Expat Community > Philippines

lblampman
Joined 2016
Posts: 266

Off to see more of the world

7 years ago

Warning: this will be long!

I've lived here just over 1-1/2 years, moving here in October 2015 and getting married in November? 2015. For the past 10 months we've been surrogate parents for a grand niece and grand nephew (now 8 and 6), who are now going to live with their mother (for the first time ever). That sets the stage for: we're leaving the Philippines. Something I didn't expect to do.

Part of it is the desire to travel and explore but a larger portion is frustration with the Philippines. Quite frankly, I need a change for awhile.

I grew up as a military kid, moving a lot, and living all over the US and Europe, so I'm very adaptable but I've met my match here. I cannot seem to overcome my frustration with not having basic things like water, electricity, Internet, clean air, and some peace. The last two don't exist at all, while only two of the first three items seem to coexist at any given time.

I also need to find some space, there are just too many people jammed into every place I go, whether that's on the road, in an office, in a shop, or at the store. It seems there is a (long) queue for everything. I've always thought of myself as a people person but I've also never lived anywhere where I couldn't get away from all the humanity when I wanted to.

I am not bitter or angry, and I certainly would not tell anyone to not visit the Philippines and check it out. I've enjoyed my time here but it's time to move on.

I certainly think there is somewhere in the Philippines that I would enjoy, and that may come later, right now I just need to "get out of Dodge" and change things up.

My wife and I are leaving on April 18th and flying to Kuala Lumpur. We'll travel north from there to visit Penang and will be in Malaysia for 5 days. We'll continue to head north into Thailand and will make our way to Chang Mai, where I've booked an apartment for one month. After that, who knows? The plan is to travel for the next two or three years on a slow moving basis, staying in each place one to three months. Depending on world events we do have plans to visit Europe and northern South America.

My hope is that we'll find "the place" we want to call home along the way, or at least a place (or places) we want to stay for extended periods.

Thanks to everyone here for a fine forum and I'll try to check-in on occasion to see what's happening in the Philippines.

All the best,

Les

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