Living in Cebu

In early 2006 I will be moving to Cebu, Philippines with the entire family.

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NEW HOUSEMAIDS - MORE ON DRIVING - COST OF MOTOR BIKES

NEW HOUSEMAIDS

We now have two new housemaids which seem to be working out fine. Get the first replacement the next morning and another the day after. All sourced by word of mouth. These are from a close by island and families are known.

We have been warned by many of scams here with housemaids. The story goes that for the first couple of months they will be good and gain your trust. Then they will leave and you will find lots of your stuff missing or even worse they will arrange for someone else to visit the house when they know you are out and clear you out entirely.

This was not a concern with the last two housemaids. Both were sourced from remote provinces again through word of mouth and this from known families. This is not 100% protection by any means but it reduces the risk. We lost out in both cases in that we paid the transport to bring them up. A friend of mine in Manila said that it is standard to hold back some of their pay each month until they have stayed a full year.

MORE ON DRIVING

Was out riding my motor bike last night and saw an accident. They are shocking wherever they happen but there is something a little bit scarier about one happening here in the Philippines. Lucky for the victims it happened directly in front of the hospital. I must have arrived second before it happened, as the first thing I noticed was four guys carrying a single many bleeding and unconscious towards the hospital. The way they carried him shocked me. Each had a limb with no support for the body. I hope the man had no spinal injures.

I actually pulled up before the accident. I don’t like to drive past such things. I was deciding to turn around regardless of the fact that traffic was still moving. Suddenly another many comes past this time holding a young and bleeding unconscious girl. This confirmed that the accident must have just happened. I immediately turned around and went somewhere else.

My brother-in-law informed me that he saw an accident on the bridge a few days before where a truck hit a multi-cab in the early hours of the morning. The accident was fatal with at least one girl lying dead on the road as he passed. From the description there would be no question about her being dead.

The Italian man that runs the Angelo’s Apartment Hotel I mentioned previously had a motorbike accident a couple weeks ago resulting in very serious bone fractures to his legs. He has had surgery and is now confined to bed for some time. Its important to remember that for every death there are many more serious injuries and some leave a person permanently injuries and scares.

I was also talking to some long-term expats at a restaurants and they started to rattle of a list of foreigners that have died just here on Mactan in motor bike accidents. They easily covered a dozen different accidents and concluded that an average of about one foreigner a year dies in a motor bike accidents just on Mactan. That is a huge percentage considering the small size of the expat community here.

This is even more surprising considering the relative slow speed of traffic here. The average speed here seems to be about 20 to 30 kilometers per hour. The contributing factors to the slower speed are the trikes, constantly stopping jeepenies and the volume of traffic. Even without these factors I am constantly amazed to find cars with a clear road in front of them driving at this slow speed. Don’t know if they are exceptionally nervous drivers or trying to conserve fuel. It’s just another frustrating aspect of driving here in the Philippines.

COST OF MOTOR BIKES.

I said I would continue to talk about costs in the Philippines so while we are talking driving here I may as well mention the purchase of the Motor Bike. I purchased my brand new 150cc motor bike for just over $600 which is very cheap. It was a made to order job using mainly Chinese and Korean parts. My brother-in-law arranged it and spent two full days onside while it was being built making sure it was done will using good components. Its an impressive looking bike despite being put together from components. I am always getting the comment from Pinoy when I pull up “nice bike”. Of course any real biking enthusiast would recognize it for being a cheap Chinese copy and turn their noses up. Riding the bike here is fun but its important to keep in mind how dangerous it can be also.

Posted: Sunday 23rd July 2006, 12:34 AM

Learn To Speck Cebuano

If you are planning no living in Cebu then its a good idea to learn the language and I have found a great teacher here in Cebu. He can also assist you online and is available to translate any documents.

If you plan to live in Cebu then why not learn to speak the language and earn to Speak Cebuano - Translation service also available