Turning Filipino

[JJReyes]

21 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Usually if you read reviews of where you intend to stay you will find out any pitfalls. 

Found a better solution.  Don't use AirBNB.  Many reviews are positive, possibly written by friends and relatives.  The bad reviews are sometimes by people who have an axe to grind or are hoping for a refund.  During a Mexico City visit, we found out the apartment owners resided in a different city, and they had not been paying association fees.  The electronic keys to the lobby and elevation wouldn't work.  The eventual compromise was we could enter the complex using the employees/servants' entrance through the garage.  Management was hoping we would complain about the apartment owners.

Our Booking.com loyalty program is Level 3.  For many hotels, we don't pay until arrival.  If the place isn't as described, the most it will cost us is one night.  I realize we can dispute and try to get back some of the advance payment for an apartment, but it's not worth the aggravation.

[OnMyWay]

Back to the original story; here is some background.

I'm not sure exactly why, but my wife and her cousin have always been close, despite this cousin being 13 years older than my wife.  She (I will called her F) and her BF (T) were sponsors at our wedding in 2015, and we have visited them twice in Cebu.  Both times, they were great hosts and drove us around wherever we wanted to go.  We tried to give them gas money both times, and both times they refused.  We tried harder this time, with gas being so expensive, but again they refused.  We did pay for some meals and movie tickets.  F speaks fluent German, Tagalog and Bisayan, but is a bit shy with her English.  T speaks good English and I get along well with him.  Our kids love them and have a great time with them.

F was married for to a German guy for 20+ years, living in Germany.  They had 2 kids who are now in the 20s, still living in Germany.  Her German husband died about 10 years ago.  Her BF, T, is a childhood friend.  They can't get married because if they did she would lose her German pension from her late husband.  She worked in Germany too, so I think she has two pensions.  Due to this, she is here as tourist and has to get extensions, just like some of us.  Apparently, regaining her Philippine citizenship would also make her lose the husbands pension.

They bought a rather large lot in a not so nice area.  In 2019 when we visited, they had built they first story of their small house.  I don't know why, but they kept it very small.  Maybe 5 X 10 meters at the most.  Then they added the 2nd story, a clone of the first, and then their rooftop deck with bar and huge sound system.  Their Sub-woofer is literally about a 3 foot cube, and they blast the Karaoke over the surrounding area!  They overlook a fairly nice sub-division. 

This trip, we decided to stay with them the last night, instead of an AirBnb, because they were going to drive us to the airport anyway.  Easier for them and cheap for us.  We had to sleep on floor mattresses, but it was fine.  They have aircon.

Obsession with Karaoke.  This is the strange thing.  You would think that after living the German life for 20+ years, F would have absorbed some German characteristics.  Germans like their neighborhoods quiet and booming Karaoke music would not be tolerated.  Maybe she feels liberated to be back in the Philippines?  They blast it several nights a week, and F puts her phone on a tripod, and live streams on FB.  Who the heck would want to watch it, I don't know.  They started around 7 pm and ended at 1030, probably only because we went to bed.  Another old cousin came by.  He and his wife were very good, and sang almost the whole time.  Personally, I can't stand it when it is too loud.  I spend an hour up their and I am sure I lost some hearing.  My wife even wonders why they have to blast it so loud.  It would be perfectly nice at a lower level.  My wife asked if they ever have complaints, and F said, "Yes, but they are just jealous!".

 

 

[hk blues]

9 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

..and F said, "Yes, but they are just jealous!".

And therein lies the basic issue here with such problems with neighbours - the victim is made out to be the offender. 

[Freebie]

Jealous of hideous out of tune nonsense., that is a disturbance and anti social nuisance.. jealous of being a incredibly selfish ? ... sometimes people appear to be normal on the outside till you hear their thoughts...then you know all hope for humanity has gone.. or the reason why survival of the fittest ( and smartest ) really is a thing in our species.

[OnMyWay]

5 minutes ago, Freebie said:

Jealous of hideous out of tune nonsense., that is a disturbance and anti social nuisance.. jealous of being a incredibly selfish ? ... sometimes people appear to be normal on the outside till you hear their thoughts...then you know all hope for humanity has gone.. or the reason why survival of the fittest ( and smartest ) really is a thing in our species.

"There never was a night or a problem , that could defeat sunrise or hope."

I've lived here 10 years and have concluded that loud Karaoke is part of the cultural norm of rudeness here.  They have grown up in a "me first" society and don't think of many things as rude.  Cutting the line, never giving way at a door, etc.  I don't have any hope that it will change.

On the 2Go MV Malibago, they started blasting Karaoke at about 8:30 pm until 11 pm.  It was much louder than this video indicates.  We couldn't hear it much from out stateroom.  The crowd seemed to be enjoying it.

 

 

[Freebie]

I think my phrase might perhaps have been " Turn that shit down "...

[Snowy79]

I honestly think many are used to growing up in a small house with lots of noise that they can just switch off to noise round them. 

I was on a 2 1/2hr bus ride last week and the bus shows movies which is ideal as it passes the time. No sooner had the movie started when the person two rows in front started playing a loud game on his phone, the driver then put the radio on and another passenger was listening to their own music. I could feel the hairs on my neck standing up. 

[jimeve]

On 7/12/2022 at 7:33 PM, Eddie1 said:

Do you have the dates Jim?   I might be affected by that as well.

Sorry for the late reply Eddie, PLDT problems. 23rd 24th 25th. But I think you're far from the noise. It's near PJ'S SACSAC.

[Joey G]

On 7/14/2022 at 4:28 AM, OnMyWay said:

Back to the original story; here is some background.

I'm not sure exactly why, but my wife and her cousin have always been close, despite this cousin being 13 years older than my wife.  She (I will called her F) and her BF (T) were sponsors at our wedding in 2015, and we have visited them twice in Cebu.  Both times, they were great hosts and drove us around wherever we wanted to go.  We tried to give them gas money both times, and both times they refused.  We tried harder this time, with gas being so expensive, but again they refused.  We did pay for some meals and movie tickets.  F speaks fluent German, Tagalog and Bisayan, but is a bit shy with her English.  T speaks good English and I get along well with him.  Our kids love them and have a great time with them.

F was married for to a German guy for 20+ years, living in Germany.  They had 2 kids who are now in the 20s, still living in Germany.  Her German husband died about 10 years ago.  Her BF, T, is a childhood friend.  They can't get married because if they did she would lose her German pension from her late husband.  She worked in Germany too, so I think she has two pensions.  Due to this, she is here as tourist and has to get extensions, just like some of us.  Apparently, regaining her Philippine citizenship would also make her lose the husbands pension.

They bought a rather large lot in a not so nice area.  In 2019 when we visited, they had built they first story of their small house.  I don't know why, but they kept it very small.  Maybe 5 X 10 meters at the most.  Then they added the 2nd story, a clone of the first, and then their rooftop deck with bar and huge sound system.  Their Sub-woofer is literally about a 3 foot cube, and they blast the Karaoke over the surrounding area!  They overlook a fairly nice sub-division. 

This trip, we decided to stay with them the last night, instead of an AirBnb, because they were going to drive us to the airport anyway.  Easier for them and cheap for us.  We had to sleep on floor mattresses, but it was fine.  They have aircon.

Obsession with Karaoke.  This is the strange thing.  You would think that after living the German life for 20+ years, F would have absorbed some German characteristics.  Germans like their neighborhoods quiet and booming Karaoke music would not be tolerated.  Maybe she feels liberated to be back in the Philippines?  They blast it several nights a week, and F puts her phone on a tripod, and live streams on FB.  Who the heck would want to watch it, I don't know.  They started around 7 pm and ended at 1030, probably only because we went to bed.  Another old cousin came by.  He and his wife were very good, and sang almost the whole time.  Personally, I can't stand it when it is too loud.  I spend an hour up their and I am sure I lost some hearing.  My wife even wonders why they have to blast it so loud.  It would be perfectly nice at a lower level.  My wife asked if they ever have complaints, and F said, "Yes, but they are just jealous!".

 

Thanks, now I'm cross eyed... you can't make this stuff up LOLOLOLOL

[Mike J]

On 7/14/2022 at 4:28 PM, OnMyWay said:

My wife asked if they ever have complaints, and F said, "Yes, but they are just jealous!".

We had an issue when two foreigners rented a house not far from us and started have having parties that lasted well into the morning.  Booming music, laughter, shouting, drunken singing, etc.  The neighbors, almost all Filipino, were not jealous and they called the police, then got the local barangay captain involved.  PNP showed up a total of five times that I was able to count.  Things are back to relative peace and quite now.