Richard Dayan
Contributor
I'm with you on that, I'm retired and currently packing for the Philippines. See you there Micko1974.
Best place to live as a retired diver
- Thread starter Todd999
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billgraham
Contributor
Jim nails this. If I want to do THE BEST DIVE IN THE UNITED STATES, (one man's opinion, lol) I'm looking at it right outside my living room window. I put my tanks in the boat, putter across some crystal clear water for less than a minute, and I'm diving one of the most extensive and enormous cave systems around. If I get tired of that one, there are four others right here. Water temp, 68 degrees 365. I'm from New York and I can assure you that the cost of living is far less. You don't have to worry much about crazy people, you're out in the woods, boy!
OP
Todd999
Registered
If my wife was not from Thailand then the Philippines would be the spot in Asia. The Diving is fantastic.
We plan to spent 3-5 months each year living Chiang Mai. a small comfortable spot with an Airport to get to all the great diving in Asia.
RobPNW
Contributor
Curious, if you're in the central area, does that make getting home insurance significantly easier?
Jonah Kowall
Registered
Lots of haters on Florida diving. Agreed the keys are trashed where the boats go. Thankfully there is plenty of untouched deeper stuff which is great. If you dove Boynton or Delray the reefs are fantastic and healthy. Happy to share footage. West Palm has a lot of nice stuff as well. Healthy and full of life. Find decent reefs in deeper parts of pompano and Deerfield.
If you want to hunt there are lots of places to do that too. Lobstering is still good if you like that.
Caves don't interest me since I go for the life.
Yes it's not cheap at all and insurance sucks. Price of paradise. Been living here for 15yrs.
If you want to hunt there are lots of places to do that too. Lobstering is still good if you like that.
Caves don't interest me since I go for the life.
Yes it's not cheap at all and insurance sucks. Price of paradise. Been living here for 15yrs.
Failed captcha
Contributor
I know a good builder in Moalboal area. I was living in Cordova (on Mactan Island) when Odette hit us and destroyed my house. We were in the eye of the storm long enough to go outside and enjoy the calm. Anyway, the eye also passed over Moalboal and while it did do a lot of damage, most people did not lose their roofs.
So I came to live here in Moalboal and I walk to go diving in the morning carrying my gear. I don't pay much money for anything, My wife owns the land we live on and we don't owe anything for the house. It's more expensive than most houses around and still under 100k US all in. That's more than enough to cover the visa if you're not married to a Filipina.
I figure we'll probably have a destructive typhoon every 5-10 years so I keep some money set aside for that. My vehicle is a Suzuki DA64 "multicab". I can own it but I let my wife own that too, it cost less than 3k US dollars to buy it from a dealer who gets them from Japan and rebuilds them. I spend another 300-400 dollars a year fixing damage as I drive it like I stole it. It's ok on gas.
I don't have any insurance for anything, I'm careful and I just keep savings set aside. Food can be cheap but we like good food, so I drive to Cebu City and shop at a big box store called S&R and we spend around 700 dollars a month to feed 4.
There are regular power outages so I have an ecoflow home power station and I can connect a solar panel to it if there's a storm so we can have an aircon at night and keep our butter cold. I had to connect my 900 meter long water line myself, it was a bitch to do all that work and the hoses cost me around 500 dollars US. I connected it to a cubic meter tank and a pump for water pressure in the house.
I'm planning to install solar for the house when I can afford it. We keep two months supply of most food items and and put a lot of thought into it so as not to end up having to waste any of it. We go to a local market every few days for fresh veggies and fruit. I have a chest freezer because I like meat. I have fast fiber internet for around 30 US dollars a month.
I don't find it difficult at all to live here. Filipinos are good people and you don't need to learn another language. I have zero regrets about living here. I didn't even regret it when I watched my roof fly away in December 2021.
So I came to live here in Moalboal and I walk to go diving in the morning carrying my gear. I don't pay much money for anything, My wife owns the land we live on and we don't owe anything for the house. It's more expensive than most houses around and still under 100k US all in. That's more than enough to cover the visa if you're not married to a Filipina.
I figure we'll probably have a destructive typhoon every 5-10 years so I keep some money set aside for that. My vehicle is a Suzuki DA64 "multicab". I can own it but I let my wife own that too, it cost less than 3k US dollars to buy it from a dealer who gets them from Japan and rebuilds them. I spend another 300-400 dollars a year fixing damage as I drive it like I stole it. It's ok on gas.
I don't have any insurance for anything, I'm careful and I just keep savings set aside. Food can be cheap but we like good food, so I drive to Cebu City and shop at a big box store called S&R and we spend around 700 dollars a month to feed 4.
There are regular power outages so I have an ecoflow home power station and I can connect a solar panel to it if there's a storm so we can have an aircon at night and keep our butter cold. I had to connect my 900 meter long water line myself, it was a bitch to do all that work and the hoses cost me around 500 dollars US. I connected it to a cubic meter tank and a pump for water pressure in the house.
I'm planning to install solar for the house when I can afford it. We keep two months supply of most food items and and put a lot of thought into it so as not to end up having to waste any of it. We go to a local market every few days for fresh veggies and fruit. I have a chest freezer because I like meat. I have fast fiber internet for around 30 US dollars a month.
I don't find it difficult at all to live here. Filipinos are good people and you don't need to learn another language. I have zero regrets about living here. I didn't even regret it when I watched my roof fly away in December 2021.
Failed captcha
Contributor
And if anyone does come, bring seeds from Thailand or California, or wherever please. If you don't know what I mean, I'm not talking to you.
I got you, brudda.
MyBuddy
Contributor
Which Gainesville? Florida, Georgia or Texas?
Don’t forget Virginia.
billgraham
Contributor
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