I tried but I just can't stomach the idea of living here permanently.
This started as a reply to a recent post but I have to ask if others feel like I do.
I arrived here last June with the intention of getting married to my Filipina fiance and staying long enough to see if I wanted to retire here. My wife and I met in a different country and fell in love. She returned to the Philippines in 2023 and I followed last year. I had been here a couple of times before but only for short periods to visit with her while I continued to work and save in the other country. My job ended suddenly last year. I had planned to stay for a couple more years to save more, but life is like a box of chocolates, no?
Anyway, for me, I have a decent income post retirement. Enough to live like 2 kings here. But in Arizona where I hope to live eventually, it's probably lower middle class. I have my own property there and will put up a modular home when I get there. It won't be a luxury life but it will be on my terms and in a place where I already know the lay of the land. We are just now starting the CR-1 visa process. I really hope that it will be approved. I know it's gonna take some time and I'm prepared for that. What I'm not prepared for is to live here forever. I thought I might like retiring here but, alas, I can't stomach the thought of permanent residency here. The crumbling infrastructure, lack of decent quality food and dairy, the absolute horror show that is traffic here and the glaring fact that most Filipinos are satisfied with mediocre is more than I can take. I spent 35 minutes the other day in an appliance store just to buy a $25.00 coffee maker. In the beginning, I thought that the business owners didn't care about customer satisfaction. Now I realize that maybe they do and maybe they don't. What they care more about though, is preventing employee theft. And making everything difficult is a way of preventing theft so screw the consumer and their feelings. Employees aren't incentivized in any way to make the customer happy so consequentally there is no such thing as customer service.
I'm doing my best to stay busy in the meantime. I enrolled with my wife in a certification course so I could occupy my time and mind and we have met some great people. But at the end of the day, I'm just spinning my wheels waiting for the day that I can see this place in my rear view mirror.
It's delicious to deny the naysayers the opportunity to tell me that "If you don't like it here, then just leave!" I've read that so many times that I want to retch. But the joke's on you, I do plan to leave just as soon as I can. And if it takes too long for the visa process, we're thinking of relocating to somewhere else in SEA to bide our time. If at the end of the process, she is denied the visa, we'll deal with it and find a permanent home. But not in the Philippines.
Those of you who are saying that I won't find a better country where both my Filipina wife & I can live are too narrowminded to debate with.