Wish I had a Dollar (or even a Peso) for all the times I have heard from fellow foreigners the same old sorrowful lament:
I am staying here in the Philippines on a tourist visa (or on the Balik Bayan Privilege Stamp) and my privileges have come to an end … I have to leave the Philippines. “I can’t afford it”.
Well, this may sound a little harsh to some, but too bad, I’m old, I’m tired and I am inpatient with people who can’t (or won’t) stand on their own two feet. If you can’t afford a discount round trip fare from the Philippines to a nearby country and then a return to the Philippines, then you are living too damn close to the bone and you should go back to the USA 9or one of the other Western countries) where government programs and private organizations who take money from those of us who are solvent and redistribute it to the poor (those who have spent their life relaying upon others). To live in the Philippines as a foreigner you do NOT need to be rich, but you should at least be able to stand on your own two feet.
Hint: The US Embassy will not send you home for free, but if you show up at the embassy and claim you are an indigent, they will have you sign a promissory note to repay the US government and then issue a voucher to an airline to “repatriate” you back to the USA.
Here’s a sample ad I just got in my mailbox from Cebu Pacific, one of the low cost carriers I have used here often in the Philippines. Kinfly note fares to at least 5 different international locations for as low as P1 (that’s one Philippine Peso, guys and gals). Tghhis is about the cheapest fare deal sale I have ever seen, but ones nearly as cheap as this are very common.
Yes the return flight will cost more than P1. Ad here’s the kicker, you do have to plan ahead and take advantage of deals like this BEFORE it is the day before the day you have to leave the country … but my point is, sucj deals exisit, all the time for those who want to help themselves rather thna spend their ays complaining about “poor me”.
(There are other low price carriers aside from Cebu Pacific too, check out Air Asia and Tiger Air to name a couple.
Hello David!
But I Have To Stay Overnight
Yes, that is (mainly) true, although with some clever planning you could easily do something like fly to Macau on the last flight in the evening and take the ferry over to Hong Kong and take the first flight out back to Manila early in the AM).
But most of us are going to want to stay over at least one night in an hotel.
And we ALL know how expensive hotels are in, say, Singapore, right? Or, do we?
Here are a few recent samples:
Santa Grand Hotel East Coast , Singapore, from PhP 5,462
Guangdong Hotel , Hong Kong, from PhP 9,545
Sofitel Macau at Ponte 16 Hotel , Macau, from PhP 5,643
Mirth Sathorn Hotel , Bangkok, Thailand,from PhP 2,337
Hotel Continental Saigon , Saigon, Vietnam, from PhP 3,845
Sokha Angkor Resort , Siem Reap, Cambodia, from PhP 5,900
Now just to clarify something. I am not directly affiliated with any of these deals and I am not making any commission or profiting in any other way from them. I’m providing them strictly for the reason I am so tired of hearing so many of my fellow Americans kind of whining in the corner like whipped dogs.
The means exist to live very well here if you:
1. Mange your money.
2. Take advantage of bargains before the sale period ends.
Frankly this is one I am really thinking of the next time I have to make a visa run, come September or October. Sail out, fly back or vise versa
Live well my friends, and above all, live proud and be self-reliant. Philly says: Yes You Can.
Something I always wanted to know. You do your visa run to start your new visa after being in the Phils for 16 months. Do you also need an onward ticket again?
@ Victor Peter
Hi Victor, thanks for writing in. yes, you do need an onward travel ticket when you return to the Philippines after a visa run. It is just like the first time you enter, the clock is reset so to speak.
It’s easy though, just follow the tips here, buy a full-fare, refundabole ticket OUT of the Philippines before you depart on your trip BACK to the Philippines, and then refund the full-fare ticket after you are checked back in through Philippine Immigration. You’ll have no problem.
http://philfaqs.com/get-there/a-few-more-thoughts-on-onward-travel-and-throwaway-tickets/
What would we call it?.. an exit plan, or an exit strategy – something worked out in advance that makes provision for returning to our home country if a need develops from an emergency or other situation.
To head overseas without giving yourself a means to get ‘home’ is not a smart move.. so if that is your situation take steps NOW to get something organised.. then when/if the time comes to leave, the way is open to you!
But it does take some effort.. called planning.. and thinking ability, as Dave has shown in this post. Just do it!
@ Bernie
Thanks for the vote oi confidence. Indeed one should plan. One should also DO. That’s the big issue that hobbles most people in their efforts. Thye plan and then thye plan some more and then they research and the they do “due diligence”, and they they plan some more again.
Sooner or later the “planning” has to be replaced with some actual work. One thing I see so very often is the idea that earning from online sources is “easy” .. and millions of people are spending precious time and money searching for the magic “Easy Button”. Spoiler alert, folks. It isn’t there. Earning online requires work just like learning off-line does.
BUT the big advantage is, you can earn online independently of where you choose to live. But you have to “do something” first, otherwise you’ll be 80 years old and still “thinking about it”.
There is a place in Hong Kong where you can share a bed space with other backpackers for US$20/night – is that cheap enough? The building is called Chung King Mansion and located along Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. Take the bus number A21 from Hong Kong Airport and tell the driver to let you off close to Chung King Mansion (fare about HK$40). The building is also close to a lot of local eateries where a meal is about $3-$5. You can live off less than $40/day if you choose to.
Or, if you are really cheap – sleep at Hong Kong airport but bring along food provision until your return to the Philippines. You will be stinking, though, upon your return to Manila because there’s no shower where you will sleep. LOL.
@ Manuel
Thanks for writing in. great tips there. The whole idea of visa runs being prohibitively expensive is just bogus, in my view point.
Dave:
Like you, I never understood all of the whining… To be fair, those fares you listed leave off a few thousand in taxes, but it is still cheap. Let’s face it, a date at a discount movie theatre in the USA costs more.
Actually, you could even leave NAIA on the 6am flight to Hong Kong, and even make the 4pm flight back to MNL by 7 pm.
Glad you posted the Star Cruises… They ended them, but looks like they re-started. I agree with you… Really cool option. I’m sure you and Mita will have a great time! (I’m even thinking of doing it myself, and I don’t need a visa run!)
@ John Miele
Hi John, thanks for writing. Yes, I know the P1 flights are always a “come on”, and yes there are certainly other costs, but I have gotten some really cheap flights from Sebu pacific … I want to try Air Asia next time I fly, I’m impressed with their management and marketing efforts. Either way, the whole business about visa runs being too expensive is certainly overblown.
In my view a number of people here in the Philippines are living “too close to the bone”. They should go back to the USA where there are thousands of government and private programs to “help the needy” and such.
Dave:
I’ve had issues with Air Asia, but many people like them, though. I usually take them when I’m shuffling around between Indonesia and Malaysia (Their dominant markets, with lots of daily flights… many times only way from point A to B). Never flown them from Clark. They recently partnered as code share with Tiger and Zest Air so that they have a base out of NAIA. (Never flown Zest, but Tiger is OK, at least my experience)
When I first moved to the Philippines, I had loads of trouble with Cebu Pacific, primarily related to credit cards. After the last troubles with PAL, I started flying them because, quite frankly, they really have gotten much larger than PAL, and I’ve had zero trouble with them since I started (biggest gripe with them is that most of their overseas flights are in the middle of the night).
Ironically, I needed an earlier flight from BKK back home last week. The Cebu Pacific flight wasn’t a good time for me, so I tried PAL. PAL is having a business class sale right now… BIZ was CHEAPER than full-fare coach. The front was empty. You always want to check that if flying full-fare coach (Same with Delta to Japan a couple of months ago… Coach was $700, Biz was $625)
@ John Miele
Now business class cheaper than coach? that’s agreat deal, John. Couldn’t be more timely. Mita and I are thinking about going to Tokyo next month to visit some friends and get my next BB stamp coming back. Actually, when I flew alot for the USAF some years ago I made alot of flights on Northwest (now subsumned by Delta) and they often ran those business class disocunt deals on flights that were hard to keep full. Fingers crossed.