A little under four years ago I made a trip to the Philippines that began a love affair with this little island off the Davao Gulf commonly known as Samal Island. It was then that I agreed to purchase land near the White House, with hopes of eventually retiring there. Thus began this blog.

Four years can be a long time. Do I still have intentions to retire on Samal?

That’s not an easy question to answer.

Many things have changed during that time. I’ve had a couple of additional and extended trips to the Island Garden City of Samal. It’s all been documented here, which was the original purpose of this blog. From buying land on Samal, until retirement there.

Some events in my life have naturally been of personal nature, and I don’t feel the need to expound on in a public forum such as this. Other events, such as the realization that the plot of land that we purchased was difficult at best to reach, were just a matter of looking at things in a more practical manner.

My anticipated retirement age has also changed a number of times during that period. Sometimes a little longer, and occasionally much sooner. As of today I have a good idea when that will be, but there are a number of factors, as always, that are out of my control. I will know when the time is, when I do.

So I’ve avoided answering the question long enough, but as you can see, I don’t have a complete answer. If I were to somehow retire today, or soon, it appears to me that I would live in the greater Davao area. At the least, somewhere outside of Davao. That is where I have come to feel comfortable, and where most of my friends and acquaintances are located. Admittedly I have not traveled extensively throughout the Philippines, but I am comfortable with Davao, the people, and what it has to offer. Of course it is close to Samal, and I can visit whenever I desire.

At this time it appears to me that it would be more realistic to look into having a vacation home or bahay kubo on Samal with which to spend time at, much like my friend Kevin plans to do. If I were to need to live on Samal sooner than later, I would prefer to have something closer to the concrete road going from Babak to Penaplata. That makes sense to me, and is still very secluded. Of course I may feel differently down the road a bit.

I’ve met a surprising number of people, both in person and online, that live on Samal, at least part time. Ellen, Uli, Travis and Mae, Jack, Cleo, Matthew, and Angus. Probably more, I apologize if I missed someone. The point is, it can be done and many are doing it. I’m impressed by each and every one of them. A bit envious, too, I might add.

Samal Island holds a very special place in my heart. It remains to be seen if I end up there or not.

Related posts:

1. Observations of a Retired American Living in the Philippines
2. Why Samal Island? Part 1
3. Planning a Trip to Samal Island

If there is one topic that every person moving to the Philippines will have to eventually research, it has to be “what to do about a visa”? There is so much information on this subject that I have no intention to try to tackle it again in this article. No, I have a good idea already which visa I would prefer to get.

I wish it was as simple as figuring out which one you want and/or qualify for. That is complicated in and of itself. The fun only begins when you begin to look into the options. As much as some will tell you not to be concerned about it, it does take some thought and planning if you don’t want to be scrambling later on.

After reading all the articles, checking the immigration website, and pondering my options, I concluded that I’d like to get a 13a Permanent Resident Visa when my time comes. Geez, that is easy, isn’t it? Well, no it isn’t.

I next need to decide whether I want to apply for that prior to moving, through the consulate in San Francisco (consulate that covers Washington State), or wait until I’ve already moved. I’ve read that it is a much easier and quicker process in the States, and you avoid the multiple trips to Manila, assuming you are not living in the area, which I do not intend to do.

Contrary to what I’ve also read, it is likely to cost me more to get the 13a here in the US, as the requirements are much different to do it here than in the Philippines. For one, I need to get medical tests done, Unfortunately, as much I’ve I’ve tried, I cannot get a complete answer as to what is required for the blood work. The definition of “complete” doesn’t mean anything to my clinic. They want to know specifically what they are testing for.

Additionally, there is a requirement for an “in person” interview, which would be quite expensive for me, as I would need to get to San Francisco, probably by plane. Some have said this isn’t required, you can do it over the phone, but I could not get the consulate to confirm that. They said they would schedule the interview after receiving the paperwork, leaving me to wonder if I could do it over the phone, even though I asked specifically.

The consulate does have a list of paperwork requirements. They are different than the Los Angeles consulate, and both are different than that of the Bureau of Immigration site. That also leaves me wondering if I’d be sending in everything needed.

If I decide to get the 13a after moving to the Philippines, it could cost me less (potentially) in dollars/peso but likely will take much longer. As I mentioned the requirements are much different, a lot more paperwork including a petition from my spouse, but the medical tests are also not needed. I’m not sure how many trips I’d need to make to Manila, but several is likely.

I’d really like to get it in advance, if I can work out the logistics and requirements. It would be great if I didn’t need to make a personal appearance in the San Francisco consulate, but I feel that I need to plan on that. If it’s not needed, then that will be a bonus.

I’m sure I’ll get this worked out, as many others have before me. I just wish I knew exactly what is required, but even that seems to change constantly. So, I’ll just have to plow through it and hope for the best. It’ll get done one way or another. I think that is a mantra I need to get used to.

No related posts.

Well this will have to serve as my post this week, because of the need to have spent so much time on this unplanned project.

The Journey to Samal Shop is offline, or under going maintenance.

If you try to access it the message should say something like this :

We are currently performing some scheduled maintenance.
We will be back as soon as possible. Please check back soon.

I wasn’t planning on spending the weekend rebuilding the shop, but the version of Zen Cart that I was running was not only older but getting quite troublesome. Mulitple server changes didn’t seem to help the issue, as it seemed that certain files were difficult to change, etc.

Anyway, I decided to move everything over to OpenCart, which is what I had to planned to do “someday”. OpenCart is an open source ecommerce shopping cart system that is much easier to use and configure (compared to Zen Cart), at least for someone like me that hasn’t spent the time to know these programs in and out.

I have run into a little snag. Well I ran into a few, but I was able to find solutions to all except the current one. I don’t think it will keep me from putting the store back up soon, but I’ll continue to see if I can solve it before I do. OpenCart has a nice support forum that I’ve posted my issue to.

Unfortunately I haven’t added any new products to the shop. I’ve got ideas for that, too, but realistically I’ve only got so much time I can devote to this kind of stuff right at the moment. Now when I’m retired, that’s a different story, and I hope I can do more with these sites.

So that’s been my weekend and the reason for no new post other than this one

10/5/2011 Edited: For what it’s worth I think I have it working. Needs some attention  - maybe a new theme, etc. but should be functional. Let me know if you see anything out of place. FWIW the support forum provided the fix, and my many thanks to them.

Related posts:

1. Journey to Samal Shop
2. iFlash Touch
3. Samal Island Map Print

As I wrote the title of this article it occurred to me that I could be writing about any number of things. A whole lot has happened in my life since I started this blog three years ago, as I suspect would be true with any of you reading this. Time certainly has a way with us. Not always our way, or they way we expected it to be. If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that not much I’ve learned is new except possibly to me.

But the funny thing that happened that I’m referencing in this case is the readership of my blog. I’ve known for some time now that a large percentage of those visiting are from the Philippines. That is not what I expected (if I even had any expectations) when I started this site. I figured that others in my situation of wanting to retire in the Philippines would be interested in the trials and tribulations of my journey to get there. I quickly realized that information about Samal was somewhat scarce, at least back then, so it became a combination of the two. At least from the angle that I am writing.

Recently I’ve reviewed my statistics (thank you Google Analytics) and found that the percentage of visitors from the Philippines had risen to an unbelievable 80% of all those coming to my site. 80% of that 80% are from Davao. Maybe you are not surprised, as this is a blog mostly about an island off the shores of Davao City, but I was sure surprised that it was that high. It made me think and evaluate to some extent. Of course, I must also remember that is just a snapshot of time, and can easily change, but the percentage is very high regardless.

I haven’t really tried to change my point of reference because of this knowledge of my visitors. I’m not really sure I should. I do think that ultimately I may need to make some changes in some aspects of the site though. The Journey to Samal Shop, for instance, is not really geared to the Philippines audience at all. Some of the ads are not either. Content is another story.

It’s hard to say if some of the readership from the Philippines is interested in a outsiders point of view. Just because the visitor arrives from a Philippine address does not make them pilipino necessarily, either. I don’t think I’ll change my approach that much with regards to the content of my articles, but maybe keep in mind more as I’m writing them that I am not just writing for Americans.

So you may see some changes around here over time. Then again, they might not be things that you would notice either. Either way that’s the latest on the Journey to Samal, which BTW to me has become a metaphor for my trials and tribulations to retire in the Philippines, wherever and whenever that may end up being.

Related posts:

1. Living on Samal Island
2. Why Samal Island? Part 1
3. Samal Island Websites

I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore. I could be referring to the economy, politics, life in general, any number of things (that clip from Network is as relevant today as when the movie came out), but in this instance I’m referring to
what seems to be the nonsense that I keep reading over and over again on posts/articles, mainly from expats living in the Philippines. For some reason many seem to enjoy spreading the word that things are not cheaper in the Philippines. I don’t live there, yet, but let me tell you this, in case you are confused – IT IS CHEAPER TO LIVE IN THE PHILIPPINES.

I will give them this, there are some things that can cost more there, but even then, what is their reference? As an example, lots of things in Seattle cost me more than in Spokane, and vice versa for that matter. Overall, Seattle is more expensive to live in than Spokane though, and that is one of the reasons I moved here 20 years. Not the only one, though.

Anyway, back to the Philippines…the idea that I can not seem to get my head around is that if you want to move to the Philippines and live a foreign lifetstyle, you could easily spend as much or more in the Philippines. This includes, I suppose, buying many imported goods and foods, eating out often, probably nicer foreign foods, and generally living beyond your means. Why would anyone move to the Philippines if they want to maintain the exact lifestyle they are currently living? I’m under the impression that you would move there, or anywhere for that matter, because there is something about the place that appeals to you and you want to embrace.

I hear the term, “Live Like a King”, and honestly, I don’t know what that means. That is often the idea that is debunked in these articles. You will not live like a king, and you are not moving to paradise. I feel that is probably good warning for anyone without any prior knowledge of the area, and probably true for any place. If you are planning to move to the Philippines, and never been there, then you are undoubtably in for rude awakening as to what you will encounter. I’m just assuming most people are smart enough to have visited, and at the very least done some research on a place the are expecting to live.

The major expenses, at least for me, are housing, food and possibly healthcare in the future. If you can not find housing, food and healthcare cheaper in the Philippines, you are not trying. If you are living on a fixed income, and can not make it go further in the Philippines, you are not trying. Given most of us will spend what we have, but that can and will go further there, and it doesn’t take a lot of effort to have it do so. I’m sure there are those that can not figure it out, but for most sensible people, it is not difficult at all.

It is possible to live VERY cheaply in the Philippines, if one wants or needs to. Granted most foreigners would have a difficult time living that basic of a lifestyle, but it is possible, whereas here you would be on the street at that level of income. There is plenty of good, cheap food available everywhere, as well as living quarters.

I’ve learned a lot from all the different writers I’ve read. I realize that I have a lot more to learn about living in the Philippines, too. I’ll keep visiting and reading until I can gain the real life experience, and I’m sure that will be much different than I actually imagined, but I DO know that I WILL live cheaper in the Philippines.

Related posts:

1. Retire in the Philippines
2. Frugality and the Philippines
3. The Minnesota Vikings are Dead. Long Live the Vikings!

Sometime last week, not sure exactly when, the server that I was on was moved. I was a client of a Virtual Private Server and my host decided to move for reasons that are beyond this article. Suffice to say that he decided to move to a Developer VE Server, and I’ll let you read all the details, for those of you that understand that stuff.

I consider myself fairly technical, but I guess that’s all relative. When it comes to things like this, I get over my head pretty quick. I don’t know all that RT had to go through to get things working for him and everyone else, but I do know what things we’ve been dealing with for my site.

You may have noticed the lack of the JtS Shop working (more likely you didn’t , some strange characters in the text, and my lack of responding to email. All those issues seem to be resolved at this point.

In addition to the server move and issues, I’ve been out of town. I haven’t really had the time, or the access, to check the site out further than the obvious. I’ll try to do that as the week goes on. If anyone sees anything unusual, please feel free to let me know.

During this time I was spending the holiday weekend at my mom’s in Tucson. The idea was that I’d update her computer to a newer operating system, that among other things would allow me to help her remotely via screen sharing. That plan didn’t go exactly as I had figured.

It’s probably a good thing I went down, because it ended up that her hard drive failed. I probably helped it along with the install, but it definitely is gone. It took about 24 hours with Diskwarrior to figure out that it wasn’t going to come back, but I was able to save almost all of the important data.

I managed to get her back and running again, but she’s booting off an external drive. The iMac that she has is not something that is easy to replace an internal drive, not by any stretch of the imagination. That coupled with the time restraint I was working within required the external drive band aid.

That alone would have been enough, but for some reason the large update files were failing when downloading, and they were taking between 1.5 & 2 hours to download. After about 4 of those failing, I had to find another way. I was finally able to download those overnight to my MacBook and transferred over that way.

So this is just my post to tell you why I didn’t post this week. I expect to get back on track next week. I also plan to start my Bisaya lessons back up. But you can see how my plans have gone recently.

Related posts:

1. Camp Holiday Beach Resort Update
2. Bisaya iFlash Cards Update
3. Playa Azalea Update

As much as I’d like to be able to let commenters provide potentially valuable information related to their products and services, I no longer want to make the decision as to what is spam and what is useful. Increasingly, I’ve been getting comments from those that want to offer one thing or another. Most of these are pretty easy to dismiss, as they have little or nothing to do with this site or Samal Island. Actually, the majority of those are spam filtered before I ever see them. Lately though, I’ve gotten a few that I didn’t know what to do with. If I allow some to promote, why not others?

I’ve tried to be as consistent as possible with moderating these comments. In some cases I’ve offered to supply advertising, but those offers are rarely responded to. So I’ve decided to clear things up with this post. If you’d like to promote your service, product or whatever, then contact me, and if it’s appropriate, we’ll work something out. The obvious exception to this would be the post on Samal Island Resort Directory, as I encourage any updates or missing resort information in the comments there.

I’m not posting any rates, as I’m flexible and each situation stands on its own. I’m open to trades, a one time fee or even a monthly rate. Just let me know what works and I’ll see if I can accommodate. I’d be glad to discuss with you, offline, the stats and demographics of my site. I’ll even offer if I feel there would be any benefit to you advertising here.

If you don’t feel this site warrants a cost to you for advertising, wala’y problema, just don’t post your service, product and contact information in the comments.

I appreciate your cooperation and understanding!

Related posts:

1. Journey to Samal Shop
2. IGaCoS Official Site
3. A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Samal

My friend Ellen has  posted a nice article about the recent developments at Camp Holiday Beach Resort. In my previous post, Camp Holiday Beach Resort, I had mentioned that it was mostly a camping destination. That’s certainly changed since then, as they now have cabins and a hotel.

Two things that stand out to me: 1) the rooms are very affordable & 2) the staff was trained by the personnel at Linmarr Apratelle, which gets excellent reviews from everyone that stays there.

Related posts:

1. Camp Holiday Beach Resort Samal
2. Camp Holiday Resort & Recreation Area
3. Choosing a Resort On Samal Island

It’s been about a week since I made the host/server change. Things seem to be running smoothly, at least from my vantage point.

This is the first time I’ve had to move my WordPress blog and the ZenCart shop. I’d previously had the enjoyment of converting my Blogger blog to WordPress but this was a different procedure. The Blogger conversion had the trifecta of learning/installing WordPress, setting up on a new server, and of course the transfer of all the content from Blogger. It took a lot of time, but it really wasn’t that bad in the end.

This move, as I stated before, was done out of the necessity to finding a more reliable and faster host. So far so good in that respect. I took a different approach this time and instead of going with one of the large, well known economy hosts I decided to try an option that I had seen offered on a site I frequent.

RT Cunningham of Untwisted Vortex fame had recently decided to offer very reasonably priced server space from his VPS (virtual private server) service. His main selling points are (but go to his article to get the full story):

My service. I’m going to be the only person administering your hosting account. I’ll be the guy that checks to make sure the server is running properly, which is something I do everyday already. I’ll be the guy that sets it up or closes it off, whatever the case may be.

No Shutdown. I’m not going to shut you down for using too many resources because you’ve been hit by a popular post at Digg or some other social network. It’s a dedicated VPS, closed off from any shared resources except on the VPS itself. (I may yell and scream and tell you to fix it, but that’s about as far as it needs to go.) The server is optimized in every which way but loose, so I’m not too worried about it — I did it myself.

I wasn’t worried about the shutdown from my previous host. It’s unlikely that I’ll ever have to worry about getting a popular post on Digg. I was concerned about the performance issues I was experiencing and didn’t want to go from host to host to find one that worked. I also could not afford to buy a VPS or dedicated server plan. As much as I hate to admit it, my blog and shop just don’t justify the cost at this time.

So how did it go? The move took a little more than a day to complete but most of that was due to the time difference with RT (but I’m not sure he ever sleeps), and the fact that I was corresponding initially from an email account that was directed to my old server. As soon as I moved my nameservers I lost contact with RT. Took me a few hours to figure that out. The rest of the work consisted of fixing some paths and permissions. That was easy and quick.

I can’t say enough about RT’s service and communication during this move. He was right on top of every issue that came up and not only fixed them promptly, he was very knowledgeable about it all. He walked me through the whole process, before and during, and gave the type of personal service that you are unlikely to find with the large economy hosts.

So to summarize:

• I’m very happy with the speed of the server
• The cost, especially the yearly plan, can’t be beat for VPS
• The service is exceptional

If you are looking for something along this line I’d suggest you give RT a shout. For the sake of transparency, this was an unsolicited article/review. No reimbursement was asked for or given. I didn’t even tell RT I was writing this, so I hope I didn’t misrepresent anything

Related posts:

1. Downtime
2. JtS Update – Server Move, Holiday, etc.
3. journeytosamal.com

Thanks for understanding and sticking in there.

Related posts:

1. Waiting for the Page Load
2. JtS Update – Server Move, Holiday, etc.
3. journeytosamal.com