Married Couple Moving To Philippines

[mrcurtis08]

I know that most of the Western men on forums like this have either married or are hoping to marry a local. However, I am happily married (to a former Malaysian!) and we will soon be moving to the Philippines in connection with my work. I have visited the country several times - in Luzon, Cebu, and Mindanao - but have not noticed any non-local women. Have you? If so, where? Thanks

[MikeB]

I have visited the country several times - in Luzon, Cebu, and Mindanao - but have not noticed any non-local women. Have you? If so, where?

 

How would you know if they were non-local by looking at them? Can you tell the difference between a Malay, Thai, Filipino, etc? I can't. There are also many Chinese-Filipinos here that look 100% Chinese.

[earthdome]

I know that most of the Western men on forums like this have either married or are hoping to marry a local. However, I am happily married (to a former Malaysian!) and we will soon be moving to the Philippines in connection with my work. I have visited the country several times - in Luzon, Cebu, and Mindanao - but have not noticed any non-local women. Have you? If so, where? Thanks

 

The other night at an expat hangout I met a woman (married) from Canada who has lived and worked in the Philippines for almost a decade. From time to time when downtown Baguio I will see a western woman. I have no idea why they are in Baguio.

[mrcurtis08]

 

 

I have visited the country several times - in Luzon, Cebu, and Mindanao - but have not noticed any non-local women. Have you? If so, where?

How would you know if they were non-local by looking at them? Can you tell the difference between a Malay, Thai, Filipino, etc? I can't. There are also many Chinese-Filipinos here that look 100% Chinese.

 

Point taken. But I am specifically referring to Westerners. I am not thinking of the many Filipino-? (Chinese or otherwise) that I'm sure are around, but who (by virtue of at least one of her parents) has a sense of the culture. Just was wondering if there are many Western couples living/working in the country. My wife was born in Malaysia, but is American for all intents and purposes. Let me rephrase: do you often (or ever) see a couple that are both obviously from a non-Asian culture?

[mrcurtis08]

 

I know that most of the Western men on forums like this have either married or are hoping to marry a local. However, I am happily married (to a former Malaysian!) and we will soon be moving to the Philippines in connection with my work. I have visited the country several times - in Luzon, Cebu, and Mindanao - but have not noticed any non-local women. Have you? If so, where? Thanks

 

The other night at an expat hangout I met a woman (married) from Canada who has lived and worked in the Philippines for almost a decade. From time to time when downtown Baguio I will see a western woman. I have no idea why they are in Baguio.

 

Interesting! Thanks

[MikeB]

do you often (or ever) see a couple that are both obviously from a non-Asian culture?

 

Not in the province where I live but in Cebu City, especially the malls, there's quite a few. Most are probably tourists passing through. Some missionaries. I imagine they are stared at a lot.

[jon1]

I know that most of the Western men on forums like this have either married or are hoping to marry a local. However, I am happily married (to a former Malaysian!) and we will soon be moving to the Philippines in connection with my work. I have visited the country several times - in Luzon, Cebu, and Mindanao - but have not noticed any non-local women. Have you? If so, where? Thanks

I have started to see more western women in Subic. Also, in Manila, areas such as Makati and Eastwood City I would see western women too. In fact in Eastwood I would see easily a dozen or more regularly. There are a few call centers there managed by expats (IBM comes to mind). Here in Subic the women that I have seen appear to be in their late 20s/early 30s. Your wife may be culturally American but she will be constantly mistaken for filipina. I ran into this in Bangkok with my filipina (being mistaken for Thai). So she might want to be prepared for that...

[Geoff Thomas]

There are quite a few in Cebu City, many working in Cebu International School, others as mentioned missionaries and various foundations, I know a few married couples here from outside of the Philippines, but for sure it is not easy to be here especially if sat at home all day whilst husband works long hours etc but there are as I mentioned quite a few that do. Once you get to which ever area is your choice you can get a better idea from the expats that have been living there for a while and have good networks of friends and experience of where is best to meet people. 

[Txpinoy7850]

My wife, is a native Filippina, but our kids are half-breeds.We get a fewlooks in the smaller areas because our daughter  acquired the latina/brazilian "look "that my wife has, so I can identify with people mistaking others for "natives", or non natives. It was most noticeable when my wife came to Houston from the Phils. EVERYBODY "knew" that she was a Mexican(that pissed her off!!!). Of course, spanish, andTexmex is spoken everywhere in Texas, and she had some issues learning it(dialects). Lots of funny things transpired

[JJReyes]

When we were living in the Philippines, my wife was part of an informal network of Americans and Europeans married to Filipinos. One is Finnish and married to a Chinese-Filipino. They are still best of friends. The other I recall was from Iceland. There were 8 to 10 in her immediate network. Because she is fluent in Japanese, my wife volunteered at a translator for the wives and children of Japanese executives with Asian Development Bank. Their greatest need was someone to accompany them to medical appointments.

 

If you are thinking about Caucasian families, there are lots of them residing in the gated villages surrounding the Makati commercial, business and financial district..Most keep to themselves. They socialize in private clubs, including the American Club and British Club. Another popular one is the Makati Sports Club. The older ones like Manila Polo Club and Manila Golf Club are for the old money Filipino wealthy of Spanish descend.  

 

I saw quite a few Caucasian families including children during the Saturday farmers' market at Salcedo Village and the Sunday farmers' market at Legaspi Village during my April 2013 visit. They even had French vendors selling bread and cheese to other Europeans.