Popular Post expatuk2014 Posted July 25, 2018 Popular Post Posted July 25, 2018 For me my day starts at around 8am then its coffee and breakfast normally cereals or cheese on toast or instant noodles, after a shave and shower if its a shopping day, then its the local Robinsons or south Supermarket. If we are at home 10am its merianda, 12 noon lunch, 3pm merianda, 6pm Dinner. Then setlle down with a nice cool beer and watch tv . The wife normally goes to bed around 9pm i stay up till around 2am watching movies or you tube, any earlier i cant sleep where we are in Los Banos, its fairly quiet , we are 30 mins away from SM Calamba and 45 mins from S&R Nuvali and SM Santa Rosa. The University is only a short distance and the grounds there are very good. Lots of colourful trees etc. Places to eat in Los Banos are Bonitos, Cels,Ellens Fried Chicken,Mer Nels,just outside is Isaadans a unique place to eat! And of course the ever growing Jollibees which has 3 branches in Los Banos and another in bay and soon another when the new City mall is built ! the View from our Balcony the grey roof to the right is our Buyo Kubo the green roof in front is the Entrance to the Buyo Kubo, the light green roof is the roof of the veranda outside our back door 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Queenie O. Posted July 26, 2018 Author Popular Post Posted July 26, 2018 I guess you've seen my garden and surrounds somewhat , but I could share a little more about my place too! We live in a house that we had built about 5 years ago, that is in northern Cebu, about 2 1/2 hours drive from the city. Our place is on a rather rocky limestone piece of land that is above the sea but also shares mudflats and daily tides. We live along the old national coastal road in a regular barangay neighborhood, but our neighbors are fewer because of the sea and higher cliffs across the road from us. I love my garden, the natural air and sea and peacefulness of our place, but at find rural life at times rather dull.Besides my garden, I enjoy it most when I get get out and talk with my neighbors a little and spend time with our three askal dogs. I have a lot of hobbies that fill my days happily mostly. I do love Cebu and Mandaue Cities and what they have to offer, so I enjoy getting into the city maybe once a week or so despite the long drive. I'm glad to get home at the end of the day though We used to live the next town over from my husband's family, and even though we get along well, we decided decided that being near the sea and a little away from them was a positive for us. Not that many foreigners in our area, so I don't have too much personal contact with expats. I'm okay with that though. I can't imagine being anywhere but Cebu, although maybe a small studio condo in the city besides this house out here would make my life complete! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jamesmusslewhite Posted July 26, 2018 Popular Post Posted July 26, 2018 Well in the video I posted earlier you can see that my wife and I are quite secluded. We are the only inhabitants on the island and only accessible by boat. We have lived here almost three years as it is the worksite of the lobster hatchery facility I am building. Our closest neighbors all live on lobster huts among the mangroves. We are located on the Northern most point of Mindanao Island 600 meters off the mainland. To say is quite here at night is an understatement, sometimes when the water is calm and there is little breeze it is so silent that you can almost hear the Earth breath. My wife operates a small day-resort which consist of 14 little bungalows and a small sari-sari. The location is quite popular with the locals which feels the air with children laughter and family revelry which give the place a special positive energy. Then as dusk begins to settle in the customers leave and once again the quite of the evening creeps in. Then my wife and I will often sit in one of the bungalows and watch the fishermen pass by as the night moon rises. Sleeps are tranquil as there are no un-muffled motor bikes, blaring speakers and screeching off-tone karaokers. As the dawn sun begins to laminate the sky the sound of returning fishing boats begin to break the silence. Often stopping to display they nightly catch which is special as often the catch is still breathing. We get first choice before it reaches the wholesalers who then deliver it to market. We prepare breakfast and sit either on the open porch or in one of bungalows and drink coffee or hot tea as we eat the morning meal. We simply enjoy each other's company as we plot our daily itinerary. To go to town requires a two-way boat-ride using either a local service or our own boat. This depends on what needs to be accomplished. Example: We live approximately 14 kilometers outside of Surigao City, so if only a short trip into the city which does not require carrying back loads; then we simply paddle boat to the little town directly across from us, and pull out our service motorbike (depends on weather conditions). If I need to go into the city for supplies or hardware (or the weather is foul) we will take a boat service over to the next town and catch a hubble-hubble bike to and from the city. I like the hubble-hubble services as they take you where you want and having side racks and hard-tops allows them to lash loads onto the bike frames. They can also travel roads inaccessible to tri-bikes or multi-cab services and 24 kilometer round-trip for 2 passengers with a load costs only 240php. Now if we are needing to go into the city to purchase restock for the sari-sari or large bulk hardware items we pull out the 34-footer and boat to the city and just deliver the purchases to load them onto the boat. We also use 34-footer to take trips over to the Dinagat Island farm which is only a one hour ride from this little island. I like traveling here as the rides are scenic and has an air of adventurism about them. I get to enjoy plenty of fishing and boating in and around the mangroves and little islands. I also enjoy building this lobster hatchery I designed and the various interesting projects needed for this venture. I have been construction a floating bamboo net platform which is now almost completed. In fact my wife just purchased 13 Algal-juvenile size lobsters from one of the neighboring lobster hut, which we dropped into the 'nursery net' of the platform last night. I need to finish making the other larger nursery net and we will able to order our first batch of 100 or 200 pueruli size fingerlings, which for us is quite exciting because we have waited three years to reach this point. I also just completed a small bamboo prototype of a floating lobster 'Pueruli' trap which will be used to live-capture lobster fingerlings for our 'grow-out' nets. I will be receiving a couple of loads of a special size dwarf bamboo needed to complete four more units of those bamboo traps. I also had two bamboo log pieces delivered last weekend so tomorrow I will be drilling holes in them to make my first two Vietnam style 'Coconut Log' pueruli traps so I certainly have enough to keep me active and productive. I will be adding these additional projects on the threads sometime next week so those interested in lobster production can view them. This style of living may not appeal to many viewers, but for the old horticulturist it is the ideal lifestyle for us. 6 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy79 Posted July 26, 2018 Posted July 26, 2018 I currently live in Sabang, Puerto Galera. There's a great ex pat community here although Sabang is a bit seedy and the local passtime is talking about others and airing their personal dramas in public. The area is pretty nice, lots of secluded bays and mountains, waterfalls etc. Public services are abysmal though. The road looks like it's been carpet bombed, regular brown outs and reduced to no water at times. Some of the local areas have had no public water for over 2 months. It is handy for transportation with regular boats to Batangas where you can head onto Boracay etc or fly by sea plane to Manila and a few other destinations in 45 mins. If it wasn't for some great ex pats the area would just be a low level Angeles City, bar girls and tacky clubs. An average day for me is getting up at 5:30am to help sort out my partners daughter for school then take my partner to school anytime from 9am to 10am as she's doing teacher training. I ride the carpet bombed road about 8 times per day doing the school shuttles, shopping or visiting mates. I like to get 100 lenghts of the pool in and the odd run/jog. This weekend I move out of Sabang to a nearby village of Suli which is more mountainous with stunning jungle views and still near the beach. It's more rural but only 10 minutes to civilisation. A large house with a few balconies to sit out on and plenty of fruits in the garden. I'll be getting a couple of dogs for company and still doing the school shuttle but it'll be a pleasure driving on a decent road for a change. Every Tuesday I'm involved in a pool league where we meet up at different watering holes for a few games and some nice food. There's some great hidden away restaurants nearby. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeoffH Posted July 26, 2018 Posted July 26, 2018 (edited) We have a house in a subdivision that is about 15 minutes by car from Cagauan De Oro. It is in a valley surrounded by green forested hills on both sides so it has some of that rural barangay feel to it. Our house is close to the back of the built up area so it's quiet without a lot of passing traffic and a lot of the houses in this stage are larger 2 or 3 story, but there is still that mix of house types that characterizes many barangays in the Philipines. Past the front of the subdivision is the highway with some shops and just down the road is a small mall. Or we can go into CDO where there are bigger malls and one of the main hospitals is on this side of CDO. We also have a condo in the city but the house has more space and I like not being right in the city. Some of the family live in Ozamiz and some in CDO and some in the Visayas. I own 2 properties in Australia, one of which is commercial (the other is my house) with a long lease and our Victorian state government in Australia have punitive land taxes for non resident land owners (even if they are citizens). In order to avoid a big land tax bill I have to spend 6 months of each year in Australia. I have been travelling back and forth every 3 months (right now I'm in CDO). When I sell the commercial property I'll stay here full time and just go back for visits. Hopefully that is sooner rather than later. Edited July 27, 2018 by GeoffH 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreigner Posted July 27, 2018 Posted July 27, 2018 I live in an apartment, located in a middle-class, non-gated, all Filipino neighborhood (except for me… ha ha), in Batangas province. It’s walking distance from my apartment to the town, but nobody calls it the “town.’’ They refer to it as the “market.” Right now, it’s raining almost constantly and the roof is leaking, but the landlord (an OFW) is very slow with repairs. His rep says that it will be fixed when the rain stops. LOL. I’m now looking at houses for rent in gated subdivisions in Batangas City or Lipa but so far, no luck. Each and every morning, I wake up to the shrill shouts of a Taho vendor, hawking his product, as he makes his rounds. In the Afternoons, during merienda time, the Bitso Bitso vendor makes his rounds, as he alternates between shouting “Bitso Bitso” and honking a small hand-held horn. Once (and sometimes twice) each week, a basura collector repeatedly shouts “Hi Po” to let me know that he’s here. Amazing how there’s no doorbells at my apartment house, but I always know when someone wants to see (or talk) to me. Every so often, missionaries from an American-based church come knocking. I have nothing against organized religion but I’m not one to join any, so I usually tell them (as politely as possible) that I’m just not interested. They get a shocked look on their faces and leave. I guess that these things are not really unique, since many other Expats experience the very same things. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post virginprune Posted July 28, 2018 Popular Post Posted July 28, 2018 We live outside the city of Koronadal, about 2km. Our home is built in clay blocks with a wrap around verandah. Our plot is one of a few that have recently been converted to residential from agricultural. It's situated around 400m from the road in a two hectare area. Besides our house, we were the first to build, there is a German guy opposite us and over to the side a couple of plots away the vice principal of the local senior high is in building mode as I write. All other plots are undeveloped as yet including the few others that have been purchased. The land is made up mostly of fruit trees, mostly coconut, banana and two types of papaya, native and chinese. There are other trees and bushes as well including mahogany, nara, pepper and some coffee amongst others. It very much has a jungle feel to it that I love, lots of birds in the garden and big frogs with a strange hollow sounding croak, almost like a laugh. We have two Labrador/Retrievers, a golden and a black one, they were 2 back in April and a cat my partner had before I invaded her sanctuary! We have no proper road laid, the nearest real road is around 1km away. We have lived in this place 2 years today and both love it here. We have always used tricycles and public transport to get around but a couple of weeks ago I bought a new Mio Aerox, orange, which opens up more possibilities for us regarding beach visits etc, over 50km away. 4 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northtoalaska Posted July 30, 2018 Posted July 30, 2018 My thanks to everyone who has posted. I've been to the RP 3 times over past 6 years. Each time I wonder if I could move there on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. Coming from Alaska the heat gets to me, but that is what A/C is for. Reading descriptions like those above help a great deal in my "what if..." plans. Speaking of which, I'll return to the RP for trip #4 this coming winter, so now my "what if.." has expanded into real time. Cheers. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
earthdome Posted August 2, 2018 Posted August 2, 2018 On 7/30/2018 at 1:39 AM, northtoalaska said: Coming from Alaska the heat gets to me, but that is what A/C is for. If you live at elevation the climate can be quite moderate. That is the one thing I liked the best when I lived in Baguio. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jollygoodfellow Posted August 3, 2018 Posted August 3, 2018 On 7/30/2018 at 2:39 PM, northtoalaska said: My thanks to everyone who has posted. I've been to the RP 3 times over past 6 years. Each time I wonder if I could move there on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. Coming from Alaska the heat gets to me, but that is what A/C is for. I think the longer you are here the less it will bother you. You can arrange your life for cooler times of the day or night to make it easier on yourself. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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