As for the retirement plan orientation the whole idea to experience Philippine yourself for at least a month, get to know some of the inner circle foreigner here who had been staying and operating a business here for many years, get tips, first hand information that "look good" retirement advertisement don't tell you.
I have friend from Singapore who wanted to retire here, I emphasized to retire here and having vacation here is two different matter, in vacation you enjoy the the country side for a few day and you back to your country as to retire here permanently. It is a different ball game you need to at least physically and mentally prepare for the unseen and hidden cost. Like me a Singapore city boy came to Gamu and had to keep remaind myself that the Philippines is a third world country and the infrastructure that you enjoy and probably take for granted back home, is nowhere near as efficient or dependable. Now, when I talk about infrastructure I’m referring to transportation, public utilities like electricity and water, telephone, internet and mobile phone reception and access and not to mention the postal service.
While all is widely available in the Philippines it does not always function consistently and in a manner your use to, Murphy Law applies here "what will happen will happens". It is not unusual to have regular black outs, I got to appreciate efficient public service provider in Singapore my last blackout was a decade ago and only last an hour and it a like a big bang, people reacting, complaining and threatened to sue the service provider, government stepping to fine the service provider, the whole communities seems to react with shark feeding frenzy. Over here blackout sometimes last for days but heck life goes on ! The only way to it to get yourself a generator, some common sense contingency plan or you can imagine suffering the tropical heat without a fan !
Public transport seems to have a mind on their own leaves and arrives when it does, no use trying to understand why that’s just what happens just flow with it or get your own wheel. The highways are not like the motorways back home and fitting two cars into a lane is A OK . Bus driver here seems to be fantasie that they are driving a jetliner. Those traffic code you learned back home you can keep in the trash , those double yellow line, zebra crossing , stop sign and red and green traffic light seem imprudent to driver here and do not work unless you are in upscale city like Makati. However, it only works when they policeman around. In Singapore having a telephone landlines is the most reliable but in Philippine remote areas mobile or cell phone coverage is far greater and reliable than land lines.Outside of the major cities high speed internet access is not available I had to satisfies myself with 512k although they have talk about 2 Mbps coming your ways the magical question is WHEN ? The government postal mail located everywhere but your letter seem to be nowhere, on top of that they seems to charges within a charges when you asked why incuured such charges they just say it part of the charges if you want the letter pay the charges. When something marked urgent the package when reached here will be revert back to non urgency, follows what the local do they never send urgent stuff through their government postal mail, no wonder the private company courier service like LBC is the next big thing beside jollie bees So asked yourself can you live without these modern luxuries in your Philippines retirement ? Take the challenge stay for a month and you might like it or break it !
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