⌛ Earthship Green Home in Philippines ??

Good Luck Rich. My only comment is that, lovely as they are, Thai Girls aren't Filipinas.
Kenny

 

Good luck in Thailand might be a lot better conditions if you have set your mind on building your dream house (and keeping it), Philippines should have a good hard look how the Thai are able to draw the retinee market to them. Lot of people who used to go to France etc seem now to retire to Thailand. Pitty the babyboomers are all retiring now and they got lots of money to spend somewhere.

 

Thanks for the well wishes, Kenny and Arie. I think you will see a lot of baby boomers retiring to the Philippines as well as Thailand in the near future. Baby boomer will need relatively deep pockets to legally retire in Thailand, however.

To do it legally you need to show 800,000 baht (about $23,500 USD) a year income to qualify for the Retirement Visa. That will probably eliminate anyone who wants to LEGALLY retire on social security only. Having said that, the key word is legally. There are ways to stay in country making a lot less than that amount.
I'm two months shy of age 67 -- girls are not that high a priority for me -- Being a diabetic with a heart condition, I'm more likely to try and photograph them than become their ATM's if you know what I mean.

 

besides the women I can not see why the average pensioners would want to go through the hassle of building up a life in the Philipines (unless they got some ties to the country), other places seem more 'plug and play' if you got a good pension.

I am convinced as a country the Philippines are not knowing and serving the huge western pensioner market as they should, while the money is badly needed. There is no risk in providing aging people with at least the security to be able to build their own home in their own name and let them have a lot. Exporting caretakers by the thousands while they could be creating jobs at home.

well that is my two cents, maybe I am to negative

 

Chiang Mai, Thailand

It is a wonderful place but as I lived in Bangkok for a few years. But never forget you are a Farang which means you are an outsider. They will take your money with the same smile that they greet you with. But it is plastic if there is a problem the Thai's will take care of the Thai's you will be left in the cold. The Government has always been unstable. That part of Asia is always just a match away from going up in smoke.

You want to take western ideas to Asia nice plan. But you will have to import everything form the west the materials that are available aren't going to meet your requirements. The cost of importing makes these projects usually out of the question.

Really moving to Asia is not as simple as it appears. You are talking apples and oranges and with out being there for a long period of time you are setting yourself up for a failure..

As much as everyone here would like to tell you everything they know. It is not a substitute for experience that you will need to survive. Really just go take your time don't rush into anything. I tell you this for hindsight. this western stick to your Guns way of thinking will get in trouble.

 

Thanks for the info, Teacher. Actually, I have no desire whatsoever to live in Bangkok. I've already came to the conclusion that everyone there feeds off the Farang, starting at the airport when you arrive.

I plan to retire in Chiang Mai, far north of Bangkok, where about 20,000 other Farang already live. Weather is sufficiently moderate there that there is no need to go out and build any sort of earthship type home.

My primary reason for moving there will be to photograph all the visually exotic places, temples, things like that, including the hill people. If I tire of that lifestyle, I may very well drift back to the Philippines. Time will tell. I do not expect to even buy a home there -- my initial plans are to rent.

I spent a year in Vietnam in the war and now I would like to visit some of those places to see how they have change. Cambodia is right next door and i have always dreamed of photographing the sites around Angkor Wat ruins.

 

You are not negative you have just hit the nail right on the head. The philippines is making it so difficult to retire here that they are in the process of screwing themselves over for good! Even the price of tourist visas and the difficult process for a resident visa they will soon find their retirees and tourists going elsewhere. Maylasia for example is welcoming tourists and potential retirees. On arrival if you are about 50 or older if you tell them you are planning to retire and checking the area out they will give you a 10yr multiple entry visa free of charge! Yes free of charge they want us unlike here where we must pay extraordinary amounts for the priveledge to spend our foreign currencies here. Will they never learn?

 

What

 

Never had a problem about prostitution

I was never a tourist in Thailand. As far as the police go in Thailand it's who pay's the most whither there is even a case or not. I was married to a Thai and ran a business there at first we went back and forth form Thailand mainly stayed in America because the ex-wife didn't want to live in Thailand. The real truth was she just wanted a green card after three years of marriage and she was permanent resident and no longer need me to stay in the states. Divorce knocked on my door once again.

That was okay! So she stayed there and I stayed in Thailand. The reason I ended up in the Philippines is because of things that happened to me in Thailand. Which is another very long story. But if I compare the Philippines to Thailand. a lot less has happened to me in the Philippines. I have six years now with my Filipina even with the problems I have had with the Philippines, she is well worth it to me..

Every place in Asia has its problems when it comes to foreigners trying to live there. It seems to always be the same problems too no matter what Asian country it is. Just something you have to learn to deal with if you want to live here.

I was screwed in America them screwed in Thailand and screwed in the Philippines. However the Philippines has done the least damage to me. But that could be because I had a lot less money left to steal by the time I got to the Philippines.

 

Rich321, I also had considered doing the underground tube thing but there are potential problems with that also. It would take a very large fan to push the air thru that large pipe and distance. The air also might smell musty.

As for the water or anti freeze underground idea, that might work but it would need to go thru a coil with a fan blowing air thru it like an A/C unit and also a pump to pump the water thru the underground pipes. If there was sufficient cooling of the liquid it would create condensation in the coil just like an A/C unit which would help to elimnate the humidity problem in the dwelling.

A bit more simple way would be to simply live in an area like Valencia that has milder temps than the lower lying areas. Only a fan would be needed for cooling and one would have more time to do other things than dig a ditch. :D