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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: Next to a River
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 Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 7:36 pm Post subject: Good cheap place to spend 3-6 months |
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I am interested if anyone has an off the beaten track place that they would recommend in S.E.A. where someone could park up for 3-6 months.
A small village or beach somewhere, that someone could rent a small house or room.Something off the usual tourist trail, but still accessible if you need to get a visa extension.
Just mulling over the options out there, not really interested in going the tourist route, more interested in a small quiet town or village, preferably near a beach, but thats negotiable. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 9:19 pm Post subject: Re: Good cheap place to spend 3-6 months |
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| Summer Wine wrote: |
I am interested if anyone has an off the beaten track place that they would recommend in S.E.A. where someone could park up for 3-6 months.
A small village or beach somewhere, that someone could rent a small house or room.Something off the usual tourist trail, but still accessible if you need to get a visa extension.
Just mulling over the options out there, not really interested in going the tourist route, more interested in a small quiet town or village, preferably near a beach, but thats negotiable. |
Talibon or Tubigon on Bohol island in the Philippines.
Rent a house for between $100-200 per month. Meals for $1-2 per day.
Minutes to the beach. Only an hour to the immigration office for your extensions.
Pick a country.
Philippines has the most liberal immigration policies for long term tourists (up to 2 years with a 2 month visa and repeat 2 month extensions). Living costs are next to nothing for long term stays (as compared to short term tourist stays).
Thailand or Indonesia would be next on the list.
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D.D.
Joined: 29 May 2008
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| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 11:17 pm Post subject: |
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| 6 month tourist visa to india my friend. |
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brier
Joined: 14 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 6:44 am Post subject: Re: Good cheap place to spend 3-6 months |
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| ttompatz wrote: |
| Summer Wine wrote: |
I am interested if anyone has an off the beaten track place that they would recommend in S.E.A. where someone could park up for 3-6 months.
A small village or beach somewhere, that someone could rent a small house or room.Something off the usual tourist trail, but still accessible if you need to get a visa extension.
Just mulling over the options out there, not really interested in going the tourist route, more interested in a small quiet town or village, preferably near a beach, but thats negotiable. |
Talibon or Tubigon on Bohol island in the Philippines.
Rent a house for between $100-200 per month. Meals for $1-2 per day.
Minutes to the beach. Only an hour to the immigration office for your extensions.
Pick a country.
Philippines has the most liberal immigration policies for long term tourists (up to 2 years with a 2 month visa and repeat 2 month extensions). Living costs are next to nothing for long term stays (as compared to short term tourist stays).
Thailand or Indonesia would be next on the list.
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Bingo! |
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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: Next to a River
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| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 5:24 pm Post subject: |
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ttompatz,
Is it much of a problem getting from Bohol to Cebu for the visa extension?
Can you find a place prior or how would you recommend finding the rental properties?
Just looked at talibon on google, they really don't have a lot of info about the place, though its better than being near alona beach.
I looked at mindanao, though not sure how safe it is. |
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dharma bum
Joined: 15 Jun 2004
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| Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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| D.D. wrote: |
| 6 month tourist visa to india my friend. |
what type of budget would one be looking at in comparison to the philippines for a trip like this?
also looking forward to hearing more from ttompatz if he has anything to share. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 8:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Summer Wine wrote: |
ttompatz,
Is it much of a problem getting from Bohol to Cebu for the visa extension?
Can you find a place prior or how would you recommend finding the rental properties?
Just looked at talibon on google, they really don't have a lot of info about the place, though its better than being near alona beach.
I looked at mindanao, though not sure how safe it is. |
There is an immigration office on Bohol (Tagbilaran) if you don't want to make the 2 hour boat trip to Cebu but if you are not on the south end of the island it will still take about 2 hours to get there
or
there are MULTIPLE bankas/ferrys going back and forth to Cebu all day.
The trip is expensive though - a typical banka or ferry to Cebu (2 hour ride) will cost about p150 (4k won).
I live in Talibon (I actually have a farm about 10km south of the town). It is a nice little place.
North and east Mindanao are fine (google Cloud 9 or Camiguin as examples) and perfectly safe.
The only places that are worrisome are the extreme south and west parts of the island (the Muslim regions) due to the aggressive stance of the Muslim separatists.
| dharma bum wrote: |
what type of budget would one be looking at in comparison to the philippines for a trip like this?
also looking forward to hearing more from ttompatz if he has anything to share. |
A bit short of time so I will have to continue this later (maybe I should write a book?).
Wanting to spend up to 6 months on the cheap in SE asia:
Pick a country.
GET A VISA (they are typically twice as long as a visa waiver stamp and save you the hassle when you first arrive and are still finding your way around.
Get a cheap hotel/pension room for the 1st week (average cost is about p1000 (or less) per night. $100 spent.
After a good day of rest it is time to start looking for long term accommodation. ASK the girl at the front desk. She probably lives close and can give you some ideas of the local prices for rooms and where the nicer ones are.
Take a walk / trike around the town. Ask about places for rent. Let the trike driver know what you are looking for. The places will just fall out of the blue.
There is no "advertising". It is all word of mouth or the occasional sign posted on a tree or electric pole.
Anything you find posted on-line will cost you about 10x-50x more than it should.
You will need to pay a deposit of 2 months rent and pay the 1st month in advance (should be about $200-300 total) for the average house outside of a major city. Monthly rent would be less than $100 per month and unless you use aircon your electric would be less than p1000.
In metro Cebu you can get a bachelor suite (next to the airport on Mactan) for about p5000 /month (no air) with everything included.
You can often find a bamboo hut on the beach (not much for amenities) and pay about $100-200 for 6 months.
Food is cheap. Carendaria (local restaurants) have meals for about p40 including meat, veg and rice.
If you cook, then buying food in the local market is really cheap too. Beef is about p180/kg, pork is p145 and chicken for p125. Veg averages about p40-p70/kg depending on what it is. Rice is p30/kg.
Realistically, you can live comfortably for about $300 per month and live like a king for less than $600 (OUTSIDE A MAJOR CITY). If you want to live in the NCR or Metro Cebu you will need $500-1000 depending on your lifestyle (lots of distractions to spend money on)..
In Thailand (again I do not live in BKK). I rent a house (3 bedroom, living room, kitchen, bath and a half) for 4500 baht (about $150) per month and spend another b3500 for utilities (gas, electric (aircon), and internet).
Food runs about b6000 per month so in total I spend about 14,000 baht (520k won) for a comfortable lifestyle.
bottom line:
You can cheap out and spend 6 months for as little as $2000 and as much as $6000.
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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: Next to a River
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| Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for that Ttompatz,
That was very helpful information. By the way, how much did your farm set you back?
I noticed in the philippines that if you look online to buy property, you get quotes in the $150,000 + range, though chatted to a filippino couple back in 2004 who were building a house/restaurant right on the beach for $30,000.
There seems to be quite a discrepency.
I am reaching the age, where I am working and thinking, it might be nice to take a few months out to just chill, before you go over the hill into the forties.
I would probably look at the Philippines, is there anything else you could say about your area? Are the beaches white or black sand?
Are there many hotels and resorts in the ara, or is it the countryside?
Is there much crime there? Or is it a pretty laid back part of the country? |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2010 12:25 am Post subject: |
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| Summer Wine wrote: |
Thanks for that Ttompatz,
That was very helpful information. By the way, how much did your farm set you back?
I noticed in the philippines that if you look online to buy property, you get quotes in the $150,000 + range, though chatted to a filippino couple back in 2004 who were building a house/restaurant right on the beach for $30,000.
There seems to be quite a discrepency.
I am reaching the age, where I am working and thinking, it might be nice to take a few months out to just chill, before you go over the hill into the forties.
I would probably look at the Philippines, is there anything else you could say about your area? Are the beaches white or black sand?
Are there many hotels and resorts in the ara, or is it the countryside?
Is there much crime there? Or is it a pretty laid back part of the country? |
We bought 5 hectares (50,000 square meters) for the princely sum of p150,000 (or about 3.9 million won).
I built the house (1200 sq ft bungalow (concrete) for another $5000.
The barn cost me about $200 (bamboo and nipa) with concrete posts.
IF you look on-line you pay the "kano price" (usually about 10-100 times more than market value) but if you are here you pay the local price. |
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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: Next to a River
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| Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 12:55 am Post subject: |
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Damm Ttompatz.
Thats a good set up.
Indoor plumbing and all that included?
Do you use wind power for electricity or are you connected to the town supply?
Man maybe I should go about looking for a Filipino wife (who's also an architect).
How much of your land is rough and how much is farmed?
If you want to pm these answers, then thats fine. |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 7:17 am Post subject: |
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| Summer Wine wrote: |
Damm Ttompatz.
Thats a good set up.
Indoor plumbing and all that included?
Do you use wind power for electricity or are you connected to the town supply?
Man maybe I should go about looking for a Filipino wife (who's also an architect).
How much of your land is rough and how much is farmed?
If you want to pm these answers, then thats fine. |
We have a 3kva wind turbine and we are also connected to the main power grid for those times when we have no wind or usage is more than 3 kw/hr (doing welding and stuff). The storage is in a bank of 8D-deep cycle wet cells and 220vac/1.5kva inverters give us power to the mains. This was extra and not included in the construction costs. (Pet project to keep me busy till I decided to go back to work.)
The house cost included house plumbing (and septic system) for the bathroom and kitchen (with pumps). Bathroom has toilet and sink with single hose (electric heated) shower. Kitchen has a basic sink setup. Pressure is gravity feed from a small water tower.
Plumbing/house costs did not include the well and water supply (to the house) system. That cost me an extra $1000.
Our land is pretty much all used for either farm or domestic use.
We have a mix of coconuts, bananas and mangoes on the upland/hills and rice fields in the low areas.
We catch rain water off the roof (goes into a 5000 liter tank) for watering the gardens (high value crops like peppers, etc). We also have chicken barns with a few thousand chickens for eggs and meat (sale and home use).
The other animals on the farm vary with the season and demand.
We raise a few pigs and goats for the xmas season (lechon / bbq) and chicken production goes up to about 10k broilers for meat over xmas/new year. We maintain a couple thousand layers for egg production year round.
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Summer Wine
Joined: 20 Mar 2005
Location: Next to a River
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| Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Damm, some day I will have to catch up with you in the Philippines some time and spend a few weeks chatting. |
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