In Reply to: Re: Philippines posted by UCLA78 on July 17, 2026 at 19:31:48
Wow you've been a bunch of places then. Most of which I have not been. I never want to stay in Cebu or Metro Manila because it's so crowded but people love BGC. I do 100% agree with you on not wanting to be around a ton of ex pats. Siquijor has ex pats but far less and most of them are on the touristy side San Juan and Lucy's moms house is on the Larena side so we're away from it.
I drive in Siquijor regularly, I would not drive in Cebu, Dumaguete or Manila they have rules but not obvious ones and the big issue is if you get into an accident, no matter who's at fault they will blame you because you are the foreigner.
The big issue in Siquijor is so many motorbikes driven by people without licenses so they have no clue. You are signalling to make a left turn and they pass on the left inside your turn. They sit in your blind spot and they come out of side streets and just don't stop if it's clear they go if it's not they just turn into the shoulder. But Siquijor traffic is not bad, there are no stoplights on the entire island.
I don't think I could live there year round but I have spent more than 6 months there now so I can live there off and on.
The people are the key we were part of a wedding there a girl got married at 26 she was 6 the first time we met her we actually signed off on the documents. This time we became god parents for a girl who is 24 now, was 13 when we met her.
We used to do movie nights there I'd bring DVD's and had a whole outside setup and would show the kids in the local barangay movies outside, now they're all grown up some of them graduated college