Cebu City Or Mactan

[Jim Sibbick]

The only time I go to Mactan is for the airport . I have explored Mactan but theres not much there for me.

My thoughts exactly.

Using Cebu City or Mactan island as the only 2 choices, Cebu City wins hands down.

My personal prefernce otherwise is Palompon Leyte. I am only paying P2500 per month for a low class 2 bedroom apartment. However, I am looking to upgrade. I found out yesterday that my ex wife owns 3 apartments in Palompon. They are 2 story 2 bedrooms for P3500 per month. And my ex sister in law is paying P5000 per month for a 4 bedroom house with sari sari store, 5 minutes walk to the cafe's by the sea. 20 minutes walk to the beach..

[wayneseymour]

The only time I go to Mactan is for the airport . I have explored Mactan but theres not much there for me.

My thoughts exactly.

Using Cebu City or Mactan island as the only 2 choices, Cebu City wins hands down.

My personal prefernce otherwise is Palompon Leyte. I am only paying P2500 per month for a low class 2 bedroom apartment. However, I am looking to upgrade. I found out yesterday that my ex wife owns 3 apartments in Palompon. They are 2 story 2 bedrooms for P3500 per month. And my ex sister in law is paying P5000 per month for a 4 bedroom house with sari sari store, 5 minutes walk to the cafe's by the sea. 20 minutes walk to the beach..

tHIS SOUNDS Great RIGHT UP MY ALLEY(costwise) do you know if there are many vacancies in Palompon.. hows the aera( stores, malls etc.) in comparison to cebu city or other proffered locations?

[Jim Sibbick]

The only time I go to Mactan is for the airport . I have explored Mactan but theres not much there for me.

My thoughts exactly.

Using Cebu City or Mactan island as the only 2 choices, Cebu City wins hands down.

My personal prefernce otherwise is Palompon Leyte. I am only paying P2500 per month for a low class 2 bedroom apartment. However, I am looking to upgrade. I found out yesterday that my ex wife owns 3 apartments in Palompon. They are 2 story 2 bedrooms for P3500 per month. And my ex sister in law is paying P5000 per month for a 4 bedroom house with sari sari store, 5 minutes walk to the cafe's by the sea. 20 minutes walk to the beach..

tHIS SOUNDS Great RIGHT UP MY ALLEY(costwise) do you know if there are many vacancies in Palompon.. hows the aera( stores, malls etc.) in comparison to cebu city or other proffered locations?

If you need malls and shopping, the whole island of Leyte will not be for you.

There are 3 cities on Leyte. Maasin, Ormoc and Tacloban.

Last time I was in Maasin City, the biggest shop was a pharmacy with a mini mart. However, I believe they have a supermarket there now.

Ormoc City has a single department store with the only supermarket.

Tacloban City I believe has 2 malls now.

This is because it is a poor province. People do not have money to waste on modern luxuries. They will buy their food in the wet market.

Palompon itself has 2 large mini marts for dry goods such as milo and chippies. About half the shelves are stocked with snack foods.

There is a bunch of bakeries to choose from for bread.

The wet market has a section for sea food, pork, chicken, fruit and vegetables. Pork is p180 per kilo. Chicken is p140 per kilo. Squid is p220 per kilo in the market but our neigbour will sell to us at p180 per kilo. Prawns vary from p100 to p220 per kilo, depending on size. All is caught or killed and sold fresh same day.

The market area also has bars and a disco. Although I was at the disco Wednesday night drinking beer towers and we were the only ones there. The beer towers hold 3 litres and cost p200.

There is a world heritage marine park close to the town. The marine park island is just a few hundred metres away from the cafe's by the sea. It is 15 kilometres by sea to the eco tourist island, Kalanggaman Island.

There is a reasonably nice yellow sand beach 2 kilometres from the centre of the town.

There is a boat direct from Palompon to Cebu City 3 times per week. It costs P495 to be in aircon. The boat takes about 5 hours.

There is a roll on roll off ferry every day to Bogo in the north of Cebu. I think it costs P230 to sit outside. It carries the bus coming from Tacloban City to Cebu City. So, you can get a boat then bus to Cebu City. No idea of the total cost but I am guessing an extra P100 on top of the boat cost. It is about 2.5 hours on the boat and another 2.5 hours or so on the bus from Bogo to Cebu City. Not sure where the bus origanes from before Tacloban. There used to be a bus service all the way from manila to Cebu City, via Palompon.

There is a v-hire to Ormoc City about every hour. A v- hire is an aircon van which would normally hold about 10 people but they will squeze in 15 people. So, sit in the front seat if you want to be comfortable. It cost p110. In Ormoc City, you can catch the Supercat 3 times per day to Cebu City. It costs p680

http://www.supercat.com.ph/Fare.asp

It is 1.25 hours to Ormoc City. You have to be there 30 minutes before departure. then 2.5 hours Ormoc to Cebu City.

To get the place that suits you best, you may have to rent something not so suitable and wait.

Send me a PM if you want more info.

Edited August 10, 2012 by Jim Sibbick

[cebu rocks]

Any money saved on rent will be used on transportation rent can be cheap on Cebu as well just look outside Cebu city

[i am bob]

Any money saved on rent will be used on transportation rent can be cheap on Cebu as well just look outside Cebu city

Yup! Pay a bit more for the transportation and enjoy the clean fresh air of out of town living!

[Beachboy]

It really depends on you are you a city boy or country boy at heart

You can plan all you want, but life sometimes has other ideas. I never planned to stay in Hawaii more than 6 mos -- a year at the most. It was too Westernized, too urbanized and it lost it's "Pacific Island-ness" generations ago. But "things happened" and forty years later, I'm still here.

Last year. when I began to think about retiring in the Phils, Cebu-Mactan or Manila were the last places I considered. I favored the smaller cities like Ormoc, Tacloban, or Bacolod ("clean and friendly"). Or even better would be the 2nd class cities (like where Jim stays). Then life "ruins" my plans. I meet someone from Lapu Lapu. I meet her mother. Her sister. Two of her nieces. Her niece invites me to her debut. Her friend who is getting married in February asks me to be one of her wedding sponsors (we've never met ... but this is so Filipino). And yes, all this "meeting" has been "on-line" only, and I will check it out in person to see if it's genuine ...

But I'm not so sure now I'll be living in Tacloban or Bacolod as planned. Life, it seems, has other ideas. You've got to follow where life leads you.

[billten]

Her friend who is getting married in February asks me to be one of her wedding sponsors (we've never met ... but this is so Filipino).

Kaching!!!

[JJReyes]

You can plan all you want, but life sometimes has other ideas. I never planned to stay in Hawaii more than 6 mos -- a year at the most. It was too Westernized, too urbanized and it lost it's "Pacific Island-ness" generations ago. But "things happened" and forty years later, I'm still here.

My wife and I have lived in Hawaii for more than 20 years. It is a good place to retire as independent seniors. But if either of us ever needs assisted living or skilled nursing care, we are off to the Philippines. That includes a legal directive to buy six airplane seats so they can ship me on a stretcher to Manila if I should ever, God forbid, suffer a severe stroke. The cost of custodial care here is horrific. Medicare will only cover the medical portion and it is for a limited time period. I can get good care in the Philippines at a fraction of the cost for the same service in Hawaii. The numbers are so good that I decided to try and make it into a business.