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zilehjnecake05
Good morning everyone,

My name is Zile and i am a new member in the last 30 seconds, i am from Canada and my dream destination is to live in the Philippines. i wish to be friends with all and hopefully get some insights on my plan to shift to the philippines. where i would like to live in the philippines is Cebu, Papamga, Cagayan de oro, nueva ecija city. just a few i mentioned if any other places you would recommend please let me know thank you.
Jackson4
Dreaming of living in an exotic place is nice but there is a reality you will have to deal with. I understand your request but the real question is what are your expectations? How much do you know about the Philippines and the Filipino culture?
Mary Jean villarin
Good morning everyone,

My name is Zile and i am a new member in the last 30 seconds, i am from Canada and my dream destination is to live in the Philippines. i wish to be friends with all and hopefully get some insights on my plan to shift to the philippines. where i would like to live in the philippines is Cebu, Papamga, Cagayan de oro, nueva ecija city. just a few i mentioned if any other places you would recommend please let me know thank you.
- @zilehjnecake05
Hi zile, welcome!
I can say cagayan de oro, is better place for retirement. Manila and cebu  are nice too but quite expensive.
cagayan de oro offer a nice hotel , restaurant, mall, more places to visit, lots of things to do.
Filipino are hospitable,  friendly and nice.
just be careful people following asking money.Lol and be careful of  some they will take advantage of foreigners.
Good luck to you.
eptowing
@Mary Jean villarin
I will be landing Cagayan de oro on May 1 rot 2 weeks before flying to Cebu for 30 days. Please tell me what is there to do in Cagayan de oro
Mary Jean villarin
@Mary Jean villarin
I will be landing Cagayan de oro on May 1 rot 2 weeks before flying to Cebu for 30 days. Please tell me what is there to do in Cagayan de oro
- @eptowing
@eptowing welcome!
if you enjoy adventures  paragliding,zipline,Noah's ark, and infinity pool in Amaya view.
Seven seas rides , sicolon resort and more if you love beaches , nice beaches are  about 40mins to drive, if you want to try the White water rafting (but i never try that).i suggest rent a car so you will enjoy the city tour.
be careful of walking  in mountainside.i recommend stay in the city.
please do more search the places where is foreigners are safe and I suggest be cautious in drinking water you might have a diarrhea.
Good luck to you and I'm sure you will be  enjoy your stay in the Philippines.
Lotus Eater
@Mary Jean villarin
I will be landing Cagayan de oro on May 1 rot 2 weeks before flying to Cebu for 30 days. Please tell me what is there to do in Cagayan de oro
- @eptowing
Maybe you guys could meet up for a coffee
martyn27

@eptowing maybe take a side trip from Cagayan do Oro and visit Camiguin Island - more volcanoes per square kilometer of any island on the planet, superb snorkeling, trekking and, if the forest Gods smile on you, you will witness the famed rainbow waterfall.

Harbred6051
@zilehjnecake05
This is Brent from Texas. I myself plan to retire in the PH, specifically Cagayan de Oro City...uptown area.. that's the area my wife's from. Ive been on 3 trips there now.. If there's anything you'd like to know, let me know.
Lotus Eater
Seems like everyone and his mother are going to CDO. I've never been to that city. Could someone who has visited both Dumaguete (a regular haunt of mine) and CDO tell me what the latter has that the former does not? (Please don't say the chicks are better looking.)
Salamat Po.
eptowing
@Mary Jean villarin

This whole trip is going to be an adventure. I have never been to the Philippines. I will be there for 3 months traveling to 7 islands doing a lot of scuba diving. I have a rental car for a week while in Cagayan and one in Cebu for 30 days.  Yes I will be cautious in drinking the water and I am bring medicine to help stop or to help ease the diarrhea.
I have been planning this trip for over a year and I cant wait to get there. I already have a couple of the places you suggested on my list of place to go. I will look in to the others one as well.

Thank you     
coach53
traveling to 7 islands doing a lot of scuba diving.
- @eptowing
For yoir sake I hope that include Palawan   :)
I dont do scuba diving myself but an entusiast, who make documentaries for TV around the world, said in one such video Palawan have the best diving he has never seen.
eptowing
@coach53

It was in my plans at first but not only am I going to do a bunch of diving I am also going to be looking a some land. I want to lease/buy a 1/4 to 1/2 acre lot on a beach somewhere. Then have a house built on it. not sure where just yet but I think I will know it when I see it. So I am going to be diving around place I want to look for a lot. I figure Palawan will be there next year. So, Let set up a home first then I will have all the time I want to do go check out it all out.
Enzyte Bob
@eptowing
  Yes I will be cautious in drinking the water and I am bring medicine to help stop or to help ease the diarrhea

****************************************************************

Better bring a gross of "TROJANS" you might have to explain to Filipina's what they are used for.

coach53
@coach53

It was in my plans at first but not only am I going to do a bunch of diving I am also going to be looking a some land. I want to lease/buy a 1/4 to 1/2 acre lot on a beach somewhere. Then have a house built on it. not sure where just yet but I think I will know it when I see it. So I am going to be diving around place I want to look for a lot. I figure Palawan will be there next year. So, Let set up a home first then I will have all the time I want to do go check out it all out.
- @eptowing
There are much cheaper beaches at Palawan  than elsewhere, so I would START with looking there    :)
I even  know of beaches there for sale for as low as 50p per squaremeter when buying biger land, but I dont know how the beach is at that lot.   
But I have seen nice beach for sale for only 120p per sqmeter, with hill behind included in the lot so not low land becoming flooded land as many beach lots are.
I dont know how diving is just at these lots, but I know there is nice diving some north of them.

NOTE! Sometimes BIG land at beach can be bought for rather similar TOTAL cost as for a tiny beach lot, which someone have splited to earn much from himself...  If you find buying a big land for yourself being to lonely, then you can split and sell lots to others to get neighbours  1f923.svg       (If you need assistance with owning solution, I suppouse my business partner can be interested in doing same/similar as he did for me. If its at south half of Palawan so it isnt to far from where he live.)
Jackson4

Yes I will be cautious in drinking the water and I am bring medicine to help stop or to help ease the diarrhea.
Someone told me Wilkins brand bottled water did not cause stomach problems for those visiting from the US. I drank beer instead.

coach53
be careful of walking  in mountainside.i recommend stay in the city.
- @Mary Jean villarin
Well. It depend much of where.
I wouldnt walk in the mountains in e g Zamboanga nor Sulu   haha
but many rural parts are much safer than cities.   
E g an American, living close to NPA at south Palawan, say its the safest place he has ever lived at   :)   He say NPA dont bother nice civilians.   
Others at Cebu (or perhaps he ment Negros) at Samar and north of Manila said similar.

Some years ago I saw a list of murdered foreigners and almost all of them were murdered in cities...  Of around 100 during the years the list was about, only 4 were normal rural as it seem.  (Two in land disputes, one treated employees terrible (the murderer claimed). One was a nice guy, who had assisted people much after Yolanda. He got shot dead by a drunk, when he told the drunk employee to go home.)   (I dont know if there were any kidnapped and killed during this period though and if so I dont know if they got kidnapped rural or in city.)
During the years after that period the list was about I have only heared of one foreigner murdered rural. It was a nice guy but he had confronted bad behaving people about serious environmental issues. Unclear if that was the motive or if it was a robbery, which it looked like - or were disguised as.
Filamretire

@eptowing  You've never been to the Philippines and already going to buy a house? A very bold move if I may say so!

coach53

@eptowing  You've never been to the Philippines and already going to buy a house? A very bold move if I may say so!

- @Filamretire
Yes, but IF he want to live far from neighbours, then it can be very hard to find anything suiting to rent, even anything suiting to buy.   In years of looking I have seen very few. 

Lotus Eater

@eptowing  You've never been to the Philippines and already going to buy a house? A very bold move if I may say so!

- @Filamretire
You would make a good Diplomat Filamretire

Enzyte Bob

Someone told me Wilkins brand bottled water did not cause stomach problems for those visiting from the US. I drank beer instead.
-@Jackson4

Yup. . . . Today I ordered a case of Hard Seltzer Water (Spritz Dalandan Seltzer Water) comes to P1006 delivered. Low alcohol 3.5% and tastes good.

danfinn

@Jackson4 In 5+ years we have never had a problem with bottled water here, either in small bottles or the large 20 liter bottles used in water dispensers. In my opinion you do not need to seek out a particular brand. Stay away from tap water but you can use that for brushing teeth as long as you just rinse but do not swallow it. Most people get their high bacteria water at restaurants via ice cubes.

dieselman1952

@zilehjnecake05

G'day First if you want to avoid bad  typhoons Misamis oriental ( Cagayan ) would be your best bet. Geographically its a long way from the east and west coast and as you may know tropical Storms loos there strength after land fall . I live in Jasaan  about 60 km east of Cagayan for the last 1.5 years ( moved there from Catanduanes  where typhoons are bad  ) and we did not had the strong winds here just a lot of rain.

Also be very carful with women. They can be very sweet to start of with but if you make one mistake ( right or wrong ) they will make a complaint at the Police  against you ( Violence  against women and children ) and you will have a long  shit time and spend a lot of money ( Lawyers and bribes ) to get out of it.  I been there  so i know .

Also almost every one will try to rip you off . Bribes are common ( police and traffic wardens )

Also as a foreigner , you can not trust Lawyers  or Barangay officials as they will always be on the side of there people .

So Mate just think about moving here...I lived here now for 6 years and if i had not invested nearly all my money here i would go back to Australia where i come from.

Have a good day

Jackson4

Zile, With all said here, are you still moving to the Philippines?

Michaelm54

I had been to the Philippines 15 times mostly for 4 week stays over 15 years from Dapitan to Baguio and had an idea but didn’t know what it would be like to live here. I have a coconut farm, a rice farm, and a walled beach compound. After a year I’m getting acclimated but it’s not the same as vacationing around. It’s hot a lot and brownouts are taxing. The heat kind of makes me lazy, I go through periods of riding my bike every morning to doing not much. You get used to sitting in the bamboo beach bungalow with the sea breeze and coconut trees all around and take it for granted. The family loves fishing with the net I bought them and 5 kilos of fish is normal in a fishing day. I like to watch them fish and wade around with them. Tinkering around the house keeps me somewhat busy but with a new house built with everything I wanted doesn’t leave much to do. I have an acre for landscaping so there is that to keep busy with. We’re going to Thailand next month, airfare is cheap and nice hotels aren’t bad there. I’ve been around Palawan and we have lots of relitives in CDO and hear they live it there. It’s on our list to visit.

Lotus Eater

Zile, With all said here, are you still moving to the Philippines?
-@Jackson4

The tourist brochures & websites got him hooked. After joining Expat.com he has probably decided to take an extended 'Raincheck'

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