Aight den. I'm Ziggy. If your attention span is short, you can stop reading now because I'mma get wordy talking about my favorite subject (me!).
I'm a retired American and looking for a permanent place in Tagaytay. The reason I chose Tagaytay is two-fold. 1. I have friends here. 2. It is central to the only thing I do for exercise: disc golf.
Currently, I'm at the SMDC Wind Residences Tower 4. Although I cooould live here permanently, I don't really like it. It seems to be exactly the same size and layout as the units at City Land but without the pesky divider between the shower and toilet/sink. But whoever the "architect" is has put the electrical outlets in the strangest, most inconvenient places. Except for the fridge outlet. But I suspect that anywhere I end up will not have enough outlets.
Anyhow, back to me. I'm a Cajun from South Louisiana. Joined the Marines as soon as I turned 18 and served in the period between the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. So no combat experience although we almost went into combat. Ended up just cruising the Mediterranean after my brothers were murdered in their sleep in Lebanon and whilst the bad actors attacked the Achille Lauro and other targets. I thought we would do something about it, but we never did.
I ended up leaving the Marines after 9 years and 9 months (yeah, I'm still kicking myself in the butt for not sticking it out until retirement). Made it home in late 1986 not realizing it was recession time as my entire life before that was so structured and my job so secure that I had no idea I would struggle for years bouncing around and failing at several jobs before settling into truck driving for over 20 years.
I retired prematurely because I developed AFIB. Atrial Fibrillation. Well not specifically because of that. Because my VA cardiologist put a pacemaker in me that has an ICD function. I think that stands for Implantable Cardioversion Defibrillator. Because of the ICD I can no longer pass a DOT physical. So I applied for SSDI online.
When the Social Security rep called to "interview" me about my application she kinda made a big deal about my age which was 59 at the time. I guess she was making the point that I was too old to train for a new career or something. That's how I became the only recipient of SSDI (that I know of) who didn't have to hire a lawyer to receive benefits. FYI: my SSDI check is almost double what my expected social security check would have been, but still barely big enough to pay my mortgage.
So I sold the house and bought a utility trailer into which I put a bed, fridge, TV, and convection oven/air fryer combo unit. Put my small motorcycle (Benelli TnT135) in the bed of the pickup, hitched up the trailer, and lived in various state/national parks for a couple of years.
During this time I also posted a bit on my favorite forum about how I would like to move to Asia and had been watching lots of YouTube videos about it. Speaking of which I also created an extraordinarily boring channel with the same name as I use here. Getting back, I guess my online friends got tired of hearing me talk about it and began saying things like, "What's stopping you?" and "If I was in your position I'd be there already." I guess that was the kick in the butt I needed and I sold everything I had left in preparation.
Somehow I learned of "relocation" cruises. So I bought one! Yup. Sent Carnival a couple of stacks for a 21 day trip from Seattle to Sydney with a couple of stops in-between. But my heart had other plans.
The AFIB decided to kick back in despite my chesticular device and two ablations. Had to go to the heart hospital's emergency room and my blood pressure was so low that they had to shock me without putting me under first. Let me tell you that is quite the sensation! It wasn't as painful as TV would lead you to believe, but it's as though they're shooting a million volts of absolute fear/terror through your body. The nurse had to remind me to breathe afterwards. Well, the cardioversion didn't quite work either.
After I was released from the hospital after a few days, I was admitted to the VA hospital in Houston for a few days to begin taking a drug called Dofetilide. It's such a risky drug that you have to be hospitalized for 3 days in order for the doctors to get the dosage right. Well, this is the drug that did the trick for me. I'm on a very low dosage, so I guess I just needed a little help. My heart has been fine ever since. Well, as long as customs doesn't snatch my Dofetilide out of my luggage. Yes, that actually happened. So now I carry it in my carry-on and nobody has bothered me as of yet.
Because of that, I missed my relocation cruise. Carnival refunded me $174 of the taxes I paid but refused to refund the rest of the over $2000. So if you like to cruise, I encourage you to use any other cruise line besides Carnival.
About this time my application to the VA for disability was approved at 100% because of my heart. Plus another few % for tinnitus and depression. But they ain't gonna pay more than 100%. They also gave me 2 years of back pay most of which I dumped into my Edward Jones account alongside the money from the sale of my house. If you're curious enough you can look up how much that monthly check is. It's public information. But that along with the check from Social Security has put me into an income bracket where I can do whatever TF I want to out here in southeast Asia. And I haven't had to dip into my savings.
Somewhere along the way I discovered disc golf. Well, I mean, I had heard of it. But that's for nerd's, right? Well, one day before selling the house I rode the tiny bike out to a local park to have lunch by myself. And I saw a guy playing disc golf. I guess I kind of had a cognition or something that maybe this was what I needed to get me moving. I hate walking and wasn't doing any kind of exercise. Maybe this would force me to walk and get some exercise? Yup. So every round I'm walking a minimum of 2 miles on the shorter courses up to ~5 miles on longer courses. And I'm getting in a bunch of trunk-twisters in while engaging in the actual throwing motion. Oh, and about a hundred "toe touches" picking up my discs. Win!
Because of that, disc golf became an important part of my life. So as I'm looking for a landing zone in Asia I used the preeminent disc golfing app UDisc to find where the courses were. LOTS of courses in Japan! But without doing any research into Japan I decided that Japan would be too expensive. I later learned differently, but I'm stubborn. Oh, this is also before my VA disability kicked in. So I was working with a monthly income of ~$1500. I had been to The Philippines in 2008 to meet a girl and propose. Yes, we married. Then we divorced. But I already knew that I had an affinity for The Philippines and Filipinos. But there was only ONE disc golf course! *sigh* I continued my search.
Lots of courses in South Korea. But as I looked into that, I found a very strange system of long-term renting. Apparently you have to give the landlord $TENS OF THOUSANDS which is refunded to you when you vacate. The landlord lives off of the interested generated by your money for the term of your lease. Yeah, I wasn't gonna do that. So I continued scanning the map.
Nothing in Vietnam. Almost nothing in Cambodia and Thailand. Nothing in Laos. How can that be when the reigning female World Champion disc golfer is from Laos??? A couple of years later and there is still NO course in Laos. Nothing in Indonesia, either. But why hadn't I ever considered Malaysia?
Malaysia just never crossed my mind. I didn't know that they speak English there. But the map showed a couple of courses in Kuala Lumpur and about a dozen courses in Johor Bahru. So I finally decided on Johor Bahru and signed a year lease in Danga Bay on a condo with a 46th floor view overlooking the strait and one of the king's houses. It was nice but I continued to foster relationships with Filipinos in person and through the magic of the interwebs.
During that year, the Professional Disc Golf Association decided to expand in Asia and the campaigning to become the Asia Coordinator commenced. It was surprisingly drama-filled and the new PDGA Asia Coordinator is a Filipina from Tarlac who married a British Disc Golf Hall of Famer a few months afterwards. Anyhow, she has been kicking ass getting disc golf spread throughout southeast Asia. There are now upwards of a dozen courses in The Philippines now. A couple in Tarlac (of course!) but also in Manila just across the street from the Okada Casino, one in the Yen Center in Silang, Driftwoods Action Park in Indang, Enkantierra Nature Park in Lipa, USM (Mindanao), and the newest one in Calaia Nature Park. So Tagaytay is a good, central location.
Upon seeing a few pics of the views of Taal from SMDC Wind Residences, I thought that would be the place for me. Alas, now that I'm actually in it I have come to a different conclusion. It appears that I'll have to forego the immaculate view for square footage. This also brings us to another conundrum: Even though I'm okay financially, I still tend to be a cheapskate. So as I'm looking at places the ones I find appealing don't even have air conditioning or a water heater. I really need to get over myself. If you've read all the way through all of this, perhaps you can help me find a place.
So that's me and where I am now. I'm going to begin working on my SRRV while I'm here this time. And when I come back from my semi-annual cardiology visit in The States I will be looking for a 6-month lease because my big plan is to buy a new motorcycle and do the slowest Philippines Loop that has ever been circumnavigated. And I'm so cheap that I don't want to pay rent while I'm out gallivanting.
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