10 FUN THINGS YOU OUGHT TO KNOW If You're VISITING THE PHILIPPINES!

Pea continues her popular series on quirky aspects of Filipino life that will surprise, confuse, or amuse foreigners planning a visit to the Philippines. She covers ten cultural practices and everyday realities — from Christmas door-knocking traditions to hospital billing policies to the deeply ingrained avoidance of saying "no" — each explained with her trademark bluntness and humor about why things work the way they do.

Christmas in the Philippines works like Halloween in reverse ​

• From a day or two before Christmas through a day or two after, strangers and neighbors knock on your door, say "Merry Christmas," and wait for you to give them money or food
• Filipinos prepare doggy bags of food in advance — usually spaghetti or rice — so strangers aren't hanging around the kitchen
• Refusing visitors is extremely rude and brings great shame; families will always find a way to have something to give
• Pea jokes that's why most Filipinos don't put up many decorations: "We're pretending not to be home"
• Actual Halloween trick-or-treating will get you stared at like a crazy person; wearing a ghost costume may provoke screaming and "the possible appearance of a machete"

Most Filipino homes only have cold water ​

• Hot water for bathing requires an individual wall-mounted heater, mostly found in nicer homes and apartments
• Average Filipinos just jump in and try not to notice the cold: "We get used to it because we have to"
• Ironically, getting cold water at a restaurant is equally difficult — ask for ice water and you'll get lukewarm water with a few melted slivers of ice
• Her tip: ask for a separate glass of ice and a separate glass of water, then combine them yourself
• "Why is everything so difficult here?"

Filipinos have a built-in noise filter and you have no right to peace and quiet ​

• Filipinos can sleep through fire drills; Pea jokes that if the Japanese ever wanted to invade again, they'd just wait until sundown and "could take the whole country without a fight"
• Barking dogs inches from your bedroom window that get louder approaching 3 a.m. are something you're expected to just deal with — Filipinos don't even hear it
• Blaring restaurant music, loud motorcycles — you just have to put up with all of it
• You could complain to the barangay captain (local law enforcement), but you'll earn a reputation as "the foreign troublemaker"
• Better to invest in earplugs — but don't look for them in Filipino stores because "we've never heard of earplugs"

Filipinos hate to say "no," so "yes" often means nothing ​

• Saying no makes Filipinos very uncomfortable regardless of the question
• Ask for directions and they'll confidently send you to a vacant plot rather than admit they don't know
• Pea's example: she asked two men at the mall if she could film them for a video; both said "yes" and immediately turned and walked away; she caught up and asked again — same thing, they said "yes" but walked off even faster
• Her reaction: "I must think like a westerner, but my first reaction was — why do that? If you don't want to be interviewed, just say no thanks. Why do we play these games?"
• Her advice: don't bother asking Filipinos yes-or-no questions — "the answer might be more complicated than you can imagine"

Filipinos say shockingly personal things with a smile on their faces ​

• Complete strangers may ask why you're so fat, what race you are, your marital status, your salary, or your age
• "We say things that would be completely inappropriate in the west and we do it with smiles on our faces"
• The key thing to remember: they don't mean to offend — they're trying to be friendly and incredibly nosy
• "In our culture being nosy is like breathing — it's perfectly acceptable, we do it without thinking, and we act like it's necessary for survival"

Being asked to be a godparent is not the honor you think it is ​

• In the West, being asked to be a godparent signals deep trust and a special relationship
• In the Philippines, kids can have "as many godparents as stars in the sky" — new parents run around town asking everyone they see
• The only real duty is buying birthday and Christmas presents — it's essentially "a pyramid scheme of goodies for the kid"
• Pea's advice: "Don't be a sucker — learn to do something Filipinos can't and just say no"
• Problem: saying no to being a godparent offends people, so you have two options — stay far away from new parents, or do what those guys at the mall did: "Say yes and then run in the opposite direction as fast as you can"

Communal eating with hands and shared drinking glasses are traditional family practices ​

• At a traditional Filipino family dinner, everyone reaches into the same pile of food with their fingers — bowl to fingers to mouth and back again
• After dinner, a shared glass gets passed around and pressed to the lips of five other people before reaching you
• Pea acknowledges pandemic concerns but says: "I wouldn't count on it" that these practices have stopped
• Her advice: ask your wife or girlfriend what the deal is at her house before accepting a dinner invitation

Filipino hospitals won't let you leave until you've paid your bill ​

• Emergency care is provided if you're found bleeding by the road, but once treated, you can't leave until the bill is settled
• Guards at the door check discharge papers and payment receipts
• If you have insurance acceptable to that specific hospital, they might take it — but at smaller provincial facilities, you'd better have cash
• If you can't pay, you'll have to negotiate however you can: "Sign a promissory note, sell your glass eye, pawn your mother-in-law"
• Otherwise you face "real hell — a life of Filipino hospital food until it's just your ghost wandering the halls"

Cutting in line is common and nobody does anything about it ​

• People will step right in front of you "all nonchalant-like and almost dare you to complain"
• The cashier pretends nothing happened and rings them up; the crowd says nothing
• The reason ties back to the face-saving culture: Filipinos don't like to complain because making a fuss brings shame on the person complaining, not the line-cutter
• "Unscrupulous Filipinos use this cultural loophole to benefit themselves, counting on the fact that most Filipinos would rather just pretend they're not seeing what they're seeing just to keep the peace"
• Pea's contrast: "Just try that in the west — but you better have some good health insurance"

The "kudkod" death tradition in northern Luzon involves exhuming the dead for a dance festival ​

• Certain clans in northern Luzon practice "kudkod" (Pea's spelling/pronunciation) — burying the dead for exactly one year, then exhuming the body and bringing it home for exactly one year
• The exhumed body is dressed up with clothing and jewelry so the deceased can "attend a dance festival with the villagers"
• Pea warns: if your girlfriend from that region says she wants you to spend time with her grandmother, ask if grandma is still alive first
• "After being buried underground for a year — that's what I call dirty dancing"

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