If Not The Philippines, Then Where?

[Curley]

I agree Mike B. I live in Florida now and happen to be in Zephyrhills. Interesting in that it is a very large retirement/snowbird community. I saw exactly what life would be like retired here. NO THANKS! I strongly considered Panama but living with a Japanese woman for 17 years I come to be fascinated with the Asian culture. I also prefer Asian women to Western or Latina women. Not exactly sure if Filipinas are Asian or South Pacific. Another subject for another thread. Anyway, my next choice was Thailand until a good friend told me to strongly consider the Philippines. Yep! I'll be joining all of my fellow expats March 13. What the future holds for me, I don't know. I will not be returning to the US other than to visit family. After I am settled I plan on visiting Cambodia. There may be a future there.

 

Thailand can be cheap if you live in the country areas such as Isaan, the biggest problem is the language, a different alphabet and it's tonal, not good for me with my non musical ear.

 

Tried Cambodia but did not like it at all

[robert k]

Curley, that too added to the present unrest in Thailand. I am practically deaf in one ear [service related], the other is none too good and I sometimes jokingly say that I barely speak english and I think I should master one language before I start on another. Tagalog seems ok, I tried to pick up at least 1 word a day while I am in the RP. People flatter me and say that my accent is good but I know that isn't true, sweet of them. :)

 

How are the services like internet in Issan?

[Curley]

The unrest? it's confined to a very small area of Bangkok.

 

 

Internet in Isaan? In the boonies you ned to use the mobile system ie dongles..... slow. In the cities it's OK it depends on what you're used to.

Edited March 8, 2014 by Curley

[Albert Russell]

Safety factors, medical care, infrastructure, and cost of living are making me look more and more seriously at Thailand.

 

If you want to live a western lifestyle at a cheap cost, you can do so in the areas around Pattaya and Chiang Mail.  Both are nice  locations with a lot to do...good food, Buddhist culture, and very comfortable western-style living arrangements, at a fraction of what you would pay for those in the Philippines.

 

The biggest advantage of the Philippines will always be the plethora of cute, sweet, and pretty english-speaking Filipinas.   Without them, the choice would be a no-brainer.  With them, it makes sense for me to take one with me and explore the rest of SE Asia with her.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Albert Russell

[alsuave]

I enjoyed living in Japan when I was in the military. I would love to move back there again, but it's so damn expensive.

[jpbago]

   If you are looking for a better life, Philippines is not even on the list put out yesterday by the OECD. To sort in order, click on rank at the bottom. To look at each of the 11 topics ranked by country, move the topic slider to the right and then reset to start over.

   Canada is number 3 behind Australia and Sweden overall.

 

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/#/11111111111

 

If there was a topic for young pretty women, then the RP would have been on the list.

[BrettGC]

   If you are looking for a better life, Philippines is not even on the list put out yesterday by the OECD. To sort in order, click on rank at the bottom. To look at each of the 11 topics ranked by country, move the topic slider to the right and then reset to start over.

   Canada is number 3 behind Australia and Sweden overall.

 

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/#/11111111111

 

If there was a topic for young pretty women, then the RP would have been on the list.

 

Cost of living and relaxed lifestyle aren't criteria either; invalid for me ;)

 

Edit:  And PI is not a member of the OECD so isn't listed. 

Edited March 19, 2014 by BrettGC

[Thomas]

   If you are looking for a better life, Philippines is not even on the list put out yesterday by the OECD. To sort in order, click on rank at the bottom. To look at each of the 11 topics ranked by country, move the topic slider to the right and then reset to start over.

   Canada is number 3 behind Australia and Sweden overall.

 

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/#/11111111111

 

If there was a topic for young pretty women, then the RP would have been on the list.

Sweden third, although they have counted as if housing would be less good than USA - We have no trailer parks, except them where some crazy people live volontary during summer vacation  :)   - and as if income would be only half of USA!!! I believe they have only counted the income, but not the obligatoric employer's fee, which cover so we DON'T need to add any health insurance or retirement fund. And many in USA  work for LESS pay per hour than minimum ALLOWED  in Sweden. So that counting seem odd.

 

Isn't it common knowledge   :)  Swedish women are the most beautiful/pretty in average?

(One of my friends from youth soccer team married a Swedish Miss World from back when Swedish women wanted to participate in such contests. I don't know if Miss Sweden contest even exist nowadays, back in the 90'th the interest was so low so half of the years it was wonn by women looking less good than average Swedish women...)

 

--

They have valued how it is NOW. The TREND is DOWN for high salary countries and up for countries in SE Asia. That's one of the reasons I'm moving there...  :)    No chance the rich countries can keep these incomes in the long run, because more and more PRODUCTION are moved to low salary countries. The rich countries can't go on doing that, because producing services to ourselves DON'T add any income to the country, while production exports do that.

[sunrise7bi]

I am thinking NZ. I've lived in Auckland for a year, and loved the nature there. It was so relaxing.

[IamMissLee]

hawaii, bali, guam, tahiti, cannot pick!! so many places to go!