This article below was written by our good member and friend, JJ. He has many stories to tell about his 40 + years in the Philippines.
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We are blessed with clear blue water all around our island. The islands itself has about 50% more land and population than Guam, to the east of a few hours by plane. The water is blue, often calm and usually warm. We often go to the sea and swim even in January. I have to admit I like water warm, nearly like bath water, but my family really enjoys a swim in the sea nearly any time of the year.
The weather from September to January, including all the BER months, is usually warm during the day with cool evenings. We often need a sweater or long sleeved shirt in the evenings. The weather is great, and the weather is tropical but not hot. We have rainly season from May to October and we have a much more dry season from November to April. Of course we have some hot days scattered in the BER months, and some rainy days scattered into the dry season, but by and large, we have four seasons. We do not have any cold weather, but we have warm and wet, warm and dry, hot and wet and hot and dry.
I have been into and out of The Philippine Islands since the very early 1970s. I have ducked under cover for many storms, but overall the weather is pleasant and very comfortable. We do use an air conditoner from late February to early September. From Mid September to late February, and sometimes into March, we sleep very comfortably without an air conditoner. We open the windows, turn on a fan and sleep soundly. Even our grandson, who likes cool weather, sleeps soundly in our humble province during the BER months and in January.
I was introduced to the Philippine Archipeligo by the US Military. I was introduced to the lsland of Marinduque by my wonder wife of nearly 40 years.She was born and raised on the island, went to college in Manila and had been working in the USA when we men in the mid 1970s. We were reassigned to The Philippines in the mid 1980s. During the time we were in The Philippines courtesy of Uncle Sam, we often visited the lsland of Marinduque, espically during Holy Week. If the islands had been closer to our military home, we would have visited more often.
Our islands offers famtastic scuba diving and many military ships can be found close to the island, and some are Japanese and some are of American origin. I am not a scuba diver, but I have heard from government officials that the ships are in water levels reasonable for exploration.
Fresh seafood abounds and we have plenty of seafood to grace our table most of the year. Even with red tide and other problems involving sea food in Manila, we can still chomp down on seafood nearly year around. I really enjoy the huge prawns, big shrimp and clams. Oysters are also fairly cheap. Many local meals can be had for 250 to 350 peso a meal at some of the better eating places on the island. The options seem to get better as the years move on. A few years ago, there were very few nice places to eat. Over the year, good places to eat have come on the scene.
We enjoy going out to eat in various restaurants for special occasions. We have a special eating place about 10 kilometers away from our home. That ;place is located in Gasan, Marinduque and has been owned and operated by the same family for over 20 years. Recently the original owner went back to Austria in Eurpope, and the food is not quite as good as before, but still the food is worth trying and spending a night out on the town. A second option is in the town proper, Boac, Marinduque. The eatery is located in a four story building, and we often climb two or three flights of stairs to eat good meals. Both places allow us to eat out with a crowd on a budget. We
eat out and enjoy it. We expect good service and we usually get what we expect. Living on an island that is surrounded by ocean is obviously a seafood lovers paradise. The trick is to find someone who can prepare the local seafood in a style we enjoyed while in the USA.
Seafood is not all we find, but it is a real hit. The beef is a bit tough but full of flavor. The pork is as tender as if it were purchased in any Texas market. I really enjoy the pork in the two places where we often eat. We also experiment with several other eating places and some have alos hit our ”return to later” list.
My wife and I are an average retired couple. We have a grandson who is four, and we travel overseas with our bundle of energy, the fireball that keeps our lives in balance and keeps us both feeling young. He seems to enjoy both Manila and Marinduque and seems to have adapted well to our overseas travel.
Overall we spend about $1200 a month for our traveling life style. Much of our monthly expences includes a trip, door to door, from our home in Marinduque to our apartment in Manila When we stay in Marinduque for the month, we can
count of spending about $1200 without worry about curbing our desires and denting our budget. When in Manila most of the time, we estimate our overall cost of livng would be about 1200 to $1500. My wife leans to $1500 but I do
try to exercise some restraint in Manila and try for $1200. Realisticlaly we probably meet in between..We own our Marinduque home and our appartment in Manila has an overall cost of about $200 a month. Of course if we were to figure expences in both places, we would probably be bouncing in at about $1600 to $1700. Stange accounting practices, right? We do not cook much in Manila as I love catching up on my dining out and Manila is filled with decent places to eat. Most people do not split their time between two places in the slands of paradise, so I am trying to give my forum friends an overall idea what living in either place would cost on a monthly basis, with normal iving conditions.
Medical care is not a strong suit on the islands of Marinduque, but every day problems are cheap to treat and there are adequate doctors to treat the more common medical problems. I usualy take my medications in with me for the duration of my trip. If I were to stay there year around I would allow another $500 for medications and health care. Good medical care is available in Manila and we are not far from several great medical treatment facilities….
We have rare visitors from the international scene. We do have a fare number of visitors from the domestic scene. During Holy Week we find that the overall population on the island swells to more than double what it is throughout the rest of the year. With the swelling of the poblulation comes a modest percentage in the increases of prices for food. The streets become more crowded and traffic far heavier during the Holy Week festivities.
I have four pensions that come in with regularity throughtout the month. Because of that I do not depend on any type of business. I have however had several business adventures in Marinduque. We have seen a tricycle business and a jeepney operated very close to our home, [by a tenant and a neice]. We have seen a sari-sari store run and seen the goods and bads with that type of business. We have seen an ice business work and we have had rental units as income. We have also see quail run as a good business and we know the ins and outs of that business. We have also raised vegetables. All these businesses added modestly to our bottome line.
What really did add well to our bottom line was income over the internet. This involved use of a vonage line and having my daughter collect the money for funeral goods and services that we sold. We feel that having a viable internet business was able to provide us more than enough money where we could have lived well and not dipped into our savings. We would have had to use or savings at times, but these savings could later be replenished with sales of goods and services. My Filipina wife felt we had more than enough income and she did not like the restraints of having an internet business in the islands of paradise so we let much of our internet go on hold for the past few months.
I have an American friend in the southern islands who is able to support his family of six with income obtained from the internet and exporting a few products from the southern islands, where he lives. His income is impressive even by American standards. I have several friends who are involved in MLM and so well enough to provide for themselves in the islands. I have a friend who was a wed designer and he did well enough in the southern islands to make a diving for his wife and two daughters.
I think it goes without saying that living in the islands of paradiseis far cheaper than living in the USA. I can not compare my life or lifestyle with Europe or Canada, but it is far cheaper than Texas. Texas is one of the lower cost of livng states in the USA. I will let other menmbers of the forum compare Japan, Okinawa, Thailand and Tiawan to The Islands of Paradise.
Some of my favorite times are spent taking the family on a motor trip to various areas on the island. Most of these trips are done with a rented jeepney. We go to various distant places on our beloeve island. Some of the people we take have never been away their home more than walking distance. For them to go to the other side of the islands for swimming or some other water activity. We have beatuiful white sand beaches. falls, hot springs and many other resorts that seem to be great entertainment for our extended family. We can do one of our motor trips and take a jeepney full of our extended family. bring along food and spend less than $100 for the whole day, encluding food, transportation and entry fees. We really look forward to these trips and the family seems to relish the time going, enjoying the resort and returning to our home area.
We can, if we look for it, find almost everything we want and all of our needs,at our local market. When we do lack for certain itmes, we have vendors, sukis, that will order items from the main land for us. These special orders provide the vendors with added income and guaranted sales, and it permits us a steady flow of items we relish for our hybrid life style that we enjoy on the island.
We can find many good local native dishes for a very low cost. We can eat out in a good native restaurant for about 40 to 100 pesos,depending on how low on the native scale we care to partake. My wife often comes back from the market with prepared food. We sometimes can not make the food as cheap as we can get the food already prepared from a vendor in the local market..
On our island, there is no shortage of places to go or things to see. Beaches, parks, places to eat, off island day trrips…. lots of different items depending on our mood and tastes at the time.
This may not be the retirement haven for everyone but it sure has been a great wonder for my wife, daughter, son, grandson over the last few years. The islands may not be perfect, but it is comfortable. Paradise may not always be perfect, but it is always paradsie. I am not trying to sell anything, and hopefully some of the group may try Marinduque on for size and see if the gloves fit. We may be the Holy Week capitol of the islands. It is the butterfly capitol of the islands and it is noted for frequent outages, but as time goes on , the power is more dependable . We expect our planes rides to resume soon. We have learned to deal with the weather. We love the people and our province is the second safest and most peaceful in the country. Come and take your shoes off and try out the island on for size.
JJ
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