Retire in Philippines NO WAY

i can understand why retiring here in Pinas is a NO NO for you. the recent calamities that has struck luzon is not that common. what happened was totally unexpected. true, luzon experiences rainfalls all year round, but not that heavy as what have happened few weeks ago due to typhoon ondoy (ketsana) and typhoon pepeng (parma) and now tyhpoon ramil (lupit). [we have local names of typhoon by the way...the ones in parentheses are their international names. and we kinda name the typhoons in alphabetical order...]

i am living in a rural area in Mindanao. typhoons aren't common here, nor heavy rainfalls. if i was in manila that very day typhoon ondoy struck, i would also say almost the same as you do, "i am not going to retire in manila/luzon, probably".

but despite all the calamities (never ending wars between terrorists, typhoons, landslides, earthquakes, etc)...i love my country. Philippines is the best place in the whole world for me.

i am happy that you visited my country. hope you enjoyed your stay here.

Gadget from has written 1,020 comments

To retire, a person needs to relate to a country. I say NO for me, knowing that someone relates to me, if they identify as feeling the same on many issues, then following me is a good option. Sadly everyone wants everyone to agree to be the same.

I have retired here in the Philippines for 7 years after having worked in the country for 3 years for an American company. I found it easy to adapt to the country given the American influences and language. I live in Subic bay/ Olongapo area and our weather is moderate. We get some heavy rains but nothing that is more than an inconvenience http://www.amazon.com/Reinvent-Your-Retirement-Yourself-Philippines/dp/1453663622/ref=sr_1_1?s=gatewayandie=UTF8andqid=1285256314andsr=8-1.

It is true that last year (2009) we had a lot of typhoons in the Philippines, 9 to be precise. But this year we had only one and that was in the very beginning of this infamous season. Some say it is because of the influence of El Niño but I sense it's more a coincidence. This year all typhoons went to China, Taiwan and a couple in the direction of Japan. We were simply lucky.

Look, if the typhoon season bothers some expats, it is during that time Summer in the Western world. At least 30 of the expats here stay 6 months here en 6 months in their country of origin. This way you'll maximize the possibility of living an endless Summer.

Greetings from Puerto Galera, Mindoro, Philippines
Dimitri