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thailand vs philippines


drakoanders

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As for Filipino food its not so brilliant some quite tasty other extremely bland, the poorer the family thevworse the food is they just can't afford good ingredients but even tho they live in a bamboo hut and have nothing they will welcome you in to their house and feed you. Philippines is not the safest country in the world no but in general its not dangerous either, it seems to me that in the tourist areas in thailand it is dangerous for a foreigner, boracay is a big tourist area never hear of families being beaten or expats kulled .

A small burger and fries for 500peso from a hole in the wall? They saw you coming mate. A small burger from a trader like that is often 30peso and they throw in one free. Even McDonalds is only 89peso for cheeseburger and fries 500peso?

Electronics, computers TV's etc are expensive here there is no doubt. Levis expensive here? Got no idea I buy jeans at 250peso they last me years good quality shorts 350peso really good t shirts 250peso got to know where to look tho the big shopping malls charge premium prices.

I buy potatoes 35-40 peso a kilo fruit and veg all cheap a bag of mixed vegetables 20peso 1 kilo of lean pork 150peso beef is not good. No bottles of fresh milk pasteurised at most places just long life milk in cartons. Kellogs, nestle all here probably same in thailand.

Girls? There are some real beauty's here and some of these beauties have no idea how beautiful and appealing they are to us foreigners and some of them are still virgins at 25 or 30. On the other side of the coin there are so many single mums left by their Filipino bf here. Westernisation is taking its toll lots of young obese kids in towns and cities, they seem to think an obese child is cute and a sign of their wealth diabetes is a growing problem where as the nation gets fatter and fatter.

As for me where would I prefer Philippines or thailand? Philippines for the amount of English spoken and written, the ease of visas the friendliness of mist of the people, hi Joe is common a throw back to WW2 with the GI joes, its not meant as disrespectful just a common greeting. Wassuuuup is common also sometimes I think come on say something else a bit more original but most of it is shyness to speak English they think you might laugh at their bad grammer and pronunciation.

Thailand because its streets ahead with its infrastructure than phils Thai girls she as Filipina some beauties others not so food is way better but there are downsides, lack of English stupid visa laws and a seemingly growing dislike of foreigners. Is this dislike because us foreigners behave so badly over there? Its a tourist hot spot there unlike here. Hmmmmmmm will have to research more I think.

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Myfrenu manila and cebu were not hit by Yolanda I was near manila at that time it got very windy and wet but not extremely bad. Tacloban was flattened by 200mph winds it flattened everything not just houses made of straw its a bit heartless of you to say such a thing about a disaster that killed so many men women and children and left thousands without anything at all, house car clothes everything gone. Farmers lost everything as well left penniless and homeless. Yes the corruption went haywire billions of pesos jus disappeared shame on those that stole it. Think just a bit before you say such heartless things about people and their problems.

As much as some beaches here are beautiful others are a disgrace fishermen and their families live in shacks on the beach all their rubbish is thrown onto the sand its aweful and not just one or two beaches like that very many. Maybe you have not traveled so much in the philippines and not seen the real poverty the dirt the rubbish that is just thrown, the rivers that are just polluted by the vast amount garbage thrown in them, as I have said many times philippines is not paradise, there are some fantastic places and really fantastic people but there is also the poverty and a dark side to this country.

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drakosanders I can guarantee you that I have travelled the Philippines more than you have,I was merely pointing out the poster saying about his "friends" house being blown away was just lying it's the usual BS on here,he has no friends in the Philippines and has never been there!
As for beaches here is one of many beautiful beaches on Bantayan Island,Cebu have you ever been there?Or Malapascua,Camotes,Bohol in fact which beaches have you been to except the overcrowded,overdeveloped rubbish Boracay what do you expect?

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Good post. Enjoyed my visits to Cebu years ago and am considering another visit. I'd never care to visit Manila again, though I did meet some great people there. Know anything about the healthcare there? Decent hsps, good docs? No ripoffs?

Despite being hospitalised in Bacolod a few years ago, I really don't know a lot about health care in the RPI. I had a rather complex bacterial infection and while they didn't resolve it entirely , they 'patched me up', didn't kill or harm me and I was able to travel back to LOS where it was resolved. There is a public system but I believe it is overcrowded. The poverty there is in your face in a way that you just don't see here in LOS. People are turned away and in effect left to die because of not being able to pay deposits on admission.

I was in a private facility which wasn't much to write home about and would compare with similar small scale private hospitals in Thailand. There are world class facilities in Manila and Cebu so long as you have the dosh or insurance. There seemed to be plenty of reasonably competent doctors and nurses and everyone speaks English so no issues with communication. For foreigners it is essentially a private system where everything has a cost.

I suspect that once you get off the beaten track services are much thinner on the ground and you would need to consider evacuation to bigger centers in an emergency.

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Your right about the hospitals here no money you are left. I was in hospital here last month for 5 days, can't complain at all about the hospital or the treatment but it came at a cost. There is Philhealth here which can cut costs dramatically. Unfortunately I let mine expire stupid I know. The poverty is as you say in your face on a daily basis and its pitiful to see. There is a massive divide between the very rich and the very very poor. When you first visit here it does smack you in the face, after living here for years you just accept it, not nice to say, but I can't solve the poverty problem here. Would I recommend anyone to come and live here. Not if you are a soft touch if you are not prepared to see injustice live with stupid laws. So many bad things here but also some really good things as well. I try not to be a snob if someone calls out hey Joe I smile and wave back their face usually lights up, wasssuuuup gets a bit boring but its what they see on american movies so they copy it. I can't say I love it here but a don't hate it either its OK. Will thailand be better? I think in some ways it will yes but in other ways no it won't.

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IMO one has to balance one's views with personal preferences and one example I will give is that of Thai food versus Filipino food. I rarely eat Thai food and if I do, I cook it myself because the stuff I've tasted in restaurants here is absolute rubbish, so if I moved elsewhere, I wouldn't really miss Thai food.

I don't eat the local food in Thailand, so why should I eat the local food in the Philippines? If I wanted to I might have a crack at cooking some myself but in the main I cook farang style food and eat out in farang restaurants, so for me the comparison of food between these two countries is pretty meaningless.

Hmmm, the "stuff you've tasted in restaurants" is Thai food, the concoction you make at home is something else....pretty much sums it up? So it's a matter of taste and it seems you prefer whatever it is that you cook yourself (no idea what that may be). Personally, I find the Thai food in many of the restaurants in Chiang Mai excellent. There are literally hundreds. If you don't like Thai food, just say so. But to suggest that you can make better Thai food than the Thais....beggars belief.

Well then go and "beggar"!

I do like the occasional Thai meal and I cook it myself because I can cook it as well if not better than any Thai food I've tasted in the restaurants HERE. Indeed I often cook enough for two or three people and give it to my Thai friends here who are always asking when I'm about to produce the next dish, and often asking if I can produce one dish or another for them. And to show their appreciation they often give me a little present to say thank you......... and "when you cook more?"

It would seem as if some people think that there is a certain "mystique" to Thai cooking (or perhaps to cooking in general) however if one uses the freshest ingredients and follows the recipe and one's nose and tastebuds then the result is often very good, and I will just repeat something for you that I have posted for another rude and arrogant poster...........

"As has been stated on many threads and posts here, the great majority of Thai food is laden with salt, sugar, MSG and does not always contain the freshest ingredients, so I'm not alone in these thoughts.

And you seem to think that only Thai people can produce good Thai food, well I'm sorry to have to disappoint you but there are Thai chefs who can produce excellent French dishes, English chefs that can produce excellent Thai dishes, Thai chefs who can produce excellent Italian food (as in two of the restaurants I frequent here, which by the way is not Chiang Mai) and so on – – – now I'm sure you can get the picture from what I'm trying to say, or would you like me to explain further".

And to sign off, I have been cooking meals from various countries for about 40 years, had some tuition from a Masterchef, have held many hundreds of dinner parties to match fine food and wine and have yet to have too many complaints. Sure the occasional one will out whereby someone says, "well it was good, but not up to your usual standard", but then that's only normal isn't it.

So I know my food, I know how to cook it, I know how to adapt it and I know some of the shortcuts and tricks used by top chefs, and indeed one of the sauces I produce for a French dish takes over eight hours to make.

Quite why people should jump in and criticise and condemn is beyond me, and what "sums it up" for me is the small-mindedness of some folk who think that national dishes can only be produced by chefs of that nationality............think again, the world is a big place with some excellent chefs from all countries, producing all sorts of dishes from other countries.

Lesson over.

Agreed. I've often had Thais commenting on how amazing it is that a 'farang' can cook Thai food better than Thais when I have done so.

In 15 years I have only found a few Thai restaurants than can do the food justice.

Some people are happy to settle for less and that's their choice.

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"Begone troll."

So you neither speak,read nor write a single word of Thai just as I suspected,it's almost too easy to humiliate fools such as yourself,rather embarrassing for you though isn't it to criticise somebody's transliteration only to be found out as a complete and clueless moron?As they say in Thai "Som Nom Na",would you like me to write that for you in Thai script also?Just let me know thanks!

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If I had to come up with a negative about CM it's the heat in the hot season. Your aircon will likely take a clobbering Mar - May. Or maybe even June at this rate. It really gets quite uncomfortable, regularly up into 40+

7:30 am this morning the living room was already up to 33. Drops after sunset sure buy only down to 36 or so. Combined with lack of wind and lack of rain it feels like an oven at times. Ride a bike here at the wrong time of day and even the cooling effect of the rush of air isn't there, more like riding into the exhaust of a jet engine or hair dryer with the heat turned to max.

On the flip side there's 3-4 months when it's cool, even cold, going down to 8 at night at times. Balances out I guess.

I know a few folks here who bail out for 2-4 months and I also have friends from the South who wouldn't live up here because of it. In their view, too hot in hot season and too cold in cold season. Even with its high humidity Phuket is more comfortable at this time of year IMO. Sure it often feels like 37 or so but with the sea breeze it just feels better.

I can stand the heat, live with it, don't need to bail out or whatever but there are days when it grates on me. Roll on the rainy season!!

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IMO one has to balance one's views with personal preferences and one example I will give is that of Thai food versus Filipino food. I rarely eat Thai food and if I do, I cook it myself because the stuff I've tasted in restaurants here is absolute rubbish, so if I moved elsewhere, I wouldn't really miss Thai food.

I don't eat the local food in Thailand, so why should I eat the local food in the Philippines? If I wanted to I might have a crack at cooking some myself but in the main I cook farang style food and eat out in farang restaurants, so for me the comparison of food between these two countries is pretty meaningless.

Hmmm, the "stuff you've tasted in restaurants" is Thai food, the concoction you make at home is something else....pretty much sums it up? So it's a matter of taste and it seems you prefer whatever it is that you cook yourself (no idea what that may be). Personally, I find the Thai food in many of the restaurants in Chiang Mai excellent. There are literally hundreds. If you don't like Thai food, just say so. But to suggest that you can make better Thai food than the Thais....beggars belief.

It would seem as if some people think that there is a certain "mystique" to Thai cooking (or perhaps to cooking in general) however if one uses the freshest ingredients and follows the recipe and one's nose and tastebuds then the result is often very good, and I will just repeat something for you that I have posted for another rude and arrogant poster...........

"As has been stated on many threads and posts here, the great majority of Thai food is laden with salt, sugar, MSG and does not always contain the freshest ingredients, so I'm not alone in these thoughts.

And you seem to think that only Thai people can produce good Thai food, well I'm sorry to have to disappoint you but there are Thai chefs who can produce excellent French dishes, English chefs that can produce excellent Thai dishes, Thai chefs who can produce excellent Italian food (as in two of the restaurants I frequent here, which by the way is not Chiang Mai) and so on – – – now I'm sure you can get the picture from what I'm trying to say, or would you like me to explain further".

And to sign off, I have been cooking meals from various countries for about 40 years, had some tuition from a Masterchef, have held many hundreds of dinner parties to match fine food and wine and have yet to have too many complaints. Sure the occasional one will out whereby someone says, "well it was good, but not up to your usual standard", but then that's only normal isn't it.

So we're talking chef-level? If true, then I stand corrected. I don't doubt that there are world class chefs who can create Thai dishes like it's nobody's business. If you're implying that this is you, then what can I say? What I was suggesting was that everyone has their own personal taste, no need to denigrate a whole country's restaurant industry because you have a particular preference. Take myself. I make the best spaghetti. The best in the world, I must say. Better than any five-star Italian restaurant--according to me. Others (read everyone else) may not agree. But I can make spaghetti to suit my own personal taste like no one else can. That's what I'm saying.

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drakosanders I can guarantee you that I have travelled the Philippines more than you have,I was merely pointing out the poster saying about his "friends" house being blown away was just lying it's the usual BS on here,he has no friends in the Philippines and has never been there!

As for beaches here is one of many beautiful beaches on Bantayan Island,Cebu have you ever been there?Or Malapascua,Camotes,Bohol in fact which beaches have you been to except the overcrowded,overdeveloped rubbish Boracay what do you expect?

So that boils down to ''i am so clever ,and better travelled throughout the Philippines than anyone else '' .Well you are full of arrogance and nastiness ,i will give you that .

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Hilarious to see the vile sexpats like Siam Raper and amexpat coming out from under their collective rocks like the cockroaches they are,with nothing more constructive to add than ad hominem attacks in their alcoholic hazes of rage and indignation.Siem Raper is that what they call you in Boyztown,as they spot your morbidly obese,lumbering,slovenly shadow once more and feel the ground shaking like a buffalo stampede heading their way for some back door action again?

You're a sad person. I genuinely pity you.

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HI,

Guess you are trying to make up your mind? Well I spend 3 or 6 months here in Cm and the rest of the year in Puerto Galera; especially Xmas where celebrations are great.. The contrast is nice, clean beaches and very little pollution on Mindoro Island. A great Yacht Club with many friends and social life. I am also lucky to have many friends here in Cm as well, having been here for about 15 years. You can make friends with Filipino's where here in Cm have never managed to make any male friends apart from my Farang friends.

I bought a condo last year in Cm and am not sorry, but due to Immigration it makes me wonder. My girlfriend being Filipina was questioned on our return in February and was told due to her having 5/6 entries she would not be allowed back into Thailand without a visa? We have just returned from Laos with her 60 day visa which she can extent for another 30 days. The cost was expensive, admittedly we made a holiday of it spending 11 days there. Still even though I am not short of money I will not be doing it often. Yes, sorry I cannot sit on a Coach for 10/12 hours so we flew; people who have to do it on a limited budget are usually younger than me?

Why not try Cm from May to about October then a few months in the Fils, so you never get fed up with any one place! My Condo here is very safe and my rented Condo in Puerto is very safe, so no worries on that side. I agree with many suggestions that Manila is not a great place to live, if I had to live in Manila would choose Rockwell in the Makati area; very nice place.

Sorry if my musings are not that helpful, Good luck anyway!

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IMO one has to balance one's views with personal preferences and one example I will give is that of Thai food versus Filipino food. I rarely eat Thai food and if I do, I cook it myself because the stuff I've tasted in restaurants here is absolute rubbish, so if I moved elsewhere, I wouldn't really miss Thai food.

I don't eat the local food in Thailand, so why should I eat the local food in the Philippines? If I wanted to I might have a crack at cooking some myself but in the main I cook farang style food and eat out in farang restaurants, so for me the comparison of food between these two countries is pretty meaningless.

Hmmm, the "stuff you've tasted in restaurants" is Thai food, the concoction you make at home is something else....pretty much sums it up? So it's a matter of taste and it seems you prefer whatever it is that you cook yourself (no idea what that may be). Personally, I find the Thai food in many of the restaurants in Chiang Mai excellent. There are literally hundreds. If you don't like Thai food, just say so. But to suggest that you can make better Thai food than the Thais....beggars belief.

It would seem as if some people think that there is a certain "mystique" to Thai cooking (or perhaps to cooking in general) however if one uses the freshest ingredients and follows the recipe and one's nose and tastebuds then the result is often very good, and I will just repeat something for you that I have posted for another rude and arrogant poster...........

"As has been stated on many threads and posts here, the great majority of Thai food is laden with salt, sugar, MSG and does not always contain the freshest ingredients, so I'm not alone in these thoughts.

And you seem to think that only Thai people can produce good Thai food, well I'm sorry to have to disappoint you but there are Thai chefs who can produce excellent French dishes, English chefs that can produce excellent Thai dishes, Thai chefs who can produce excellent Italian food (as in two of the restaurants I frequent here, which by the way is not Chiang Mai) and so on – – – now I'm sure you can get the picture from what I'm trying to say, or would you like me to explain further".

And to sign off, I have been cooking meals from various countries for about 40 years, had some tuition from a Masterchef, have held many hundreds of dinner parties to match fine food and wine and have yet to have too many complaints. Sure the occasional one will out whereby someone says, "well it was good, but not up to your usual standard", but then that's only normal isn't it.

So we're talking chef-level? If true, then I stand corrected. I don't doubt that there are world class chefs who can create Thai dishes like it's nobody's business. If you're implying that this is you, then what can I say? What I was suggesting was that everyone has their own personal taste, no need to denigrate a whole country's restaurant industry because you have a particular preference. Take myself. I make the best spaghetti. The best in the world, I must say. Better than any five-star Italian restaurant--according to me. Others (read everyone else) may not agree. But I can make spaghetti to suit my own personal taste like no one else can. That's what I'm saying.

Well that's a more reasoned response, with a hint of sarcasm which is fine, so I will respond.

No I wasn't talking "chef level" and I didn't "denigrate a whole country's restaurant industry because I have a particular preference", what I said was,"the stuff I have tasted in restaurants here is absolute rubbish", and I stand by that, however that is not saying that there are not some very good restaurants in Thailand, that is saying that the restaurants in which I have eaten HERE (Phuket) have not produced what I would consider good food.

Someone else mentioned the Meridian for good Thai food, but that's not really what your average everyday Thai food is about, and if you wish to take a peek into the kitchen of an everyday Thai restaurant and look at what goes into the mix you will see what I have seen. Not only has the food I have eaten on 40 or so occasions in various Thai restaurants here been of very poor quality, these restaurants are pretty well indicative of what the majority of the Thai restaurants are like, and this does not include the absolute crap that my GF used to buy from the food markets and carts, which still qualifies as Thai food, unfortunately.

I do eat a lot of pasta although not a lot of spaghetti, however the Italian restaurant which I frequent most often here makes an absolutely superb Penne alla Arrabiata, the best I have tasted anywhere and the chef is Thai........better than I can make!!

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Not wanting to get involved in any arguments, but food is a really subjective thing. I love Indian food. but can't eat what they serve up as Indian in UK or Aus and I've found the ones here in Thailand very similar tasting to UK. Brits love it, fair enough, but I prefer home made (from scratch) or in the cheap canteens in Malaysia. It's all personal taste.

At a push I will buy a little baggie of red, green or yellow curry paste from the stalls on the market and can do a fair version of Thai food, which my husband loves but I don't really like. He eats Thai for lunch every day, and every day goes to a different place which specialises in whatever he fancies that day Ditto Mexican and Japanese, they're not bad food, and I've tried both at well recommended restaurants in various countries, just not to my taste. The Mexican could be like the Indian, I've never been to Mexico but I've been to Japan a couple of times and really didn't enjoy the food. I ate it, but didn't enjoy it. Not to my taste. In China we ended up eating McDonalds, KFC and Pringles a lot because neither of us could get away with the half a dozen or more restaurants we tried, although we found a nice one on our last day when we were hanging around waiting to go to the airport, just pure luck. I really like north African food, husband doesn't mind it but wouldn't want to go out to a restaurant to eat it, it's only if I put it in front of him and only because he will eat whatever I put in front of him. Again, personal taste. I don't like celery, he doesn't like cauliflower.

Food, in all of it's glories, really is a personal matter of taste. I well remember some of the heated discussions on this forum about which butter is best - that is discussions plural. We all have the one we like best, otherwise there would only be one brand and it would be a boring world.

I have to say though that in all my travels, and we lived in Melbourne for 20 years which is the food capital of a very multicultural country, where we found Peruvian, Mongolian and Somali restaurants amongst many other oddities, I've never come across a Filipino restaurant anywhere. Or, come to think of it, a Cambodian one. Not saying that they don't exist, just that I've never noticed one.

I have to say though that in all my travels, and we lived in Melbourne for 20 years where we found Peruvian and Somali restaurants amongst many othrt oddities, I've never come across a Filipino restaurant. Or, come to tnk of it, a Cambodian one.

Also don't want to be argumentative, unless one wants to take my words that way which I'm sure many will as this is TV.

I agree food is subjective but one must look at the subject to decide if the opinion is even worthy of considering.

To start to state by name a couple nationalities of food you don't like, both that are pretty well recognized as widely appreciated fine cuisines, both which are very also different from each other.

Then you say you went to China and ate junk food and at American fast food outlets because you didn't like the local restaurants.

I'll quote you "Food, in all of it's glories, really is a personal matter of taste."

Well it sounds like your not really have a taste for different foods that much, or at least are a Foodie, as that's the current trendy term.

So for you to comment about food is kind of unwhelming.

Not a bad thing, each to their own, for instance I wouldn't comment on a post about plumbing or horse racing thread as I doubt anyone who have any interest in my thoughts on the subjects.

To further my point you call different cuisines "oddities" (??) and in all your travels you've never come across a Filipino or Cambodian restaurant.

How about going to Cambodia and the Philippines (I've spent weeks in each over the last few months and saw lots of both :) )

Yes I know your point that they are not popular enough to be common elsewhere but you'd probably wouldn't like them anyways.

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Also don't want to be argumentative, unless one wants to take my words that way which I'm sure many will as this is TV.

I agree food is subjective but one must look at the subject to decide if the opinion is even worthy of considering.

To start to state by name a couple nationalities of food you don't like, both that are pretty well recognized as widely appreciated fine cuisines, both which are very also different from each other.

Then you say you went to China and ate junk food and at American fast food outlets because you didn't like the local restaurants.

I'll quote you "Food, in all of it's glories, really is a personal matter of taste."

Well it sounds like your not really have a taste for different foods that much, or at least are a Foodie, as that's the current trendy term.

So for you to comment about food is kind of unwhelming.

Not a bad thing, each to their own, for instance I wouldn't comment on a post about plumbing or horse racing thread as I doubt anyone who have any interest in my thoughts on the subjects.

To further my point you call different cuisines "oddities" (??) and in all your travels you've never come across a Filipino or Cambodian restaurant.

How about going to Cambodia and the Philippines (I've spent weeks in each over the last few months and saw lots of both smile.png )

Yes I know your point that they are not popular enough to be common elsewhere but you'd probably wouldn't like them anyways.

I don't take your post as argumentative, I'd be a fool to do so. I'm not a professional, just a very keen amateur. Cooking has been my hobby since I left home at 16 and decided I didn't want to live on tinned food and pot noodles. My mam was a cook supervisor, dad was actually a better cook than her, but it was all traditional English fare. I'm not saying boring or bland, some very nice dishes come out of an English kitchen (contrary to popular opinion), but it was all English food. At 16 I had my first Indian food, bought the spices, ground them up with a spoon in an eggcup because that's all I had, and followed the instructions exactly. It was also the first time I'd had garlic. A couple of weeks later I had my first Chinese meal, again made from scratch (and now I know that unlike the Indian meal it was not at all authentic), but very tasty. Then pasta - first time ever. Made a real hash of the bolognese sauce (don't ask) and cooked the pasta for 20 minutes to make sure it was properly done. Absolutely awful, but I persisted and followed the instructions properly the next time and made a meal of lasagne that Mr K and myself enjoyed more than anything - also his first Italian meal. I taught myself to make bread, bake cakes, even make my own sweets when I can be bothered. I love cooking and can potter around in the kitchen all day. It's the only hobby I have. I'm not a foodie in any sense of the word and avoid people who are, I'm just a keen amateur who is willing to try anything new. Sometimes I like it, sometimes not. At the same time, sometimes my husband likes it, sometimes not so much. I do have a taste for different foods, I just don't like a couple of them. I can whip up a pretty mean Afgan lamb stew if I have access to the tail fat, and Lebanese style doner kebabs on home made Turkish pita bread with Greek tzakiki are my speciality. A truly multinational dish that came about after dozens of incarnations using different recipes for the lamb, different kinds of bread and different kinds of yoghurt-garlic sauces. I experiment. If it doesn't work, there's always something in the freezer that I can defrost quickly and have with some pasta, and it has happened a few times. A couple of weeks ago I ruined two very expensive cod steaks by salting them, forgetting, and salting them again - and I am very generous with the salt. They were truly inedible. Some rogan gosh in the freezer went straight into the microwave. It happens sometimes, but I'd rather experiment and get it wrong sometimes rather than just stick with what I know.

Since my first , sometimes clumsy attempts, I have experimented with foods from around the world. Sometimes I've not followed the instructions properly - it's much easier now with the Internet rather than relying on whatever book was in the library, being able to look up a few different recipes for the same dish - and made a hash of it, but I'm now experienced enough to take recipes as a guide and do my own thing. My personal taste doesn't stretch to Mexican or Japanese, just as my personal taste doesn't stretch to celery, cucumber, melon and parsnip. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with these foods, just that for whatever reason I wouldn't go out of my way for them. But I love Middle Eastern food, North African, not so keen on Ethiopian, but would choose it over Mexican. As I said, just personal taste. My first mousakka, made by a friend, was awful beyond words. Overcooked, way too much sauce and smothered in much too much cheese. It put me off trying Greek food at home because it was just so awful. But after I made a few Greek things and realised how scrummy they were, I tried my own mousakka and it was so nice we finished the whole thing off rather than putting 2/3 of it in the freezer. I realised then that you have to be careful not to have the attitude of disliking a whole cuisine based on one dish that either you just didn't like or wasn't cooked well. My first pizza was a disaster, it was about a year before I tried it again, and it was great. But other things I've tried more than once, knowing I've got it right because other people liked them but I just didn't really like them. That's what I meant by food being subjective and to personal taste. Like music. Very few people like Beethoven and the Sex Pistols. We are all different.

Here, I cook pretty much the same way as I did back home. One day Italian, one day Turkish, one day English, one day Vietnamese and on it goes. Just mix it up. I couldn't think of anything worse than having the same food every day. That's why I don't like Thai food - for the first couple of years we were travelling, and most of it in Thailand, I had no cooking facilities and ate Thai food 3 times a day every day. One day I just said enough. And I haven't eaten Thai food since. My husband used to work with a lot of Filipinas in Australia, and we went to barbies at their places several times. No complaints about any of the food on offer, but none really caught my imagination enough to ask someone how to make it as I often did at barbies or parties given by Vietnamese, Greeks and Italians. Maybe it was just that what was on offer was easy to make stuff that is suitable for barbies, I really don't know. Certainly no complaints about it though. We've been to Cambodia many times, and I've always found the food there rather bland - this is going from street stall to cheap restaurant to very nice restaurants. Not necessarily bad food, but what we have had (and we always order different foods and go halves) seems to me to be a bit bland; maybe just what we've had and have missed out on great parts of the cuisine. Burmese food however is very under-rated, I've always enjoyed what I've made and when we'e eaten at Burmese restaurants.

If we all liked the same foods, and all eat the same thing, it would be a very boring world. Diversity and personal taste dictates what we eat, and I think that everybody should all experiment with new foods rather than sticking to what they know they like.

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I'm not sure comparing Manila to Chiang Mai is good. What is the population of Chiang Mai, 500k? and Manila is 3 times that? Maybe Taguig is closer in size. Phuket as a whole island is smaller than Cebu, also not a good comparison based on population. Both countries have good things, it depends on your needs, and your desires.

Often I hear about the lowly infrastructure of the Philippines, and I don't really know what that means. Does it mean reliable public transportation, clean drinking water, strong internet service? Can any one tell me?

And yet, there are old timers on TV who bemoan the development of the last thirty years (and the resultant price increases) wishing for a day, when clearly there was no infrastructure.

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>>Often I hear about the lowly infrastructure of the Philippines, and I don't really know what that means.<<

One example is ATMs .It was a real search to find one ,and when i did often it was not working ,when i was THERE 8 YEARS AGO ,BUT MAYBE IT HAS CHANGED SINCE .

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To the OP.

There are a lot of people who are very happy living in Thailand and have a good life here. Nearly all the people I know only use Thai visa sporadically because of what it has become. Anti Thai racism is rampant on here and most people living here do not want to be part of it. Do not take opinions posted on here as a reflection of what life is like living here. Most people are very happy.

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I've spent extensive time in both....

To me, for many many reasons the PI falls many rungs short/less than Thailand - as do many of the expats you see there.....

This thread is not as informative as any of the last 5 or 6 on this very

topic.....

It's REALLY too bad that TVF doesn't have a recycle bin thread board where all of the most repeated threads could be lumped by topic matter as there is a considerable amount of good information lost that could be recalled.....

It's just not worth it to repeat rewriting the same stuff every month or so....

On one of these threads I wrote a lengthy post that some remarked was the best thumbnailed description of the PI they'd ever seen - and it wasn't favorable toward the PI but was factually truthful....

I have many Pinoy friends & have been visited here by a good amount of them.....To a person none of them wanted to go back to the PI....Including members of families that owned hotel chains (90+) + 7/11's and numerous other businesses....Even the "hiso" moneyed people wanted to live here versus there after spending time here.....

It's too voluminous to go through again but in countless levels Thailand stands far above the PI....

I have open invitations & requests to go back & visit again - seldom do....

There are some great people & places there - but not on the scale or on par with what's available here......

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Its May 10th and the pollution is still dangerous, it looks like the range will be extended even further in the future. Perhaps January - June will be unsafe.

the air-pollution reading is "moderate" today ,not "dangerous"....and what indicators are you seeing that would have the burning-season start in Jan. extending to June?

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That being said I'd choose Thai overall but can't rave enough about Philipino cuisine.

Didn't realize PI even had a signature "cuisine" let alone a culture to support one.....well,jump'n be Jesus,eh!

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>>Often I hear about the lowly infrastructure of the Philippines, and I don't really know what that means.<<

One example is ATMs .It was a real search to find one ,and when i did often it was not working ,when i was THERE 8 YEARS AGO ,BUT MAYBE IT HAS CHANGED SINCE .

Well, thanks for that. I can see how that can be a real inconvenience, and I'm not being sarcastic.

But I was thinking more a long the lines of reliable public transportation, potable water, electricity, wi-fi, and road conditions. Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan have all of those things, but I never see any posts about people wanting to compare those countries. Is there something I'm missing? Tropical climate? Something else?

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Kind notice to Arunsakda............................Please help get this thread back on topic because it's not really about fake bistros, London, Los Angeles, Le Meridien or my home cooking, or indeed my food preferences, it's really about Thailand versus the Philippines.

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I'm not sure comparing Manila to Chiang Mai is good. What is the population of Chiang Mai, 500k? and Manila is 3 times that? Maybe Taguig is closer in size. Phuket as a whole island is smaller than Cebu, also not a good comparison based on population. Both countries have good things, it depends on your needs, and your desires.

Often I hear about the lowly infrastructure of the Philippines, and I don't really know what that means. Does it mean reliable public transportation, clean drinking water, strong internet service? Can any one tell me?

And yet, there are old timers on TV who bemoan the development of the last thirty years (and the resultant price increases) wishing for a day, when clearly there was no infrastructure.

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I'm not sure comparing Manila to Chiang Mai is good. What is the population of Chiang Mai, 500k? and Manila is 3 times that? Maybe Taguig is closer in size. Phuket as a whole island is smaller than Cebu, also not a good comparison based on population. Both countries have good things, it depends on your needs, and your desires.

Often I hear about the lowly infrastructure of the Philippines, and I don't really know what that means. Does it mean reliable public transportation, clean drinking water, strong internet service? Can any one tell me?

And yet, there are old timers on TV who bemoan the development of the last thirty years (and the resultant price increases) wishing for a day, when clearly there was no infrastructure.

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