The following are my thoughts/opinions on this:

I think one should try to seek legal counsel in both Philippine law and US Immigration/Adoption even before considering this seriously because as I see one has to check if this is even allowed under Philippine law — if the end result is adopting the child or claiming parenthood through fatherhood in the birth certificate.

I called one hospital – St. Luke and they said it’s not supported there but I can imagine these things happen as an internal arrangement between the prospective parents and the surrogate mother. If they would choose a mother I can imagine it should be someone within their  ”family network”.  There is one I found through google called Asian Surrogates, owned by a Singaporean but using Filipinas but I found it a bit dodgy. They charge around $45000 USD for the services.  In my opinion, things like bringing a child into the world are way to important/sensitive to begin with.  To entrust this to a stranger, even though they claim to check them out for health and criminal records is somewhat risky. The surrogate mother might also change her mind and legally the prospective parents would  not be sure if they are bound to fulfill the terms of the  contract.

Other options which I can guarantee would be available in the Philippines are the following:    Infertility Treatments, or adoption but I guess one could also adopt first in their home country if they don’t want to be involved in a lot of immigration paperwork.

Food and Drinks Asia 2010

14th International Exposition on Specialty Foods, Delicatessen, Confectionery, Beverages, Beers Wines and Spirits

in conjunction with

Food Franchising Asia 2010

14th International Exposition on Food Franchising and Business Systems Exposition on September 2 – 5, 2010 at the World Trade Center

and

AsiaFood Expo (AFEX)

the 19th International Exposition on Food Processing, Packaging and Handling Machinery, Equipment and Technology

in conjunction with

FoodServe Asia 2009, The 10th International Exposition on Foodservice, Catering Systems, Supplies, Equipment and Technology.

on September 8 – 11, 2010 at the World Trade Center Metro Manila.

I am deeply saddened by what happened and I would like to extend my condolences and apologies to the families and friends of the victims of this tragic incident.  I’ve done tour buses so many times and I can imagine the horror they might have felt.   In this light, our tour operators must  improve their security measures to prevent this from happening in the future.

When some event so nauseatingly horrible and as aweful happens such as this, I don’t even have the desire to talk about it. But please, please have the sensitivity to save your humor — this is not a funny thing to joke about.  Filipinos are shamed throughout the world.  I don’t blame the HK government for banning their people from visiting us.  So be it! No Tourism. We’re not ready for tourists yet.

This shows even more how the “general” Filipino culture (sad to say) is still very immature.  I can see the following things prevalent in our culture:  lack of discipline, dishonesty, frivolity, victim mentality, and inferiority complex (balat sibuyas).  We are a happy people — i know that — but we need to know when to be serious and when to take it easy.. Sad to say we still need to learn a lot from others.

In this sense, we know that we are still a very young nation — there’s so much room for growth and change!  I hope we learn from all our mistakes and not look at ourselves as victims of our circumstances.

The Team is shrinking, they are now down to 8 again.  I guess the honeymoon has ended a few months ago.  Two staffmembers left, we don’t know for sure why, the other one claimed medical issues and the other one pursuing his own venture.  We doubt if they are truthful, but we have realized one thing, people seem to be prone to telling lies.    They say one thing and don’t do it.  White lies or not, it is still a sign of lack of character.    It’s really hard to find good and loyal people who are not very demanding.  Times have changed or has it been like this since the beginning?  Nevertheless, it is hard to keep faith in people  and continue to be nice if this happens way too often.

Our home, inspite of being spacious and a littie far away from the main roads is still not perfectly quiet.  In the early morning, where we still need our extra 4 hours of sleep we are awakened by vehicles honking, and cries of little kids, and what not.  Sleep and quietness is something hard to obtain here.    We just take note of this when we move to another place, whenever that may be.

We tried to have pet cats (rescued from the streets)  but we have already lost 2 in a span of 7 months of living here.  One disappeared on Good Friday and the other one was run over by a car.  We still have 3 kittens though, which was found a few days after by our driver’s kid. Their names are  Gloria, Binay and NoyNoy.

I started one experiment last month.  I am looking to secure a telecommute IT project from the US.  I don’t know but it has not been easy (duh!).  However, I know this is a big experiment so I know it can run both ways.  I will be in the East Coast in two weeks, right after attending MrC’s sister’s wedding and will be focusing more on this.

Basically, the past 2 years I have been talking mostly about the process we went through regarding our move here from idea, to research, to decision, to making the first step to actually living here. Right now, I can honestly say we are a bit more settled here and love our new place and of course we’re so blessed to see MrC’s IT outsourcing venture becoming very stable and slowly growing (11 people now and interviewing for 2 positions).

I also see this blog evolving from a journal or personal blog to some sort of magazine or information source for people thinking of coming back to the Philippines or even a networking site or support group for those that are already here and needing help/direction in resettling or in the case of first timers settling anew. My target reader would be an expat or an OFW or balikbayan. Those who have been accustomed to living elsewhere and trying to get to know the ins and outs of this country.

If you’re reading this and have suggestions do email me or post comments here. Thanks! – mixxy

Yellow Cab for Pizza

Earle’s, Almon Marina, Subway and Oliver’s has good sandwiches

Brother’s Burger for really good burgers

Cafe Breton for crepes

Spiral (Sofitel) and Shangri-la Makati (Circles) for a good Buffet

There is a Belgian Fries stand at Greenhills (near the theater) and at the Promenade

Caramia and Fior Gelato for Gelato (Italian ice cream)

If you want to try local brands try Burger Machine (freshly cooked on the spot and really cheap) and Jollibee.  Forget about American chains — the quality is different here, you’ll probably get disappointed. I tried Wendy’s at Greenbelt last weekend and their most expensive burger was really pathetic – and I don’t usually criticize that much.

The French Baker sells pretty good fresh bread. We found good wheat bread (among others) at La Coeur de France and they usually have a have buy one take one offer.

Juri’s (Ermita) for Dutch food and Belgian Beer.

Earle’s Delicatessen for sausages, cold cuts, very slow service though.

Rustan’s Supermarket also has savory sausages in their grocery and I also found some more on display at their Cafe in Makati.

Santis has many branches across the city — it is a small but reliable deli. This is where we buy MrC’s Farmers ham.

Bakery at Shangri-La Hotel — someone told me about this but I haven’t really tried this yet.

Metro Manila has a branch of American chains such as Bubba Gump’s, Friday’s, Chili’s,  Krispy Kreme, Dairy Queen, California Pizza Kitchen and even Hooters (Mall of Asia) among others. Texas Grill (El Pueblo) is consistently great (try their buffalo wings!)

Miss Costco? Try S&R or Makro.

Duo Restaurant at Serendra for European dishes and really good salad. Chefs Quarters also is just as good as Duo but you spend much less.

Mario’s for steaks and everything else.

If you know anyone who sells fresh milk and a good Pasta restaurant, please let me know

Nevertheless I had a hint on where it was.  It is located in an “armpit” corner of Quezon Avenue and EDSA.  Yes it can be described that way because it is hidden in a narrow street parallel to Quezon Avenue.  We actually found the right direction accidentally when we thought we missed Quezon Avenue exit from EDSA. We instead ended up at North Avenue and found our way to Agham road and by instinct found that little street and turned right before reaching Quezon Avenue from Agham.

Basically, Manila Seedling is where clusters of garden and landscaping stores are found.  You can buy seedlings, fruit trees, potted herbs, flowers or flowering pots and all sorts of tools related to gardening.  We saw a couple of buildings owned by the Manila Seedling bank, however, one with the fruit trees didn’t have anyone available to help us. Also, the other building seemed unmanned as well.  We ended up in a bigger store next to it that offers Membership.  With this membership you get to avail of their promos and discounts.

Since we were buying a lot of pots on discount we decided to apply for membership because the membership of 200 would already pay for itself with all the discounts we are getting from the pots.   In the end we bought pots of Lemon Grass, Lavender, two kinds of Basil, among others.  We also bought some vegetable seeds and gardening tools.

It is best to go there early morning on a weekend so it’s much cooler and less pollution.  However, MrC still felt the pollution stick to his skin, you know that grimy feeling.  Well, at least the Garden was there to at least to provide a bit of oxygen amidst the thick cloud of smoke of EDSA.   With all this, I still thought the whole visit was well worth it and it was nice to stroll around and look at and admire plants on an otherwise lazy Sunday morning.   I will be back there soon to pickup a Banana Tree.

I went to the Greenhills Night Market one weekend and watched their famous Christmas On Display. But anyway, it is a remake of the Christmas display found in good old COD Department store back when I was a kid. I remember it vaguely though. Well, if you have not been there yet. I totally recommend seeing this 15++ minute presentation of the birth of Christ. (I am posting this video as soon as I find that card reader or camera cable. I hope you do come back at a later time to see this).

It was really well done I would say! However, be prepared to stand for that amount of time as seats are really few.

With regards to shopping, don’t expect a lot. There were fewer booths than expected but hey, across the street you could always continue your shopping escapade! The prices are pretty good though. They have like shirts for 100 pesos and toys for around 50 pesos. There’s also enough food booths for snacking and even a full dinner. That is, if you can find a good seat.

Later on I found out that this is only one of the many Night Markets all around the city.  There’s one also in Fort Bonifacio, another one called The Great Holiday Bazaar held on DEC 5-6 ,2009  (Saturday to Sunday) at the Rockwell Tent , Makati City, the Cubao Expo at Araneta Center Cubao Expo (formerly The Marikina Shoe Expo), Araneta Center, Cubao (it’s behind the old Rustan’s [which now houses the Automatic Supercenter as well as ACS Call Center], which is behind Shopwise, which is in front of the entrance of the Araneta Coliseum).  I am sure there will be at least one Night Market within a 10 kilometer range from where you live.

Here’s a month by month rundown of what happened to us.

December: We arrived at the airport in the morning and was picked up by my Mom and uncle. Since we had an apartment ready for us we were able to move in same day. Later on, we got in touch again with the Dutch IT business guy we met last September. We then met other Dutch expats on several occasions. We spent some days also in a beach resort in La Union and attended his company’s Christmas party. Christmas and New Year was just spent quietly at home with my Mom.

January: Our stuff arrived and I took care of handling the government paperwork involved with tax and duty free exemption. We spent a weekend in Baguio and stayed at The Manor.

February: We started employing part time live out househelp. Possible contract with Dutch client shows up in the horizon. We started scouting for office space and ended up renting one next to our apartment building.

March: The Manila Offshoring Office opens with 5 new people on the team! Work commenced immediately after furniture and all pc’s arrived. MrC’s Dad and business partner visits from the Netherlands and is there for the Office Blessing. MrC becomes a godfather (ninong) for the first time! We also spent 4 days in Kyoto in celebration of both our birthdays this month.

April: Visited The Netherlands for 3 Weeks at the height of spring. We stayed in a house near the Keukenhof. It’s very beautiful out there but we realized driving back and forth to the place takes too much time! We were so happy to be back home — in the Philippines where it is warm, sunny and never boring!

May: Started looking for a .Net developer. Interviewed several good candidates but with no luck in hiring. Took a short but relaxing break in a resort in Subic. After coming back from that trip, we bought a new car, (a gorgeous red SUV) after a few days and suffered from buyer’s remorse shortly after that (the remorseful feeling lasted only a few minutes).

Life here has been quite good and we are thankful for our blessings. We were also able to hire a driver through MrC’s Dutch local business associate.

June: I registered as a voter in Mandaluyong. Then, we decided that it’s finally time to leave our “very convenient” but small and smoky nest near EDSA for a more spacious house a bit farther from the noise and pollution of the the CBD’s. We started house hunting once again. Another reason also is that the Office has had so many issues / problems that we could not anymore overlook. We also realized that the Building Management is hard to work with.

July: We continued looking for places but had no luck in finding one. We kept ourselves positive in spite of the frustrations. MrC also had to go back to the Netherlands for a few weeks and I chose to stay here (bad idea for me).

August: Just as soon as we were almost giving up we found the house that we wanted finally! Also, our newly found .Net Developer started working for us. He was actually applying for Linux Admin position and we were just lucky to find out he is also a good .NET developer as well. Indeed we are lucky! Or should we say it was all meant to be Also, we started applying for MrC’s permanent residency.

September: We moved to our new place! Later on, we endured days of storm and flood (Ondoy). We are so thankful that our house was not flooded. We were so glad we didn’t end up renting some of the houses we saw in Pasig which were all now flooded. Our Pioneer office was damaged by this storm but this allowed us to discontinue our lease. We then started looking for a new office (again!). Total number of people in our team is now 8 not including me and MrC.

October : Our ties at Pioneer is totally severed as I turned over the keys to our landlord and also moved all our office belongings to our new office in Ortigas. We had another trip again out of the country but this time it was different for me. I first went to Amsterdam and stayed for 5 days then took another flight to Newark and stayed there also for 5 days. There I stayed at my old friends place in NJ and Pennsylvania. I also went there primarily to keep my drivers license current. After that I spent 7 happy days with my family in Canada. I left Canada with tears in my eyes

November to present: I spent a few weeks away from the office also to recover from the trip and get myself back in the current time zone. I spent the past few days being responsible for furnishing the house. That involves a lot of painful visits to the mall, a hardship I tried to endure I also by the way, completed a SQLServer Analytical Services training course somewhere in Makati. In the next few days I hope to be busy with my usual IT Work again and have a more organized home before the New Year starts. Our house now has a beautiful Christmas Lantern which I bought near our place. It costs 900 pesos.

The housing market and the underlying prices that go with it can be somewhat grouped into Expat and Local.  The Expats that come here are usually prepared and equipped to pay Western standard rent but also expect quality and amenities of Western-style housing.  Most are supported by their companies so money is almost not an issue to them.  Some expats are just people who are retiring (or snow-birds) here or here on business. Locals are usually professionals, usually upwardly mobile who are looking for places close to work.

The major tool I used of course is the internet.  Specifically I go to sites such as sulit.com.ph, craigslist, 88db, olx.com, adpost.com, buysell.ph.  Around 60% of listings here are from brokers or real estate agents.  As a rule of thumb, you should prefer listings that come from owners themselves.  Brokers charge one month rent so the rents will be much more inflated if you go with brokers.  Never forget that brokers act for the benefit of the landlords.  Because of this, we tried to look for agents that could help us look for places — and don’t work for landlords but in the end we couldn’t find one in our area.  If you find a trustworthy one, I am sure it’s all worth the fees you’d be paying.  First of all, the brokers that I mentioned earlier that work for landlords, even if you tell them your requirements, they almost always ignore it and push you to view the property anyways.  Some of them don’t even look at the property at all before listing them.   They show you so many properties that are in bad shape and not even in your price range!  They are a complete waste of time. 

However, if you are in such a hurry, you have no choice but to work with them at times.  Surely, they will be sending you listings often but they are not upfront or honest not to let you avoid properties that are not for you.  The secret here is to emphasize what you don’t like and if  that’s a dealbreaker and what you prefer just to be sure you don’t waste each other’s time.  We were lucky to find our house without a broker.

Houses in or near a certain CBD such as Makati, Ortigas, or Fort Bonifacio are the most expensive and the quality of the houses are not usually matching the price.  Also, most rentals are condominium units.  Before you go further you have to decide whether you want to live in a condo unit or a regular house or townhouse.   Among high-rise condominiums, there’s the older ones and newer ones.  The newer ones are usually from the 30sqm (studio) to 80 sqm range (2 bedrooms). If you go with older ones you can get bigger units from 50-100+ sqm.  Of course, if you are already in the 80k and above per month range you can find good ones near GreenBelt, Fort Bonifacio and Rockwell.  However in Fort Bonifacio, all are less than 5 years but most are really small.  However, I think in Serendra there are bigger units.  With this price range you could also get a 4-bedroom plus in exclusive gated communities like Valle Verde, Corinthian Gardens, White Plains, Forbes Park.  Below 80k, in these areas are usually rundown, musty and unloved/forsaken big houses with uncaring or uninvolved landlords.

In the 30k to 70k Range lies, middle level condominium units.  You need to ask whether Parking is included or not included because usually residential condominium parking is limited if you have a car or choose to have one later.  Also, ask if association dues are already included in the rent.  Ideally the rent should already include the dues and parking.  It’s less hassle that way. Try to observe security and staff.  Are they there 24 hours? Are they attentive or just playing poker most of the time? Are they strict about visitors?  Are elevators secured?  Finally, ask about the terms.  Usually, they require a one year lease but some might be flexible to give you 6 months.  Also, check for cleanliness of public areas and lighting.  You do not want to walk into dim-lit hallways with cockroaches jumping on you. Trust me, I’ve seen it.  If the unit is not in good condition forget it.  It is a sign that the landlord is not involved and you won’t be sure if you’ll get help if you have trouble with the unit.   In my experience, they would usually want to ask for a deposit and contract before they actually fix the unit.  Do yourself a favor and avoid them.

At around price ranges below 30k are condominium units that are 1 bedroom and studios.  If you are young and single you can also save money by finding roommates and share a condo or apartment unit.  There are also boarding houses where you rent a small room or share a room with 4 other people.  The rents are in the below 10k range but amenities are very basic (bed, cabinet and electric fan).  This is ideal for someone coming from the Provinces and have a tight budget but don’t know anyone yet in the city.  If you’re a lady, of course it’s easy to find ladies dormitories all around the city.  Most of these dormitories prefer only ladies.  The landladies usually look after you.  Also, at 30k and below, are low-rise apartments (no elevators) and townhouses/rowhouses (outside of CBD, may or may not have good security). For example places like GA Tower (Mandaluyong), Cityland (Makati/Ortigas) and Palm Towers (Makati) offer more affordable rents suitable for young professionals.

You could also be offered houses “farther away” but nice places such as Alabang, Paranaque, and even Cavite or Laguna.  Only consider them if your daily commute is as far as Makati or Taguig.  Even then it will up to 45 minutes in total.  However, with prices of 20k you could get nicer houses already in these places.  Up North, you can go to Quezon City and see nicer and bigger houses too at around 20′s. Exception of course is Alabang where rents are as high as what you would pay for upscale gated communities like what I mentioned above.

Avoid the Flood prone areas. After Ondoy, everyone knows which places are really bad: Marikina, Cainta, and Pasig, some areas of San Juan  and Cavite are among the most flood prone in the area no matter how nice the houses are and how cheap the rent is.

Is Internet connection important to you? If so, ask immediately what kind of internet providers are available in that property.  If you’re lucky, SkyCable Broadband Cable is available in that area.  As far as I know this is the fastest available for residential internet.

Also, if you need airconditioning discuss early about this with the owner.  Also, try to avoid places next to major highways if pollution bothers you.

Lastly, try to ask neighbors about water situation, and security issues in the area if you can.   Do not rely on what the owner or the brokers tell you.  I guess that is quite obvious.

P.S.  Shameless plug: If you are looking for a Studio Apartment in San Antonio Village, Makati, I own one that is available by January of 2010.  It is 29 sqm and renting for 11,000 inclusive of Association Dues but without parking. Parking can be rented separately.