Hellobee

Ever since Kristin wrote her series on living a simpler life, we’ve been trying to embrace decluttering. So once we decided to move to El Nido, we decided to get rid of as much of our belongings as we could, and then put the rest in storage. That’s what Mr. Bee’s parents did when they first moved to the Philippines over 20 years ago.

Then Mr. Bee’s parents asked us if we could throw away everything they’d been keeping in storage. That really put things in perspective for us. So we decided that this was the perfect opportunity to fully embrace decluttering and just get rid of everything we didn’t absolutely need. The few important things like pictures and paperwork, we could ship to my mom in California. Everything else would have to fit into four duffel bags (plus our carryons).

On the one hand the thought of not owning much is extremely appealing. On the other hand getting rid of everything we own in just one month’s time is a daunting task! But most of all, the whole process has made me really appreciate all the things about life in America that I’ve been taking for granted.

Pet Care

In El Nido, dogs are thought of more as animals than as pets. To give you an idea of what pet care is like there, a few years ago, Mr. Bee’s mom took her two dogs to the capital city on the island (6 hours away) to get them spayed by the vet there. The operation seemed successful at the time, but must not have worked because both dogs subsequently went into heat, ended up pregnant, and tragically died because they no longer had a uterus.

We’re going to try to figure out a better way to get Mr. Bee’s parents’ dogs vaccinated and spayed/neutered. But we also worry about rabies, especially with so many stray dogs living in the nearby jungle. While Mr. Bee and I will probably be ok, the kids are more likely to be at risk by petting an unfamiliar dog. Mr. Bee’s parents’ dogs aren’t vaccinated, so they could potentially get rabies as well.  We consulted our doctor about giving everyone in our family a rabies vaccine, but she warned that it can be dangerous to get the vaccine and she recommended against us getting it unless we’ve been exposed. So now we’re calling ahead to sure that the local hospitals there can give us rabies shots if anyone in our family is exposed (we will have up to one week after exposure to get the shots).

stray dogs in downtown El Nido. When I first visited 10 years ago, the dogs were so emaciated they were walking skeletons. With so many more tourists now, the dogs are definitely a lot more plump.

Medical Supplies

The hospital in town is more of a clinic than a real hospital, with lots of patients waiting for care. So before we left, we asked our doctor for prescriptions for things like amoxicillin, azithromycin, and epi-pens. I also filled a year’s worth of regular prescriptions like birth control pills. Mr. Bee and I had already gotten hepatitis A vaccines from a previous trip, but our doctor recommended we get vaccinated for typhoid as well. We all need to get our flu shots before we leave too.

The CDC also recommends vaccines for rabies and Japanese encephalitis, and anti-malarial prophylactics like Malarone, but we’re still researching this as our doctor warned about potentially serious side effects.

As far as medical insurance, we’re still trying to figure all that out. Do we keep our American policies in case we need to return to the States for an emergency? The nearest hospital from El Nido is 6 hours by car in the capital, or 1 hour by plane to Manila, so we’ll definitely have medical evacuation insurance for our whole family. This is definitely my single biggest worry about moving abroad.

This is what we’re taking as far as medical supplies:

• antibiotic ointment
• cortisone cream
• gauze
• medical tape
• Bandaids
• Benadryl
• Advil (kids +adults)
• Dramamine (kids +adults)
• Thermometer
• Betadine
• Miralax
• Unisom
• Prescriptions (birth control, etc.)
• Amoxicillin
• Azithromycin (diarrhea)
• Epi-pen
• Ezcema cream

American healthcare gets criticized a lot, but I realized that we also have a lot to be grateful for.

Clothes/Accessories

We will be living by the beach and there are no dryers (they hang clothes to dry in the sun, so the clothes don’t usually last as long as they would in the US).  So we won’t take very many clothes but will just pack a few basics.  A lot of what we will bring are things to protect us from the tropical sun.

• flip flops/water shoes
• rash guards
• swimming suits
• hats
• sunglasses
• hot weather clothes/undergarments
• uv umbrellas
• snorkel mask
• glasses/contacts

Products

The stores in town don’t have air conditioning, so all of the products just bake on the hot, humid shelves. This makes me worried about how effective local medicines may be, especially for products that we will rely on like sunblock. Bringing our own products is a luxury so we will try to keep it to a minimum, but here is what we’re bringing on the plane:

• all the sunblock
• bug repellent
• kids’ body wash
• kids’ lotion
• makeup/skincare products
• feminine hygiene products
• deodorant
• PawPaw Ointment & Agave Lip Treatment (can’t live without them!)

Kids’ Stuff/Toys

We aren’t taking many books, and very few toys. For now, we’re going to try reading books to the kids on the Kindle. We hope to be able to hire a teacher at some point, but we’ll be homeschooling in the first few months and have been doing a ton of research on that. Most of what we’ll be bringing for the kids will be focused on school supplies, plus old-school entertainment like board games and LEGOs.

• white noise machines (the roosters wake us up!)
• homeschooling materials
• Legos
• Play doh tools
• art supplies (markers, color pencils, etc.)
• board games
• a couple favorite stuffed toys

Technology

Since our work is online, we’ll continue to work abroad.  Here’s what we’ll be carrying in our carry-on luggage:

• surge protectors
• Mac desktop
• laptop
• iphones
• DSLR + waterproof case
• underwater point and shoot
• ipad
• kindles

Some electronics will be too bulky to carry, so we hope to source a laser printer there because we’re going to be printing a lot of homeschool-ing related materials.

Food

We’re going to try to transition the kids to eat the local fruit and foods. Here’s what we’ll bring though, to help with the transition:

• dried seaweed for soup (so nutritious and kids can eat it for days)
• red pepper flakes + fish sauce (to make kimchi)
• barley/corn tea (we drink this as water)
• Tabasco Sauce (I seriously cannot live without this)

There is a ton more food I’d love to take since that will probably be the thing we miss most. But at some point we’ll have to make a trip up to Manila to buy some things we need, or my parents will visit and bring it with them.

All in all, the whole experience has made me so appreciative for everything we take for granted in the States. It’s going to be an adjustment to live in a country where we can’t just buy everything we need off of Amazon.com! We can get things shipped to Manila, but getting them from Manila to El Nido is going to be something we have to figure out after we arrive.

Can you think of anything we’re missing? What would you take if you were moving to a remote island?