How To Live Like A King For $1,000/month: Departure

Ok, so you've decided to take a flier on the idea of investigating a different type of life.  There can be any number of reasons for this, including (but obviously not limited to!) a recent retirement, a major life change which has left you scratching your head, a disillusionment with the current situation in your home country, or just an overdeveloped sense of adventure.  The prospect of leaving the places and culture with which you've become familiar is a duanting one, no question about it.  But rather than trying to convince you that it's a good idea, I'm going to skip to the next part, which is preparation for the first dipping of your toes in foreign waters.

Whenever you travel to another country (or, in the increasingly bureaucratic civilized world, even to another state/province of your own country) there are certain documents which are required in order to "clear in," as it is called.  This is simply the process by which you can smoothly and accurately identify yourself in broad terms to a foreign destination.  We used to do this with declarations of lineage, accompanied by family crests and cross-referenced by essentially word-of-mouth affirmation by those who recognize us as being who we say we are.  Nowadays, we have a much more efficient method of declaring ourselves: photo ID.  Specifically, a government issued passport is the single best document to carry with you during any journey to a foreign destination.  In fact, they're practically required for you to set foot outside of your own country (most airlines won't even accept you on a flight if you don't have a valid passport).  In the USA the process requires going to either the post office or a county courthouse and filling out an application, which requires a few forms of identification such as driver's license, social security card, birth certificate, etc..  Once you have these documents, filling out the form is quick and easy.  There is a filing fee (should be less than $100) to pay at this time, and if you want to receive the passport more quickly than the state 4-6 weeks, you pay an additional fee to expedite the process.  I received my last passport in less than two weeks using the expedite option.

(A side-note here.  I'll be mostly discussing travel to and from the Philippine Islands, but the broad strokes apply to pretty much any other country.  If you're from the USA, Europe or Australia, then you can travel to the PI without a pre-approved visa.  Wherever your destination might be, make sure to check their government's website to find out if you need to get a pre-approved visa to travel there.  This is a simple, but absolutely critical step.  You can either walk into your destination country's local embassy and receive the visa, or you can physically mail your passport to their nearest embassy.)

After you've received your passport, it's a good idea to have a few other forms of identification on hand for your trip.  A driver's license or state-issued ID card is a good start, as are any credit/debit cards with your name and picture on them.  A social security card is generally a good piece to have along, since many of the "clearing in" forms require this number, along with your passport number and driver's license number.  Truthfully, this is about all you need to bring with you, outside of your plane ticket.  Obviously you're going to need some money while you're there, as well as whatever gadgets you like to take with you for communication, like your cellphone or laptop.  But in general, it's best to travel extremely light for your first trip to a new place.  My advice is to keep it to one backpack.   I know that may seem pretty extreme, but try it sometime.  Remember that when traveling to a tropical country like the Philippines, you won't need long sleeves, coats or thick material of any kind.  Shorts, t-shirts and sunglasses are the best attire (until you've lived in the bright, tropical sun, you can't properly appreciate the difference between northern and equatorial latitude sunlight).

Accessing money isn't difficult at all in the Philippines, and it's steadily improving in other developing countries, as well.  If you prefer to travel with cash, understand that there's a $10,000 limit on physical cash you can bring into the country on any given trip.  Ten years ago, bringing cash would have been your only viable option, but today there are ATM's in every major shopping center.  Be sure your card provider is aware that you will be traveling to your country of destination, as the banks will sometimes automatically lock your account if they start seeing withdrawals happening from another country.  PLUS and STAR debit card affiliates are essentially everywhere, especially in the cities, so if your card's a part of those networks then you're good to go!

Now you have to get your plane ticket.  Use any travel agent/broker you like, or check the internet on comparison shopping sites like kayak.com or travelocity.  Generally speaking, airfare will be around $1,000 roundtrip from the USA to Cebu, Philippines.  Remember that your entry visa to the Philippines will be good for twenty one days, so when planning your trip be sure to keep this in mind.  Most roundtrip prices are best between ten and twenty days, anyways, so that keeps the question of trip duration a simple one.  I'd recommend ten to fourteen days for your first trip, especially if you've never been anywhere like this before.  Try to fly directly into Cebu if you can, but getting a flight on a local airline from Manila to Cebu isn't that difficult, especially if you're ok with waiting outside the airport for a few hours until it's time for your flight.

It's becoming obvious that I recommend Cebu City, Philippines as your destination.  There are six main reasons for this, and here they are:

1. Safety: For the better part of the last decade, Cebu has been consistently voted among the safest destinations in all of Southeast Asia.  This is not a fluke, it is due to a concerted effort by the local politicians and business leaders to reduce crime and 'mafia-style' violence which runs rampant in the southern regions of the country (like Mindanao).  The leaders of Cebu understand how important actual safety is for travelers and foreign investors, and they also understand that we aren't easily fooled by pretty websites spouting made-up statistics.  Any comprehensive search for crime rates in Cebu will confirm this to be accurate.

2. Weather: We've all seen the news about terrible typhoons that routinely smash into Southeast Asia.  These are similar to the hurricanes we see on the southeast coast of the USA, with the key difference being the lack of proper building standards for the majority of people here.  Most people build their own houses out of coconut lumber and tin roofing or old-fashioned leaf thatching, so naturally the durability is not great to begin with (remember the Haitian earthquake devastation?  it's the same, unfortunate principle).  The reason I point this out is simple, as Cebu has been hit by one major typhoon in the last twenty years.  This area simply doesn't suffer from the ill effects of typhoon season in the same way that the rest of the country does.  Luzon, where the national capital of Manila is located, gets a major typhoon at least once per year.  The reason for this shelter is simple: geography.  Cebu is located with a major island to any direction of the compass.  North is Luzon, south is Mindanao, west is Negros and east is Samar.  SoCebu's located in a little shielded pocket which makes it nearly impossible for typhoons to come to it.  There was recently a super-typhoon that passed over Luzon with winds measuring over 265km/hour at the center, and the worst Cebu got was about 50km/hour for an hour or two.

3. Geography: Cebu is located exactly in the center of the country.  It is a long, skinny island with miles and miles of undeveloped, pristine white sand beaches and even more unspoiled 'mountain' areas.  Citizens not only of this country, but of many others are quickly realizing that the sheltered, central location of Cebu makes it the prime destination in which to live and travel from in Southeast Asia.  World famous Boracay is also located within the greater province of which Cebu is a part, and the last five years have seen Boracay transform into a vacation destination to rival Maui, Hawaii.

4. Culture: Cebu is where Magellan first landed, so it is where Catholicism first took root.  As a result, Western Christian values are the strongest here of anywhere else in the country.  The northern part is also strongly Catholic, but southern Mindanao is almost entirely populated by Muslim culture and religion (it's also essentially lawless, as the local tribes have far more power than the government in Mindanao).  The importance of this cultural identity is significant for foreign travelers in that the local people (Cebuanos) here really do like to see foreigners come to their home.  Whenever I, a 29 year old white guy walk down the street I am greeted by a chorus of "Hey, Joe!  Where are you going?" from the kids playing in front of their houses.  Sometimes even the adults like to get in on the action and try out their English on you for a few minutes.  I've never seen such honest, happy and welcoming people in all of my travels.  And believe me, I've seen a few places in my life. 

5. Language: You'll note that I've mentioned the use of English a few times already, so let me clarify.  The Philippines has been colonized more times than they care to remember, and part of that process inevitably involves incorporation of language.  Many nouns they use come straight from the Spanish dictionary, which is understandable due to their history of affiliation with Spain during the days of Magellan.  With English, however, it's a bit different.  The national language of education and business is English, so every school kid learns English in the course of general schooling!  Every street sign you'll see is in English, and most everybody you will meet speaks at the very least 'working' English, meaning communication is no difficulty for an American.  This is mostly due to the positive relationship between the USA and the Philippines, with most of the goodwill being built during World War II.

6. Cost of living: Here we come to the meat and potatoes of the issue, at least for myself.  Having an accomodating culture, geography and not having to learn a new language is all well-and-good, but if the price tag is more than I can afford, what's the point?  I mean, Hawaii essentially provides the same general climate and geography and they speak English there, but most of us can't afford to live in Hawaii, at least not in the parts we'd like to live in.  Understanding that most of us would not choose to live without many of the modern conveniences to which we've become accustomed, the average per capita earning power of the Filipino people is around $3,500/year.  And remember, most of these people are individually happier than msot of us put together!  The title of this article suggests you can live like a king for $1,000/month, and that's absolutely accurate.  It's what I've done for the last two years, and I wouldn't have traded my time here for anything.  But $1,000/month is living like a king, not living a simple, peaceful life.

There are plenty of options for living in one of the many suburbs of Cebu City which can be done for half of that, easily.  Houses are available to rent for between $100-250/month that are roughly equivalent to what you'd expect to see in small-town-USA for $1000-1500/month.  Utilities are similar (power, water, etc..) in price to the USA, and food is roughly the same (some things are more, like fresh fruits, but other things like fresh meat are significantly cheaper in the Philippines).  But there aren't any 'hidden' costs like homeowner's insurance or, in the event you decide to purchase property here, sky-high real estate taxes.  Most people I know pay less than $10/year for their two-storey house's property taxes!  Yes, you read that properly.  A 1500-2000 square foot house's property taxes cost less than $10/year for most people.  50-60 acres of farmland can cost less than $50/year in total taxes!

Now, let me be clear about something.  You can pay just as much to live here as you do to live wherever you are right now.  No question about it, if you want to stay in the Marriott and pay $200/night for a nice room with air-conditioning and foreign cable channels, you can do it here as well as anywhere else.  But if staying on the beach in your own private bungalow with kilometers of quiet, sandy beach to either side of you for about $15/day plus food is more your style, then stay tuned.  If you have the need to eat out every night at glossy places located in a mega-mall, then you will end up spending roughly the same amount on those activites here as you will anywhere else in the world.  Definitely not more, and probably not much less.  Until recently there wasn't a good steakhouse in all of Cebu, but now there's one located at a big mall that's better than any place I've been to in the USA.  I end up spending more on those guilty pleasures than I do on rent, some months!

So, there's my sales pitch on Cebu.  If you're not locked in to another foreign location, give this one a shot.  The only downside is it's a pretty long plane ride, but I'm 6'3" and can manage the 14 hours just fine in those little seats, so you can probably do it, too.  There are plenty of other good reasons for coming here, if you're feeling adventurous or are ready for a change of pace to your life, and I'll discuss some of these in later articles.  But for now, get your passport, plane ticket and a little money together.  How much money depends on how adventurous you feel ;)  I never pay more than $15/day to stay in a local motel, but everyone's different on their first trip.  A good, round number would be $100/day for your first trip, and if you follow my advice in later articles, you'll go back with a huge chunk of that intact.

Next up: Arrival.