The driving force of your expatriation in the Philippines

Daytripper wrote:

The noise and pollution finally wears me down.

Why do you go to the noicy polluted places then???   

There are a lot places opposite to that e g at Palawan.

If you find rural Palawan to much calm      you can try IloIlo region.  I havent been there, but several foreigners say peopke there are calm not loud, and Filipinos I know from there are much calmer low nice than e g Cebu city and CDO people. 
I had videocall to CDO once. The room behind was full with people SHOUTING to each other!!! The only quiet ones were the small kids!  Perhaps they had given  up trying to shout louder than the grown ups   

coach53 wrote:

Daytripper wrote:

The noise and pollution finally wears me down.

Why do you go to the noicy polluted places then???   

There are a lot places opposite to that e g at Palawan.

If you find rural Palawan to much calm      you can try IloIlo region.  I havent been there, but several foreigners say peopke there are calm not loud, and Filipinos I know from there are much calmer low nice than e g Cebu city and CDO people. 
I had videocall to CDO once. The room behind was full with people SHOUTING to each other!!! The only quiet ones were the small kids!  Perhaps they had given  up trying to shout louder than the grown ups   

I love both countries, planned my retirement prudently, and am able to afford splitting the time between countries. In case you haven't heard, we have some nice beaches in Australia also. 'Google' Sunshine Coast, Queensland, and you'll understand why I love it here. And, there's this place called the 'Great Barrier Reef' just north of where I live.

Daytripper wrote:

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I love both countries, planned my retirement prudently, and am able to afford splitting the time between countries. In case you haven't heard, we have some nice beaches in Australia also. 'Google' Sunshine Coast, Queensland, and you'll understand why I love it here. And, there's this place called the 'Great Barrier Reef' just north of where I live.

Actualy when I were around 20yo, when  I got angry at stupid Swedish tax laws  (about inventions) then I though seriously of emigrating to Australia 

But that dont answer why you chose noicy polluted places in the Philippines when there are many places in the Philippines without these problems   

Morgacj2004 wrote:

I certainly wouldn’t consider retiring in Alaska.

I heard that, I had several assignments in Alaska. My last assignment before retiring was on the North Slope, about 60 miles from Dead Horse, a 52 acre pad at a place called Point Thomson. Nine months of winter and 3 months of bad weather. If it ever gets up to 50 F the arctic mosquitoes eat you alive. I did have some better assignments down in Kenai but the winters in Delaware were too cold for me.

Why I moved to the Philippines. My wife and I were living in rural Georgia and her parents were visiting on a tourist visa. I was retired but a metal building business and 4 rental properties kept me busy. One day my mother in law said "you should build a house in the Philippines" and I guess she said it in such a way that I thought about it for 10 seconds and said to myself "why not?" I talked it over with my wife but she wanted to keep our house in Georgia. I told her the only way I would do it is if we sold everything and moved to the Philippines permanently. She finally said OK, but only if we can bring our little dog Tikla. So my wife, myself and Tikla are now in the eastern Visayas. Oh yeah, we're adopting a baby so there are 4 of us. I'm still busy working every day but the end is in sight.

We've been here 7 months now and we have put the finishing touches on the house we had built. We demolished her parents shack and my wife and I designed a nice 75 sq, mtr. bungalow and had the crew build it. My wife put the bungalow on TikTok and so far received 1.5 million views and countless compliments, mostly from Filipinos wishing they could also build such a house for their parents. We are almost finished our landscaping project which required over 100 dump truck loads of fill dirt. I designed a 4 meter by 8 meter swimming pool behind our house and had the crew build it. I'm just waiting for the cement to cure for a couple more weeks before painting and that will be done. You can see it in the first photo.

Our last project in the cottage by the pool. You can see the 4 columns on the left in the first photo which is the current progress of the cottage. The short column in the center is for the table. The parents bungalow is on the right. The second photo is what the cottage should look like when finished. We have grass growing on most of the property now but you can see it is bare dirt around the pool. The farmer who owns the cow pasture you see in the back gave us permission to dig up sod so the crew will do that and plant it checkerboard style like we did the rest of the property. It fills in quickly here.

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gsturdee wrote:

I met a lady. (It's always about a lady, isn't it?) 21 years ago I just got divorced in Australia, and sought to travel the world and see things that I never had occasion to before. It was by random chance I visited in 2001. The Philippines to me was so wild and exotic. At the time, the cities and towns in Cebu island were under-developed, with more motorbikes and tricycles than cars, and not too many high-rise buildings. The people were curious and parochial, in the sense they seemed to have a naïve view of foreigners, who were all called "Americanos" in spite of their origins. They asked inappropriately personal questions. In particular the prices were incredibly inexpensive, seriously. On the island beaches, so idyllic and postcard-like, I spent my time in boutique (cheap) resorts for about Php 500/night - the type with bamboo railings, uneven concrete paths and lizards on the ceiling, while I drank potent cocktails on a dime. It was a carefree time, and a time of healing. For those months, of course I missed my two kids in Australia, so traveled by tricycle to town emailing daily. There was no Wifi in the resort, with  internet only available in "cafes" in the town center, although one couldn't get a decent cup of coffee anywhere - unless you like Nescafe, but of course I didn't mind as the cocktails at my accommodation were better. I met Analiza, a young lady 18 years my junior,  waitressing in a Cebu city restaurant, who wasn't too much interested in me at first. With a little perseverance, and because she was so polite, we became "textmates" in the days of analogue mobile phones and "passalod". Does anyone recall sending credit by text so they could reply? She was perfect, like a doll, toned and brown, completely unaware of how beautiful she was. Sweet-natured and honest to a fault - and from the province, of course, I found her worldview refreshing. By that time I'd spent my divorce budget, so it was time to go back home to work, but we emailed for 3 years. She came to like me. Eventually we got married. What a curious thing the wedding was, with hundreds of relatives and rituals, and food that never ended. I paid of course. For a guy who has made quite a few mistakes in my time, that would have to be the best decision of my life - to this day. Analiza is a great friend and lover and companion, a blessing, nothing less. We have a mango farm and guest house in Bantayan Island, have two open-minded, well-travelled kids. I'd conclude my life is richer now by far, and the Filipinos surrounding me are filled with energy, and drama, which I enjoy. In my sphere, they're finically needy, which I need to moderate, but incredibly helpful and fun, so I gain more than I give. It's a real pain when someone in the family get's sick, because usually they don't have a budget for medical treatment, and there's no-one else to help out. I have a sense of responsibility and dread every time there's a problem, because often it results in a request for assistance. Like I said, I am richer for this life, and this wife, and wouldn't change much all.