory Line bus set up.

             We went to Vigan, the capital of Ilocos. Sur and a 9 mile trip from our house in Santa, for Sunday Mass on 11/24.  The main church in Vegan at one end of the central square, was damaged in an earthquake a few years ago and is still not functionally safe.  It used to be SRO, so we went to a smaller church and stood with about 50 others who could not get a seat.  The next day is Saint Catherine's Day, and since that is the name of the church in Santa, they had a special mass which we attended.  It is the church where we were married 30 years ago.  The mass took an hour and a half, was in Ilocano and featured a bishop from Vigan.  One of the reasons I like to attend mass in Baguio is because the noon. 1PM and 2PM masses are in English and are usually 50 minutes long, same as back in Bethlehem, PA.

           Found out a family church wedding was cancelled.  We went to their civil ceremony in March and they were planning a church wedding and reception at our favorite local restaurant.  When the groom found out that his sister working in Cyprus and his sister working in Taiwan were not coming home for Christmas he cancelled the wedding.  So now we will stay in Baguio until January 7th.

          I wad glad to know when we pulled into our house in Baguio that I would not be taking any more long road trips until January.  First thing on 11/29 we confirmed that our refrigerator and washer would be delivered the next day between 10AM and 4PM.  Then we unloaded all the stuff we brought from Ilocos and tried to rearrange everything.  We took too long and we did not get on our way to Baguio until 3PM.  We parked in the under the mall parking lot and went to eat in the food court.  The price of their California Maki had jumped about 20%, it was their cheapest available.  At 144 pesos with the senior discount it was still less than $2.50.

            This was the worst time of the week to go grocery shopping, late Friday afternoon.  WTTF.  We got in line with our cart at 4:22 PM.  My wife and cousins continued shopping while I stayed with the cart.  All the people in front of us were doing likewise.  Our part of the line stretched through the dental aisle, so I had people leaning over me and the cart to grab toothpaste.  We made it to start piling our stuff out to be billed at 5:53.  It took extra time to get us checked bout because my wife was using her senior citizen's discount card.  She gets a 5% discount on the first 10,000 pesos she spends each month. Plus there is extra paperwork for rice purchases. They like to use cardboard boxes to package customer products, and we got a huge one with 5 lines used to tie it shut.  The box boy went with us to the elevator to get back down to our van.  We had to wait until the second elevator, but having him with us allowed us to take the shopping cart out of the restricted area..  Tipped him 10 pesos and urged everyone to hurry to get to PLDT before they closed.

          PLDT  Philippines Long Distance Telephone, was only a few blocks from the mall on Upper Sessions Road, but we had to exit the mall and then park on Upper Sessions further down the road.  Fortunately  they were open until 7PM on Friday.  The wife enjoyed telling them that when they were working in Ilocos they had rented our rental property for 8 months.

            The deal we wanted was WiFi and satellite tv, and their price for both was 1,399 pesos a month, a three year deal.  That meant we were guaranteed that monthly price for 3 years, but if we dropped out at anytime and tried to get back in there would be a 2,800 peso penalty.  At $23 a month it was a deal.  In the US I got more better channels but at 10 times the price.  There was no connection fee and we were told the employee would at our house by next Friday, 12/6.  They would call us the day before and the first month fee had to he paid at that time.  We asked could we just pay it now, but she said it company policy to pay the night before.  We looked forward to getting our delivery on Saturday and then our WiFi and tv hook up the following week.

            Saturday meant we were just sitting at home waiting for our appliances to be delivered, got a lot of reading done. We heard nothing, gave them a call at 4:35 PM.  They told us that line was only for emergencies. Told them there might be an emergency,  evidently one of their trucks is missing.  They had no further info for us and they never came.  The next morning they called us to say they were on their way.  We had heard that story before.  They arrived at 11:30 AM.  I was amazed at the one guy who carried the boxed washer/dryer on his back up two flights of stairs to the third floor.  Every thing was set up and ready to go by 12:30 PM.  We were told not to plug the refrigerator in for 5 hours.  As an extra bonus we got to keep all the packing materials and both boxes.

          Then we decided to attend 5PM Mass at the Cathedral.  On Sundays Upper Sessions Road is usually closed to traffic during Christmas Season, October to January.  December1 there was a parade scheduled, so had to be dropped off and then walk a huge very steep flight of stairs to get to the catherdral.  Every seat taken first Sunday in Advent service went well ,was mostly in English except for singing the Lord's Prayer.  Afterwards there were fireworks  and then the start of the parade.  The. Van was parked at the mall. Which is on the other side of Sessions Road from the cathedral.  So we got to watch the whole parade, no choice in the matter.  It was rather amusing, lasted over an hour.  Good news when we got home found out the PLDP was coming out the next morning.  They showed up at 9:30AM, got everything hooked up, even supplied us with a modem.  Feels got to be back online.

Mugtech said. . . .      Saturday meant we were just sitting at home waiting for our appliances to be delivered, got a lot of reading done. We heard nothing, gave them a call at 4:35 PM.

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That is par for the course. I don't know how many times online purchase and tracking show it's out for delivery, then it comes the next day.

A guy goes to a 24 hour pharmacy and it's closed. He goes back the next day and complains, the pharmacist says we are open 24 hours, but not all on the same day.

           In Baguio there are certain days a vehicle from outside the city cannot park in the city.  It is based on the last digit in the license plate number.  Since all plates end in a number, there are no vanity plates, it covers all vehicles.  If the plate ends in 1 or 2 it cannot park in Baguio on Mondays. If ending in 3 or 4 it is banned on Tuesdays, 5 or 6 on Wednesday, 7 or 8 on Thursday and 9 or 0 on Friday.  No weekend restrictions.  So our plate ends in 4 so we must stay out of Baguio on Tuesdays.  Today and every Tuesday we will be going no where, since Emy cannot see driving without going into the city.

            Today I get to checkout the different tv channels we now have.  Took a quick run through. Last night, found NBA Philippines at 96 plus 5 other sports channels.  Already wrote off the horse racing channel and the fight channel.  Gonna check at 9:20 AM local time to see if I can find Monday Night Football.  Back in 2019 we had s channel which did live Thursday night, Sunday night and Monday night games.  Emy is thrilled that channel 20 is her favorite Filipino news channel, TV Patrol!  I found CNN as the only English speaking channel I can watch.  No MSNBC,  Fox News or any network news available.  While watching CNN there is about a 3 second lag between when the lips move and when the audio comes through the set, kind of distracting.  At least they have printed news feed across the bottom of the screen.

         Got to watch the Atlanta Hawks beat the visiting New Orleans team in a sloppy game with low shooting percentages.  New Orleans is one of the few teams as bad as the Philadelphia 76ers with only 4 wins.  Then I watched The Timber wolves hammer the Lakers 109-80. LeBron James has missed his last 19 three point shots, like to see LA teams lose.

         Unfortunately none of the other sports channels had the NFL Monday Night game.  After a few minutes of more CNN lamenting about the Hunter Biden pardoning I went back to reading.  At 6 PM the NBA channel had a replay of the Dallas Mavericks visiting the Portland Trailblazers.  It was a close exciting game, very high scoring, took 130 points to win.  Portland had a player who scored 3 points the first half and then 24 points in the third quarter..  He picked up his 5th personal foul with a few seconds to go in the quarter and the coach benched him to rest up for the final quarter.  He came back in the game with 8 minutes to go in the game during a stop in play as a Maverick was about to shoot a foul shot.  The foul shot missed, and as the shooter went for the rebound the third quarter hero. Slammed into the shooter and picked up his 6th foul and went right back to the bench, having fouled out.  He was given credit for having played 2 seconds in the fourth quarter.  I was tired of bball at that point, cannot imagine watching 3 games in one day in the future.

         When we finalized our purchase here in Baguio in March the sellers agreed to let the beds in the basement, said they would be taking everything else.  Our nephews got the keys and the paperwork in May after we had wired our final payment from the US in April.  I had no idea when they said they were taking everything else that included the toilet seats.  I could not specifically remember the toilets having seats, but I think I would have remembered no toilet seats as we inspected the place closely in March.  Hard to believe the 71 year old owner was not using them.  It is the female nightmare of have a seat which is locked in the upright position.

           So beware!  Looks like if you are buying a house in the Philippines you need to get in writing that the toilets will be totally functional on closing day.  I like that in our kitchen there are wooden multilevel shelves on the wall above the sink, but no doors.  This way we can see what is on all the shelves without having to open any doors.  There never were any doors in our kitchen.

@mugtech

So beware!  Looks like if you are buying a house in the Philippines you need to get in writing that the toilets will be totally functional on closing day.

Sure, really important. Don't worry about a site survey or a proper application for a new title and a properly notarized deed of sale, just make sure that the toilet seats are functional on closing day. And get it in WRITING. Great advice mugtick.

     Thank you Danfink.

@mugtech

😆

           Thought I would add that the replacement toilet seats only cost a little more than 1,000 pesos each, not much of an addition to a 3.5 million peso sales price.  Today we went shopping again and also had to use the services of a laundromat.  Our new washer dryer has not been hooked up yet.  "Soon" here could mean later today or later this week or later this year.  So we stopped in at the laundromat we used last year while staying in an apartment in Lower Rock Quarry Barangay. It is located in Camp City, a block from where a 24 step cement path meets the road coming out of LRQB.  Set up the machines, let the wife watch them while I took a walk through Lower Rock.  Some kids ask me where I was going, said no where.  Asked me where I was from, said US , and they oooooed.  It felt good to walk the old turf.

          Replaced the wife at the laundromat and she walked up the hill past the Seven Eleven to get a manicure for 190 pesos, little more than $3.  The freight at the mat was 100 pesos for a wash, max capacity of 8 kg, little more than 17 pounds.  The dryer was 80 pesos for 40 minutes.  We did two loads and had to pay 20 pesos each load for soap.  So it was about $6 for two loads plus about $.70 for soap.  I have no idea how that compares to US prices, just realized it has been over 35 years since I last used a laundromat.  Next week we gonna go to municipal Hall and pay our real estate tax..

@mugtech

Thought I would add that the replacement toilet seats only cost a little more than 1,000 pesos each, not much of an addition to a 3.5 million peso sales price. Today we went

Very interesting. Yesterday you left us in suspended animation because we didn’t know that each toilet seat cost 1000 pesos. Did you have to fit O,V or U shaped toilet bowls? Did you use the universal install method with pins? Next time you will know to pay not 3.5M but only 3499999.00 pesos after noticing the missing toilet seats, correct?

Correct.

Must say, not being all that interested in phones in Phils, nor in their dating sites, am now finding the continuing adventures of Mr and Mrs Mugtech in Baguio and Ilocos Sur interesting. Thank you Mr&Mrs Mugtech

          I was sitting on the throne last night thinking of Joannie MitchelL singing her song Big Yellow Taxi as in "You don't know what you've got 'til its gone."  Of course she was not singing about toilet seats, but rather  "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."  Hopefully we can move on to other things.

          Took a walk today out of Marvell Homes Subdivision and up the hill towards the " transportation center" where the public transportation gathers to start their trips into central Baguio.  Last year we took a couple of rides on the old style jeepneys @ 15 pesos, 12pesos per senior.  This year it appears to be all white vans with the same itineraries printed on the sides of the vans.  Turns out these vans cost the same as jeepneys, this year the price is 19 pesos, 16 pesos for seniors.  I will need to use this form of transportation if our van is not available or on a Tuesday because of downtown parking restrictions. 

          The hills are too steep for me to walk all the way up to the main road into Baguio.  Last year I used to go to Rebel Bake House, 3km outside of Baguio and then walk back into the city.  Only the last part of the trip was uphill and then down past BDO and down into LRQB.  Might give that a shot next Tuesday, love those views looking back down the valley as I get closer to the city line.

         Finally got to try out Giligan's  Island, a dim sum restaurant next to Jollibee a few blocks up past Burnham Park.  There is absolutely no evidence nor mention of the tv show in the place.  They have 5 parking spaces out front perpendicular to the road and a security man who sits inside and looks out the window.  He comes out and helps direct traffic when a customer pulls out.

          The food is of a good quality, I enjoyed my 4 pieces of seaweed wrapped sushi.  They did not have wasabi, but the spicy sauce they gave was good.  My wife and two nephews split a mixed platter, supposedly for 4, and had a huge pile of white rice and mango drinks.  The meal for 4 only had three sticks of chicken,, but enough of everything else.  My food was 100 pesos while the other three's total price was 1,115 pesos.

           There was a note in red on the menu which said that the prices listed were already discounted, so if anyone wanted the senior or disability discount they would have to choose that discount or the discount already built into the menu prices.  What were the menu prices discounted from?  We did not ask, content to pay our bill and leave.  Like the tv show it was a once in a lifetime experience.  If we be in the area in the future prefer the Good Taste restaurant two blocks away.

            Took us 45 minutes to go the 5 miles from our house to the cathedral in Baguio at 11:30 AM today.  Traffic is usually very heavy at that time on Sunday, and the cathedral was SRO with about. A hundred standing and sitting outside.  The Mass ended at 1PM with something I have only ever scene in Baguio, there was a general round of very polite applause.  It was not like you would hear at a play or concert, no one yelling "Encore, encore!". Of course requesting an encore was not necessary as another Mass started in 5 minutes.

           Afterwards we went to the food stands along the pathway out of the parking lot.  I was searching for my favorite veggie spring rolls I had purchased back in February.  I was pleased to find the same rolls at the same stand, still selling for 25 pesos each.  Considering the rising exchange rate, the price now is actually a few pennies cheaper US dollar wise.  I bought 10 rolls, enough to last until next Sunday.  Nice to have added. Inspiration to attend Mass.  Had to stop at the department store on Harrison Road before leaving town,  still getting curtains and curtain rods, wall clocks and some throw rugs.  Was happy to get home in time to watch the worst team in the league, the Washington Wizards (2-19) beat the 2023 World Champion Denver Nuggets despite 56 points by Jocik..  Washington's first win since  10/30/24.

            Took a trip into Baguio today to visit the bookstore in the mall.  I am almost finished with my 7th book since I got here 3 weeks ago.  I only brought 14 books for the 5 months, so it looks like I will be coming up short at current rate.  I have slowed down since we got the WiFi connected and the sat tv cookin.  All 14 books are Scot Harvard novels by Brad Thor, so I am looking for a few change ups.

          The bookstore in Baguio is the best I have ever found in the Philippines, looked in Manila, Vigan, Laoag, and a few other places..  They have a partial Barnes and Noble stock at comparable prices.  Last year I found some Grisham, Patterson, Baldacci and the latest Jack Reacher.  This year I picked up a a recent(2024)  Think Twice. And an old one I never read from 2005 called The Innocent written by Harlan Coben.  It cost me 1,646 pesos, less than $30.  No loyalty program plus my change included 14 one peso coins.  The sales girl apologised for not having any 5 or 10 peso coins.  Just smiled and told her it did not matter.

              On the way home we stopped in Tuba to make sure our property was properly registered for the next tax season, payment due by April.  They were having a barrio fiesta type of celebration, got to hear the locals do Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, seemingly the favorite Beatles tune in Baguio.  Found out our property tax will be the same as last year, 123 pesos.  For a $60,000 property that is a tad low.  We paid $80,000 for our house in PA 25 years ago and now the property taxes, city, county and school add up to over $3,000.  I like the Philippines tax system better.

@mugtech

Found out our property tax will be the same as last year, 123 pesos.  For a $60,000 property that is a tad low.  We paid $80,000 for our house in PA 25 years ago and now the property taxes, city, county and school add up to over $3,000.  I like the Philippines tax system better.

Ummm that is REALLY low. I'll BET you like that tax system better.

Tax rates are fairly uniform in the Philippines, about 60% of 1% of assessed value in the provinces, 2%  in Manila.  So let's see, you are paying 123 pesos. So, (1/.6)*.01V = 120 pesos where V is the value of your property. V=120(.6/.01)= 7200 pesos. But you said $60,000 or 3 million!

For 3M in the provinces you should pay about 18000 php or 360 dollars plus or minus. It seems the last time your tax assessor visited your house and lot it must have been a nipa hut and some farmland.

So you lucked out; you get a free ride on the backs of your tax-paying neighbors. In my case we have two houses and lots paying a lot more than 120 pesos lol, actually very close to the formula given.

          Had another one of those bank problems again, went to the BDO at the mall to fix it.  The two armed guards each opened the door in front of them to allow my wife to enter.  I saw the signs Please turn off your cell phone and Please turn over all weapons before entering.  I had a pen in my pocket.  Did not know if I had to turn over my pen, as I had heard the pen is mightier than the sword.  But would the armed guard think I was just being a wise guy?  Decided to not enter the branch.  I was sure the conversation was going to be in a language which I do not understand.  The usual BDO Bankspeak.

            We had problems last year when my wife tried to use her BDO account from Vigan and they wanted to charge her a service charge.  She had an ATM card sent from the Vigan branch along with a debit card.  Last week she went to the Harrison Road branch and it rejected her ATM card many times, so she went inside and they wanted to charge her 200 pesos to make a withdrawal from her account.  She said no and used the debit card at the Super Market in the mall.  The Supermarket rejected het debit card, had to use her US credit card.

             I walked around outside for about 15 minutes until she came out and told me problem solved.  We went to an ATM and she withdrew cash with no service charge.  All fixed again!  I did not request details.

            Got to sit through an old fashioned traffic jam yesterday.  We had business in La Trinidad, the capital city of Benguet Province.  It took 35 minutes to cross the city to get back to Baguio.  According to GPS it was 3 miles (5km).  Nothing like being caught behind a vintage post WW2 jeepney, watching the exhaust.  Gonna take a lot of solar power to counter balance the jeepneys. Wonder if we will ever see wide use of electric jeepneys here.  Cost was another 2,000 pesos to get everything finalized for our house, hope we never have to return to La Trinidad.  They do have many multicolored buildings built into the mountain side,, made more colorful by the fact that every day is wash day.  Reminds me of the first time I saw films of Rio in Brazil. Colorful slums built into the mountainside below Jesus of the Andes.  Probably never see it in person. South America being low on the list.  Cruises no longer stopping on the coast of Ecuador because of the gang,/drug wars.  Ten years ago Ecuador was a popular spot for expats, going rapidly downhill ever since.  They closed the casinos and greatly increased the amount of person annual income required.  About the only thing they have going for them is the national currency, the US Dollar.

Great updates, Mugtech, good to know you are getting settled back in, and I'm sure your posts will be helpful to those not familiar with "life in the Philippines", haha. It does seem like your property taxes are very low but not unexpected as it takes a long time for updates such as a developed property to trickle through the bureaucracy here.

           Found out last night that 4 adults band 3 kids will be coming up from Santa, Ilocos Sur today and leaving again Sunday.  The widow niece from Florida came in 2023 after her American husband died in October of 2022.  At that time she bought a used Toyota for the family to use in Santa.  Not sure what model or size it is, hoping 7 people can take the over 4 hour ride.  My nephew is already living with us as our van driver,  so our new house gets to sleep 10.

           One of the lucky 7 is the fiance' of our nephew's son.  She became the fiance' the day it was discovered she was pregnant.  The kid just turned 2 years old.  No date has been set for the wedding.  They do not attend Mass, but they are good Catholics when it cones to not practicing birth control.  Runs in the family.  The nephew and his future wife had the kid without getting married and had him baptised in the church.  When the future wife got pregnant again, the priest warned them that he would not baptize the second child unless the parents got married.  And so they married, he baptized #2 and the kids continued the family tradition.

         It makes sense in a country which outlaws divorce for all nonMuslims that it would make people shy away from marriage.  Had nieces in Singapore and Saudi, both RN's both decided they wanted a child only, no husband.  They both got pregnant where they worked,  both came back to the Philippines to give birth, and then both went back to work, leaving their children to be raised by family in the Philippines.  Last year the RN in Singapore transferred to New Zealand, stopping on the way to pick up her daughter.  Once she arrived in NZ she met a Kiwi, got pregnant and then got married.  Claims she plans to spend the rest of her life in NZ.

        We met another niece in Dubai in April of 2018 when we flew in to take a Dubai to Barcelona cruise.  She seemed content working there, said she did have a boyfriend.  We never met him and she said very little about him  Got word through the family grapevine that she was pregnant from her Pakistani boyfriend a few months later  They could not and did not want to be married, since she was married but separated from her Filipino husband.  Other family members tried to get her back to the Philippines to give birth as her other cousins had.

            She stayed in Dubai and gave birth in April of 2019.  She filled out the Dubai paperwork required, saying that the man who was the father was not her husband.  The father was immediately deported to Pakistan.  The niece and her new born son were sentenced to 6 months in prison for the good of the baby.  After serving the 6 months she was deported to Manila and showed up broke with some clothing.  Family got her some money for bus tickets and she has been living with her son in Manuela ever since.  Saw her last February when a van full of family visited us in Baguio.  Said she is planning to go work overseas again in 2025, said she probably won't go to a Muslim country.

         We finally got our showers installed with hot water connections.  Each shower costing a little more than 5,000 pesos plus some extra wiring.  The two guys who did the installations took about 2 hours, accepted 500 pesos each plus snacks.  The shower is not very strong, but it is hot enough.  Since it gets down to 60F most nights here I feel this hot shower is required, got tired of giving myself a bath out of buckets using the coffee maker to mix boiling water in with the normal cold water coming out of the wall.

         We just got our first electric bill for Baguio, were here 3 weeks, charging 900 pesos..  So it looks like our electric bill will be about 1,300 a month.  If we were in Pennsylvania using our baseboard heat we would be paying about $400/month.  My wife likes to save electricity however she can.  When not using electric appliances she unplugs them.  So now I have the shower set exactly where I want it, and then pull the plug when out of the shower.  We also pull the plug on the microwave and coffee maker when not being used.  According to some reels I have seen on FB it is a Filipina thing.

         We are back in Manueva, Ilocos Sur.  Stopped in at a 7 Eleven on our way out of Baguio to pay our electric bill.  Wife was upset that they charged an 8 peso fee to pay at 7 Eleven.  She gonna investigate further, in Manuela she pays the electric bill in an office att the power company, no fee and they have a priority line for seniors.

           Today the wife wanted to attend Mass, but the one in Santa, 2 miles south of here, is only at 8 AM, too early.  So she decided we would go to Vigan, last one there is 10 AM.  There were the usual delays and we did not leave until 10:10AM for a 10AM Mass 10 miles to the north.  The large church on the square in Vigan was damaged by an earthquake during the pandemic and will not be functional again for 2 more years.  We arrived at the church at 10:40 AM, which is late, even by Filipino standards.  Often people arrive 20 or 25 minutes late, stand in the back, take communion and then leave.  We got there just in time for the benediction, no Corpus Christi for us.  Hung around so the photographer could take pictures of the altar, the statues, the flowers, the paintings etc. Knew it was time to leave when they turned the fans off.