Hi from me and my Davao dream...

Do mosquitoes leave white skin alone once it's been established there for a while?

I wish they would, the mosquito bites are getting less now. The body builds up an immune system against the little blighters.
Having said that, I woke up with three bites on my arm, all half an inch from each other. I put smoke in the bedroom (Katol)
helps a bit.

MMmmm Yea. Think that would be one of my bugbears if I lived there. They itch like crazy the days after and it kills me not to scratch

Hi Vanni,

Good luck wherever you settle.

My previous employer is a global oil services company ( mind you they have lost a few bucks on their shares recently ) and have bases all over the world including Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and China. They have not commited any investment in the Philippines despite an expanding oil and gas industry there. Any work carried out within the Philippines is serviced from outside the Philippines.

A similar story to my current employer who will not establish a base there, preferring to remain in Malaysia.

Just something to consider.

A natural form of protection against mosquito bites is a modicum of garlic in one's diet. If the taste puts you off or your garlicky breath plays havoc with your love life, then ingest it as "Garlic Perles" which don't taint the breath.

Dengue-carrying mosquitoes generally only become apparent in the early morning and late afternoon/early evening; unlike Malaria-carriers they are not in evidence during the heat of the day. They are also rotten fliers and can be thrown completely off course by a gentle breeze. They also fly close to the ground, generally between six inches and four feet above ground level. If you don't like garlic or a topical deterrent such as "Off", then simply wear long sleeved shirts, long pants and socks during the hours that they are around - and all the time if tramping through thick vegetation.

If you are bitten and then develop 'flu-like symptoms, you should seek medical assistance immediately, preferably at a hospital.

Hi Methersgate,

An apology to you and all other members in the group for disappearing after the proverbial first couple of posts.

And now, no other reply would be a better place to pick up than the pearl of wisdom below...

Let me rephrase it slightly: a reliable way to become un-married is to even think of bringing a wife to the Philippines.

One of the reasons for my hiatus was that I've been busy with redecorating a house I own in Cambridge. It has been rented out and it's heavily worn out and I hope that, after some major redecoration, will provide me with a much-needed passive income I will need for my future endeavours in the Land of the Morning.

And yes, the other reason is that, as per modified statement above, things with my wife have gone progressively sour as she just can't seem to digest the idea that I will have some substantial business in the Philippines. Truth be told, for at least the past couple of years I had been flirting with the idea of setting up this outsourced IT gig in Medellin, Colombia, where she is from. And I would have been looking West, not East, if she and some close family members of hers hadn't done a wonderful job dissuading from doing it, because Medellin is now unsafe again, there's so much gang crime going on and much of it involves foreigners, immediately perceived by the local villainous fauna as richer and less clued up than local paisas.

This might all be true, and certainly puts Medellin miles away from the quiet and safety of Duterte's Davao. Yet what got my mind sealed on it was that I didn't find any appreciable IT outsourcing opportunities that were truly international in nature and not just serving the US and/or other parts of Latin America. For this sort of business, nothing beats the labour cost model, the built-in English-speaking and the strategic Asian location of the Philippines.

Now, I don't know how things are going to pan (I had initially typed "pain"...Freudian slip!) out with her but, as it stands, we have started to live separately. A few weeks of heavy DIY and site management were the perfect pretext to move from the tidy microverse she got me used to in our flat, to the realm of dust, soil, rubble and man order of my house in Cambridge. The only saving grace in all this is that, if anything, both of us are now painfully aware of our differences and happy to move on without causing too much harm and drama. Well, good luck to me and her. Amen.

I honestly don't know if a woman living in an expat bubble would automatically be thrust into the same kind of social etiquette and expectations as middle or upper middle class Filipinas. Sure women gossip and bitch about each other's behaviours, but I guess that applies to all women the world over. I don't know any Caucasian or Western woman living long-term in the Philippines and those I know are there by choice, not simply as part of their hubbies' expat package. They seem to (usually) be aware of the complexities and contrasts of Filipino society and culture, and they seem to do alright whether they are interacting with some hi-society lady from the Fort or a destitute single mom of 3 from Caloocan. They don't even seem to have trouble socialising and making friends, especially if they have cultural affinity with Filipinos - and I'm talking about the Spanish, Italian, Portuguese etc. ladies.

What I do buy much more easily of your theory is that, like in many parts of Asia, foreign women who land there without a clear mission that will involve their body and soul will get bored and very, very jealous about their other halves, if they're there with them. Especially in the Philippines, they will instantly realise that their leverage is well and gone when they realise a 40 or 50-something man can easily access a girl half of his age without any social stigma being attached to it. That's what will probably set their paranoia radar full on and, unless the relationship is rock solid, that very notion of being over-aged, over-flirted and over-sexed at every corner can be their downfall pretty soon.

Hi JohnAsh,

Thanks. As per my earlier reply to Methersgate, I do need a good deal of luck right now, as my wife's patience is running on the meter. It is true that the Philippines is and will probably never be a major market for foreign oil & gas company, and that across the entire lifecycle. The reason is simple: energy is seen as a strategic industry and subject to strict regulations on foreign involvement.

On the other side, one reads stuff like the below Bloomberg survey and thinks that the Philippines not being an oil giant could turn in its favour, at least in the short/medium term.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-25/the-20-fastest-growing-economies-this-year