Saturday, February 25, 2006

Baguio is Cheap. Kung Alam Lang Niya...


Juny La Putt, webmaster even during the Vietnam War time, came home from Hawai'i to watch the Panagbenga. Here's his notes:

Most probably some of you would be interested to know something about
the cost of living out here in the City of Baguio. I did look around
and tried a few things myself. Here's a sampling of how inexpensive
things and services are out here in the city:

$3.28 - dinner (grilled tanguigue with rice & vegetables plus a can
of San Miguel light beer) at Veniz Grill. Tanguigue is a fish
which is known as "ono" in Hawaii.
2.40 - breakfast buffet at the Veniz Hotel (eat all that you can
and drink as much juice and coffee)
0.77 - blood sugar test
0.19 - to check your blood pressure
1.63 - cost for a bowl of beef or chicken noodles at Luisa's Cafe
1.62 - lunch at Betty's Restaurant (grilled tilapia with rice,
salad, and a glass of coke)
0.76 - student's budget lunch (rice with two dish choices) at the
basement of Maharlika Livelihood Center.
3.50 - taxi ride from Baguio to Fort Del Pilar & back (about 25 kms)
5.85 - aircon bus fare from Manila to Baguio (250 kms in 6 hrs)
1.35 - haircut and shave at a barber shop along Gen. Luna Road.
3.65 - one hour of whole body shiatsu massage at the massage center
located at Camp Allen ($7.70 if done in your hotel room)
0.05 - cost of a single piece of sweet banana
0.67 - cost to have a new pair of pants altered by a tailor.
0.39 - the hourly cost I pay to go online at the Faith Internet Cafe.
0.10 - to use a public bathroom

Back in Honolulu, I usually give as much as 10% up to 15% for tips when
eating in a restaurant. Out here, most people just give us much as 20
to 40 U.S. cents and some don't even leave a tip at all. For my haircut
at a barber shop in Kapalama, I pay $10 for a haircut plus a $2 tip
while out here I can have a haircut and shave for just $1.35.

I took a quick tour of the Baguio Public Market this Friday afternoon
and took a lot of pictures of what are sold in the market. You will get
to see the pictures when I post these later ... and you will be
surprise to see how cheap the vegetables, fruits, fish, poultry, and
various other commodities are.

From a local newspaper ad, I saw a 2-story, three-bedroom homes being
sold at prices ranging from only $23,077 to $28,846 and this already
includes the lot on which the home is constructed. There is no doubt
that the dollars you earn in the United States will go a long way if
spent here. I guess this is the reason why so many who have lived
abroad have came back to retire here. And this is not typical among
Filipinos alone. There are a lot of foreigners who have married
Filipinas and who have decided to make Baguio their home too.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Perspective of one breathing, living, earning and retiring on US dollars. May they all return to Baguio, and bring better economic opportunities for the "not-living-so-cheaply" peso-breathing, living, earning and no hope of retiring residents.

8:10 AM  

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