considering retirement in the philippines new home area?

[Nickleback99]

DaveB,,

Will be following your adventure/posts with great interest, as we are up here in Bellingham and have a similar plan as your timeline, just big difference of having a then 6 yr old in tow who will be finishing kindergarten when we finally do leave.  Had planned moving late Nov this yr, but the pandemic and slower processes have changed all that to a probable 6 month delay if lucky.  Since schools will be important and some speech therapy services for kiddo, our freedom of location selection is a bit more restricted.   OnMyWay was also a great host to us back in '16 touring us around the Freeport and looking at some houses there....brought back memories as I'd been assigned there a lived in a house just down street from his back in 89-92 timeframe.   

One area we thought worth consideration where we have friends and visited/stayed, is Sorsogon area in southern Luzon.  Nice expat group and beautiful beaches/scenery, etc.  One Aussie in the group built a nice relaxing type resort on a hillside on the water in one area there we visited/spent the day with the group.  There are typhoon considerations and a volcano as negatives unfortunately.  Airport not too far away in Legazpi City and would imagine better medical than in Sorsogon itself.   

Anyway, please keep posting your progress as I prefer to learn from others than repeat/relearn a process.  

[DaveB]

Hmmm...you may have added another place to look at.  Subic has (on paper) some real advantages for us.  High on the list is access to the VA contracted hospital in Clark, the ocean is close, and it's an hour away from my wife's family.  I need to research Sorsogon a bit and see how it compares.  IF we get to do another site tour in the future, we might hit both Subic and Sorsogon in the same trip.  With the virus fiasco in full play, I suspect it might be more like "move there, keep loose, explore, then decide".  That 14 day quarantine adds a level of hassle to it all.  And I think there's at least a 50-50 chance the US is going to be one of those countries with banned direct flights into a lot of countries - kinda like China was a while back.  We're only going from bad to worse in our virus management - kinda becoming a global laughingstock. so it might be a weight hanging over our head for a while.

I'm familiar with Bellingham, by the way.  I graduated from Western back when it was a College, and not a university.  I have a nephew going to school there now.

[DaveB]

Tommy T: I bounced around the WSP site for long time trying to find a background certification.  Ended up calling them to ask what the heck was going on.  Turns out, that background report on convictions that I got earlier, causes you to then ask for a "Notary Letter".  Would never  have known to do that.  It's a multi-layered process: you get directed to a WATCH websight, you order and pay for a background check, you get back a report that confirms you have no convictions, you then go to the report listed in your inbox and you have a selection on the right that allows you to order a notary letter.  Once you click on that, you get prompted for the $10/copy payment.  That thing generates a letter request into WSP and they print you the hard copy letter and mail it to you.

I would absolutely never have found it and known what to do with it if you hadn't pointed me back to the site and I hadn't called the WSP to get step-by-step directions on how to bore down on it.  But I'm happy to report "success"...or I will be when I see that blasted thing in the mail.  Thanks for the shove...

[RBM]

Looks like the perfect time to visit Boracay.....Snowy is it open for tourists from Kalibo?

[Snowy79]

59 minutes ago, RBM said:

Looks like the perfect time to visit Boracay.....Snowy is it open for tourists from Kalibo?

Yes open for all local tourists. Just ensure you bring your ID.

[Snowy79]

7 hours ago, DaveB said:

Snowy79 Photos...beautiful beach scenes.  I've always thought Boracay had a stunning beach - my main problem with it was that it was usually covered in tourists.  Looks like that isn't a problem now.  I thought it was sparse when I was there in March, but this looks like it's totally deserted.  Makes me really jealous I'm still stuck here in the states for now.  Edrigo: my wife's from Mabalacat in Pampanga.  Great people, nice towns, lousy traffic, no beach.  If I'm gonna migrate half way around the world, I've made up my mind I'm going to end up in the proximity of the ocean.   Not disparaging your decision - there are dozens of reasons to want to live some place, and the smaller barangays in Pampanga have a lot of charm all their own.  But there are stretches like Snowy shows in the pictures in a lot of places, and you don't have to worry about the day when the tourists come back.  I suspect my first year or so in PI is going to involve bouncing around until I find that spot that "feels" just right.....Dang, those are nice photos.  I am sooooo jealous.

I honestly don't see the tourists as a negative. There's a good ten beaches some of which even during the Holy Week when locals head for Boracay are quiet. You'll find some beautiful beaches all over the Philippines but with the likes of Boracay tourism brings access to so many Western benefits.  I can pretty much buy most things within 30 minutes that would take hours if not days to source in many places, plus there's a few drop in medical centres, at least 40 ATMs and 5 major banks within 3km and small hospitals with larger medical facilities within 2hrs and an International school. Super fast wifi, cable TV etc.

I've lived her permanantly since November last year and owned my apartment almost 4yrs.  I either walk or jog the beach every morning and take in the sunset most nights.  The only time it gets busy is at sunset for 30 mins then everyone disperses into the bars and restaurants. There's a few hundred to choose from and most have live music. Head to Station 3 and you'll find quiet bars with a few Westerners as that's the area the Ex Pats favour.

Did I mention the sunsets? 

[DaveB]

That's right...rub salt into my wounds with the sunset pictures.  Gotta admit - Boracay has world class sunsets.

[manofthecoldland]

Re  Boracay as a possible Philippine retirement destination.

I am most pleased that Snowy has found a good fit for his needs and enjoys all the advantages of living on the island. 

Since the improvements and re-opening, access is more controlled now.  It has become an enclave of sorts.

People retire to the Philippines for different reasons, looking for different things and with differing amounts of retirement income and accrued wealth.  For some, retirement in Boracay, may be exactly what  they are looking for.  For many others, it may not be the type of Philippine lifestyle they are seeking,  nor as affordable as a host of other desirable options.

Others might prefer places that are more typical to Philippine cultural norms, socially and economically. Boracay is an outlier and I would think that one's experiences living there would be quite different than living in a more economically mixed location where transient tourism isn't the central focus.

I would hope that future Philippine retirees take the time to survey all the lifestyles that are available here before buying in to anything, no matter how attractive the initial impression may be.  

The reason I make mention of this is because I enjoyed living in Puerto Galera in 2003. When we returned several years later to visit friends, increased tourism and big money had completely revamped the character of the place to the point that I would NEVER consider living there again.

We stayed on Boracay for a brief while in 2010, landing on the back side of the island in a bangka from Looc on Tablas Island. At the time we were sightseeing, visiting Romblon, Romblon and Tablas. (My closest friend of 45 years has been living in Odiongan on Tablas for the last 10 years and used to get his visa renewals in Boracay, but now finds it easier to go to Kalibo..)  I knew right away that we were not on a typical Philippine Island economically, when we began bargaining with our trike driver for a ride to the western side of the island. My 40 yr old wife, a very skillful bargainer and negotiator, then quieted me, telling me that this wasn't like other places.... not even P. Galera, where the trike drivers were extremely high pricing people traveling between the muelle dock and White beach.... only a few kms away (we walked it once).  I shut my yapper and deferred. She had him take us to 2 or 3 low cost accommodations to check out and choose  from, and then show us where the local market was and where the local Filipinos buy their meals. For the money, we got nowhere near the level of what we could get even at White Beach near PG.

Yes, Boracay was priced for foreigners and White Beach on N. Mindoro for Manilenos  tourists. I don't know how much has changed since then, but I do know that some places are meant for visiting and others for long term living. 

 Boracay was truly exceptional and did indeed live up to its reputation at the time,

[Snowy79]

5 hours ago, manofthecoldland said:

 

The reason I make mention of this is because I enjoyed living in Puerto Galera in 2003. When we returned several years later to visit friends, increased tourism and big money had completely revamped the character of the place to the point that I would NEVER consider living there again.

 

 

I actually moved to Boracay from Puerto Galera and it's a whole new experience. Culturaly and quality of life. According to the old sweats Puerto Galera is one of the few places that has detreriorated over the years. Foreigners are abandoning the place in droves.  It seams to have attracted the worst of the locals from Manila etc to rip off the tourists.

Rubbish everywhere and extremely poor service for most things. Water, wifi and especially electricity. If you say anything you are told to go home. I've travelled a lot around the Philippines and although Puerto Galera has so much potential it's dragged down by the work ethos. Pretty much most of the things you rely on are controlled by a few families who have given jobs to family members instead of people that can do the job. If you have children keep well away from the place unless you want your kid to settle for a job as  trike driver as the education standard is low.

[DaveB]

RE: manofthecold comments - 

"People retire to the Philippines for different reasons, looking for different things and with differing amounts of retirement income and accrued wealth.  For some, retirement in Boracay, may be exactly what  they are looking for.  For many others, it may not be the type of Philippine lifestyle they are seeking,  nor as affordable as a host of other desirable options.

Others might prefer places that are more typical to Philippine cultural norms, socially and economically. Boracay is an outlier and I would think that one's experiences living there would be quite different than living in a more economically mixed location where transient tourism isn't the central focus.

I would hope that future Philippine retirees take the time to survey all the lifestyles that are available here before buying in to anything, no matter how attractive the initial impression may be."  

Well said.  I've been traveling to the Philippines every year or so for over 30 years.  Bounced around a bit of it on various trips, but compared to people who actually live there, I've been doing a lot of simple "drive bys".  There's a lot of country there - and a lot of differences across the provinces and towns.  Anyone coming in new REALLY needs to just home in on a likely place, get there, and then start looking around.  And it's a really fun thing to do, anyway.  I have a long list of things to go see that I've stumbled across just in my research leading up to this move.  Things I never knew existed.  I have no doubt that there's a chance one of those side trips is going to land me just where I always wanted to be because all the circumstances there turned out to be just perfect. It's all part of the adventure.