⌛ Considering the move to Dumaguete

Hello all,
I am a new member here and new to Dumaguete, I am from the Uk and have been living in Angeles city for the past 4 years with around 6 months in subic. I will be visiting Dumaguete in march with the intention of looking at the place as maybe a full time relocation. Angeles had worn me out and i now have a small family (wife and young baby), I am looking for a more laid back cleaner type of place with a few watering holes to meet a few fellow expats and have a chat over a few beers occasionally, Along with the regular stuff us forigners hope to get, internet/malls/ decent shopping fresh foods.

I am looking at moving to a area if i like it there that has a view of the ocean when i wake up! I need a change from A/C!

Any advise to a newbie on what Dumaguete has to offer would be great, I have spent some time trawling the site but would really like direct advice!

Many thanks and a great site to be looking at.
Thanks

 

Welcome alesypalsy.
If you have searched and read well, you must have found a lot of information about this city and a lot of advices too.
You ask for direct advice. I.m.h.o. that IS direct advice.
If you want advice on specific aspects then you have to tell the forum first what you are looking for especially, more than that you maybe are fed up with AC.
Take this as a good advice and tell more about your reasons to change and what you hope to find better here.
As always has been given as advice: Come here for a few weeks to see it and smell it.
It's not that far from your place and there are even a lot of very interesting offers to fly to Dumaguete.

 

Hi Jellyfish,
Yes you are correct with your advice, more to the point as what I am looking for really.

For me Angeles city holds everything one needs as far in shopping/hospitals/schools leisure/international foods and a lot more all on your door step which is probably what has kept me staying here for as long as it has been. Subic has pretty much all you need but I find that the place seems small and the beach is not really an attraction there, can be clen most times but also pretty dirty and unappealing along with not really the beach type place i want to live as you cannot really get a beach view along with many hawkers that are on the beach.

As for what i am looking for, a place with fresh air!( Angeles city is so polluted and so dirty) a cleaner environment for my son 1 year old to grow up in, a/c can be quite dangerous in some areas, But I still need my western stores (i see you have a couple of malls there so pretty much all you need I guess). I have a pretty nice house in a/c which i am sure for the cost of build and land i could get something pretty nice done there in dumaguete . I looking for a veiw of the sea when i awake in the morning thats not to far from main town(30-40 mins drive max) would be fine, But saying that I really need to check the place out which i am in march.

I dont do a lot here in a/c, its pointless me living so close to all the bars and nightlife as i am in bed most nights by 10pm and up around 6am, its just the convenience of a/c which kept me here, i feel its time to move on to a more beautiful place as i am just not happy with the place anymore.
I am a resident here in the Phils and dont intend to return back to the UK to live. Whats needed here is a change of scenery along with schools/hospital/shopping and other creature comforts we are used to.

Dont know if that tells you any more about what i am after? Am going down there in march just got some good cheap flights with cebu pac, 2400p for 2 people from manila to dum, then cebu to clark return for 1800p for us both.

Cheers!

 

I was kinda hoping for a bit of return on this post, I guess no one has much to say on it?

As for trawling for specific bits of info you could spend a week searching which i have and yet still dont find much as to how life actually is there,

A very basic question is directed to any expat residents there, Have you ever lived in another part of the PI and moved to Dumaguete? or have you moved there from another country and how do you find life there?

What do you do during the day? do you have kids? what do you do to fill your time?
basic life answers are what i am after
thanks if you have the time

 

Yes, actually those are very good questions....hope you get answers....

 

ok so I am the first to answer...

During day I dive, work online or go bird-watching

Kids? one, but rarely to see as the schools here occupy the kids 10 - 12 hours a day to teach them practicing for parades

What I do with my time ? see first answer, plus traveling (7107 Islands are about 1 per day until the rest of my days)

 

alesypalsy, to react on some points you mentioned:
I am a foreigner, having visited the PI 9 times for leisure (diving) before I decided to stay here, not too far from Dumaguete.
The city I did like when I was looking for the best (or better say:..a good) place to live with my new 'acquired' Filipina partner.
Life has been evolved for me in a good way. But it is SOOOO dependend on the situation you are in. If you are retired like me it is much easier than when you still have to earn money here to 'survive' on a pleasant way.
Many have got a disillusion after some time. A good brains and business experience is not a guarantee for success in the PI.
A lot of bureaucratic problems, so it takes -x more time to get things done and a hand shake with some money in it is for a lot of us not common practice .
And even if you are retired and have an acceptable pension it will not automatically become a successful stay.
Some are bored soon and the only thing they can think of is sitting all day at the boulevard consuming some brain enriching liquids (you can meet me however often there as well ).
Some are here for the women and can't decide which one :D and do see the bottom of their wallet too soon.
You asked if we (I) have children, what we (I) do during the day, ....
I will not tell my details since that has imho no added value for you.
YOU have to take care that you have enough money, live your life in accordance with that budget, have enough other things on hand to not become a frustrated bar- and/or woman chaser.
Oh yes, a good relation is very fundamental in my opinion to make it a success.
But again, we all are different and some only have fun in life when they can chase every day. (as long as it can take ).
Dumaguete is small, has a decent variety of restaurants/bars (no, not as AC !!!), it gets some malls now, it has an enormous number of tricycles and motorbikes ('clean air' is mostly not 'fitting' with that picture), has no nice beaches in it's city (you have to go south -10 or more km's-for the best beaches), is not free from robberies, killings and hold-ups...
Schools, hospitals, shopping here is IN MY OPINION good enough to enjoy this place.
I do at least.
I'm curious to hear your reaction after your visit in March.
Seeing is believing

 

Alesypalsy,
Jellyfish is right. We all have different needs and desires. When I first came to the PI in '79 I stayed in Manila and traveled to Olongapo and Angeles on a regular basis. The life style there at that time suited me and my pocket. I moved down to Cebu in the early '80s and lived there for 15 years raising my 2 daughters there. I had to return to the States for a few years to take care of some business and get my daughters sorted out there. When I moved back here 2 years ago I knew I didn't want to live in Cebu for the same reasons you mentioned. I would have liked to move to Palawan but access to decent schools was a consideration as I have my granddaughter living with me. Dumaguete seemed to offer the best compromise.
Air pollution is only a major problem in the center of the city. The place is messy because everybody seems to feel free to litter. The beach in the city is not very attractive but I don't think water pollution is a major problem. As Jellyfish said the beaches a half hour or further south of the city are far prettier.
If you want to know about night life you will have to ask someone else, I'm to old to care anymore. I get down to the boulevard 2 or 3 times a week in the afternoon to have a few beers and tell lies with the other old guys who live here. Other than that I have a large garden and a few hobbies to keep me busy.
You mentioned malls and shopping. A nice Robinsons mall just opened up but it is small by any standard. Almost every bad fast food offered in the country is available there. The supermarket opened with a nice supply of imported food but every time I go there, there seems to be one less aisle of it replaced by another row of chips. Fortunately there are shops around the the city that have most of what you probably want. Casa Blanca and Why Not have deli counters and pretty good bread.
I don't know what else to tell you. You got to come down and decide for yourself. I like it here.

 

If you are looking for a beach to live on with visions of white sand palms etc. Dumaguete will disappoint you! If you just want to live on the water,have descent shopping and a few bars to chat with fellow ex-pats then this is the place. Realistically you gotta choose one or the other Shopping/Food or the beach............if you want both then go to Thailand cuz you aint gonna find it here. Good luck whatever you choose and get your child outta A/C

 

"Robinson's" Almost every bad fast food offered in the Country is available there.......Classic!!!! LOL.....