Tagbilaran health care

Beautiful morning on Alona Beach

I recently realized that I was past due for a booster vaccine for Hepatitis A/B so I decided to go to the hospital in Tagbilaran in addition to running other errands. I also just realized that I burned through $600 USD in only a month here. How did I spend so much? Time to budget more.

I hired a motorcycle driver to drive me to the BQ mall in Tagbilaran for only 150 pesos. This was a surprise because tricycles usually cost 250 pesos and are much slower. In BQ mall, I walked around a little bit but didn’t find anything too interesting. I wanted to eat, so I picked a food stand with the longest line -- a family style Filipino restaurant in the food court. There, you pick little dishes to accompany your rice. Since I’m an American used to big portions, I picked a large BBQ chicken leg, buso salad (seaweed), some vegetables, rice, and bottled water for 86 pesos. It was good.

A tag line from a movie poster at BQ mall

I wanted to experience seeing a movie here so I bought a ticket (80 pesos) to see 10,000 BC (www.10000bcmovie.co.uk) which stars some unknowns but is distributed by Warner Studios. I had some time to kill before the movie started so I walked a few blocks away from the mall to the same barber Nigel took me to before.

All the barbers were out to lunch so I waited 15 minutes. Its funny, I never know what to tell the barber on how to cut my hair. Lately, I’ve just wanted the cut Arnold had in the Terminator movies; I don’t care. The barbers at this barber shop are better than most of my barbers I tried in the US. They’re really meticulous in making sure there are no stray hairs by looking carefully at the cut, using razor blades, large scissors, and electric clippers. At the end of the haircut, they always give a massage on the arms, back, and head. This is all for 50 pesos.

Before the movie, I bought a small bag of popcorn for 12 pesos. The theater was modern and felt like a good theater in the US. Sound was excellent (Dolby Digital), screen was good, print was clean, and seats were comfy. The trailers in the beginning were all of American films -- Indiana Jones, Ironman, etc. The only way you would tell you weren’t in a American theater was by the artificially seasoned popcorn.

Ramiro Hospital in Tagbilaran is good for doing simple procedures

After the movie, I took a tricycle to the Ramiro Community Hospital to get my vaccinations. It took me three visits to the wrong doctors office because nobody knew where I should go for a vaccination. I finally found a pediatrics doctors office. The office waiting room consisted of a few chairs, two people sitting at their desks, and a lady on her laptop. I didn’t know who to talk to at first.

I told the person who looked at me directly that I needed a Hep A/B vaccination. She said they can do it for 2600 pesos ($65 USD). In contrast, when I got my vaccination in the US, they couldn’t tell me how much it would cost until after I got it; it ended up costing $290 USD. There was no wait, so I immediately went into the doctors office, she took the vaccination out of the fridge, and administered it to me.

The doctor suggested I should get a Typhoid vaccination too because a lot of people are getting it. Is she just trying to sell me more vaccinations? Since it was only 1200 pesos ($30 USD), and I didn’t like the idea of catching Typhoid, I agreed. Like a good salesman, she gave it to me for 300 pesos less. In all, I spent only about 30 minutes at the hospital, and paid one-quarter of what it would cost in the US for a vaccination that was made in the US. Why can’t it be this easy in the US?

Dinner at Trudi’s where I had the squid in xo sauce, which was very good. Oops for happy hour drinks where everyone at Genesis hung out. Lisa came by but sat alone and shortly after Mae came by. I sat with Mae as she had a beer and I had a rum and coke.

- jason