I first visited the Philippines while with the US Marines in Vietnam. I tool my R & R in Subic. I was young and dumb and full of, well you get the idea. I planted as many seeds as I could because I thought it might be my last. Anyway, I fell in love with the Filipinas. I came back for a visit after discharge from the service and stayed for 9 months on my military exit pay. I couldn't find a job here so I had to leave. The military was good enough to give me a free ride to California. After that I got married to a white woman, divorced after 3 years, married another white woman, had a kid, got divorced after 16 years, married a white woman, she cheated on me, divorced after 13 years. What a effed up life with women. Through all these mistakes I kept thinking about Filipinas and after my 3rd divorce I visited the Phils again in 2006. I went to Manila and met several nice people. I ended up marrying one of them and took her back to the US, got her a green card and after that I hardly saw her at home any more. She met many other Filipinas and she changed drastically. I divorced her after 20 months. she only used me. I tried dating white women but couldn't stand them. So I got on a dating site, and after many months of chatting and searching with soooooo many women I was sick of it, Stela showed up in my inbox and I knew she was the one. I came to visit in April 2011, stayed with her for 21 days, left and sold everything I had and was back here by Sept 7. I have been here with her ever since and we are both like newlyweds every day. I love it. My only problem is that I never forget my past experiences with women and I am still on guard. But that is slowly going away. I would never go back to my previous life. CHEERS
[DOUBLEPOST=1436015483,1436015325][/DOUBLEPOST]Sorry for such a long drawn out reply but I had to tell all of that to get to telling about how I ended up here ;p;

 

My company transferred me from Singapore to Manila to oversee their internal outsourcing business in Manila and India in 2007. Went through a divorce and decided to retire. Met a trophy nightmare gf and came to Dumaguete to go diving and recover. Met my to-be wife from the mountains here and ended up getting married a year later and having a son a year after that. Best years of my life.

 

No need for an apology Wildcat, I found what you wrote interesting and identified with it...Im sure others here have as well.
Yours is more a colorful journey to the RP than mine...hell Im not even there yet hahaha.
You made it brother congrats to you and I sincerely hope Stela is your mate for good...it sounds that way.

 

First trip to Manila 1977 following a 37 day study tour of China. In those days China was so austere (everyone wore Mao suits - women dressed like men). Even though is was marshall law (Marcos) what I remember was the singing, the dancing, the place was full of life with very, very beautiful girls - so what a difference from China and I was hooked. Life happened after that with wife, kids, mortgages, bills, divorce (the whole catastrophe) and then arrived January 2007 for some adult fun but was juped on my first morning by a lowlife 'hotel guard' patrolling the malls of Makati. Having lost confidence I kept to my hotel but eventually ventured down to the lobby and the coffee shop. Met my partner in the coffee shop as she was having a break from her work and as I now approach early retirement (in two days time) I have been planning the escape from the whole catastrophe for the past 3 years. My partner moved from Manila to Dumaguete a couple of months ago so her children could start the school year there and I will join her permanently in October when my youngest has finished her final university exams. Can't wait!

 

The Navy first brought me to the Philippines during the early 80's when I was stationed in Japan on the USS Midway. After the Midway I made a couple of trips on another ship on which I was stationed out of San Diego for a couple of years and then in an effort to keep me from getting out of the Navy my command career counselor got me orders to Cubi Point (the air station at Subic Bay).

While I was there I bought a Harley and explored. Shortly before I transferred I met my wife, now she wants to retire to the Philippines. I don't want to retire too close to in laws so I started looking at islands other than Luzon. Right now we are on track to retire early but that is still not for a few more years.