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The question that I can’t really answer

April 13, 2013 by 10 Comments
Davao City - My Home

Because I have become fairly well known through my various websites, I am asked a lot of questions.  People e-mail me with questions about living in the Philippines.  People send me questions through Facebook.  When people visit the Philippines, and have coffee with me, they always have questions for me.  It's a never ending thing. There is one question, though, which is probably the most frequently asked.  Surprisingly, that is also the question that I really cannot answer. Bob, where are you from in the States? Well, that's tough for me to answer. For most people, they remember back to their childhood.  The place where they … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Davao, Featured, My Thoughts, Travel Tagged With: , ,

Philippine Tourism: PKG?

July 28, 2011 by
wow-dead-150x150

PKG. That’s what this article is about.  What is PKG?  Well, it’s the latest attempt by the Philippine Department of Tourism to come up with a campaign to bring tourists to the Philippines.  Frankly, I think it is a looser. I should say, I think it’s a big loser. For the past 8 years, the slogan for the tourism campaign of the Philippines has been “WowPhilippines.“  Lots of countries have slogans for their tourism campaign. India has “Incredible India.”  Malaysia says they are “Truly Asia.”  There are many others as well.  It appears that the slogan “WowPhilippines” is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Martin, Business, Live in the Philippines, Travel Tagged With:

Philippine Tourism: Festivals

June 18, 2011 by
5th-Safkaan-Festival-150x150

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been writing a series of articles about tourism in the Philippines, and how to increase the number of people who are visiting the country.  Today, I’d like to look at festivals in the Philippines.  The Philippines, more than any other country that I know of, has a lot of Festivals. Not only does every City have at least a couple of festivals per year, but every small town, even part of towns (Barangays or Barrios) have their own festivals.  Most of the festivals in the Philippines have some sort of cultural aspect to them.  The festivals are not just for fun (although there is plenty of that to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Martin, Live in the Philippines, Travel Tagged With:

Uh, what?

May 31, 2011 by
Crew_Philipinneairlines_02-150x150

As I am sure you realize, lately, I have started writing a bit of a series regarding tourism in the Philippines.  Because of this, I have been keeping a closer eye than normal when it comes to information about tourism when it appears on the news or other TV programs, in the newspaper, or wherever.  Because of that, last week, Feyma and I were watching the news on ANC (ABS-CBN News Channel), but we were also talking, with the news in the background.  Suddenly, a news story came on about Philippine Airlines (PAL), and I interrupted Feyma and told her I wanted to hear this story. Would Open Skies bring different tail logos to NAIA? As the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Martin, Business, Live in the Philippines, Travel Tagged With:

Can food draw the tourists?

April 18, 2011 by
food

Can food draw the tourists? Yeah, exactly. What are you smoking today, Bob?  People can get food anywhere in the world, why would they travel for food? Well, people already do travel for food! There are lots of food enthusiasts out there, they often call themselves “foodies.”  These are people who will travel to different destinations to sample different types of food or drinks.  For example, Thai cuisine is quite famous and well liked by millions of people, and people will actually travel to Thailand on a “Food Tour” where they will visit restaurants in different parts of the country to experience true Thai cuisine … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Martin, Food, Live in the Philippines, Travel Tagged With:

My Journey to Samal

March 25, 2011 by
convenience

The other day, I set out to go to Samal Island.  I was excited to go, because it had been a while since I had gone to Samal, so this was indeed a journey for me!  For regular readers, you will likely remember that I used to write relatively often about Samal and the time I would spend there.  In the past year or so, though, I have not written much about Samal. Life gets busy sometimes, and other activities get in the way of what we really want to do.  Sometimes we let work get the better of us, and we spend our entire days behind a desk, and in front of a computer… or whatever it is your job requires of you.  For me, working means … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Martin, Davao, Live in the Philippines, Travel Tagged With:

OMG! I’ve been hijacked!

March 2, 2011 by
pit1-300x200-150x150

Over this past weekend, Feyma and I were watching a TV show about street food in the USA.  They showed street foods from different locations all over the USA on this show, and believe me, most of it looked extremely delicious. As we started to watch the show, in the introduction they were showing quick shots of many of the street foods as a sort of teaser.  I saw something that made me sit up and take notice.  They showed some pork that looked exactly like Liempo Balamban, the rolled pork that Feyma and I regularly cook on my MindanaoBob’s BBQ Grill.  I told Feyma that I saw what looked like our pork recipe, and she quickly agreed … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Martin, Food, Live in the Philippines, Travel Tagged With:

I’m pulling for you, Mr. Secretary

February 26, 2011 by
secretary

Since Noynoy Aquino became President of the Philippines, the new Secretary of Tourism has been Mr. Alberto Lim.  Lim is the former Director of the Makati Business Club, a very prestigious group for businessmen.  Without a doubt, Secretary Lim has the credentials to be a first class Secretary of Tourism for the Philippines. Over the past month or so, I have seen Secretary Lim participating in a number of interviews on various news programs on TV.  I am not just talking about quick 30 second sound bites, rather 30 minute or even 1 hour interview shows where topics can be really covered in-depth. I must say that in some ways, I have been … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Martin, Business, Live in the Philippines, Travel Tagged With:

I never really moved to the Philippines

February 16, 2011 by
BobBebe

Over the years, I have talked and written a lot about moving to the Philippines.  Over the past few days, though, I have been doing some reflection, and I came to the conclusion that I never really moved to the Philippines, at least I never intended to.  You see, when I moved to General Santos City in May 2000, I was not moving to the Philippines, I was moving to Mindanao. But, Bob, Mindanao is part of the Philippines, so by moving to Mindanao, that means you moved to the Philippines! Yes, of course you are right. But, in my mind, it was not the Philippines where I was wanting to live, it was Mindanao.  When I got the itch to move, in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bob Martin, Davao, Live in the Philippines, Travel Tagged With:

Finally! A good move by the Department of Tourism?

January 21, 2011 by
tourism-150x150

Is it possible?  Could it be?  The Philippine Department of Tourism is possibly on the verge of making a very good move, in my opinion! What are they doing?  Why is it good? Well, it was announced today that the Department of Tourism is planning to begin issuing a new type of visa for foreigners [...] … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Live in the Philippines, Travel Tagged With: