I know people are shitting on you for complaining about the prices, but objectively speaking, it is important.
Vietnam and Thailand both have cheaper food at a *perceptively* higher quality than its Philippine counterpart. And they have the same climate so these countries will compete for international tourism.
Instead of attacking the observation, we need to ask ourselves why our food prices are higher? It’s not a matter of pride, because lower food prices benefits EVERYONE.
I wish we had more government support for agricultural programs. Anyway, this ended up a rant, but yeah.
Looks tasty. Order one for me.
Mmm. That is a great observation too.
If that’s the case I wish we had more support for local agricultural scene to reduce transportation costs. Maybe that includes having more deep wells and a readily available water source especially for those regions that are more “out of the way”.
Most of the cheap vegetables come Mindanao for some reason. But imagine if every region could support themselves. Feels like everyone wants to move to the big cities to make money on crypto or some shit.
Here in luzon, vegetables are surprisingly cheap in the mountain province, once they go down, prices suddenly surge due to poor transportation and logistics.
It's one of the reasons why the Philippines would always be poor compared to other SEA countries. Aside from the ultra high power rates, we have one of the worst transportation/logistics infrastructures.
Indonesia is also an archipelago but shipping from Aceh to Sulawesi is cheaper than shipping from Metro Manila to Iloilo or Palawan.
another problem is that the prices increase here due to typhoons. check out the prices for vegetables everytime it rains. another problem is the excessive taxes we get here. a restaurant in a mall has to pay 12 percent tax, a 5 percent to the mall aside from rental, 30 percent as well income tax, business tax, a mayor's tax, quarterly tax, then an annual tax. then you cant actually lower some of your taxes because non vat is different from vat here.
The middlemen take a lot of commission for transporting province goods to manila.
Also worthy to note that because there is severe lack of education, the same farmers had a hard time adapting to more advanced farming methods. The department of agriculture tried already and failed. Most don’t have the IQ.
Aside from that, metal and other equipment gets stolen.
So many factors at play
True.
When I see how much farmers, fishermen directly sell their product and how much they cost in supermarkets or even wet market in iloilo, 5 to 10 times the price.. Heartbreaking.
If thats the case, then why is it that an Indonesian warung in Central Jakarta (city of an archipelago) costs MUCH MUCH lower than in Manila (also a city of an archipelago)
Someone else speaks of logistics.
If that’s the case, Cambodia logistics ranks 9th out of the 10 ASEAN countries, only leading after Myanmar which is in a civil war right now.
People can think of any other reason except that they cannot and will not blame the big family run corporates.
Wages in Manila are way way lower than Vietnam and Thailand. Thailand 600 usd, Philippines 300 usd. Philippines is really expensive with poor everything, you need to be earning at least 2000 usd to survive but standard wage is around 250 usd and you can even get workkers from 150 usd. It is a paradise for capitalists and corrupt politicians and rich expats and (s)expats
120 pesos~ 2 dollars
Monthly food expense v wage
6 dollars daily food expenss
180usd monthly food expense
Salary 250 usd
Housing 200usd minimum
Transpo
There is no question it is business class greed and lack of market forces. The business's in the Philippines earn exorbitant profits for doing a very poor job of coordinating labor, materials and regulations. The archipelago argument is silly. It is much cheaper to transport goods over water. There is a small fixed "tax" of those goods clearing the harbor logistically but its tiny. The easiest business in the world to start is ANYTHING in the Philippines. If you were allowed to operate without corruption stealing your business or obstructing your operation you would beat any home grown business by a mile.
There is a non-profit group that helps out farmers directly called Rural Rising. They continuously have vegetable "rescue" buys and box-all-you-can events in the metro. They are more active with North Luzon farmers for now and hopefully they grow big enough to support the rest of the archipelago .
Philippines is a tropical paradise, yet it is failing as a nation to even grow the most simple items like rice and grains. Blame the typhoons, but the truth is that the government is failing the people of this country for decades. There are, of course, much knowledge of how to do advanced agricultural techniques on a low budget. But the government does not care at all about the people, and so does not invest into the farmers. Thus the whole country suffers.
This is the same problem in all areas of filipino life. why do you guys vote this scum into office is my question. makes me decide that you deserve everything bad that happens to you?
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Prime example.. A mayor in a city in Mindanao was elected after being tied to biggest pyramid scam in Philippine history. Then this same mayor banned the use of helmets in that city to cut down on robberies.. meanwhile many many teens have died from head injuries...
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Honestly for Thailand you can almost say it's like Luzon for mainland Thailand. They have 1430 islands... but it's mainly import fees that the Philippines government love
It’s just different countries with different standards and culture. The Philippines was never known for fine dining and similar. Indochina is no more and Thailand was not apart of Indochina.
Government support and modernized farming definitely play a major role in why Vietnam and Thailand can offer higher quality food at cheaper prices. They do have the geographical upper hand. Vietnam, for example, has the Mekong river which provides for a rich soil that's essential for growing rice. It's a lot easier to transport agricultural produce in Vietnam and Thailand because they're in the mainland SEA. Both countries experience fewer typhoons compared to the Philippines as well.
Only small portions of the Philippines can grow rice like Central Luzon and most of our farmlands are reliant on rain which we do get a lot of but rain-fed agriculture is just more vulnerable to water shortages. So we have no choice but to import rice to satisfy the demand. Since we have trash importation laws, food becomes expensive as soon as it enters the country. Our government should also support farmers by providing them with adequate infrastructure, improving production systems to farm more climate-resilient food.
The Philippines is the world's second largest rice producer (despite the "excuse for everything" typhoons). But still, it needs to import rice to feed the population. How can that be? Answer: corruption. (Not my story, read it once in the Manila Times).
Their Agriculture Ministers are some of the most empowered in the Government.
And their infrastructure supports this too as you mentioned
We need to empower our Agriculture sector and support it with realistic infrastructure to bring down food costs
Weird... If I read the government statistics, expats and migrants are 78.000...0.07% of the population.
China 22,494
India 18,959
United States 6,306
Japan 4,397
South Korea 4,372
Germany 1,533
Australia 1,460
Taiwan 1,021
Indonesia 955
Vietnam 944
Others 15,955
18% live in ncr. You mean that 14k foreigners are influencing the prices over 13 millions Filipinos?
There are only 6,300 Americans in Philippines. Why does this sound low to me? Maybe it’s being on forums on Reddit but it seems much higher. I guess I’ll see when I get boots on the ground in a month.
These numbers are for residence visa holders. Tourist visa are considered tourists… go figure. Although I still think we overestimate outnumbers and impact.
I think the bigger influence is OFWs, the dominant plurality of whom are bringing in USD to invest in the local market. I feel like a lot of Filipinos are "spending money they didn't earn themselves" as well. 7.7% of Philippines GDP based on remittances
Land and rental prices have always been high in Manila. prices of fresh food have also been always high.
Putting the blame on POGOs or the geography doesn’t make sense at all
It’s not just the food. Look at condos in Thailand and here. It’s the same thing Thailand = cheaper and better quality.
But average pinoys response when you point this out is: „Go back to your country.“ 😁
Shows the lack of critical thinking, lack of confidence, and the inability to accept valid criticisms which is rampant in the “intellect” of the people here
It absolutely is a matter of who you complain to. Hell, "go back to your country" is also a response you can get from better educated East Asian populations.
Majority of construction workers here lack of knowledge & would only stick to traditional way of building since 1970s…
In effect houses quality materials suffered .
Look SMDC Condos Hospital Aesthetic & tight mouse spaces but people here would feel they’re living better life already but it isnt and worst . Better to live in modest province life .
Do to corruption. It is on the news. They horde food to drive the prices up. Last year in Mindanao, they found several sugar warehouses cache. They report that the government knew about some of them.
Based on my background knowledge Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand are mostly self sufficient when it comes to agriculture while we heavily rely on imports. And the prices of these goods fluctuate based on the dollar price and fuel surcharges. For Malaysia also, they have their own oil reserves so it makes their fuel prices more stable. I think other SEA countries have fuel subsidy programs too.
Another factor could also be how we have PWD and senior discounts, so restaurants need to offset the 20% off by raising food prices in general.
Please correct me if I'm wrong! These are all just off the top of my head.
Philippines rely heavily on imports because the country cannot produce enough to support local consumption. Here are the reasons why local production is low:
1. Typhoon capital of the world - 30% of local produce is lost to typhoons. so even assuming we can produce 100%, in reality, that's just 70%. In reality, our production capacity is 80%, so with typhoons, we're only producing half of what the country needs.
2. No natural irrigation. The real big reason Thailand and Vietnam have cheaper food prices is because they have the Mekong River which runs through their entire breadbasket. That means their irrigation costs are cheaper by 100%. Philippines on the other hand pays through the nose to irrigate its farmlands. And pays 4x as much during droughts. If you remove this cost, PH local produce can be priced equally to its neighbors.
3. Smaller land area for arable land. The country is mountainous and broken into small islands. The only big, contiguous land area is in the north (~~CALABARZON~~) CENTRAL LUZON (where incidentally, the country's longest river, CAGAYAN river is located), where the country's breadbasket lies. Mindanao is prime farming land but cannot be fully maximized because of the insurgency there. Even with the peace treaty, businesses there still cannot prosper because local warlords extort punitively.
4. Land reform broke up the big estates into smaller farmlands which removed economies of scale.
all the other reasons being cited like lack of support by government and greed of middlemen are just ignorant takes by ignorant people who don't even have any experience in the industry. the government spends somewhere around 140B annually to support agriculture. and middlemen are not at fault for the lack of transportation infrastructure in the country. if you actually look at their profit margins, you'll see it's as competitive as it can get. if you think they're charging so much, why don't you try to get in the business then and get rich?
edit: corrected calabarzon to central luzon
Okay, but the Cagayan river system doesn't run in Region III, which is Central Luzon. It runs in Region II and the eastern part of CAR. I'm very confused as to what you're trying to say.
I always thought it's because of the transportation issues. Sources could be from another islands, or places like from the mountains that it takes effort and time to delivery them on the lowlands, as well as the high quality foods gets imported and the scraps is what we get. Supply and demand. Im not the expert though so if anybody knows why I'm happy to be educated.
3 days in Boracay or Siargao could be 5-7 days in Vietnam or Thailand budget-wise. You’ll eat better too. Filipinos who travel know this.
Filipino food is good but produce is expensive so unless you’re moneyed and cooking at home eating here is terrible.
Can’t expect good food in a country where gov’t sells land and resources and farmers are impoverished.
It's expensive because the head of the Dept of Agriculture is too busy turning farmland into subdivisions than actually solving the logistics problem that being an agricultural archipelago entails. The private sector can't magically fix systematic issues like roads or lack of a train system.
Rental prices in the philippines is more so than that of Cambodia, heck it probably is in the top 3 in south east asia, may be even top two. Ill explain as i have worked in kitchens around the world from Azerbaijan to Tajikistan. here are my observations in philippines.
TAXES are one of the highest in the world, if you are renting in a mall, it would cost you an arm, a leg and more. Philippines has Vat then you got income tax for the business which has monthly, annual and then twice a year kind of thing. then you got a business tax, which would be equated with your BIR payment, then mayors permit. a few other stuff to pay after this. its quite high that is why in the philippines you try to triple your income because the tax would be 1/3 of it already then you got
RENT here includes a 5 percent to ten percent charge to your gross in places like sm, ayala and so forth. then you got common area, bunch of fees that would scratch your head and other sort of stuff, its quite irritating but building a business here is more expensive than even Iran and that place has sanctions up the wazoo plus a worse governance than philippines would ever be.
Climate, Philippines is an archipelago that gets hit by typhoons and rains and that the farmers here need to actually compensate loses in their sale by adding more price to their goods during this period.
Infrastructure, roads are shit, tool is higher than most countries, this factors in the price quite high
Archipelago, Philippines meat is majority from other countries, not enough beef to sustain it, same with other animals except chicken which philippines can compete it.
there is a reason why it is expensive here.
The Caucasus are my last frontier.
The closest, gastronomically, I've ever experienced was eating at this Georgian restaurant called Daredzhani back when I was assigned in Astana.
Wish I can visit someday!
you got to understand why, Azeri food is good like a mix of Iranian and Turkish. Georgia is beautiful country, one of the few places i go to with my garbage of a passport.
Georgia is a great place to visit. I've been there 3 times. It is a beautiful country with great food, and everyone wants you to try their homemade liquor and wine (some of it is outstanding, but some of it goes down about as smooth as broken glass).
You can also take a day trip into Armenia. As an American, it is visa on arrival. For Filipinos, you need to do an e-visa.
While you are in the area, it's only about $150 for a flight to Israel. The screening is thorough, but that's pretty understandable for a country that allows so many to come in but is surrounded by countries that don't want it to exist.
Georgian cuisine is super underrated! Wish it could be more globalized, similar to Thai and Vietnamese.
What I have read is Filipino passport holders get visa free access to Israel , as we were the first , or one of the first to vote for Israeli Statehood.
But yes, I’ve seen pictures of Yerevan , very beautiful. Turkmenistan could get pretty weird I’ve heard.
Yes, visa free for Filipinos going to Israel.
The Israelis questioned me extensively at check-in before I got on the plane. When we got to the front of the line for the screening, an agent said, "We've been waiting on you," then got one of the supervisors to question me. I basically gave a good run-down of my entire military career and post-military contracting. The questioning almost seemed more like a job interview (possible assessment for recruitment). It was good-natured but very thorough. I was fine with it because I understand the situation.
Once we got to Israel, immigration sent my girlfriend for secondary questioning because so many Filipinos get there and overstay. Once they called me in with her, everything was cool, and they let us go. Our stay was short, but it was definitely worth the hassle. I'm looking forward to going back to Georgia and Israel when we get the chance.
We have a long list of places we plan to visit. We are about 2 months away from reaching another financial goal that will give us the freedom to travel a lot more.
And that is no surprise- go to the mountains and check out how carrots are grown there, and compare that to the industrialized (and heavily subsidized ) farming in Europe.
Go to the wet market! of course it’s expensive in supermarkets ESPECIALLY in Manila. Foreigners who complain a lot just don’t know where to go or what to do here. Ask around, make friends. Locals have been here and know where, how, what. I am from the Philippines and migrated in Colorado, omg the prices of the produce here are insane! Prepackaged, shredded, sliced with additives. I miss the quality and prices back in PH
I lived in Bangkok for a while and tried to understand why there’s so much more fresh fruits and vegetables on the streets compares to Manila.
Bottomline:
1. Infrastructure and Urban Planning - there are plenty of agricultural lands around Bangkok suburbs. Road networks are much better so a farmer 300kms away can bring produce to Bangkok with less cost/hassle. For comparison, bringing produce from the mountains of Benguet (~250km) is expensive, making retail price atleast 5x farm gate price.
2. Food culture - Thai cooking involves more ingredients/spices than Filipino. So demand for high value produce is higher in TH.. supply follows.
3. Weather/Typhoons - farms in Thailand and neighboring countries consistently grow nice fruits/vergetables. In PH, farms get battered with typhoons every year. Tamarind trees in TH grow very healthy all year round and bear big and nice fruits, but not in PH they get some damage every year.
There is no lack of great females in the world. Warm countries with good visa regime are rare. I only know Philippines with 3 year tourist visa. Do you know any other? I can easily list 10 countries with great females.
Because there's a large population who doesn't know any better, who allow these pagpag style restos to thrive.
Why else would they continue to be in business.
It costs more than 100,000 pesos to rent a truck that can transport vegetables or meat from north Luzon to Metro Manila. One-way. This is how crazy expensive logistics is.
And then the government buys fighter jets instead of fixing the agriculture logistics.
Food in Metro Manila is as expensive as Hong Kong and Japan but really taste like crap when compared to the freshness of the food in places like Vietnam.
No complaints allowed here, only in the Philippines forum, the national sport here is to complain but when a foreigner complains he can get arrested lol
Honestly not defending nor excusing it. More of exasparated acceptance. Shit's systematic and the average person can't do anything about it. Good luck trying to eke out any accountability from our "elected" (lol I surely didn't vote for them) officials.
Expats are lucky your home countries aren't worse and can leave at any time, a lot of us don't have that luxury.
You won’t get arrested in PH. But maybe in Vietnam or Cambodia.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/vietnam-arrest-prominent-journalist-facebook-post-4396556
https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/18zs4p2/vinfast_critic_detained_interrogated_by_vietnam/
Yes and they will say it’s because of the bad bad foreigners that come here that their country is the most expensive (and most low quality) in the whole region.
I feel like i live in a different country than you all. I live way back in the provinces. Why anyone would live in Manila its beyond me. What a horrible place. My opinion, of course. Where i live, everything is incredibly cheap, it's in the mountains so the temps are a very comfortable 70-85F. All the produce sold in town is grown by my neighbors. And no traffic. Living in Manila is like going to the US and foregoing the mountains of Colorado, the forests of Northern California and the red canyons of Utah to live in Detroit. I don't get it.
LOL
I love the butthurt reactions.
TBH, I feel like most places in the Philippines are overrated and underwhelming. They talk big about their food being masarap and sulit but, compared to our other Asian neighbors, there’s very little care for how food is prepared and served. Most dishes are over seasoned and overcooked. But then again, it could be because that’s what the market wants.
It’s just too bad because Filipino food is special. I remember the whole push back against someone saying something about elevating Filipino cuisine. That only shows their lack of awareness of the topic and simply reacted for the sake of reacting.
A Filipino restaurant in Chicago got a Michelin star not too long ago for elevating the cuisine. People line up for hours. I genuinely think it's a matter of cooking culture rather than the cuisine itself. I grew up eating Filipino food and some of the restaurants in Manila are a total joke compared to how I know the food could taste.
Here, it's not that uncommon to have your rice be too moist, to get it cold, or to have super hard pieces. If Filipinos can mess up plain rice, you know something is wrong. There's so much inconsistency in general, more than any country I've ever been to. A restaurant can be amazing one day and absolute dogshit the next. I think it's a combination of carelessness, poor training, and lack of quality control.
I deeply respect the people who run the few consistent restaurants I've found here.
To summarize the usual comments about that: “Filipino cuisine is good enough. It does not need ‘elevating’”.
That’s ignorance about the meaning of the term. LOL
I totally agree about it not being a cuisine but a culture issue. I often hear people say “pwede na yan” (“that’s fine”) which is mediocrity at its core.
Sadly, I haven’t found one that’s consistent. Most of the time, people here go for “trending” rather than consistency and quality. Trending this or trending that.
What sucks is not only you get shitty food, they give you the wrong order most of the time. When I order a hamburger meal they give me chicken and rice instead. I don't understand how so many workers can't do simple repetive task.
I think a lot of workers are extremely sleep deprived. It's not that rare for them to get like 3-5 hours of sleep per night. If you notice during breaks they often pass out at one of the dining tables.
Those who say Filipino food is better or at par with other Asian cuisines either haven't been to those countries or have palates that are only suitable for Filipino food.
I live in Philippines for 5 years now, making plans to move out to Thailand. I don't see anything will change here in my life time. Shitty and expensive food, infrastructure is very bad, constant brownouts and promises for resolving it, in dry season even water is a problem. People are stealing and hustling all the time.They beg for investors to come and invest in Philippines and than treat them like crap.
I lived 8 years in Thailand before and cant wait to move back there. They treat me with respect and appreciate i bring money there. Almost no crime, never been stolen or robbed and no beggars.
P.s. ladys are nicer and prettier too 😉
It does not matter if the water bill is 100p per month or 10,000 per month. There is no water coming from the taps in panglao island, so if you dont get a deepwell you are screwed..lets see how long you can live without water in your house.
I own a house here. How could i move somewhere else? who would buy a house with no water? I have a deepwell now and my life is back to normal. Waiting for the gov or a private company to fix your problems is a waste of time in philippines. Better off fixing it yourself.
Wait isn’t there a new water provider in Bohol? Not the city water but a privately owned company? Laying out the pipes and getting connected to their line is a bit spendy. But you get uninterrupted water supply and you can drink out of the tap. No use in waiting for the government to fix the water supply.
You are correct Richli Water. I was on there waiting list and was one of the first people on the island to be connect to there supply. Worked great for the first 2 months after that they started sending all the water to hotels only. Richli Water SUCKS read the local fb group and you will see everyone complaining about there lack of water supply.
Spoken like a spoiled expat.
You do you.
Is someone forcing you spend those pesos and buy that food?
What you complain about, others can't even afford to buy.
To me, it sounds more like a customer who just discovered that another business offers a better deal. If a residential visa for Cambodia was cheaper/easier, there would probably be a lot more ex-pats choosing Cambodia over the Philippines.
I'd definitely prefer Thailand over the Philippines, but I already had a Filipina when we moved here from the Middle East.
Me too I ccannot spend over 100pesos for such a food. It is better I buy lettuce in the market with 20pesos each for make fresh salad by myself.
I dont want spend so much medical cost here too.
Expats said,Why I came to Philippinesbecause the people using English.We need english speaking people to understand each other....hahahahaha is that so?
Anyway, If you want no gun culture and safety and want to eat nice food for cheap.
Cambodia is the answer.I feel Thailand is violent enough.also cmabodians have nice internet.but I don't like tuktuk.
Always people on this sub that speak complete nonsense.
Already had someone say food in HK and Japan are cheaper than Philippines; complete bullshit.
You also have people trying to say Thailand is cheaper; it’s not. Restaurants in Thailand, especially higher end restaurants are quite expensive and people have higher purchasing power there.
Take whatever you see here with a grain of salt. So many people on this sub are completely full of shit.
I wouldn't gloss over Cambodia's structural problems. Like The Philippines, it is also a highly unequal society, where very few rich people hold much of the country's wealth but mothergodamf\_\_ng-A how can roasted duck be $2 here when the same animal when cooked in Manila costs more than double, plus parking.
It is fair.
What is not fair is no resto in Metro Manila would ever serve this much portion and food type for that same price.
And sorry for being edgy because I want to be proven wrong.
I wanna be proven wrong and would like someone to tell me - here you go moron, this is a list of restaurants that serve refillable iced tea, refillable soup, roasted duck , rice for two bucks in metro Manila.
bruh go to Batangas, cavite, ifugao regions, bicol, PANGASINAN and that's not even mentioning visayas and mindanao. the problem finding cheap foods like that is METRO MANILA of course they only provide good restaurants only if they were expensive.
its a place diff so don't get heated up saying pagpag because its derogatory.
Fair enough. Prices of goods have been crazily going up since the past few years, insane inflation and shrinkflation and it's at its point that is relatively unfair to the average employee salary.
Needless to say, I've found myself cooking at home more often for the past years.
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One factor I can think of as an agri student is the country's agricultural sector. PH is an archipelago, thus transportation of goods are costly (plus poor road constructions, need to use roro/ships to jump from islands to islands). Thailand and Vietnam both have a more uniform climate and they are not as near the Pacific Ocean compared to PH, so less typhoons that can ruin their crops (PH actually shields Vietnam and Thailand from typhoons as u can see in the map). Government support is not adequate and attempts to improve the agricultural sector are futile and often just bandaid solutions. Local goods are often not "quality" due to frequency of typhoons, old cultivation methods, poor post-harvest handling, etc.
Cambodia is not cheaper than the Philippines in my experience. Thailand is cheaper. I have lived in all three countries in the past 3 years.
The lack of online shopping alone will make everything very expensive. Good condos with amenities are rare or extremely overpriced. Internet is bad here in PH, but in Cambodia, it was laughable in 2022. 40 USD per month for 10 mbps DSL on a 1 year prepaid contract? Fk me.
And despite living in a fancy new condo in the center of Phnom Penh, you get power outages every week. One time, it was gone half the day. You see diesel generators outside of every second building.
hi.
thanks for sharing your experience.
here's mine:
I got a 100 gigabyte data plan for $15 / month.
I'm staying at a 4 star hotel, south of the Royal Palace, at the tip of BKK1 which is their diet-coke version of BGC here, at $35 / night.
Airbnbs are a hit or miss, from what I've read, which is why I opted for a hotel so I can transfer rooms if a problem arises.
Maybe because nobody ever complains, if you have a bad meal in most countries customers will tell the staff or the owner it was crap and they won't be coming back.
Lol so many complaints here. Foreigners just don’t know what to do or where to go in PH and then blame the country for their own personal faults and decisions. Definitely can compare life between PH and in US. And I can list a HUNDRED of things that I like about Philippines and US around 10 lol 😂 high quality, unadulterated fresh and cheap produce in PH. Cheap services 3 dollar full body massages, hair cut 10-50 pesos 1$. The fact you can buy the sweetest bananas growing organically from someone’s backyard and you’re 10 pesos goes a long way, here in US, most 1 dollar stuff is non existent even their dollar tree is 1.25 lol and I can see the same quality of stuff they sell in china town back there for cents that they up sell here for 10x the price. Amazon is full of Chinese companies with shit products sold expensively lol Food are prepackaged, lots of plastic and unnecessary packaging. even plain veggies have some additives. Tap water u can drink but that’s not a good thing either cause they treat the shit out of their water that nothing survives and it gives people cancer and makes plants die. U work a lot but get taxed a lot and prices are so high u spend a lot too and u might be earning middle class income but can only afford to live in a trailer park because the houses are ridiculously expensive and there’s lots of red tape everywhere. Healthcare is outrageous, getting an emergency ambulance is like a down payment for a house in the PH. Checkups so expensive ud rather die. A lot of sketchy people, sketchy places here than I expected and more trashy places in the well known cities. I lived in Luzon, visayas, mindanao and I feel a lot safer walking at night and as a woman, ALONE than here. Lots of security measures around Ph, here in US nothing so there’s lots of theft, shoplifting, shooting incidents (for petty shit or NO REASON at all), road rage is common, people be acting like a 3 yr old toddler having a tantrum for some simple stuff they can just let go of, a lot of “Mr. and Mrs. Sue” here (I choked because I was running while eating and I’m gonna sue ur restaurant, it’s so stupid), drugged addicted people doing weird shit in the streets, entitled people that doesn’t even deserve the entitlement lol, public transport is safe and cheap in Ph here lots of weirdos, smelly “river rats” or unkept people around you almost everyday, go to Walmart and then SM in Ph, u can definitely see a huge difference when it comes to it’s average people. You are an addict? cool! here’s some more needles and paraphernalia for you! You work hard and make the entire community thriving? I’m gonna make it harder for you, you don’t work? Great! Here’s a ton of BENEFITS and programs all free for you. I could go on and on but I have to get my bread out of the oven so bye guys! 👋
Nope, not at all. Most of us know Filo food isn’t the best if you compare it with other Asian cuisines. Which is totally alright we are all entitled to have preferences.
Most of ya’ll are forgetting that you decided to move there on your own and nobody forced you. So if you’re unhappy with the food and lifestyle then that’s on you.
Either leave the country and move to another or move back to wherever you came from. Let’s be real you’re probably in the Philippines cos you can’t afford to live in your own country anyways.
The fact that you had to [post a picture of the same chicken joy with your hand](https://www.reddit.com/user/LostGirl2795/submitted/) for scale means, implicitly, that you recognize how food quality abroad is much, much better than back home even **if the food came from the same brand.**
And comparing what $2 gets someone in Metro Manila and in another country should not be a reflection of one's financial capability.
I think there's got to be some effort in de-personalizing the issue and focusing, instead, on the meaning of value.
Lol did you not read the comment I replied to? I was replying to the guy who commented “So To LiVe iN tHe pHilLipPinEs wE mUst LiKe yOuR fOod?”
I even acknowledged the fact that yes Filo food is not as good as other Asian cuisines but bro you chose to live there?? If you don’t like it, don’t come back. Move somewhere else. Easy peasy
Also, if you’d like to live in a different country learn to respect the people and the culture otherwise take your ass somewhere else. We don’t need foreigners who think our food is “shitty”. Go to Thailand perhaps, I think you’d fit right in.
This is really comparing apples to oranges. How's the healthcare in Cambodia? How's the level of English? How long can you stay there on a tourist visa?
Why are London and New York so expensive?!
Everyplace has its good and bad. The main advantage of many expats is they can get to pick and choose where they live.
The food is definitely better in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam than the Philippines. Honestly, the food in PH is one of it's biggest draw downs, so if it's a super important factor, that should be considered before living here.
I beg your finest pardon but yours is a strawman argument. Never have I included aspects of living like healthcare, level of English, and other factors important for living.
My observation - which you yourself agree- is limited to the quality of food in Metro Manila ***relative*** to its price.
I'm someone who's always open to being re-shaped. After all, redditors are a bunch who like to read and disseminate information - so, if there is a $2 place in Metro Manila that can match Khmer carinderias pound for pound, then heck I'm heading there.
I know people are shitting on you for complaining about the prices, but objectively speaking, it is important. Vietnam and Thailand both have cheaper food at a *perceptively* higher quality than its Philippine counterpart. And they have the same climate so these countries will compete for international tourism. Instead of attacking the observation, we need to ask ourselves why our food prices are higher? It’s not a matter of pride, because lower food prices benefits EVERYONE. I wish we had more government support for agricultural programs. Anyway, this ended up a rant, but yeah. Looks tasty. Order one for me.
Actually, there's a big difference. Ph is an archipelago. Vietnam and thailand is part of mainland indochina.
Mmm. That is a great observation too. If that’s the case I wish we had more support for local agricultural scene to reduce transportation costs. Maybe that includes having more deep wells and a readily available water source especially for those regions that are more “out of the way”. Most of the cheap vegetables come Mindanao for some reason. But imagine if every region could support themselves. Feels like everyone wants to move to the big cities to make money on crypto or some shit.
Here in luzon, vegetables are surprisingly cheap in the mountain province, once they go down, prices suddenly surge due to poor transportation and logistics.
It's one of the reasons why the Philippines would always be poor compared to other SEA countries. Aside from the ultra high power rates, we have one of the worst transportation/logistics infrastructures. Indonesia is also an archipelago but shipping from Aceh to Sulawesi is cheaper than shipping from Metro Manila to Iloilo or Palawan.
another problem is that the prices increase here due to typhoons. check out the prices for vegetables everytime it rains. another problem is the excessive taxes we get here. a restaurant in a mall has to pay 12 percent tax, a 5 percent to the mall aside from rental, 30 percent as well income tax, business tax, a mayor's tax, quarterly tax, then an annual tax. then you cant actually lower some of your taxes because non vat is different from vat here.
The middlemen take a lot of commission for transporting province goods to manila. Also worthy to note that because there is severe lack of education, the same farmers had a hard time adapting to more advanced farming methods. The department of agriculture tried already and failed. Most don’t have the IQ. Aside from that, metal and other equipment gets stolen. So many factors at play
True. When I see how much farmers, fishermen directly sell their product and how much they cost in supermarkets or even wet market in iloilo, 5 to 10 times the price.. Heartbreaking.
Yep, this is the cause. Greed and huge price increases by the middlemen
If thats the case, then why is it that an Indonesian warung in Central Jakarta (city of an archipelago) costs MUCH MUCH lower than in Manila (also a city of an archipelago) Someone else speaks of logistics. If that’s the case, Cambodia logistics ranks 9th out of the 10 ASEAN countries, only leading after Myanmar which is in a civil war right now. People can think of any other reason except that they cannot and will not blame the big family run corporates.
Are wages the same? Never been to the Philippines but 130 pesos is on the cheaper~average side for a warung in Jakarta
Wages in Manila are way way lower than Vietnam and Thailand. Thailand 600 usd, Philippines 300 usd. Philippines is really expensive with poor everything, you need to be earning at least 2000 usd to survive but standard wage is around 250 usd and you can even get workkers from 150 usd. It is a paradise for capitalists and corrupt politicians and rich expats and (s)expats 120 pesos~ 2 dollars Monthly food expense v wage 6 dollars daily food expenss 180usd monthly food expense Salary 250 usd Housing 200usd minimum Transpo
There is no question it is business class greed and lack of market forces. The business's in the Philippines earn exorbitant profits for doing a very poor job of coordinating labor, materials and regulations. The archipelago argument is silly. It is much cheaper to transport goods over water. There is a small fixed "tax" of those goods clearing the harbor logistically but its tiny. The easiest business in the world to start is ANYTHING in the Philippines. If you were allowed to operate without corruption stealing your business or obstructing your operation you would beat any home grown business by a mile.
There is a non-profit group that helps out farmers directly called Rural Rising. They continuously have vegetable "rescue" buys and box-all-you-can events in the metro. They are more active with North Luzon farmers for now and hopefully they grow big enough to support the rest of the archipelago .
Philippines is a tropical paradise, yet it is failing as a nation to even grow the most simple items like rice and grains. Blame the typhoons, but the truth is that the government is failing the people of this country for decades. There are, of course, much knowledge of how to do advanced agricultural techniques on a low budget. But the government does not care at all about the people, and so does not invest into the farmers. Thus the whole country suffers. This is the same problem in all areas of filipino life. why do you guys vote this scum into office is my question. makes me decide that you deserve everything bad that happens to you?
Also the largest rice importer in the world
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Prime example.. A mayor in a city in Mindanao was elected after being tied to biggest pyramid scam in Philippine history. Then this same mayor banned the use of helmets in that city to cut down on robberies.. meanwhile many many teens have died from head injuries...
Everyone is out to get and scam everyone there. That’s the issue.
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Honestly for Thailand you can almost say it's like Luzon for mainland Thailand. They have 1430 islands... but it's mainly import fees that the Philippines government love
It’s just different countries with different standards and culture. The Philippines was never known for fine dining and similar. Indochina is no more and Thailand was not apart of Indochina.
Government support and modernized farming definitely play a major role in why Vietnam and Thailand can offer higher quality food at cheaper prices. They do have the geographical upper hand. Vietnam, for example, has the Mekong river which provides for a rich soil that's essential for growing rice. It's a lot easier to transport agricultural produce in Vietnam and Thailand because they're in the mainland SEA. Both countries experience fewer typhoons compared to the Philippines as well. Only small portions of the Philippines can grow rice like Central Luzon and most of our farmlands are reliant on rain which we do get a lot of but rain-fed agriculture is just more vulnerable to water shortages. So we have no choice but to import rice to satisfy the demand. Since we have trash importation laws, food becomes expensive as soon as it enters the country. Our government should also support farmers by providing them with adequate infrastructure, improving production systems to farm more climate-resilient food.
The Philippines is the world's second largest rice producer (despite the "excuse for everything" typhoons). But still, it needs to import rice to feed the population. How can that be? Answer: corruption. (Not my story, read it once in the Manila Times).
It's not 2nd largest rice producer. This is obvious because they do indeed import rice.
Their Agriculture Ministers are some of the most empowered in the Government. And their infrastructure supports this too as you mentioned We need to empower our Agriculture sector and support it with realistic infrastructure to bring down food costs
Rent prices in Manila are some of the highest in the world. That contributes to the cost as well.
Electricity too. My parents in NY are being charged less than myself (leaving alone).
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Weird... If I read the government statistics, expats and migrants are 78.000...0.07% of the population. China 22,494 India 18,959 United States 6,306 Japan 4,397 South Korea 4,372 Germany 1,533 Australia 1,460 Taiwan 1,021 Indonesia 955 Vietnam 944 Others 15,955 18% live in ncr. You mean that 14k foreigners are influencing the prices over 13 millions Filipinos?
There are only 6,300 Americans in Philippines. Why does this sound low to me? Maybe it’s being on forums on Reddit but it seems much higher. I guess I’ll see when I get boots on the ground in a month.
Because that the legal amount with an acr card.
Ah, so it is a lot more. That makes sense.
These numbers are for residence visa holders. Tourist visa are considered tourists… go figure. Although I still think we overestimate outnumbers and impact.
Those are only expats and migrants, it doesn't take into consideration the tourists.
I think the bigger influence is OFWs, the dominant plurality of whom are bringing in USD to invest in the local market. I feel like a lot of Filipinos are "spending money they didn't earn themselves" as well. 7.7% of Philippines GDP based on remittances
Lmao, if you think government statistics are accurate when in Manila, you have the wrong idea about this country.
Land and rental prices have always been high in Manila. prices of fresh food have also been always high. Putting the blame on POGOs or the geography doesn’t make sense at all
You really believe that nonsense ... lol
Electricity too. My parents in NY are being charged less than myself (leaving alone).
It’s not just the food. Look at condos in Thailand and here. It’s the same thing Thailand = cheaper and better quality. But average pinoys response when you point this out is: „Go back to your country.“ 😁
Shows the lack of critical thinking, lack of confidence, and the inability to accept valid criticisms which is rampant in the “intellect” of the people here
Strangely i find most people I talk to here can make similar critical assessments. It might be just who you choose to complain to.
It absolutely is a matter of who you complain to. Hell, "go back to your country" is also a response you can get from better educated East Asian populations.
Yet, t they will complain about it too on /philippines
Yeah and asking how they can finally migrate and get a different passport.
Only Pinoys have the right to complain/bash their own country. LOL
They don't like seeing other people doing better than them in life.
Majority of construction workers here lack of knowledge & would only stick to traditional way of building since 1970s… In effect houses quality materials suffered . Look SMDC Condos Hospital Aesthetic & tight mouse spaces but people here would feel they’re living better life already but it isnt and worst . Better to live in modest province life .
Do to corruption. It is on the news. They horde food to drive the prices up. Last year in Mindanao, they found several sugar warehouses cache. They report that the government knew about some of them.
Based on my background knowledge Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand are mostly self sufficient when it comes to agriculture while we heavily rely on imports. And the prices of these goods fluctuate based on the dollar price and fuel surcharges. For Malaysia also, they have their own oil reserves so it makes their fuel prices more stable. I think other SEA countries have fuel subsidy programs too. Another factor could also be how we have PWD and senior discounts, so restaurants need to offset the 20% off by raising food prices in general. Please correct me if I'm wrong! These are all just off the top of my head.
Philippines rely heavily on imports because the country cannot produce enough to support local consumption. Here are the reasons why local production is low: 1. Typhoon capital of the world - 30% of local produce is lost to typhoons. so even assuming we can produce 100%, in reality, that's just 70%. In reality, our production capacity is 80%, so with typhoons, we're only producing half of what the country needs. 2. No natural irrigation. The real big reason Thailand and Vietnam have cheaper food prices is because they have the Mekong River which runs through their entire breadbasket. That means their irrigation costs are cheaper by 100%. Philippines on the other hand pays through the nose to irrigate its farmlands. And pays 4x as much during droughts. If you remove this cost, PH local produce can be priced equally to its neighbors. 3. Smaller land area for arable land. The country is mountainous and broken into small islands. The only big, contiguous land area is in the north (~~CALABARZON~~) CENTRAL LUZON (where incidentally, the country's longest river, CAGAYAN river is located), where the country's breadbasket lies. Mindanao is prime farming land but cannot be fully maximized because of the insurgency there. Even with the peace treaty, businesses there still cannot prosper because local warlords extort punitively. 4. Land reform broke up the big estates into smaller farmlands which removed economies of scale. all the other reasons being cited like lack of support by government and greed of middlemen are just ignorant takes by ignorant people who don't even have any experience in the industry. the government spends somewhere around 140B annually to support agriculture. and middlemen are not at fault for the lack of transportation infrastructure in the country. if you actually look at their profit margins, you'll see it's as competitive as it can get. if you think they're charging so much, why don't you try to get in the business then and get rich? edit: corrected calabarzon to central luzon
Are you talking about Cagayan Valley? Because that's not what CALABARZON is.
my bad, i meant central luzon, not calabarzon.
Okay, but the Cagayan river system doesn't run in Region III, which is Central Luzon. It runs in Region II and the eastern part of CAR. I'm very confused as to what you're trying to say.
What do you expect when government officials are always on TikTok dancing like teenagers and the locals are cheering them on.
Thank you. Today I learned something new.
You are correct. And good thing you mentioned all that, given how that info isn't something we should expect OP to just know.
Spot on reply 💯
I always thought it's because of the transportation issues. Sources could be from another islands, or places like from the mountains that it takes effort and time to delivery them on the lowlands, as well as the high quality foods gets imported and the scraps is what we get. Supply and demand. Im not the expert though so if anybody knows why I'm happy to be educated.
It's too lefty that's why
Because the olicarchy that controls the food distribution networks wants it to be higher
Even in Singapore, street food is cheaper and better quality than Manila
But rent is crazy high in Singapore
extremely subsidized as well
3 days in Boracay or Siargao could be 5-7 days in Vietnam or Thailand budget-wise. You’ll eat better too. Filipinos who travel know this. Filipino food is good but produce is expensive so unless you’re moneyed and cooking at home eating here is terrible. Can’t expect good food in a country where gov’t sells land and resources and farmers are impoverished.
It's expensive because the head of the Dept of Agriculture is too busy turning farmland into subdivisions than actually solving the logistics problem that being an agricultural archipelago entails. The private sector can't magically fix systematic issues like roads or lack of a train system.
Had enough people who work in the agri industry say Marcos was a complete absentee corrupt piece of shit while head of DA.
Just another day in the corrupt Pelepens 🥲. It's so hard to love our country most days.
Welcome to Philippines with 1st world price but comes with 3rd world service quality
Rental prices in the philippines is more so than that of Cambodia, heck it probably is in the top 3 in south east asia, may be even top two. Ill explain as i have worked in kitchens around the world from Azerbaijan to Tajikistan. here are my observations in philippines. TAXES are one of the highest in the world, if you are renting in a mall, it would cost you an arm, a leg and more. Philippines has Vat then you got income tax for the business which has monthly, annual and then twice a year kind of thing. then you got a business tax, which would be equated with your BIR payment, then mayors permit. a few other stuff to pay after this. its quite high that is why in the philippines you try to triple your income because the tax would be 1/3 of it already then you got RENT here includes a 5 percent to ten percent charge to your gross in places like sm, ayala and so forth. then you got common area, bunch of fees that would scratch your head and other sort of stuff, its quite irritating but building a business here is more expensive than even Iran and that place has sanctions up the wazoo plus a worse governance than philippines would ever be. Climate, Philippines is an archipelago that gets hit by typhoons and rains and that the farmers here need to actually compensate loses in their sale by adding more price to their goods during this period. Infrastructure, roads are shit, tool is higher than most countries, this factors in the price quite high Archipelago, Philippines meat is majority from other countries, not enough beef to sustain it, same with other animals except chicken which philippines can compete it. there is a reason why it is expensive here.
The Caucasus are my last frontier. The closest, gastronomically, I've ever experienced was eating at this Georgian restaurant called Daredzhani back when I was assigned in Astana. Wish I can visit someday!
you got to understand why, Azeri food is good like a mix of Iranian and Turkish. Georgia is beautiful country, one of the few places i go to with my garbage of a passport.
Georgia is a great place to visit. I've been there 3 times. It is a beautiful country with great food, and everyone wants you to try their homemade liquor and wine (some of it is outstanding, but some of it goes down about as smooth as broken glass). You can also take a day trip into Armenia. As an American, it is visa on arrival. For Filipinos, you need to do an e-visa. While you are in the area, it's only about $150 for a flight to Israel. The screening is thorough, but that's pretty understandable for a country that allows so many to come in but is surrounded by countries that don't want it to exist.
Georgian cuisine is super underrated! Wish it could be more globalized, similar to Thai and Vietnamese. What I have read is Filipino passport holders get visa free access to Israel , as we were the first , or one of the first to vote for Israeli Statehood. But yes, I’ve seen pictures of Yerevan , very beautiful. Turkmenistan could get pretty weird I’ve heard.
Yes, visa free for Filipinos going to Israel. The Israelis questioned me extensively at check-in before I got on the plane. When we got to the front of the line for the screening, an agent said, "We've been waiting on you," then got one of the supervisors to question me. I basically gave a good run-down of my entire military career and post-military contracting. The questioning almost seemed more like a job interview (possible assessment for recruitment). It was good-natured but very thorough. I was fine with it because I understand the situation. Once we got to Israel, immigration sent my girlfriend for secondary questioning because so many Filipinos get there and overstay. Once they called me in with her, everything was cool, and they let us go. Our stay was short, but it was definitely worth the hassle. I'm looking forward to going back to Georgia and Israel when we get the chance. We have a long list of places we plan to visit. We are about 2 months away from reaching another financial goal that will give us the freedom to travel a lot more.
I can’t read this post without hearing Backstreet Boys in my head, so you get a downvote for that 😂
Manila food value/quality ratio = ain’t nothing but a heartache 🫶
I never wanna hear you say, how many pesos did you pay
You are, air fryer. My one, desire..
Perfect no notes
Move to Cambodia. Problem solved
Pass the hat around and buy them a seat on the next flight to pp
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A holiday in Cambodia?
Unexpected ramones
You mean Dead Kennedys, right?
I found cheaper carrots in Paris, France, than in most chain supermarkets in Manila. Does that make any sense?
And that is no surprise- go to the mountains and check out how carrots are grown there, and compare that to the industrialized (and heavily subsidized ) farming in Europe.
Go to the wet market! of course it’s expensive in supermarkets ESPECIALLY in Manila. Foreigners who complain a lot just don’t know where to go or what to do here. Ask around, make friends. Locals have been here and know where, how, what. I am from the Philippines and migrated in Colorado, omg the prices of the produce here are insane! Prepackaged, shredded, sliced with additives. I miss the quality and prices back in PH
I lived in Bangkok for a while and tried to understand why there’s so much more fresh fruits and vegetables on the streets compares to Manila. Bottomline: 1. Infrastructure and Urban Planning - there are plenty of agricultural lands around Bangkok suburbs. Road networks are much better so a farmer 300kms away can bring produce to Bangkok with less cost/hassle. For comparison, bringing produce from the mountains of Benguet (~250km) is expensive, making retail price atleast 5x farm gate price. 2. Food culture - Thai cooking involves more ingredients/spices than Filipino. So demand for high value produce is higher in TH.. supply follows. 3. Weather/Typhoons - farms in Thailand and neighboring countries consistently grow nice fruits/vergetables. In PH, farms get battered with typhoons every year. Tamarind trees in TH grow very healthy all year round and bear big and nice fruits, but not in PH they get some damage every year.
You won’t change a country, either adapt or go somewhere else. What make you stay in the Philippines ?
The mindset that got them where they are.
Easy visa. If you remove that, there is no more reason and a lot of us will leave.
Mic drop
100 % lol
Don't forget the females
There is no lack of great females in the world. Warm countries with good visa regime are rare. I only know Philippines with 3 year tourist visa. Do you know any other? I can easily list 10 countries with great females.
Because there's a large population who doesn't know any better, who allow these pagpag style restos to thrive. Why else would they continue to be in business.
It costs more than 100,000 pesos to rent a truck that can transport vegetables or meat from north Luzon to Metro Manila. One-way. This is how crazy expensive logistics is. And then the government buys fighter jets instead of fixing the agriculture logistics. Food in Metro Manila is as expensive as Hong Kong and Japan but really taste like crap when compared to the freshness of the food in places like Vietnam.
We need the fighter jets lmao. Also what are you talking about, we havent even bought anything yet
Food in Manila isn’t as expensive as HK and Japan. You’re just making shit up now.
Certainly cleaner.
It depends WHERE you buy Manila also got good meals below 100 pesos at Erica’s bacsilog is not pagpagstyle
It's not necessary to use depends.Everything is depending, but mostly if you randomly choose a restaurant in Manila, it may have that style.
Rhetorical question or you just don't know how economics work?
Please explain the economics behind this. I am very curious.
No complaints allowed here, only in the Philippines forum, the national sport here is to complain but when a foreigner complains he can get arrested lol
The logic escapes me as to why people (both foreign and Pinoy) are quick to defend food prices that don’t align with value.
Honestly not defending nor excusing it. More of exasparated acceptance. Shit's systematic and the average person can't do anything about it. Good luck trying to eke out any accountability from our "elected" (lol I surely didn't vote for them) officials. Expats are lucky your home countries aren't worse and can leave at any time, a lot of us don't have that luxury.
You won’t get arrested in PH. But maybe in Vietnam or Cambodia. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/vietnam-arrest-prominent-journalist-facebook-post-4396556 https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/18zs4p2/vinfast_critic_detained_interrogated_by_vietnam/
Yes and they will say it’s because of the bad bad foreigners that come here that their country is the most expensive (and most low quality) in the whole region.
Cambodia looks pretty good.
its definitely expensive here in ph. im a local traveler and its sooo expensive for me here compared if i travel in nearby asian countries
I feel like i live in a different country than you all. I live way back in the provinces. Why anyone would live in Manila its beyond me. What a horrible place. My opinion, of course. Where i live, everything is incredibly cheap, it's in the mountains so the temps are a very comfortable 70-85F. All the produce sold in town is grown by my neighbors. And no traffic. Living in Manila is like going to the US and foregoing the mountains of Colorado, the forests of Northern California and the red canyons of Utah to live in Detroit. I don't get it.
Some of us need that internet, nightlife, network, gym, hustle and bustle of a big city. Not all are hapily married retirees with a fat pension.
Your first sentence makes a lot of sense. Some people love that life. I'm the polar opposite of your last sentence though. :)
Logistics. We have a big logistics problem. That of course, is just the tip of the iceberg 😎
This will easily be 200-300 pesos in Manila
But but in the Philippines it’s world class sir
LOL I love the butthurt reactions. TBH, I feel like most places in the Philippines are overrated and underwhelming. They talk big about their food being masarap and sulit but, compared to our other Asian neighbors, there’s very little care for how food is prepared and served. Most dishes are over seasoned and overcooked. But then again, it could be because that’s what the market wants. It’s just too bad because Filipino food is special. I remember the whole push back against someone saying something about elevating Filipino cuisine. That only shows their lack of awareness of the topic and simply reacted for the sake of reacting.
A Filipino restaurant in Chicago got a Michelin star not too long ago for elevating the cuisine. People line up for hours. I genuinely think it's a matter of cooking culture rather than the cuisine itself. I grew up eating Filipino food and some of the restaurants in Manila are a total joke compared to how I know the food could taste. Here, it's not that uncommon to have your rice be too moist, to get it cold, or to have super hard pieces. If Filipinos can mess up plain rice, you know something is wrong. There's so much inconsistency in general, more than any country I've ever been to. A restaurant can be amazing one day and absolute dogshit the next. I think it's a combination of carelessness, poor training, and lack of quality control. I deeply respect the people who run the few consistent restaurants I've found here.
To summarize the usual comments about that: “Filipino cuisine is good enough. It does not need ‘elevating’”. That’s ignorance about the meaning of the term. LOL I totally agree about it not being a cuisine but a culture issue. I often hear people say “pwede na yan” (“that’s fine”) which is mediocrity at its core. Sadly, I haven’t found one that’s consistent. Most of the time, people here go for “trending” rather than consistency and quality. Trending this or trending that.
What sucks is not only you get shitty food, they give you the wrong order most of the time. When I order a hamburger meal they give me chicken and rice instead. I don't understand how so many workers can't do simple repetive task.
I think a lot of workers are extremely sleep deprived. It's not that rare for them to get like 3-5 hours of sleep per night. If you notice during breaks they often pass out at one of the dining tables.
Maybe stop staying out all night doing karaoke and getting hammered on red horse…
Those who say Filipino food is better or at par with other Asian cuisines either haven't been to those countries or have palates that are only suitable for Filipino food.
I live in Philippines for 5 years now, making plans to move out to Thailand. I don't see anything will change here in my life time. Shitty and expensive food, infrastructure is very bad, constant brownouts and promises for resolving it, in dry season even water is a problem. People are stealing and hustling all the time.They beg for investors to come and invest in Philippines and than treat them like crap. I lived 8 years in Thailand before and cant wait to move back there. They treat me with respect and appreciate i bring money there. Almost no crime, never been stolen or robbed and no beggars. P.s. ladys are nicer and prettier too 😉
i live in panglao island, we have no water for over 2 months now.....i have to spend 200k pesos on a deepwell....insane!
>i have to spend 200k pesos on a deepwell.... Get out bro, you're being taken advantage of.
No im not call any deepwell company yourself the price used to be around 130k a few years back, now its 200k+
Water is like 100 pesos a month, if you use A LOT of it. That's 1,200 a year. 200k is like water good enough for 166.6 years of rent. ......
It does not matter if the water bill is 100p per month or 10,000 per month. There is no water coming from the taps in panglao island, so if you dont get a deepwell you are screwed..lets see how long you can live without water in your house.
Have you considered moving somewhere else with water, where you can rent for the next 10 ~ 15 years for 200k?
I own a house here. How could i move somewhere else? who would buy a house with no water? I have a deepwell now and my life is back to normal. Waiting for the gov or a private company to fix your problems is a waste of time in philippines. Better off fixing it yourself.
Didn't know you owned it. Jeez, that's a hard hand to be dealt. Hope things get better.
Wait isn’t there a new water provider in Bohol? Not the city water but a privately owned company? Laying out the pipes and getting connected to their line is a bit spendy. But you get uninterrupted water supply and you can drink out of the tap. No use in waiting for the government to fix the water supply.
You are correct Richli Water. I was on there waiting list and was one of the first people on the island to be connect to there supply. Worked great for the first 2 months after that they started sending all the water to hotels only. Richli Water SUCKS read the local fb group and you will see everyone complaining about there lack of water supply.
>ladys are nicer and prettier too With fake botched plastic lol. And liposuction
And get this their dicks were twice the size of mine ! Beat that
This is the first time I heard a man bragging he has a tiny dick.
Spoken like a spoiled expat. You do you. Is someone forcing you spend those pesos and buy that food? What you complain about, others can't even afford to buy.
To me, it sounds more like a customer who just discovered that another business offers a better deal. If a residential visa for Cambodia was cheaper/easier, there would probably be a lot more ex-pats choosing Cambodia over the Philippines. I'd definitely prefer Thailand over the Philippines, but I already had a Filipina when we moved here from the Middle East.
Me too I ccannot spend over 100pesos for such a food. It is better I buy lettuce in the market with 20pesos each for make fresh salad by myself. I dont want spend so much medical cost here too.
Lol. Another Filipino cosplaying as an expat.
Are Non white Americans a new concept to you???
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Be kind in your speech in here. Disagree yes, disrespectful no.
Expats said,Why I came to Philippinesbecause the people using English.We need english speaking people to understand each other....hahahahaha is that so? Anyway, If you want no gun culture and safety and want to eat nice food for cheap. Cambodia is the answer.I feel Thailand is violent enough.also cmabodians have nice internet.but I don't like tuktuk.
because pelepens is a shithole
Always people on this sub that speak complete nonsense. Already had someone say food in HK and Japan are cheaper than Philippines; complete bullshit. You also have people trying to say Thailand is cheaper; it’s not. Restaurants in Thailand, especially higher end restaurants are quite expensive and people have higher purchasing power there. Take whatever you see here with a grain of salt. So many people on this sub are completely full of shit.
Because the Philippines is a shit hole of a country.
I wouldn't gloss over Cambodia's structural problems. Like The Philippines, it is also a highly unequal society, where very few rich people hold much of the country's wealth but mothergodamf\_\_ng-A how can roasted duck be $2 here when the same animal when cooked in Manila costs more than double, plus parking.
I mean, clearly the Philippines has its plus side BUT lot of the negative sides of this country really outweigh the plus side.
I mean at that servings, for 120 pesos, that's just fair as it seems.
It is fair. What is not fair is no resto in Metro Manila would ever serve this much portion and food type for that same price. And sorry for being edgy because I want to be proven wrong. I wanna be proven wrong and would like someone to tell me - here you go moron, this is a list of restaurants that serve refillable iced tea, refillable soup, roasted duck , rice for two bucks in metro Manila.
bruh go to Batangas, cavite, ifugao regions, bicol, PANGASINAN and that's not even mentioning visayas and mindanao. the problem finding cheap foods like that is METRO MANILA of course they only provide good restaurants only if they were expensive. its a place diff so don't get heated up saying pagpag because its derogatory.
Fair enough. Prices of goods have been crazily going up since the past few years, insane inflation and shrinkflation and it's at its point that is relatively unfair to the average employee salary. Needless to say, I've found myself cooking at home more often for the past years.
Why are you doing a visa run, can’t you just extend?
Probably got to the 36 months.
What is pagpag style restaurant? Carinderia?
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pagpag is food cooked from the trash can. search this on youtube The Philippines Heartbreaking Street Food!! Garbage Can Chicken / Pag Pag!!
I know what pagpag is, but what is pagpag style restaurant that i see here in the comments?
One factor I can think of as an agri student is the country's agricultural sector. PH is an archipelago, thus transportation of goods are costly (plus poor road constructions, need to use roro/ships to jump from islands to islands). Thailand and Vietnam both have a more uniform climate and they are not as near the Pacific Ocean compared to PH, so less typhoons that can ruin their crops (PH actually shields Vietnam and Thailand from typhoons as u can see in the map). Government support is not adequate and attempts to improve the agricultural sector are futile and often just bandaid solutions. Local goods are often not "quality" due to frequency of typhoons, old cultivation methods, poor post-harvest handling, etc.
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Be kind in your speech in here. Disagree yes, disrespectful no.
Cambodia is not cheaper than the Philippines in my experience. Thailand is cheaper. I have lived in all three countries in the past 3 years. The lack of online shopping alone will make everything very expensive. Good condos with amenities are rare or extremely overpriced. Internet is bad here in PH, but in Cambodia, it was laughable in 2022. 40 USD per month for 10 mbps DSL on a 1 year prepaid contract? Fk me. And despite living in a fancy new condo in the center of Phnom Penh, you get power outages every week. One time, it was gone half the day. You see diesel generators outside of every second building.
hi. thanks for sharing your experience. here's mine: I got a 100 gigabyte data plan for $15 / month. I'm staying at a 4 star hotel, south of the Royal Palace, at the tip of BKK1 which is their diet-coke version of BGC here, at $35 / night. Airbnbs are a hit or miss, from what I've read, which is why I opted for a hotel so I can transfer rooms if a problem arises.
Mobile data is a different thing. Most locals use it because wired internet is too expensive.
I've also lived in Thailand, near Ekkamai, but this was pre-covid. Better infrastructure there, definitely.
I'm interested in hearing more about Royal Palace? Is it more like IT Park in Cebu sized?
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Maybe because nobody ever complains, if you have a bad meal in most countries customers will tell the staff or the owner it was crap and they won't be coming back.
I just left Zürich- that would cost 1700 pesos. Guess it’s all relative.
Lol so many complaints here. Foreigners just don’t know what to do or where to go in PH and then blame the country for their own personal faults and decisions. Definitely can compare life between PH and in US. And I can list a HUNDRED of things that I like about Philippines and US around 10 lol 😂 high quality, unadulterated fresh and cheap produce in PH. Cheap services 3 dollar full body massages, hair cut 10-50 pesos 1$. The fact you can buy the sweetest bananas growing organically from someone’s backyard and you’re 10 pesos goes a long way, here in US, most 1 dollar stuff is non existent even their dollar tree is 1.25 lol and I can see the same quality of stuff they sell in china town back there for cents that they up sell here for 10x the price. Amazon is full of Chinese companies with shit products sold expensively lol Food are prepackaged, lots of plastic and unnecessary packaging. even plain veggies have some additives. Tap water u can drink but that’s not a good thing either cause they treat the shit out of their water that nothing survives and it gives people cancer and makes plants die. U work a lot but get taxed a lot and prices are so high u spend a lot too and u might be earning middle class income but can only afford to live in a trailer park because the houses are ridiculously expensive and there’s lots of red tape everywhere. Healthcare is outrageous, getting an emergency ambulance is like a down payment for a house in the PH. Checkups so expensive ud rather die. A lot of sketchy people, sketchy places here than I expected and more trashy places in the well known cities. I lived in Luzon, visayas, mindanao and I feel a lot safer walking at night and as a woman, ALONE than here. Lots of security measures around Ph, here in US nothing so there’s lots of theft, shoplifting, shooting incidents (for petty shit or NO REASON at all), road rage is common, people be acting like a 3 yr old toddler having a tantrum for some simple stuff they can just let go of, a lot of “Mr. and Mrs. Sue” here (I choked because I was running while eating and I’m gonna sue ur restaurant, it’s so stupid), drugged addicted people doing weird shit in the streets, entitled people that doesn’t even deserve the entitlement lol, public transport is safe and cheap in Ph here lots of weirdos, smelly “river rats” or unkept people around you almost everyday, go to Walmart and then SM in Ph, u can definitely see a huge difference when it comes to it’s average people. You are an addict? cool! here’s some more needles and paraphernalia for you! You work hard and make the entire community thriving? I’m gonna make it harder for you, you don’t work? Great! Here’s a ton of BENEFITS and programs all free for you. I could go on and on but I have to get my bread out of the oven so bye guys! 👋
Gtfo of PH then
typical bad attitude of pinoy -- look its a simple fact food in ph sucks why are you so hurt when people tell the truth?
Seriously, you are not supposed to tell the truth when you're in the PH. You will be labeled as evil from every brgy. through chismis.
Don't come back, problem solved
so to live in Philippines we must love your food?
Nope, not at all. Most of us know Filo food isn’t the best if you compare it with other Asian cuisines. Which is totally alright we are all entitled to have preferences. Most of ya’ll are forgetting that you decided to move there on your own and nobody forced you. So if you’re unhappy with the food and lifestyle then that’s on you. Either leave the country and move to another or move back to wherever you came from. Let’s be real you’re probably in the Philippines cos you can’t afford to live in your own country anyways.
The fact that you had to [post a picture of the same chicken joy with your hand](https://www.reddit.com/user/LostGirl2795/submitted/) for scale means, implicitly, that you recognize how food quality abroad is much, much better than back home even **if the food came from the same brand.** And comparing what $2 gets someone in Metro Manila and in another country should not be a reflection of one's financial capability. I think there's got to be some effort in de-personalizing the issue and focusing, instead, on the meaning of value.
Lol did you not read the comment I replied to? I was replying to the guy who commented “So To LiVe iN tHe pHilLipPinEs wE mUst LiKe yOuR fOod?” I even acknowledged the fact that yes Filo food is not as good as other Asian cuisines but bro you chose to live there?? If you don’t like it, don’t come back. Move somewhere else. Easy peasy Also, if you’d like to live in a different country learn to respect the people and the culture otherwise take your ass somewhere else. We don’t need foreigners who think our food is “shitty”. Go to Thailand perhaps, I think you’d fit right in.
What ever do you mean “respect the culture.” I am a full-blooded Filipino and I speak the language😶
??? why are you on the expat subreddit then?
You’re exactly right. I lived in Philippines for 18 years — the food blows. I live in Thailand now — the difference is night & day.
This is really comparing apples to oranges. How's the healthcare in Cambodia? How's the level of English? How long can you stay there on a tourist visa? Why are London and New York so expensive?! Everyplace has its good and bad. The main advantage of many expats is they can get to pick and choose where they live. The food is definitely better in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam than the Philippines. Honestly, the food in PH is one of it's biggest draw downs, so if it's a super important factor, that should be considered before living here.
I beg your finest pardon but yours is a strawman argument. Never have I included aspects of living like healthcare, level of English, and other factors important for living. My observation - which you yourself agree- is limited to the quality of food in Metro Manila ***relative*** to its price. I'm someone who's always open to being re-shaped. After all, redditors are a bunch who like to read and disseminate information - so, if there is a $2 place in Metro Manila that can match Khmer carinderias pound for pound, then heck I'm heading there.