Terpe
27th January 2015, 08:05
It was always my aim to retire to Asia.
After living in Japan for so long I thought that's where I'd finally end up. However, after marrying a Filipina, visiting the Philippines so many times and travelling all around with my wife we both decided that retiring to the Philippines, specifically to Davao City, came out as our best option.
I'd spent years visiting all over the Philippines and spent literally hundreds of hours researching before finally relocating.
Reflecting on our first 3 months here in Davao City I can confidently say that, on the whole, almost everything has worked out much better than either of us had hoped.
Despite the fact that we hadn't organised anywhere to live we were confident we could secure something without much hassle and time.
Our bottom line 'worst case scenario' was to stay with family for a while until a more permanant home base could be fixed.
Before leaving UK I found a good online post/mail handling service with a proper UK address (as opposed to a PO address)
They handle all my mail management/forwarding requirements including notifying me when I have mail and scanning the envelope and or contents based on my online instructions and email me a pdf of either the envelopes or the contents, as I choose. My mail can be forwarded or shredded and they can also deposit cheques into my bank if needed.
We found a great place to rent short term in a great neighbourhood. We like the area so much we've decided to stay and spend quite a bit of time looking around at properties to buy as a longer term plan.
For many reasons we're not as close to family (emotionally) as we initially anticpated, but that hasn't impacted our capabilities or our happiness.
I made the move with a pretty open mind hoping to relax, enjoy a new full life and follow the flow.
So far that has worked well. I feel much more relaxed despite being in strange surroundings, I've actually lost around 8kg of weight but am eating more. Our diet tends to be much more focussed on fresh healthier foods and daily consumption of wonderful fresh fruits. The bananas here are just wonderful and cheap as chips. Well almost all the food is so cheap compared to what we had in UK.
My blood pressure has dropped significantly. Whether it's less stress, better diet of my daily intake of Tundan (Latundan) bananas I can't say. Could be a combination of everything in my lifestyle I guess.
I'm planning to try a spell of not taking my BP tablets for a while and see what happens to my levels over say a week or so.
Reflecting back, I feel we made a good decision to come here. We're very happy and so far didn't find any major downsides.
Of course it's still a honeymoon period and we do understand that.
We're experienced enough ex-pats to know that no place is as good as some folks we meet here will have us believe through their rose coloured glasses.
At the opposite side we just can't comprehend how other folks moan and winge about how terrible it is here. If it's that bad why don't they find somewhere else that they do like.
Haven't made any European friends although many acquaintances to wave to and shout greetings at.
We seem to have made friends with a good few locals and we've really learnt a lot of good stuff from them.
To be honest we find so much more joy in our lives when we avoid European ex-pats. That's just my personal experience not any serious scientific observation.
After some small refurbishments costs we have finally put a couple of Manila properties on the market with the aim of building a cash fund with which to buy outright a 'settling down' property for our future.
Means we're planning out of scope any thoughts of returning to UK
It's does no good making comparisons between UK and the Philippines. Totally different places with totally different lifestyles.
It suits us here. We love the place we love the people...
Whatever fears we might have had, we've discovered that fears are generally bigger than the reality.
More to come from Davao City as we progress
After living in Japan for so long I thought that's where I'd finally end up. However, after marrying a Filipina, visiting the Philippines so many times and travelling all around with my wife we both decided that retiring to the Philippines, specifically to Davao City, came out as our best option.
I'd spent years visiting all over the Philippines and spent literally hundreds of hours researching before finally relocating.
Reflecting on our first 3 months here in Davao City I can confidently say that, on the whole, almost everything has worked out much better than either of us had hoped.
Despite the fact that we hadn't organised anywhere to live we were confident we could secure something without much hassle and time.
Our bottom line 'worst case scenario' was to stay with family for a while until a more permanant home base could be fixed.
Before leaving UK I found a good online post/mail handling service with a proper UK address (as opposed to a PO address)
They handle all my mail management/forwarding requirements including notifying me when I have mail and scanning the envelope and or contents based on my online instructions and email me a pdf of either the envelopes or the contents, as I choose. My mail can be forwarded or shredded and they can also deposit cheques into my bank if needed.
We found a great place to rent short term in a great neighbourhood. We like the area so much we've decided to stay and spend quite a bit of time looking around at properties to buy as a longer term plan.
For many reasons we're not as close to family (emotionally) as we initially anticpated, but that hasn't impacted our capabilities or our happiness.
I made the move with a pretty open mind hoping to relax, enjoy a new full life and follow the flow.
So far that has worked well. I feel much more relaxed despite being in strange surroundings, I've actually lost around 8kg of weight but am eating more. Our diet tends to be much more focussed on fresh healthier foods and daily consumption of wonderful fresh fruits. The bananas here are just wonderful and cheap as chips. Well almost all the food is so cheap compared to what we had in UK.
My blood pressure has dropped significantly. Whether it's less stress, better diet of my daily intake of Tundan (Latundan) bananas I can't say. Could be a combination of everything in my lifestyle I guess.
I'm planning to try a spell of not taking my BP tablets for a while and see what happens to my levels over say a week or so.
Reflecting back, I feel we made a good decision to come here. We're very happy and so far didn't find any major downsides.
Of course it's still a honeymoon period and we do understand that.
We're experienced enough ex-pats to know that no place is as good as some folks we meet here will have us believe through their rose coloured glasses.
At the opposite side we just can't comprehend how other folks moan and winge about how terrible it is here. If it's that bad why don't they find somewhere else that they do like.
Haven't made any European friends although many acquaintances to wave to and shout greetings at.
We seem to have made friends with a good few locals and we've really learnt a lot of good stuff from them.
To be honest we find so much more joy in our lives when we avoid European ex-pats. That's just my personal experience not any serious scientific observation.
After some small refurbishments costs we have finally put a couple of Manila properties on the market with the aim of building a cash fund with which to buy outright a 'settling down' property for our future.
Means we're planning out of scope any thoughts of returning to UK
It's does no good making comparisons between UK and the Philippines. Totally different places with totally different lifestyles.
It suits us here. We love the place we love the people...
Whatever fears we might have had, we've discovered that fears are generally bigger than the reality.
More to come from Davao City as we progress