In this report I share a word of caution–Don’t retire in the Philippines until you watch this.
Last week I did a video called Why the Philippines are best in the Entire World for Retired Singles. Well, today I am reading comments on that video. Some of you Vagabonders made some really great counterarguments that I want to share and answer directly in this video.
The fact is, my channel has some of the smartest most experienced travelers in the world listening and commenting on the information I share in my videos. They know personally how much time and money the right information can save them when they are traveling.
So they share their counter-ideas and more detailed information in the comments when they have important information they have often learned the hard way. So, now I am going to share some of their comments and expand on some of their ideas.
I will put a link to the Youtube video they are commenting on so you can watch that video and read their comments if you like.
Don’t retire in the Philippines until you watch this
Jeff’s comment is that the Philippines are “Too hot and humid and destructive annual typhoons.” Jeff makes a great point here. There were 5 super typhoons that struck the Northern Pacific during the 2021 Typhon season that did $1.8 billion USD in damage. And, as usual, the Philippines often took the lion’s share of the damage because of its location in the Northern Pacific. Source provided.
In fact, there are four kinds of natural disasters that the Philippines suffer from Typhons, Volcanos, Earthquakes, and Tsunamis. The truth is, where you decide to live in the Philippines makes a big difference in the frequency and occurrence of these 4 kinds of natural disasters.
So I studied natural disasters in the Philippines a few months ago and wrote a report called, Saving your Philippines Retirement from Natural Disaster. If you want to know my thoughts about where to live in the Philippines, to reduce, but not completely eliminate your risk from these 4 kinds of natural disasters, make sure to read that report or watch that video, link provided. Thanks for the great point, Jeff.
Next, we received a comment from someone with the screen name, Alphabet, who said, “Yeah, fully agree that Philippine women are much better than others. They don’t try to hook up with foreigners and try to extort money from the retirees hoping to get all your assets.”
In fact, we received several comments about the difference between Thai and Filipina women, how one, or the other, is better, and why they think so. So here are my thoughts about the difference between women in the Philippines and Thailand.
We can generalize about people around the world and it can save us time by assuming generalizations are accurate when we first meet a person. But we still need to observe people as individuals when we meet them to see if they fit the generalizations or if they are an outlier.
For example, both the Philippines and Thailand have what I would call good people that are just looking for a real and authentic relationship with someone that they can honestly love and that will honestly love them in return.
In the Philippines, you are more likely to find someone like this that remains in the area where their family lives but you may also meet them in larger cities if they are presently living in a larger city for employment purposes.
But if they moved to the city to work in the sex industry, they will quickly lose that part of themselves that still believes in true love. Love quickly becomes transactional when they lose that part of themselves.
The same is also true in Thailand. If they moved to the city for non-sex industry employment, they might be okay. But they will become jaded rather quickly if they are working in the sex trade.
So in both the Philippines and Thailand, you are more likely to find long-term relationship material if you stay away from people working in the sex industry. I have another report that explains the Top 10 Mistakes International Retirees Make.
Stated more simply, just fish in the right pond if you are looking for long-term love. You can find true love in both the Philippines and Thailand if you take your time to get to know someone and you look for red flags along the way. What country you are fishing in will only take you so far. You still have to let time pass to know if someone is right for you.
You should also realize that the country your lover was born in plays a big role in whether or not they can travel around the world with you. Citizens of some countries have a very difficult time traveling because they have to get tourists visas. I have created a report to help you understand this challenge also, The Best Countries to Find Love in Retirement.
Next, David Williams shared that “Some of us suffer from island syndrome. The Philippines is a great place to vacation. But for a guy like me who likes to get in the car and go on a long road trip and experience new places, new restaurants, and new people, the Philippines are a no-go.”
Thanks for sharing David. I hear two different issues in David’s comment. The first is island fever. Island fever is when you feel almost claustrophobic from living on an isolated island. The other issue I hear is America’s love affair with the automobile and driving down wide-open roads that never end.
I will address these two points separately starting with America’s love of automobiles. My father was in the Navy, stationed in Oakland, California, when I was a boy. The only way he could afford to visit family our family in Chicago in the 1960s was by driving.
So I come from a family that loved cars and enjoyed the open road. I remember waking once in the middle of the night when my mother was telling my dad to slow down. My dad was driving at over 100 miles per hour on the open road somewhere between California and Chicago. They had no speed limits back then.
I heard my dad reply to my mother, “The reason we bought a station wagon with a 383-Hemi is so we can get back to Chicago quicker by driving at night when there are no other cars on the open road.” It was about 2 AM. The sky was filled with stars you would never see if you lived near city lights.
David is right, there are no wide open roads in the Philippines where you can experience your love of driving a car on the wide-open road. Instead, many ex-pats don’t even own cars in the Philippines. Ex-pats mainly ride scooters, small buses called Jeepneys, tricycle motorcycle taxis, and ferries from island to island. If you want to continue your love affairs with cars in the Philippines, you are probably barking up the wrong tree.
Now, I have never experienced Island fever myself, but a friend that lives in Hawaii says it is real. But, unlike Hawaii, the Philippines have over 7000 islands that are near each other. Some islands are so small they don’t even have cars. But many islands do have automobiles.
And, all of the islands in the Philippines that have cars, also have ferry ports to adjacent islands. You can drive your car or motor scooter right up onto the ferry port take your vehicle to another island. Technically, you can drive from one end of the Philippines to the other by using this ferry network.
I do agree that the Phillippines are not as car-friendly as other countries like the United States or Australia. But if you love to experience new places, new restaurants, and new people, when the road ends in front of you, you just need to drive your car up onto a ferry to a series of islands that never seem to end. Thanks for sharing that thought with us David.
Okay, before I share the next reason that the Philippines are a struggle as compared to other places, I will point out that the previous video already shared three problems face when living in the Philippines.
First, I mentioned that you need to think about where to live in the Philippines if your health is a concern for you. Many parts of the Philippines are a long way from a hospital that you might need to save your life in an emergency.
Second, I mentioned that the infrastructure is not that good in the Philippines, and if you decide to ride a scooter in the Philippines you need to drive slowly so you have time to adjust or stop if you encounter a large pothole in the street or other obstruction.
Third, I mentioned how the local food will be unfamiliar to many of you and you might be tempted to eat in budget-busting expensive tourist style restaurants in the Philippines if you don’t know or learn how to cook.
Finally, Andrew A left the following comments, “Marijuana is highly illegal in The Philippines so it’s not for me! The women there are certainly willing to hook up with a western guy. But that’s not all I’m looking for in life.” Andrew is right.
Not just marijuana sales, but also marijuana cultivation and use is illegal in the Philippines. Drug dealers are executed in the Philippines, yet marijuana and meth remain commonly available in the Philippines.
In my report, Top 10 Mistakes International Retirees Make, I explain why you should stay away from drugs and prostitution. That report explains that by associating criminals, you are opening yourself up to the highest safety risk that you might become isolated and preyed upon by the criminal element that exists all over the world, even in your home country.
This is an audience-directed channel and audience-directed eBook membership. That means I create videos and eBooks, based upon audience suggestions and questions in the video comments. I keep a lot of your suggestions made in the comments and I cover them as my way of thanking you for keeping my channel and eBook membership interesting to Vagabonders all over the World.
Make sure to grab a free copy of my eBook, How I Fired My Boss and Traveled the World for 15+ Years. Thanks for reviewing Don’t retire in the Philippines until you watch this.
This is Dan of Vagabond Awake, the Youtube Channel for VagabondBuddha.com. The world is your home, what time will you be home for dinner?