I gave it a shot, but I just can't accept the idea of living here for good.
This started as a comment on a recent post, but I want to ask if anyone else feels the way I do.
I came here last June to marry my Filipina fiancée and to stay long enough to figure out whether I wanted to retire here. My wife and I met in another country and fell in love. She went back to the Philippines in 2023 and I followed her last year. I'd been here a few times before, but only for short visits to see her, since I was still working and saving in that other country. Then last year my job suddenly ended. I'd planned to stay another couple of years and save more, but life is like a box of chocolates, right?
Anyway, I have a decent retirement income. Enough to live like two kings here. But in Arizona, where I want to live eventually, it's probably lower middle class. I have my own land there and plan to put a modular home on it when I get there. It won't be a life of luxury, but it'll be on my terms, in a place where I already know how things work. We've only just started the CR-1 visa process. I really hope it gets approved. I know it'll take time and I'm ready for that. What I'm not ready for is living here forever. I thought I might like retiring here, but alas, I just can't accept the idea of settling here permanently. The crumbling infrastructure, the lack of decent food and dairy, the absolute horror show that is the traffic, and the painfully obvious fact that most Filipinos are content with mediocre are more than I can handle. The other day I spent 35 minutes in an appliance store just to buy a $25 coffee maker. At first I thought business owners didn't care about customer satisfaction. Now I figure maybe they do, maybe they don't. What they care about more is stopping employee theft. Making everything a hassle is how they stop theft, so the customer and their feelings can go to hell. Employees have zero incentive to make customers happy, so customer service simply doesn't exist.
I'm trying to keep busy in the meantime. I signed up for a certification course with my wife to fill my time and keep my mind working, and we've met some great people. But at the end of the day, I'm just spinning my wheels, waiting for the day I see this place in my rearview mirror.
It's satisfying to deny the naysayers the chance to tell me, “If you don't like it here, just leave!” I've seen that line so many times it makes me want to throw up. But guess what, I really do plan to leave as soon as I can. And if the visa process drags on too long, we're thinking of moving somewhere else in Southeast Asia to wait it out. If her visa gets denied at the end of it all, we'll deal with it and find a place to settle. But it won't be the Philippines.
Those of you saying I won't find a better country where both my Filipina wife and I can live are too narrow-minded to bother debating.
