Its More Fun In The Philippines

Borrowed from the Department of Tourism the  image above shows one of the reasons the Philippines is a popular retirement destination but by no means the only one . Even more reflective of what the Philippine culture represents might be contained in some of the images below .

Fiesta 

Another Fiesta  

 

   

Indigenous Culture       

If there is a single ingredient that might best describe the native Filipino from a cultural perspective perhaps that description might be " socially gregarious " . The Filipino loves social gatherings and get together 's whether large or small .Which perhaps explains the Fiesta .

The Fiesta is not uniquely Filipino of course as other cultures have them as well though i am not certain that any other culture embraces them quite like the Philippines . Think Independence Day , Fireworks , Parades , Dancing , Singing , Beauty Queens and all the rest of it you may be accustomed to and multiply in terms of duration .

Every city , town , hamlet and place you never knew existed has a Fiesta . Doesn't matter if it's just a dot on a map you wiz by en route to somewhere , they will have one . To me , at least the Fiesta is a snapshot of the culture and it's people . Some say it's a reflection of living so close to the equator , the tropical climate , the daily grind for survival , etc . Whatever it is , it's wonderful .

Small town and community budgets are blown , traffic is an after thought and  food and fun take over for the day , days , week . The bigger the budget the longer the Fiesta of course but in this culture time basically takes a holiday during Fiesta . Everyone from abroad needs to experience at least one Fiesta during their visit . Fortunately they occur year round so just check your locations tourism or government agency .

A highlight to me of any fiesta is the Indigenous Culture demonstrations with folks in their native dress and often times doing native dance and other routines . If you can watch the children and not feel childlike , well , maybe you are in the wrong place .  :-) Just use common sense , wear comfortable shoes and clothing , stay hydrated , and protect your valuables . Wherever there are crowds there will be pickpockets and the like so if possible attend with native friends .

But , most of all , just have Fun !!!

The Pros And Cons

Is the Philippines the right expat location for you ?

There is considerably more that goes into making a decision involving the question above than a travel brochure or video series of course . But , images are often times worth a thousand words and the Philippines certainly has it's share of the stunning variety . We will use images to explore the Philippines and to highlight some of the Pro's and Con's of choosing to settle here .

If you are into nature and water this place certainly can offer a myriad of experiences of that type from swimming , diving , surfing , fishing , island hoping or just plain old beach combing . With over 7 , 000 island you are only limited by your imagination and  resources and the limitations of what a third world culture can provide in terms of infrastructure options .

Some of the Pro's

And Some of the Con's

Yes , the images show both the beauty and the ugliness that this part of the world offers . Along with the stunning coastlines comes the realization that the Philippines does sit smack atop the " ring of fire " and is subject to earthquake , volcano , typhoons and flooding of various proportions . And , because it is a third world country it's resources in dealing with such events are severely limited .

The images are simply snapshots or reflections of the dichotomy that exists within the culture and anyone considering relocation here needs to consider both extremes .The Philippine people are a resilient bunch because they have had to be . Ask yourself if you can be as well because mother nature plays no favourites . Your financial resources can only shield you to a point .

Next visit we will begin to take a bit more of an in depth look at what the culture offers in terms of " the good , the bad and the ugly " .  

Philippine Expat Lifestyle - Part 2

A Local Outing With Some Of Our Expat Partners

 So , what were you thinking based on the part 1 piece ending ? That part 2 would include a bevy of young Philippine lassies freely  cavorting along white sand beaches or table dancing ?  :-) Sorry , guys but this blog isn't the place for that and besides if that's really what you were looking for i am sure it can be found .

The particular photo used above is one that i just happen to have and like  and is of my wife and some of the other expat partner ladies at a local social gathering . There is not a " one size fits all " approach to Philippine women any more than there would be to women of any other culture .

Culture and the role of the female within it is important to understand however and that tends to be  especially true in regards to discovering the  attraction to these ladies besides their obvious physical attractiveness . To paraphrase a common media expression " it's the economy ,, stupid " in this case " it's the culture , guys " .

In keeping with the concept of " culture " a better understanding of what makes the Philippine female unique in many respects will be better understood . The role that the female plays in this culture at present is often times what is meant when an expat makes reference to the " good old days , back home " .

In other words when the female stayed home , tended to the daily household and treated her man like he was special even when he wasn't . Now , you could make up  a team of psychologists , sociologists and social engineers  and have them study this forever and they would ( and do ) have varying opinions as to why it is the way it is .

" Although they generally define themselves in the milieu of a masculine dominated post-colonial Asian Catholic society, Filipino women live in a culture that is focused on the community, with the family as the main unit of society " . The above quote comes from Wikipedia and the entire article is available by just clicking on the word link Filipino .

The main point being made here is that in this culture it is the " family " unit rather than the individual that takes precedence . That precedence is visible in many respects within Philippine culture and if you are seriously thinking of living here you would be well advised to familiarize yourself with the many ways those preferences play out .

Many , if not most expats come from cultures where the individual is taught at an early age to compete in order to get anywhere in life in terms of a socio - economic status . That can lead to the dreaded " keeping up with the Jones " routine of material acquisition of course and that routine is not as visible in this culture  as a rule but may be changing some say .

One of the appeals of residing here is the money exchange rate of course simply because your home currency has more value here than there . But , do not fall into the trap of comparing costs here with costs there in terms of what your money can purchase , at least not in regards to items made there and not here .

The simple fact is the Philippines does not have a large manufacturing base and that holds particular true in regards to Consumer goods . There are opinions out there that basically suggest the Philippines doesn't need to have a strong manufacturing base in order to be progressive but there are just as many counter - opinions .

Now , if you don't mind paying 2 - 4 times more for vehicles , appliances , electronic goodies and the  like and often times getting inferior quality you may not care . But , if you will have a hankering to own some of these things while residing here i suspect you will care . All of which means don't burn your bridges behind you should you make the move .   :-) 

Philippine Expat Lifestyle - Part 1

Geography 102

A quick look at the map displayed offers a snapshot of the main islands of the Philippine archipelago though obviously with over 7,000 islands more are not seen than are . In fact , some of the best beaches i have seen through the years tend to be viewed from a few thousand feet ^ and unfortunately don't have roads , power , etc .   :-)

The large island shown in the bottom right corner known as Mindanao is where  we are located on the northern portion of the island called Cagayan de Oro . I won't bore you with the specifics related to this countries history and geography as there is tons of data of that nature elsewhere . I will , however provide a few observations regarding the expat life style in the Philippines .

First of all at the risk of offending someone , somewhere  , Expat or Retirement living in the Philippines does not typically reflect the majority of retirees or seniors most often mentioned in residing abroad literature . The simple fact of the matter is that most folks retiring are not single males but instead are  couples .

Now that this little fact is out in the open we can proceed to discuss some of the reasons why this factor is significant in terms of expats residing in this country .
Though i have no hard data to back up the following statement i do believe it to be an accurate one . " The majority of expats residing in the Philippines are or were single upon arriving here " .

 Now , that statement could be broken down even further into racial and ethnic characteristics but that is not the intent  of this post . Nor , is  the statement presented meant to be sexist or demeaning in any way . At the same time i do think it would be fair to say that it is a reflection of a specific demographic component . ( Geez , almost sounds too politically correct , doesn't it ? )    :-)

One of the reasons there does not seem to be any hard data regarding expats living abroad in the Philippines is because Embassy’s tend not to report it , at least not to the general public .Common sense , would however suggest that the reason is primarily because the single guy is seeking a relationship , whether temporary or permanent .

 Note:  A press statement just released by Philippine Immigration places the number of expats holding ACR status as just over 200,000 . Separate post to come )

 At the same time the majority of expats residing here or anywhere else for that matter will tend to be older or senior folks . The younger ones being to busy working for a living don't generally have their  financial houses in order enough to retire anywhere , much less abroad .The demographics of the retired expat residing here do in fact offer some interesting observations from others that might be just visiting or on holiday as some say .

 Unless you have had the opportunity to hang out with the super rich , the Rodeo Drive crowd in Los Angeles , USA or other similar locations where the rich and famous/infamous hang out you likely won't see a whole lot of older folks walking around with a whole lot of younger folks , unless the older is the patient and the younger the caregiver .   :-)

You will see that here and frequently but that doesn't mean all the older folks are famous , infamous or even wealthy though some here seem to think so in regards to the wealthy part .  :-) What it does reflect is a different cultural attitude perhaps than the one you can from .  A common theme often heard here among older expats as to their reason for choosing the Philippines goes something like this .

 " Age is an attitude " , or this place reminds me of the way it " used to be back home " or " the women are of the Donna Reed or Ozzie & Harriet " type . With apologies to those not familiar with the Reed and Harriet tv characters but it's basically describing women before they became quite so " equal " in a politically correct sense , or in other words maybe 1950's in the US and fill in the blank for your culture .    :)

Now , whether such observations can be considered sexist i suspect will depend upon the culture viewing them . At least , that's my observation and would seem to be generally reflective of Philippine culture as a whole . Part of it is of course based on someone being able to provide a standard of living for their partner that they might not have otherwise . That's a reality and those who choose to ignore it generally regret doing so at some point in time if here long enough .

Are there " gold diggers " here ? . Well , of course there are just like everywhere else though the treasure trove required here might not match up to the ones required elsewhere . And , in fact some make quite a haul posing by way of the internet to those a bit gullible or narcissistic .  No need to give examples but doubt any expat that has resided here for long doesn't know or has heard  of someone that fell into such a trap .

 The Great White Hunter ( or maybe it was Tonto ) said something to the effect that the big game was sometimes easier to trap than the small .  Having stated the not so obvious we can now move on to the more obvious or the primary reason expats end up residing in the Philippines in part 2 of this post... The WOMEN .    :-)

Salt and Sugar

                                                

Why a title like Salt and Sugar ? Because life in general is made up of salt and sugar experiences and that certainly has been my take on living in the Philippines as an expat . No matter how you label it , positive and negative , good and bad , sweet and sour , the yin and the yang , it is always the same , whether here or there , wherever here and there might be .   :-)

A couple of things i would like to point out in regards to my  approach about blogging in general and blogging about expat living in the Philippines in particular . I happen to be an American or " yank " as my Brit Buddies say and one from the southern part of the US as well . The southern thing or " thang " will come into play in my writing style as well as some of my descriptive phrases .   :-)

There will also be seen a whole lot of those little guys called Emoticons . According to Wikipedia  - An emoticon (/ɨˈmoʊtɨkɒn/) is a pictorial representation of a facial expression using punctuation marks, numbers and letters, usually written to express a person's feelings or mood. I just call them these little guys :    :-) ;    :-(  ;    I use them a lot , and especially this one -   :-) because i tend to see humour in much of life's experience . 

Now , if someone wants to theorize about the use of such symbols as a coping mechanism reflective of deep seated psychological issues i am ok with that too but truth is i just think they are cute little guys and they allow me to laugh at myself . If you can't laugh at yourself from time to time then this blog may not be what you are looking for but if you can intuit the Universe as having a sense of humour then i think we can have some fun together while on this journey called life .

Feel free to comment at  any time , ask questions , make suggestions or even have a piece of your own published on this site should you have a " hankering " ( Warning: Southern Expression but you will get used to them )  :-)  However , due to strict policies of the site provider ( Mr. Google ) i have chosen for all comments to be moderated or  seen by me first before becoming visible on the blog . ( Has anyone actually ever met Mr. Google ? )   :-)

That has unfortunately , become necessary these days due to the trolling instincts of certain sub - species of critter most have encountered by now . With that proviso and a dose of patience we can go " West ", young man , or is it " East " this time ? Whichever direction , it's a long way from there to here for most of us .

                                                    Geography 101