Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Just days before our flight back to Manila we open up about the real reason we lost money in the Philippins and who was responsible for it.
Thank you to Nala for sponsoring todays video. Get $20 for transfer of $50 or more using my discount code below or scanning the QR code in the video:
join.iwantnala.com/MIKE20
In this vlog, we share the harsh truth about sending money to the Philippines from abroad — how banks and services like Western Union were secretly taking huge cuts through bad exchange rates and excessive transfer fees. We also reveal the app that changed everything for us (Nala), go shopping for Filipino ingredients in Cape Town, cook pork caldereta from scratch, and plan our long-awaited trip back to the Philippines!
We haven't been back together in almost 2 years. This trip is going to be SPECIAL — street food in Manila, Greg's sister's graduation from UP Los Baños, revisiting our favorite spots, and paying our amazing Filipino team (editor Marco & VA Anna) without losing money to fees.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📌 CHAPTERS — What You'll Learn:
00:00 — Why We Were Losing Money Sending to the Philippines
00:22 — Nala: Zero Fee Money Transfer App (Sponsor)
00:35 — Planning Our Philippines Trip After 2 Years
01:25 — Our Filipino Support Team (Editor & VA)
02:12 — Greg's Sister's UP Los Baños Graduation
02:45 — How Banks Ripped Us Off on Transfer Fees
03:35 — Hidden Exchange Rate Markups You Don't See
04:07 — Why Western Union Was a HUGE Mistake
04:30 — Flights: Cape Town to Manila via Qatar Airways
05:05 — Filipino Food Cravings in Cape Town
05:52 — Asian Store Shopping for Filipino Ingredients
06:47 — Finding Sinigang Mix in South Africa
07:35 — Cooking Pork Caldereta from Scratch
09:33 — How to Fry Pork Belly the Filipino Way
10:07 — Nala $20 Bonus: How to Claim Yours
12:34 — Where Should We Go in the Philippines?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Banks often hide fees in BAD EXCHANGE RATES — not just transfer fees
• Western Union charges even MORE than traditional banks
• Nala offers zero transfer fees + competitive exchange rates
• You can send to GCash, Maya, Coins.ph, GrabPay & Philippine bank accounts
• Use code MIKE20 for a $20 bonus on your first $50+ transfer
📍 CONNECT WITH US:
Instagram: @makingithappenvlog
TikTok: @makingithappenvlog
💬 COMMENT BELOW: Where should we visit in the Philippines? Drop your suggestions — we'll add the top-voted destination to our travel itinerary!
Business Inquiries: 📬 WorkWithMIH@gmail.com
▬▬▬
BECOME A CHANNEL MEMBER of our channel to get access to perks:
youtube.com/channel/UCuS5fmeEDpnW5JPMdRhGm7A/join
▬▬▬
SUBSCRIBE for TRAVEL, FOOD and GOOD VIBES 🌴
Just days before our flight back to Manila we open up about the real reason we lost money in the Philippins and who was responsible for it.
Thank you to Nala for sponsoring todays video. Get $20 for transfer of $50 or more using my discount code below or scanning the QR code in the video:
join.iwantnala.com/MIKE20
In this vlog, we share the harsh truth about sending money to the Philippines from abroad — how banks and services like Western Union were secretly taking huge cuts through bad exchange rates and excessive transfer fees. We also reveal the app that changed everything for us (Nala), go shopping for Filipino ingredients in Cape Town, cook pork caldereta from scratch, and plan our long-awaited trip back to the Philippines!
We haven't been back together in almost 2 years. This trip is going to be SPECIAL — street food in Manila, Greg's sister's graduation from UP Los Baños, revisiting our favorite spots, and paying our amazing Filipino team (editor Marco & VA Anna) without losing money to fees.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📌 CHAPTERS — What You'll Learn:
00:00 — Why We Were Losing Money Sending to the Philippines
00:22 — Nala: Zero Fee Money Transfer App (Sponsor)
00:35 — Planning Our Philippines Trip After 2 Years
01:25 — Our Filipino Support Team (Editor & VA)
02:12 — Greg's Sister's UP Los Baños Graduation
02:45 — How Banks Ripped Us Off on Transfer Fees
03:35 — Hidden Exchange Rate Markups You Don't See
04:07 — Why Western Union Was a HUGE Mistake
04:30 — Flights: Cape Town to Manila via Qatar Airways
05:05 — Filipino Food Cravings in Cape Town
05:52 — Asian Store Shopping for Filipino Ingredients
06:47 — Finding Sinigang Mix in South Africa
07:35 — Cooking Pork Caldereta from Scratch
09:33 — How to Fry Pork Belly the Filipino Way
10:07 — Nala $20 Bonus: How to Claim Yours
12:34 — Where Should We Go in the Philippines?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
💡 KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Banks often hide fees in BAD EXCHANGE RATES — not just transfer fees
• Western Union charges even MORE than traditional banks
• Nala offers zero transfer fees + competitive exchange rates
• You can send to GCash, Maya, Coins.ph, GrabPay & Philippine bank accounts
• Use code MIKE20 for a $20 bonus on your first $50+ transfer
📍 CONNECT WITH US:
Instagram: @makingithappenvlog
TikTok: @makingithappenvlog
💬 COMMENT BELOW: Where should we visit in the Philippines? Drop your suggestions — we'll add the top-voted destination to our travel itinerary!
Business Inquiries: 📬 WorkWithMIH@gmail.com
▬▬▬
BECOME A CHANNEL MEMBER of our channel to get access to perks:
youtube.com/channel/UCuS5fmeEDpnW5JPMdRhGm7A/join
▬▬▬
SUBSCRIBE for TRAVEL, FOOD and GOOD VIBES 🌴
