Back to Baguio!

[OnMyWay]

Weekend trip, the traffic is worse than ever.  Friends who went at the end of February said it was quiet.  No more.

[earthdome]

The playground looks new. Is that in the Burnham Park area?

[earthdome]

We considered buying a home or condo in Baguio. Glad we didn't. I was told that Sagada is similar to what Baguio was 50 years ago. Worth a visit. You can go from Baguio north to Sagada, then go southeast through Bontoc to visit Banaue, then go further southeast and head back south down the Pan Asian Highway.

[OnMyWay]

15 hours ago, earthdome said:

The playground looks new. Is that in the Burnham Park area?

Yes, that is Burham Children's Park.  They retained some of the old swings, etc., but have 5 or 6 sets of modern new playgrounds with rubber padding.  Burham is very nice and clean.

[OnMyWay]

On 4/23/2022 at 8:44 PM, earthdome said:

We considered buying a home or condo in Baguio. Glad we didn't. I was told that Sagada is similar to what Baguio was 50 years ago. Worth a visit. You can go from Baguio north to Sagada, then go southeast through Bontoc to visit Banaue, then go further southeast and head back south down the Pan Asian Highway.

Sagada is very far!  It might be nice, but very remote.  Hospitals, etc.  If we stay in the Philippines, I think we will end up in Clark / Angeles.

It does appear, as my friend's said in Feb., that there are a lot of improvement in Baguio (streets, sidewalks, Burnham, etc.) that were completed during the pandemic.  And everything is clean.

However, these do not overcome the traffic issues.  I did quite a bit of driving around the city this trip (I usually avoid that) and it was really bad.  They have a coding scheme on weekdays but not on the weekends.  We have talked about it before, but the key things are:  Expressway from Manila to Rosario now and many more people own cars now.  Then, a complete lack of parking in downtown.  I don't know of any good ways to solve the issues.  They keep building tall buildings all over and most don't have parking.  Unfortunately, it make take another large earthquake to bring them back to reality.

Traffic up the on the expressway and up the hill on Marcos Hwy Friday late afternoon was surprisingly light, and down the hill Sunday mid-day was not bad.  However, Southbound on the TPLEX and SCTEX was slow most of the way to Clark.  I have never seen it like that.  Slow only because there are too many cars, and then at the toll plazas, long backup due to too many cars and miss-management.  We tried to pull over at the first Petron on TPLEX south and it was a completely mess.  Kept going to the next one which is a roadside "mall" and it also was a complete mess.  Had to stop for the girls.  When we hit Angles area, huge backup for vehicles trying to get on NLEX at the SCTEX interchange, then after that clear sailing to Subic.

 

[earthdome]

7 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Sagada is very far!  It might be nice, but very remote.  Hospitals, etc.  If we stay in the Philippines, I think we will end up in Clark / Angeles.

It does appear, as my friend's said in Feb., that there are a lot of improvement in Baguio (streets, sidewalks, Burnham, etc.) that were completed during the pandemic.  And everything is clean.

However, these do not overcome the traffic issues.  I did quite a bit of driving around the city this trip (I usually avoid that) and it was really bad.  They have a coding scheme on weekdays but not on the weekends.  We have talked about it before, but the key things are:  Expressway from Manila to Rosario now and many more people own cars now.  Then, a complete lack of parking in downtown.  I don't know of any good ways to solve the issues.  They keep building tall buildings all over and most don't have parking.  Unfortunately, it make take another large earthquake to bring them back to reality.

Traffic up the on the expressway and up the hill on Marcos Hwy Friday late afternoon was surprisingly light, and down the hill Sunday mid-day was not bad.  However, Southbound on the TPLEX and SCTEX was slow most of the way to Clark.  I have never seen it like that.  Slow only because there are too many cars, and then at the toll plazas, long backup due to too many cars and miss-management.  We tried to pull over at the first Petron on TPLEX south and it was a completely mess.  Kept going to the next one which is a roadside "mall" and it also was a complete mess.  Had to stop for the girls.  When we hit Angles area, huge backup for vehicles trying to get on NLEX at the SCTEX interchange, then after that clear sailing to Subic.

 

Yeah, Sagada is a long drive north from Baguio taking most of a day. I wouldn't recommend living in Sagada full time, just a nice place to visit. Back 9 years ago I made a post with pictures about a trip up that way. I think the pictures got lost during a forum upgrade.

The last Christmas/New Years holiday season I lived in Baguio in 2014 it was gridlock for that 2 weeks with several million tourists visiting.

The older I get the less attractive living full time in the Philippines becomes. Mostly because of health care issues. First that you can't use your Medicare benefits. Second that as you age it becomes more important to live close to good emergency medical care. We likely will end up snow birding. Spending some of the winter months in the Philippines and the rest in the US. We would still need a place in the Philippines but I would rather it be something low maintenance and easy to leave like a condo rather than land with a house. That is if I can convince my better half of that.

[Mike J]

17 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

If we stay in the Philippines, I think we will end up in Clark / Angeles

I was thought you had already decided to move back to the US?   Possible change of plans?

[OnMyWay]

3 hours ago, Mike J said:

I was thought you had already decided to move back to the US?   Possible change of plans?

I think I posted about this a few months back but we are on hold for several reasons, of which the largest are regarding costs.  We are on the fence now as far as actually making the move.

Cost of a 20 foot shipping container went from ~10k all in, in 2020 to 30k+ just for shipping now.

Cost of houses where I want to live in Texas went from 250-300k to 400+k.  That prices me out of paying cash.

Cost of two low mileage good used cars went from <20k to 30k.  Times 2 that = extra 20k.

Rampant inflation makes everything else much more expensive.

There are other things too regarding our kids.  Is the U.S. really a better place for them to grow up and and go to school?  That is no longer clear to me.

Housing will crash and there will probably be a recession.  We will reconsider then.  I am keeping the visa applications open for my wife and step-daughter, and I can do that for a long time.  The toughest part of this is that my step-daughter will be started college soon, and deciding how she will complete her education is hard.

[hk blues]

5 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

I think I posted about this a few months back but we are on hold for several reasons, of which the largest are regarding costs.  We are on the fence now as far as actually making the move.

Cost of a 20 foot shipping container went from ~10k all in, in 2020 to 30k+ just for shipping now.

Cost of houses where I want to live in Texas went from 250-300k to 400+k.  That prices me out of paying cash.

Cost of two low mileage good used cars went from <20k to 30k.  Times 2 that = extra 20k.

Rampant inflation makes everything else much more expensive.

There are other things too regarding our kids.  Is the U.S. really a better place for them to grow up and and go to school?  That is no longer clear to me.

Housing will crash and there will probably be a recession.  We will reconsider then.  I am keeping the visa applications open for my wife and step-daughter, and I can do that for a long time.  The toughest part of this is that my step-daughter will be started college soon, and deciding how she will complete her education is hard.

Yep, whenever I start to think about whether moving back to the UK would be better I keep coming up with the same negative - it was too expensive 7 years ago when I made my decision which way to jump and it hasn't gotten any cheaper.  Neither has the Philippines to be fair but still...

[earthdome]

On 4/25/2022 at 8:31 PM, OnMyWay said:

The toughest part of this is that my step-daughter will be started college soon, and deciding how she will complete her education is hard.

Are there any immigration issues for your step-daughter once she turns 18?