What to bring to PI

[Jack Peterson]

 For my input, a lot of things depend on how long you are intending to stay, Hardware well weight will determine this unless you have a way of Transporting this other than you Luggage. Shoes well are you going to need them, Weddings and Such, OK but in 20 mins you would wish you had not worn them. Linen, well, I brought stuff and my wife never uses it,  this so or too that, Things are cheap enough to buy and discard or give to the family etc which is the way they work here. Food etc, well unless you can get a constant supply of the things you think you will miss, best get used to local Stuff. It is all about Money I am afraid to say, so unless you intent to spend large amounts on importing things, For me, get used to what is on offer. 100+ million Filipino's live daily and Survive, So can we.

We get so many Come and just can't Integrate and then get disgruntled and so starts the negatives, Ohhhh! it can be aggravating but think on what we would say if it was an immigrant saying this at home. Can't get this Can't get that

It is what it is and most of us Love it. If people are coming to Retire and spend the rest of Life here then does it matter about what I bring cos it never going to last forever, is It? Anyways, we got Lazarda and such now, so No probs for those that want and will spend?

 

But then Folks that's me.

[chris49]

Shoes you will need. Especially initially when running around to immigration and perhaps places like city hall. It would be misleading to minimize the number of times you will need a decent pair. Of course they are available here, I was just pointing out the size. If. or if not available.

Now after living here 11 years, it's true, I hardly wear them. But still keep a few pairs handy.

[Jack Peterson]

1 minute ago, chris49 said:

It would be misleading to minimize the number of times you will need a decent pair.

I agree Chris but when you say decent shoes the Brogue type is not a  necessity  Slip ons are far better and I wear Good Crocks that really do look like a decent Pair of Shoes Anyone living here for some time will no doubt have Found there feet have Spread out so we may as well say bring a pair at least one size bigger than normal 

[robert k]

I believe there has been a thread on this before and it might be worth looking for. That said, I brought towels and wash cloths from Walmart and disposable razors from walmart. Razors are pricy in the Philippines from what I saw.

I brought my laptop, ordinary low powered business model that didn't overheat even though I didn't have aircon. I upgraded my laptop to 8gb ram before leaving the US. I'm not doing video rendering so I wouldn't need a high powered system that would get hot and overheat or burn out the video card.

I don't get along well with slippers. I have found that canvas deck shoes with thick rubber soles, lace up or slip on are almost as cool as slippers but I can run in them if I have to cross a busy street and they provide protection for my feet. They also are good for wearing at the beach and in the water, you don't want to step on a sea urchin. I would just wash my canvas shoes in the washing machine.

I would bring a couple of household electrical cords (10-15 Ft.) from the US, they are available in the Philippines but the ones from the US are more heavy duty, generally better made and cheaper.

I didn't experience many brown outs but I brought a 6,000 Mah cellphone battery bank with 50 lumen light on it which will work continuously for 70 hours, I couldn't get another one because they stopped making that particular one so I bought 2 of their 3350 Mah model as backups, should the worst happen. 100 lumen would be brighter but half the life.

I brought flash drives, micro SD cards from the states because they are cheaper there, possibly better quality and you may find it tough to find a 128-200GB micro SD in the Philippines.

Higher quality phones seem to be significantly cheaper in the US but you need to be sure they work on Philippine frequencies.

If you use a tablet computer, I would definitely recommend you bring or get one in the US as the are much more expensive for a quality one in the Philippines.

Tech stuff is available but do you want to run around all over to find it and possibly pay more money for an off brand when you do find it? 

I had someone say you don't need to bring socks. I brought some anyway and wore them about half the time.

I mostly wore hiking shorts and knit sports shirts with collar that I brought from the US which cost only $1 more than a quality T-shirt. I actually found cargo shorts at the Ukay-ukay stores that would fit me, one of them was even a Ralph Lauren that needed a button for about $10, Old Navy and other brands were less.

I'm glad I brought tech stuff and I saved quite a bit of time and money on my brand of razors, shoes, phone, socks, vitamins, aspirin and was more comfortable with towels I brought. I didn't expect to work on anything or I could have brought a ratchet-sockets, wrenches and a massive steel shank rip framing hammer, speed square, quality tape measure and possibly a chalk line. I wish I had brought some common household cords because outlets can be fewer and farther spaced in the Philippines and the cords on fans and appliances are short. Everyone is different and everyone is going to miss something. I will have all of the above when I return. I will also buy a few things in Manila that are not readily available in the US but may not be common in the provinces either. I only missed a few things, that were available but were much more expensive or of inferior quality. Everything on my bring list is available but as others have said, may be expensive, low quality or difficult to find. Like aspirin, many shops only carried the 81mg heart patient variety and they charged like it was a prescription drug while I could get a 100 count bottle of 325mg aspirin for about $3 in the US.

Edited June 27, 2016 by robert k

[Dave Hounddriver]

Bring the strongest can opener you can buy.  Can openers here are made with junk metal while the cans themselves are made with high tensile steel.  (Or so it seems)

[RBM]

What to bring.

A BIG BUCKET OF PATIENCE,!,,

[robert k]

2 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Bring the strongest can opener you can buy.  Can openers here are made with junk metal while the cans themselves are made with high tensile steel.  (Or so it seems)

Good catch! I used the can opener on my Leatherman tool and it worked fine, but then you need to clean it and there are too many tight places for food to get into and I would boil it in the rice cooker every once in a while. I just bought some (10) military P-51 can openers. They cost me about $1 a piece and will last for years. I bought 10 because I'm sure some will grow legs and walk away and I will probably gift a few of them.

[frosty (chris)]

1 hour ago, RBM said:

What to bring.

A BIG BUCKET OF PATIENCE,!,,

And a good sense of humor, you will need both

[AlwaysRt]

Bring acceptance (of the local culture) and leave expectation (that things should be the same as they are at home) behind.

[skyskyper]

8 hours ago, mogo51 said:

... but I add that I have only a size 7 shoe - no comments please, I already know it is relevant to another part of my anatomy!

 

 

Totally FALSE! It has been scientifically proven that finger geometry and foot size have no direct correlation to the size of your "another part of my anatomy!"