Is it safe to move?

[stevewool]

You read about people being robbed and even being murdered and yes it happens all over the world, but is it still safe to think the Phils is still the place i would like to be?

I am not into looking for trouble and i hope trouble never finds me either.

If we ever get to the Phils i would like to live a normal life going about my daily chores and just enjoying what i think i would do, going from place to place and wondering if i would like to stay in some places for longer then say a few days.

Our main base will be Marikina the family home so i think that is as safe as it could be, but also like i have said i want to see and explore other places too, whether we do that by our own car or with others who knows, i am not into going where people say dont go, and if i feel danger i would run a mile too.

Like i have said is the Phils a safe place to be?

[Michael Parnham]

Well, it's like this Steve, I've never experienced any crime or violence in the UK or Philippines!

[stevewool]

You are indeed a lucky person Michael

[Michael Parnham]

You are indeed a lucky person Michael

I think the main reason has been because I don't really go out in the evenings, if I ever do it's to visit someone or a gathering of some sort, never been one for crowded places like for instance Football games. I always find plenty of things to do at home, yesterday I spent 5 hours in the garden sifting all the visible soil of stones and using the pebbles in the pond, I must admit it looks perfect. I just love doing things around the house and enjoying home.

[Iani]

Well if our partners didn't come from there, would we ever consider for retirement a place with high poverty, crazy crime levels in some cities, awful food (sorry but be honest - it is), corruption, regular typhoons, an insurgency to the south, bloody awful health facilities and where you stand out a mile, in a place where "white" foreigners are thought of as rich, or in some cities rich sex tourists........with potential attention and targetting possible?

I dare say that's upset some sensibilities, but please prove me wrong.

[Tawi2]

Well if our partners didn't come from there, would we ever consider for retirement a place with high poverty, crazy crime levels in some cities, awful food (sorry but be honest - it is), corruption, regular typhoons, an insurgency to the south, bloody awful health facilities and where you stand out a mile, in a place where "white" foreigners are thought of as rich, or in some cities rich sex tourists........with potential attention and targetting possible?

I dare say that's upset some sensibilities, but please prove me wrong.

Word and your right.

[stevewool]

Well if our partners didn't come from there, would we ever consider for retirement a place with high poverty, crazy crime levels in some cities, awful food (sorry but be honest - it is), corruption, regular typhoons, an insurgency to the south, bloody awful health facilities and where you stand out a mile, in a place where "white" foreigners are thought of as rich, or in some cities rich sex tourists........with potential attention and targetting possible?

I dare say that's upset some sensibilities, but please prove me wrong.

Indeed you may be right, but in my eyes its better then being here once i come to retire, but there are other places that are attractive to me

[Ako Si Jamie]

Well if our partners didn't come from there, would we ever consider for retirement a place with high poverty, crazy crime levels in some cities, awful food (sorry but be honest - it is), corruption, regular typhoons, an insurgency to the south, bloody awful health facilities and where you stand out a mile, in a place where "white" foreigners are thought of as rich, or in some cities rich sex tourists........with potential attention and targetting possible?

I dare say that's upset some sensibilities, but please prove me wrong.

Can't be any worse than living in Africa, Central America or a country like Brazil - and the food isn't that bad. Many foreigners deem our food as poor.

[Terpe]

?....I dare say that's upset some sensibilities, but please prove me wrong.

Hasn't upset me in any way.
I live in the south, Davao City. According to a number of reports/surveys it's the 4th safest city in the world. If that's an accurate assessment or not I don't know.
Certainly feels safer than most large towns / cities in England that I've been to.

Health facilities here are very good IMO
I don't believe that "bloody awful" is anywhere near the appropriate description. My experience of the UK healthcare I experienced with my family and my parents did meet the "bloody awful" level. Perhaps we were unlucky.
Perhaps you were unlucky in the Philippines if indeed you actually experienced any.

Can't argue against the tropical weather issues. Especially if you decide upon living in a typhoon belt.
We don't have them here so it comes down to the choice of location really.
Bit like those flood plains in UK

One thing I do take a big issue with is the awful food.
My wife is an excellent cook. She owned and cooked in her own restaurant when we lived in Japan. She cooks wonderful dishes each and every day. To be honest we live like kings when it comes to daily food.
I'm not sure whether you're directing you comments at home cooked food or at food you've paid for in an eatery or restaurant.
I do agree that many of the so called traditional dishes here are really not the sort of stuff that would appeal to most westerners. Especially when prepared by folks who really don't understand how to cook and present.

I can't prove any of this. Don't know how to.
Like you I'm just giving a personal opinion.
My own experience is obviously very different to yours, but nonetheless surely has the same validity.

Most of the people in the countries I have visited think English food is awful just like the English weather.
It's a funny old world.

Sorry to disagree with most of the things you said.

No offence intended just giving my view.

The world can offer a retirement life to suit all. Comes down to choice.
We seriously considered Ecuador at one time.
In all honesty I always knew I'd not be living my final years in UK. I actually never considered the Philippines. It only seemed to figure on my list when I got married to my wife.

It wasn't my first choice, but I've no regrets.
Life is good
As a foodie I couldn't be happier. Especially with the variety of seafoods available at very low cost.
As an adventurer I couldn't be happier.
Diversity is the spice of life.

I hope you find the same fulfilment in your retirement

[stevewool]

Hasn't upset me in any way.
I live in the south, Davao City. According to a number of reports/surveys it's the 4th safest city in the world. If that's an accurate assessment or not I don't know.
Certainly feels safer than most large towns / cities in England that I've been to.

Health facilities here are very good IMO
I don't believe that "bloody awful" is anywhere near the appropriate description. My experience of the UK healthcare I experienced with my family and my parents did meet the "bloody awful" level. Perhaps we were unlucky.
Perhaps you were unlucky in the Philippines if indeed you actually experienced any.

Can't argue against the tropical weather issues. Especially if you decide upon living in a typhoon belt.
We don't have them here so it comes down to the choice of location really.
Bit like those flood plains in UK

One thing I do take a big issue with is the awful food.
My wife is an excellent cook. She owned and cooked in her own restaurant when we lived in Japan. She cooks wonderful dishes each and every day. To be honest we live like kings when it comes to daily food.
I'm not sure whether you're directing you comments at home cooked food or at food you've paid for in an eatery or restaurant.
I do agree that many of the so called traditional dishes here are really not the sort of stuff that would appeal to most westerners. Especially when prepared by folks who really don't understand how to cook and present.

I can't prove any of this. Don't know how to.
Like you I'm just giving a personal opinion.
My own experience is obviously very different to yours, but nonetheless surely has the same validity.

Most of the people in the countries I have visited think English food is awful just like the English weather.
It's a funny old world.

Sorry to disagree with most of the things you said.

No offence intended just giving my view.

The world can offer a retirement life to suit all. Comes down to choice.
We seriously considered Ecuador at one time.
In all honesty I always knew I'd not be living my final years in UK. I actually never considered the Philippines. It only seemed to figure on my list when I got married to my wife.

It wasn't my first choice, but I've no regrets.
Life is good
As a foodie I couldn't be happier. Especially with the variety of seafoods available at very low cost.
As an adventurer I couldn't be happier.
Diversity is the spice of life.

I hope you find the same fulfilment in your retirement

I think like this and in my head i write it like this but when i read it , it never sounds like this , well said that man

[Michael Parnham]

Well if our partners didn't come from there, would we ever consider for retirement a place with high poverty, crazy crime levels in some cities, awful food (sorry but be honest - it is), corruption, regular typhoons, an insurgency to the south, bloody awful health facilities and where you stand out a mile, in a place where "white" foreigners are thought of as rich, or in some cities rich sex tourists........with potential attention and targetting possible?

I dare say that's upset some sensibilities, but please prove me wrong.

Couldn't have said it better, filthy also!

[jake]

Couldn't have said it better, filthy also!

Thanks for the tip Michael. I will put Dumaguete on my list of places NOT to visit

[London_Manila]

Well if our partners didn't come from there, would we ever consider for retirement a place with high poverty, crazy crime levels in some cities, awful food (sorry but be honest - it is), corruption, regular typhoons, an insurgency to the south, bloody awful health facilities and where you stand out a mile, in a place where "white" foreigners are thought of as rich, or in some cities rich sex tourists........with potential attention and targetting possible?

I dare say that's upset some sensibilities, but please prove me wrong.

Spot on and i blame the partners for convincing whitey to live there
Most women want to be around their mothers and family anyway
Yes its safe for them because they are pinoys but its a different story for whitey
I like the food in the Philippines but they dont tend to over salt everything

Another point to remember is natural disasters in the Philippines
They dont have resources to deal with major disasters and when that last awful super typhoon hit leyte there was numerous reports of lynch mobs going on the rampage stealing food and water from anyone who had it
It was weeks before decent supplies actually reached Leyte
The same could happen in any part of the Philippines and i would imagine things become desperate very quickly
If a major earthquake hit Manila then i would want to get out fast

[jake]

Spot on and i blame the partners for convincing whitey to live there

In my experience most of the foreigners where the ones who made the decision to move to the Philippines. We need one of Jamie's polls
Lets see. We have myself, Fred, Peter, Stewart and Jonjon who live full time in the Philippines and are active posters on the forum. Would be interesting to hear their thoughts on the subject?
When we moved back to the Philippines, it was a joint decision. Kind of forced on us, as the Chinese were kicking me out for not meeting their residence requirements.

[Terpe]

In my experience most of the foreigners where the ones who made the decision to move to the Philippines. We need one of Jamie's polls
Lets see. We have myself, Fred, Peter, Stewart and Jonjon who live full time in the Philippines and are active posters on the forum. Would be interesting to here there thoughts on the subject?
When we moved back to the Philippines, it was a joint decision. Kind of forced on us, as the Chinese were kicking me out for not meeting there residence requirements.

To be honest, and i've posted this a few times before, my wife was not at all eager to make the move. It took me a few years to chip away at her and finally convince her to agree. It's only been since living here that she's admitted she's now happy and at peace and that it was a good decision
Don't forget she'd not lived here for 30 years so my case may not be typical.

One thing she did stipulate was not Manila and that we sell the house in Marikina.

She insisted on a safe and peaceful location. Luckily we found the almost perfect spot. Still renting and likely too for a couple more years to come I suspect.

We've never had any flooding at our place in Marikina nor any fear of flooding, but it's definitely a factor why we still didn't manage to sell it yet. We don't need to rush so we're not yet ready to begin the price lowering process.

[Terpe]

Nobody should expect to find even a little bit of the UK here.
This is the Philippines, totally different environment, culture, thinking and behaviour.

Philippines is a big country splintered over many islands. There's diversity here. Some is easy some is not.

Holiday visits give, at best IMO, instant impressions of Philippine life. Bit like a photograph.

Varying between the highly romantic as seen through 'rose-coloured' glasses or something to grin and endure until you can return to the UK normality

Based on my own experience I'm 100% sure it's best not to finally settle on any specific location. Especially if that location is the partners hometown.

Calm down, and take a really good objective look around. Try to get a feel for the place on an everday basis. Just how many boxes does it tick in your retirement bucket-list.

If you think that those internet bloggers are telling the whole truth, think again.

Get your information from at least two other sources in addition to your own.

Read those blogs specifically targeting locations that interest you.
Make a contact with with some of the local groups. Even Facebook can provide good info.

Most importantly talk to those folks who are actually living in the Philippines and expecially in those in locations that interest you.
Always be careful about your reasons for choosing one location above another.

As an aside, I wonder how many people actually make objective choices as to where they live in UK, as opposed to those who live in a not-such-ideal location for reasons such as employment and family etc.

I spent most of my working life outside of UK and didn't plan to ever return on a permanent basis.
I came back to UK solely to take care of my elderly parents who, at that time, were most definitely not receiving the care and attention they deserved. Means I spent those years back in my hometown, in the same small village I grew up in.
It wouldn't be fair or true to say we were unhappy. But what a change I found in the environment and in the society.

The area had serious problems with gangs, drugs and anti-social behaviour. We kept ourselves to ouselves and managed to live reasonably safely by sticking to a set of coping strategies. Not ideal but we had little choice. I only needed to call the police a handful of times. We had the usual 'garden-shed' robberies, but thankfully nothing more serious.
On one occasion we did suffer a wheelie-bin fire which could have been serious but for the quick action of the village fire brigade.

It was around 2005 when we started to seriously consider when and where to begin a new reitrement life. As I said before, Philippines did not appear on our list at that time, but here we are.

At that time we also set into motion a plan to see and experience as much as we could in UK and also in Europe.
We did and we found many places in UK that seemed so alien and unattractive as well as a few places that would have made idyllic places to retire to if only we could have afforded it.

There are many places in the UK where I would never want to live. I could never see my way to fit in and would likely be living with stress, anxiety and fear. Most of the UK cities have such areas and I'm sure many on here know some.
Some of the places we stayed in where we really felt uneasy and did not enjoy and where we could never ever see ourselves living, or even visiting again, were Glasgow, Blackpool, Nottingham, Brighton, Chatham, Croydon, Bradford, Hull and many parts of Manchester.
Actually when we travelled into Manchester on the train it looked like a battle zone and gave us a stark warning of what could be around the corner of an unknown street.

Make no mistake though, relocating to the Philippines for retirement is a huge decision. It just has to be done for the "right" reasons. If you're struggling financially to live in the UK then I doubt you can afford to live in the Philippines, find peace and be happy.

We're lucky we have choices, there are a lot of great places in the world to consider if the UK doesn't cut the mustard in your retirement years.

Keep an open mind. Your outlook, wants and needs do change as time moves onward towards retirement.

[Ako Si Jamie]

Some of the places we stayed in where we really felt uneasy and did not enjoy and where we could never ever see ourselves living, or even visiting again, were Glasgow, Blackpool, Nottingham, Brighton, Chatham, Croydon, Bradford, Hull and many parts of Manchester.

Can only comment on Manchester and the first four and I can see where you're coming from, although I didn't mind Nottingham.

Glasgow tops the lot in my book along with it's neighbour, a soulless concrete shithole which goes by the name of Livingston.

[raynaputi]

In my experience most of the foreigners where the ones who made the decision to move to the Philippines. We need one of Jamie's polls
Lets see. We have myself, Fred, Peter, Stewart and Jonjon who live full time in the Philippines and are active posters on the forum. Would be interesting to here there thoughts on the subject?
When we moved back to the Philippines, it was a joint decision. Kind of forced on us, as the Chinese were kicking me out for not meeting there residence requirements.

Don't forget SteveR..he lives in the Philippines!

[irishman12]

Well if our partners didn't come from there, would we ever consider for retirement a place with high poverty, crazy crime levels in some cities, awful food (sorry but be honest - it is), corruption, regular typhoons, an insurgency to the south, bloody awful health facilities and where you stand out a mile, in a place where "white" foreigners are thought of as rich, or in some cities rich sex tourists........with potential attention and targetting possible?

I dare say that's upset some sensibilities, but please prove me wrong.

Does your partner/wife force you to go there? If you don't like the food, can't you buy what you want and cook it yourself or do you prefer to whine?

[Iani]

Does your partner/wife force you to go there? If you don't like the food, can't you buy what you want and cook it yourself or do you prefer to whine?

Forced to go? Well maybe you tell your partner to just sod off by themselves whilst you sit there, but the rest of us stick by them through good and bad.
As for "whining", well where was I doing that? Or is that just the old trick of throwing mild insults to shut up an opinion you don't like

[Ako Si Jamie]

Top 30 countries with the worst murder rate. Thailand is there but no Philippines.

[fred]

Surprised me this list..
UK and USA 3rd and fourth worst countries!
http://www.wonderslist.com/top-10-co...m-rape-crimes/

[fred]

Maybe the Aussies were on to something.

[stevewool]

Maybe the Aussies were on to something.

[fred]

Thanks for rep!!

[stevewool]

So us folk whos partners are from the Philippines and live here and life is good, then they, ie your wife girlfriend says i want to go back to the Philippines to live forever, what would you say, bye bye, see ya later, the divorce will follow you later, or try to give them what they are wanting, sometimes the two-way street forms a one-way street in some views, just my thinking most probably each to there own.

[Ako Si Jamie]

So us folk whos partners are from the Philippines and live here and life is good, then they, ie your wife girlfriend says i want to go back to the Philippines to live forever , what would you say, bye bye, see ya later , the divorce will follow you later, or try to give them what they are wanting, sometimes the two way street forms a one way street in some views , just me thinking most proberly each to there own ,

So who wants to live in the Phils more, Steve? You or Ems?

[stevewool]

So who wants to live in the Phils more, Steve? You or Ems?

To tell the truth Jamie its me who is pushing to live over there.
Its always been Bohol, but Ems is not keen to live there so we have to compromise, thats why we built the family home so that is our base but we can tour wherever we feel is right.
I would have gone a few years back but we have given ourselves a few more years here.
I can understand anyone wanting to come here and earn good money and staying here because of that but in the end everyone seems to want to go back to there native home sooner or later, whether in a box or walking.
Ask in a few years time who wanted it most maybe we shall have the proper answer

[London_Manila]

To tell the truth Jamie its me who is pushing to live over there.
Its always been Bohol, but Ems is not keen to live there so we have to compromise, thats why we built the family home so that is our base but we can tour wherever we feel is right.
I would have gone a few years back but we have given ourselves a few more years here.
I can understand anyone wanting to come here and earn good money and staying here because of that but in the end everyone seems to want to go back to there native home sooner or later, whether in a box or walking.
Ask in a few years time who wanted it most maybe we shall have the proper answer

Why not just take extended holidays there ?
It always floods in Marikina

[stevewool]

Why not just take extended holidays there ?
It always floods in Marikina

In the 8 years i have known Ems it has flooded once at the house, yes certain parts flood,