Noisy roosters and kareoke battling neighbours

[Possum]

3 hours ago, RBM said:

Seems life in the province is more hassle than its worth, always something.   There is an old saying, the further out from the the cities the more the nuisances seem to occur. Once the local politics kick in perhaps one will wish they had not invested as much as they have.

I decided long ago that the Philippines is not a nation per se but a country with numerous fiefdoms called LGUs located within the country. These LGUs consider Republic Act laws as optional and in reality many are just that. The law regarding late night karaoke is a very minor example. Wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle is a moderate example.When looking for a place to live in the provinces you need to look at many factors. Does it appear somewhat orderly? Does it look like the inhabitants take pride in the appearance of their area. If not do not expect anything to change soon as these fiefdoms give up their power very reluctantly. There are some nice places one can live quite reasonably but to expect first world conditions at third world prices is not reasonable. Accept that corruption is endemic in the Philippines it's part of their Spanish heritage  However one can participate in the corruption at a very low rate unlike first world countries where only the very rich can participate.

I find myself very happy here, much happier on a day to day basis than I was in the USA or other countries I lived, with the exception of Singapore which is unaffordable for my lifestyle.

[Kingpin]

4 hours ago, RBM said:

 Seems life in the province is more hassle than its worth, always something.   There is an old saying, the further out from the the cities the more the nuisances seem to occur. Once the local politics kick in perhaps one will wish they had not invested as much as they have.

100%.  Filipinos with money know what foreigners often learn the hard way; find a quiet, secured place within a big city....and there are only a few "big cities" in the entire country.

[Possum]

1 hour ago, Kingpin said:

100%.  Filipinos with money know what foreigners often learn the hard way; find a quiet, secured place within a big city....and there are only a few "big cities" in the entire country.

True, then the Filipinos with money build a "vacation home" in the province to get away from the big city. Our property on the mountain is surrounded by them. One of them was out for a run and stopped to introduce himself one weekend. Nice guy. I asked him if he ran in Manila while at his home in Forbes Park.  He said yes, he had a treadmill in his house as running outside was like smoking a pack of cigarettes per km.

[Kingpin]

19 hours ago, Greglm said:

True, then the Filipinos with money build a "vacation home" in the province to get away from the big city. Our property on the mountain is surrounded by them. One of them was out for a run and stopped to introduce himself one weekend. Nice guy. I asked him if he ran in Manila while at his home in Forbes Park.  He said yes, he had a treadmill in his house as running outside was like smoking a pack of cigarettes per km.

I'd trade my treadmill for a vacation home in the mountains too if I could, but I don't see myself or many other expats getting two houses here.

[Colsie]

On 10/28/2022 at 11:41 AM, Kingpin said:

100%.  Filipinos with money know what foreigners often learn the hard way; find a quiet, secured place within a big city....and there are only a few "big cities" in the entire country.

 

I've lived in two different cities and two places in the provinces here in the Philippines. 

If you feel more secure in the city then perhaps you're being a touch naive, in my opinion. But I acknowledge both have risk. 

Anyway, let's not digress. The purpose of my post was to show that, with thought and a bit of ingenuity it's possible to overcome noise issues that can be found in both the province or city living here in the Philippines. 

Edited October 29, 2022 by Colsie

[Colsie]

On 10/28/2022 at 7:19 AM, RBM said:

Wonder if its all worth it, from experience, my own and others I rather think not. Seems life in the province is more hassle than its worth, always something.   There is an old saying, the further out from the the cities the more the nuisances seem to occur. Once the local politics kick in perhaps one will wish they had not invested as much as they have.

That's fair comment and for the most part it's about choice and priority. You choose what advantages are the priority, city or rural living and make the best of the disadvantages... 

One of the advantages of living away from the city is that I'm a keen cyclist and have logged over 90,000km here in the Philippines. Cycling in the city is awful. 

One of the worst things about province living for me was brownouts or blackouts. But in last 12-18 months the infrastructure has improved and so has the reliability of supply. So I don't have to switch my genset on very often nowadays. 

[Kingpin]

2 hours ago, Colsie said:

If you feel more secure in the city then perhaps you're being a touch naive, in my opinion

Anyone can have an opinion, my 2+ decades of safe city living says yours isn't well informed. Every time I read about a foreigner being hacked up or kidnapped, it's always deep in the province.

 

[Colsie]

1 hour ago, Kingpin said:

Anyone can have an opinion, my 2+ decades of safe city living says yours isn't well informed. Every time I read about a foreigner being hacked up or kidnapped, it's always deep in the province.

Let's digress 

Thank you for your opinion although it differs from mine and my poultry 1+ decade living in both city and province. 

It's logically to think that a well run gated community with active security day and more importantly night would be a safe place to live. 

That being said, it's also logical that big cities have a higher crime rate, with car jacking, holdups etc... 

Foreigners are often targeted by criminals and are therefore places were foreigners frequent more like cities and resorts... 

If you use the link below and scroll down you will be able to read a archival list of several hundred foreigners that have been murdered here in the Philippines over what looks like a decade. If you look at the list of names and places they were murder, most were in the big cities of Manila, Cebu and tourist hot spot of Angeles... 

https://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Philippines/sub5_6f/entry-3910.html

 

[Freebie]

On 10/28/2022 at 7:19 AM, RBM said:

Wonder if its all worth it, from experience, my own and others I rather think not. Seems life in the province is more hassle than its worth, always something.   There is an old saying, the further out from the the cities the more the nuisances seem to occur. Once the local politics kick in perhaps one will wish they had not invested as much as they have.

Most certainly true sometimes. I know a nice European fellow in Bantayan. . He and wife had a big falling out. In his words, she was paranoid and loopy/.Wife has access to guns and took up with a gangster from NZ who owned a small resort near the Europeans house.  Wasnt long before wife or her hired goons started shooting at  the husbands  house. Then he was followed. He started some legal cases against the wife.  That was 8 years ago. He thinks that at least 5 times his life has been threatened by bullets. Hes waiting for his son to finish school there and then he said hes leaving and moving back to Europe. Meanwhile the wife and the gangster had a falling out so she had him threatened by brave men with guns. He left the island quickly and so wife took over the resort.

He cant sell the house as both wife and his name is on title so he reckoned he would destroy the house internally ( major fuse blow/  destroy water pipes/start ant infestation etc ) shortly before leaving the island for good. The wife even apparently had goons shoot at the son as a warning.

The mentality of some of the people is beyond belief, but as is often the case, the wife knows some influential folk, and the foreigner is fairly alone in resources and not in best of health. Having said that hes loved being there and seeing the island change and develop, but isnt happy at having to start life in his home country  at 70

[Colsie]

9 minutes ago, Freebie said:

Most certainly true sometimes. I know a nice European fellow in Bantayan. . He and wife had a big falling out. In his words, she was paranoid and loopy/.Wife has access to guns and took up with a gangster from NZ who owned a small resort near the Europeans house.  Wasnt long before wife or her hired goons started shooting at  the husbands  house. Then he was followed. He started some legal cases against the wife.  That was 8 years ago. He thinks that at least 5 times his life has been threatened by bullets. Hes waiting for his son to finish school there and then he said hes leaving and moving back to Europe. Meanwhile the wife and the gangster had a falling out so she had him threatened by brave men with guns. He left the island quickly and so wife took over the resort.

He cant sell the house as both wife and his name is on title so he reckoned he would destroy the house internally ( major fuse blow/  destroy water pipes/start ant infestation etc ) shortly before leaving the island for good. The wife even apparently had goons shoot at the son as a warning.

The mentality of some of the people is beyond belief, but as is often the case, the wife knows some influential folk, and the foreigner is fairly alone in resources and not in best of health. Having said that hes loved being there and seeing the island change and develop, but isnt happy at having to start life in his home country  at 70

How did we go from noisy roosters and kareoke to this... 

From what I understand about foreigners being murdered in the Philippines, in the most part it is carried out by or on behalf of, someone they know, girlfriends, family members, employees etc...this is born out again in what you have written