Moving to a new Asian country is daunting and unless you’ve had the luxury of exploring it from corner to corner, where you choose to settle can either be a blessing or your undoing. This article will highlight some of the common pitfalls foreigners encounter here and how best to avoid them when it comes to picking where to plant your feet.
Have girlfriend, won’t travel!
Most foreigners will jump the gun, opting to find themselves a spouse or girlfriend first before deciding to settle in the Philippines. some get lucky and find the perfect partners, others end up broke and homeless on the sidewalk. It’s an all too common occurence and although you might not like to hear this, the reason it happens is usually ignorance and gullability on the part of the foreigner.
Most Filipina’s searching for a boyfriend or spouse live either with, or in close proximity to their family. Filipino families are a tight knit unit that support each other and often a house will home three or four generations. Even if they don’t, odds are they will take you back there and if you’re looking to settle here, you’re going to have inlaws to deal with, often a stome throw away and sometimes even under the same roof.
While it’s great to have family around, the physical location of the family may not suit your specific needs. If you’re older and require ready access to medicines and doctors, need high speed internet, want to go surfing, or simply hike up a mountain, these locations may not tick any of your boxes, company aside.
Discuss this with your partner and opt for a location that suits both of you. If she really cares for you, moving to new area won’t be a deal breaker and mom, dad and the family can come and visit. My advice to new arrivals would be to spend some time on your own first, travel, perhaps with a friend, and get to know the areas.
Got that seaside bug?
Most foreigners do, and although its fantastic to spend time at the coast, living there comes with a list of drawbacks. Mostly heat, heat and more heat. If you opt for a busy area like Subic or San Juan prices for properties are going to be prohibitive, with seaside ground in popular areas fetching on average six times more than property situated inland. Busy area’s are, well…, by definition, busy. Expect a fast paced life, jam packed shops and malls, doctors, and packed public transport. And then the holiday season comes…
As I said, great for the holidays and the occasional getaway, but if you’re looking for peace and tranquility, mountains and the sea within close proximity, consider inland. Higher levels of humidity also rust literally everything metalic in your home, and will eventually eat into your motorbikes and cars. Petty I know, but forewarned is forearmed.
Night clubs and bars proliferate the busier areas, and if this is your scene, then the coast is a great choice, but the clubs come at a cost, both financially and healthwise. With large expat communities in the bigger areas, drinking with your mates can literally be the death of you, as Filipino’s can be forgiven for assuming the only hobby foreigners have is drinking. Alcohol is cheap here, ridiculously so, and an easy trap to fall into. Also worth keeping in mind is that the bars are frequented by pretty young girls on the prowl for their next drunken victim (husband/boyfriend).
The Philippines is also prone to typhoons (usually October through November) and living on the coast exacerbates the risk of flooding, accompanied by the risk of tsunamis from tectonic plate movement. Living in paradise comes at a price, but it’s one you learn to deal with and work around.
On the subject of storms
We often go years without suffering a direct hit from a typhoon with winds in excess of 200km thats hell bent on either drowning you are blowing your house away. Then, just as you get complacent, wham.