Living in Santa Rosa Area

Buy your converter at Radio Shack before you come. The only converters I brought in the Philippines at CR-King where big and bulky. They worked but too big not needed for the tv voltage. Rs 35.00 was better and did the same job. I cannot comment on the area because I do not know it and would not want to provide wrong information. But I am sure someone like Filamom can help direct you.Good Luck

Thank you very much! I will look into getting one.

The Nuvali area as you can see from the link pictures includes a brand new Ayala mall with a wide variety stores including a 24 health club, a lot of restaurants, hardware stores, the S&R warehouse membership club (like Costco), A Robinsons grocery store the Nuvali development which includes housing, walking area around a small lake and of course the theaters at the mall. 

https://www.google.com/search?q=nuvali& … mp;bih=698http://nuvali.ph/

From this area you are about 20 minutes from Tagaytay and the Taal lake volcano area with more shops, restaurants and beautiful views of the lake and the Taal lake yacht club  where you can rent a kayak or take lessons on sailing or take a trip to the Volcano via guided tours.
http://www.tlyc.com/boat-rentals/

Public transport includes Tricycles, Jeepneys, buses and private transport with driver for short or long trips and surprisingly good rates.

Housing in secure communities is obviously more expensive, though most often a little cleaner and a little more quiet.  Parts of Sta Rosa are prone to flooding during the rainy season.  Some links.

http://www.lamudi.com.ph/house/santa-ro … vAodd38O_ghttp://www.persquare.com.ph/for-rent/pr … mpaign=jothttp://www.property24.com.ph/property-f … vQodcvEPvAhttps://www.olx.ph/all-results/q-house- … sa-laguna/

AIRBNB  can also help in finding short term rentals while your looking around the area.
https://www.airbnb.com/s/Santa-Rosa--Ph … g=ESFYZZu_

Also consider banking and how you will pay your way if you have not already done so. 

If you are bringing what seems to be a medium size dog, that may limit your housing choice and a house in a gated community may be your best bet.  Read your lease thoroughly and take pictures with your landlord and of your representative of your home before you move in and make it clear what maintenance can be expected if any.

A live in maid. I have NO experience in this but the good and bad stories abound and others in this group has share their experiences both good and bad.  if you click on the search icon on this group and type in maid you can pull up past stories relating to the pros and cons, do's and don't s of hiring a maid.
https://www.expat.com/en/search/asia/philippines/

Internet services are available from companies like Globe, Smart, PLDT and satellite.  The speed and reliability is questionable in some areas. In our area we are using Globe Wireless LTE  with an external antenna and close proximity to three cell towers, so we have a good signal and our service has been dependable for the last three years and counting.

https://www.globe.com.ph/broadbandhttp://pldthome.com/http://smart.com.ph/bro?gclid=CKTGh9OF1 … vAodpvEGEg

Speed purchased vs speed received seems to be the biggest complaint here. So far we have consistently gotten the speed we pay for with the Globe  Example, the 1099 peso per mth plan gives you 2MB speed with 20 GB of data.  Penalties for exceeding you data usage may apply. We have not had that problem yet.

Hope this is of some help.

Best wishes and best of luck.

Great info from TeeJay4103. My family and I pass by that area on the way to Tagaytay, but haven't stopped there. Passing by it, my first impression was it had a CA Bay Area suburb feel, like those housing developments in Fairfield and Suisun City with something like a Serramonte mall nearby with a Costco-like store and other discount outlets. We might check out the area on our trip to Tagaytay this weekend. I'm curious about what's inside that Pottery Barn outlet. 

With regards to hiring a maid, it's really hard to find a good one. I've gone through quite a few housekeepers and nannies. Only few were good, most were ok or not worth hiring (i.e., they are super slow and would be on their cellphones or on the tv when I'm not around), and a few were really really bad.

If you're mirroring EST,  I'm guessing you'd be leaving for work around 7pm and arriving home at around 6am. Based on your schedule, would you really need a dog nanny? Your dog would be asleep anyways when you're at work. You can just  feed and walk your dog when you arrive home, rest and do other personal stuff, and feed and walk your dog again before you leave for work. If I were single and were in your shoes, I would do just that. And besides, I think it would help me feel connected to life back in the states where I do things by myself.

What TeeJay & FilAm Mom said is spot on.   I go to SnR about two times/month and it always seems busy but safe…   I do not live there and only have friends with relatives in or around AUP/SnR, Nuvali areas.  So, in that area is the AUP campus and many foreign students live in the area.  You have a choice of near student like living to full sub-divisions.  You may be ok finding a female student from AUP that can help with the dog and your living costs.  Based on your schedule, a roommate should be like passing ships in the night and as long as your dog is a bit quiet/friendly, a student (the right student) can be a great fit.  You may want to consider slightly higher elevations (between AUP and a few KM toward Tagaytay) if your dog will be outside most of the day. 

Regarding Apple TV - Check with Apple specs regarding the ac range of the Apple TV (it should be a universal power supply) but also do not be shocked if it will not work well here based in the Sloooow speeds. Your key to a good working Apple TV box will be a fast connection within iTunes.  Therefore, you want no less than a solid 8Mbps wired or fiber backed speed for DL.  Almost forces you to be a PDLT customer. Imagine when the 5G AppleTV Gen 5 is released.  Places like the Philippines will struggle to match the needed 5G speeds and our iTunes will slow and choke trying to handle streams of movie data at or near 5G.  No matter the global location, you will still need codecs that match movies that are code matches within iTunes.   

LOL………. I hope Im still around to see that target 5G specs of 1Tbps, (that is a feature film downloaded in about 1/10 of a second (or more than 65,000 times faster than average US based 4G download speeds).

Ok back on point…..  With all this tech-speak … you may still have a problem watching American tv via the internet using AppleTV.  Remember, there are only eight countries that are officially supported by AppleTV Siri (UK, US, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Spain or Japan).

When out of the USA (and the 7 other countries setup for AppleTV), AppleTV is only good to watch content already on your computer or YouTube.  Do you have a 2-4TB external HD packed with your favorite movies???  Remember,  Siri on the iPhone is not the same as Siri on AppleTV because of unspecified optimizations I.e., tweaking for the phonetic differences) Apple makes with AppleTV Siri to improve speech recognition.  Of course my info could be outdated or you could have AppleTV 4th Gen with updates, so check it out before deporting home and hope for updates or betas.

You may want to try this "workaround" I flagged a few months back….  YMMV:

How to get Siri remote working on Apple TV (4th generation) in unsupported region

Step 1: Using Siri Remote to navigate to Setting.

Step 2: Go to Settings>> General>> Language and Region format>> Language and change the language of your Apple TV to English.

Step 3: Again go to Settings>> Accounts>> iTunes and App Store>> Preferences>> Location and change your TV's App Store location to any one of the eight countries that are supported by Siri (UK, US, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Spain or Japan).

Step 4: Go to Settings>> Accounts>> iTunes and App Store and sign in with a US Apple ID. If you don't have, create one.

Step 5: At the end reboot the TV by going to Setting>> System>> Restart.

Provided you have followed the above instructions properly you should be able to find Siri under Settings>> General>> Siri. Next just turn it on.

Welcome to the PI and see in SnR one of these years…. Regards

Calif-Native

With regard to "tech talk".  I always find your posts informative, well researched and most always I learn a little something new.

Having worked most of my career with technology, one thing I learned is that what you know on Monday may be worthless on Tuesday.  You help keep my retired mind informed   

Thanks for sharing.

Mabuhay

Tee-Jay,

Thanks for the kind words and I am pleased that a few others are updated by my posts.  All expats here with any AppleTV leanings or that have an actual box must remember that 1080P is the max they will see for some time.  I think sorting the 5G standard will continue be the main cause of delays as Samsung, Sony etc. (anyone remember the DirectTV and the need to follow a specific Samsung RVU technology) all have a different view on how to obtain matching technology.  Here is a great source for anyone looking to make sure their TV maker/model numbers are a match for proper AppleTV usage (https://support.directv.com/app/answers/print/a_id/4385)

Of course the 5th Gen is rumored to have 4K UHD TV but getting that to work here in the PI would be a near miracle.

Hi MTN love. Did you ever move to Santa Rosa? My wife and I are considering moving there to be in a cooler area. Also from reading it is more convenient to grocery stores without the need for a car. Is this true?e

I would probably move to Santa Rosa if I didn't have a business in Manila and the fact that my son's modeling business is in Makati.

yes, i live in santa rosa and you can take tricycle to stores for about 70 pesos special.  if you are near tagatay rd.