British expat Peter has been living in the Philippines for more than two years now, and it looks like he plans to spend even more time there. See what this young man thinks about living and working in Metro Manila, his tips about where to find jobs, and other pieces of advice on getting around and adapting to the local culture.	Peter

-Where were you born?

I was born in Manchester, England and lived there my whole life up until 2007.

-In which country and city are you living now?

I'm living in Las Pinas, Manila which is in The Philippines.

-Are you living alone or with your family?

I live alone, my family is still in England.

-How long have you been living in the Philippines?

I've lived in the Philippines for the past 2 and a half years.

-What is your age?

I'm 25 years old

-When did you come up with the idea of living in the Philippines?

I came up with the idea when a friend of mine who happens to be half-Filipino/half-British, first recommended for me to visit the Philippines when I was around 20 years old. The first time I was a little bit unfamiliar with the place.

My work permit was arranged by the company I work for. It was difficult at first to find a job offering a work visa, but perseverance worked and I managed to get a 9G working visa approximately a year or 2 ago. Bigger Filipino companies usually ask for a work permit up front.

Medical insurance is not such a big problem as a lot of international providers cover the Philippines, although it's not quite as cheap as the local ones.

I work for a Korean company, Koreans find native speakers of English very useful in either teaching jobs, or generally helping around the office. One piece of advice for job seekers is that in the Philippines it sometimes works a little different from the west, lots of job vacancies are word of mouth; however, sites such as sulit.com and jobstreet do a good job too (be aware though, foreigners are limited to certian kinds of jobs, such as management positions, positions requiring a native speaker and basically any skilled jobs that Filipinos couldn't do). I also have my own website/blog about the Philippines and planning to open another website to get a further stream of income.

-Do you speak the local language and do you think it's important to speak the local language? Please add your thoughts on local customs and whether it's important for expats to respect/observe local customs.

I speak Tagalog at a conversational level, I'm not the best, but I understand a lot more than I can actually speak, which helps me out in a lot of situations. My advice is a little Tagalog/Filipino goes a long way, simple questions such as 'what's your name?' and especially knowing the names of local foods/drinks and having sampled several of them can bring you a lot of respect as well as interesting conversations, as people here really love foriegners who go the extra mile to learn their language.

I think expats should always give the same respect to their host country as they would expect at home if a foreigner visited. Although English is widely spoken and you can get away with using only English, it just shows  respect for Filipinos to learn at least some of their language.

One thing I do miss is some British foods such as Fish and Chips and more traditional dishes, another thing is British and European beers.. these can be hard to find (at least good quality ones) and the places you do find are well aware of the lack of supply in this area (e.g. the prices are sky high compared to local food and even some other kinds of foriegn foods/drinks).

Of course, I also miss my family and friends; however, they have (eventually) become more and more supporting of me wanting to enjoy my own life here overseas. I have not been home to the UK for my entire time of being here; however, I'm visiting for a month towards the end of September, so can't wait for that! To be honest I miss the comfort of my home in UK, but I'm quite comfortable in my house here in the Philippines too.. it's relatively big and yet still cosy.

My plans for the future are to either visit the UK for a longer time and work, then use this money to buy a house/ condo here, later coming back to live again and opening a business. Another option is to go into business with my Filipina girlfriend and using my knowledge of the Philippines and business here, start a business and expand it. I have a plan to visit S. Korea, but this would only be a vacation with my Korean friend here in the Philippines. 

Well I've lived in a few areas, so I have a lot of info about this one, my current house is rented and in the Las Pinas area, it costs 30,000php a month, this is a 4-bedroom house of a very reasonable size. The property is a little bit older and Las Pinas isn't always convienient (far from Makati and other main areas), hence the lower price, although I've seen higher quality houses of similar size in the area for around 35,000php a month.

There are lots of condominums for sale around Manila and Las Pinas areas, I've been to view a few myself for investment purposes (really just finding out the prices at this stage).  These range from about 1.5 million to the higher end prices.

The cost of living is so cheap in the Philippines, more so if you eat only the local produce. Of course for the imported foods it will cost a lot more. What suprises me is that it's actually cheaper to eat out than it is to cook your own food in the house (for example a meal for 2 today at Kenny Rogers Roasters cost me around 450php). If you're willing to eat local foods, you can buy foods at your local canteen for under 100 pesos a meal, which is really cheap. A favorite food of mine to buy is a complete roasted chicken (these are small native Philippine chickens though, very delicious) from a vendor, this only costs around 300phps (usually less).

For smokers, cigarettes are only 35~40php a packet and around 300php for a 200 cigarette carton (known locally as a ream). Local alcohol is also cheap, especially the popular San Miguel beer (around 30php a bottle) and others such as Red horse (cheaper than San Miguel and much stronger!) and those who like spirits, rum, gin, vodka and whiskey can be bought for less than 100 pesos a bottle.

Locals really are the friendliest people I've met, they will often invite you into their houses to drink/ eat with them and their friends. People need to be aware the Philippines is a conservative culture and rumours can be a big problem here. I've heard a number of tales of how something as innocent as meeting a female work colleague can result in accusations of cheating on wives or jealousy and other things.

-What are the positive and negative aspects of living in the Philippines?

The positive things are that the cost of living is so cheap, you can make your money stretch much further than you would ever think imaginable at home. For example a night out on the town or to local bars might cost under 1000 pesos, that includes not only drinks but most bars offer "pulutan" which basically is finger foods to go with drinking (common ones include bicol express (a creamy spicy dish), pork bbq, chicken bbq and even basics such as peanuts).

I once went out with 4 co-workers, paid for the whole night and realized that I'd spent only 1500 pesos! Groceries for the month probably would cost you around 2000 pesos but this depends on what kind of food supplies you buy, how many you're cooking for, etc. This is my budget for just myself (and occasionally my girlfriend).

Another positive aspect is the friendliness and the culture here. If you're willing to make a lot of friends, this is such an easy place to do it!

The negative things are that some places can be really dirty and smell terrible, especially around slum areas without proper plumbing and sewer systems. This can be overwhelming at first, but in a short time it doesn't really bother you so much.

Another negative thing I've noticed is that there are a lot of roaming/stray animals in the Philippines. Usually you'll find cats and dogs in the streets and occasionally you'll get cats walking around the local bars/restaurants, bothering you for food.

Something I must also mention (as us British are generally private and like peace and quiet), is that the Philippines is a noisy place, there is less consideration for the neighbours when it comes to noise/disturbance (like the other night when my neighbours decided to host an impromptu Karaoke party until 5am). You'll hear a lot of horns and loud motor engines on the roads too.

One further thing I'll mention here is the utilities here at times can be terrible, brownouts and power interruptions are common and any internet service is susceptible to loss of service. This is especially common during typhoons.

-Do you have any tips for our readers about living in the Philippines?

Always keep a lookout for pickpockets when in crowded places, they are very fast and one of my Korean friends experienced this firsthand when a woman bothering him in the street not only took his wallet, but managed to replace it with a black card box of a similar size. By the time he realized she was long gone!

When taking taxis, negotiate and attempt to get the driver to put on the meter (in some areas this is much easier than others). In my area, it's near impossible to get them to agree to this and ridiculous prices are often offered to me with all numbers of excuses ranging from no passengers there to traffic, to rather vague ones such as it's late. I usually negotiate with them by offering to give a guarenteed tip (just mention "plus additional" and they'll understand). Although when I lived in Quezon City before, the meter was usually put on without asking.

My own site http://www.come-to-the-philippines.com contains lots of information about the Philippines that you'll find useful, including the culture, places to stay, etc.. I'm working on more articles for those who are living there but the ones already there contain most of the information you'll need!

A site I do often visit around typhoon season is http://www.typhoon2000.ph/. This site tells you about typhoons in the Philippines region and is useful for those living there who want to find out more about typhoons that are on their way, the strength, the size and the predicted hit areas.

http://www.sulit.com.ph is a great site for finding cheap second hand furniture, second hand electronics and just about anything you need, including jobs! This is very useful if you're renting/buying an unfurnished house and need some reasonably priced appliances and furniture.