Is it safe to move?

[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!