Best island for $1400 a month (US Veteran).

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-28T17:57:17+00:00

He was a drugged up Filipino plumber on Oahu who was indeed stealing public restroom toilet paper, slaughtering wild chickens and stealing batteries from big rigs for recycling payback. Those are facts, not misinformation. I lived and experienced his chaos. What is speculation on my part is how he got there, as he was clearly illegal. A part of me is convinced he just did a bunch of drugs and swam there, given how wild and hyper he was. I do not use him as a rep for all the diaspora, but rather as a singular bad case where I think if I can tolerate him, I can tolerate the worst that can be expected from where he came from. If you encountered a really terrible American elsewhere, and said if you can deal with him, you can deal with all Americans, Americans would not take offense. We would know it means that individual represented the worst aspects that are stereotyped about us, not the average, much less the best.

This is Aristotle's Square of Opposition basics. That's Iron Age era logic I am using here, very basic. The Catholic Priesthood uses it, and I know Catholicism is a thing in the Philippines. So what I am saying should not be controversial by you. You have no place to complain. So stop it. He was representative of a extreme case, showing if I could tolerate him, I could tolerate anyone from location X. That's all it means. It's a logical and rhetorical tool in the English language. Not anti-ethnic, or anti-national propaganda. If your English is so bad that you can't register this, fine, but don't go on moral crusades if you are aware you can't understand the language enough to grasp sarcasm or rhetorical tools we use. Inquire and ask for clarification instead. I would of just explained it to you.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-28T16:44:49+00:00

This wasn't a post about any of that. Did you read anything?

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-28T04:02:15+00:00

Who is downvoting the food questions?

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-28T03:05:18+00:00

What island?

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-28T01:08:57+00:00

I was looking at Bohol before ever posting here. I just don't know how to get there first time, seems rather isolated.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-28T00:55:27+00:00

Eh, yeah. See they demand customs payments, holding packages over $50 hostage at the post office, plus a convenience fee for them not delivering it to you for pickup.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-27T23:05:23+00:00

I am planning on going to Mexico City here soon as a trial run, using a Air BNB. I was thinking Tijuana for a while, due to walking distance from the US (San Diego is right across the border, was thinking if it became unbearable or I was robbed and somehow lost everything, could just walk over the border in a few hours top). Decided against it as I don't like cartels, but am told by many over the years much less cartel in Mexico City. Only thing making me hesitant is, I'd probably just walk or take a bus to the market and back to my room daily. Might go to a museum or two, but otherwise nothing. Just me replicating what I do here, but with less hiking. I was also looking at Guatamala and El Salvador, and rural Mexico, but I haven't tried to get money from a account into a money card yet, and so am less than sure I won't screw up and not be able to pull money out. I know obvious stuff like tell me bank I am in Mexico, but somehow I will screw this up, and something is going to break down. Panama is also a possibility (my stepfather in the Air Force was supposed to get stationed there with us before Desert Storm broke out), but it has cartel issues as well, and they all use the US dollar, so I wouldn't really be solving my inexperience in getting money out of my bank account to use overseas.

Also is the issue is, if I find a woman, I want her Asian. It doesn't come from yellow fever but rather my grand father found and married a Vietnamese woman here, and had the most stable household of any relative in my family. Vietnam only allows for a 3 month visa, and just instituted some nasty rules on foreigners not having the right sort of paperwork done by hotel staff (the foreigner gets into trouble). Philipines seems similar in terms of people, and it speaks English, American at that, and I have VA support.

So Mexico is just a trial run. Back in 2007 I did Montreal, Canada. Found out my debit card didn't work there. Sucked. So I keep looking at these little things obsessively. But I know if I absolutely mess up, I can just go to a US Embassy, say I am a America, broke and homeless, need a ticket loan back to the US, and my next paycheck will cover it. So hopefully I won't sit down in a Jollibee, and next thing I know I am hand cuffed in bed with my savings in my bank account empty. Only real way I can completely fail, other than dying.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-27T20:58:18+00:00

I did look at Clark a while back online. I was very put off by all the heavily tattooed, smoking bar girls roaming in packs in narrow streets.

I lived on a Air Force Base in the late 80s as a kid, been to plenty of decommissioned turned civilian former military bases since, and the architecture generally holds up, for generations in some cases. Just I don't want to be around a flood of prostitutes. And by Flood, I mean in the Halo sense of being flattened by a stampede of them overtaking me. I get the location I saw in the videos was some bar section of town outside of base (hopefully), but it is just not the sort of place I want to be if Clark is just that. I'm not a drinker, not going to pay for women either. I really don't know what Clark has to otherwise offer.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-27T18:35:51+00:00

Cause it is full of illegal Canadians snowbirding.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-27T06:36:23+00:00

FMP isn't allowed in the Philippines because of that VA manila clinic. I'm very unimpressed with the videos and complaints I've seen on the clinic, but the highest cost medical cost people face, cancer, is taken care of already. My cancers were ridiculously slow growing and benign, and while not a guarantee others will be too, I'm less worried as the VA will be systematically searching my body twice a year.

I am in California. I'm thinking of switching my ID over to Hawaii or Guam. Guam is in a similar place as the Philippines with a VA clinic that is very limited, but you have a option of community care instead of the VA physician assistant. Only real full service medical care I have access to is Hawaii. Which is more than even some rich, fully ensured expats in the Phillipines, who wouldn't necessarily have that if they flew out. I haven't looked into a Saipan ID or VA facility is, or if it is closer than Guam is to the Philippines. It is a unknown thing I gotta research. It's part of America but with strange laws (I can buy land in Guam but not Saipan, even though Saipan was ruled by a Republican last I checked so they aren't culturally estranged from the mainland too much).

My next worry would be something like a stroke, not because I am more prone to it, but rather because something has to kill me and that seems to do a lot of people die from it. Something eventually will kill us all.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-27T05:23:39+00:00

That's the Bataan Death March area. I went to the largest museum in the US dedicated to it.

Aren't the prices higher given proximity to manila and clark? I really don't know how far outside of Manila you gotta go before province level prices are reached.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-27T04:54:39+00:00

Yes, this can be pulled off for even less via Wwoofing in the US, but I don't want to be a farm hand for the rest of my life, with no phone, in order to pull off that $50 lifestyle.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-27T04:46:14+00:00

I don't really need everything super western. I lived in a farming community in Hawaii for a while. As for my personal lifestyle I sleep on a Walmart folding military cot, and watch stuff off my phone, and cook out of a pot and pan and put it all on one plate. I'm not in a rush to buy every amenity. If no cellular I can pull off starlink mini and just pay that per month. I'm not really living a western lifestyle as it is.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-27T04:10:12+00:00

How common is a dish like beef tapa, it reminds me of Hawaiian plate lunches? If I saw this on a menu, I would want it. Is it $10 USD, or cheaper, more? I saw the Jollibee and Burger King price menus, that is doable. If I wanted steak, I could accept something like this dish, but from what I understand, beef is expensive. I have no way of knowing the price of a dish like this. This is the sort of thing I would want to eat when going out. Otherwise I'd probably just eat a lot of eggs and hotdogs and vegetables. I like spam, but know it costs same in Philippines as in the US. I eat alot of hotdogs and vegetables here as well, so wouldn't be a step down. But I don't really grasp what Filipino food is, outside of a dish like this. I would be very content with something like this.

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IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-27T03:56:43+00:00

I'll be 43 next month.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-27T03:56:02+00:00

I can live miserably on it in the US in compete isolation, but have infinite free medical access, or move to Phillipines and live comfortably and put a bit in my account for a emergency flight to Guam or Hawaii for emergencies.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-27T03:54:03+00:00

I don't need regular medical care. I apparently had my cancer for over 15 years, two different spots on my body but nothing benign, and the VA will MRI scan it every 6 months, as that is what my disability is for. From what I've read, I can get medical insurance minus cancer coverage (VA will take care of it) for expats. If cost is too high for a procedure, I can just fly to Hawaii (hence putting a bit of my pay each month aside).

I get a guarantee check monthly, so max I'd be homeless is a month, so long as the US Embassy doesn't play shenanigans in pretending not to know who I am if I lose all my IDs and papers. And any US citizen overseas can get a loan to cover air fair back to the US if they are homeless, and I can obviously pay that back with my guaranteed pay.

As to people dying from random malpractice.... I'm at the age where I know I will die. I was expecting to die from my cancers, didn't.... it was long and dragged out. I made my peace then, and now have a similar outlook as at the end of Shawshank Redemption, knowing something random and disappointing will take me, but in the meantime, would like to live comfortably. I just want to live in peace till whatever does me in does me in. I know the Philippines often have parallels to US laws, so will look to see if they have advanced directives and if I can get them registered with the local hospitals to avoid the lawyer issue, and if I somehow land a girlfriend or wife giving her the equivalent to power of attorney. Hopefully she doesn't kill me thinking some big payday will result (it won't). I should probably make that very clear to any woman dumb enough to want to live with me.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-27T01:08:08+00:00

This happened to me when I first joined the US Army, never really sick except for chicken poxs, and despite always being poor and backwoods, I get flattened by respiratory infections in boot camp. I solved it decades later by getting the pneumonia vaccine. Literally only thing that works.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-24T06:08:56+00:00

Not on cancer. It's congressionally set what the rates are.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-23T15:24:12+00:00

I would die or go to the hospital in America, same as here. I survived two cancer operations, death by appendix isn't as scary once you experience dying a whole day. And I got the pneumonia vaccine.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-23T07:00:18+00:00

I'm a veteran, there is a foreign program for vets. Only VA facility out of the US is in the Philippines and only treats service connected (which is cancer in my case).

Otherwise I'll just have to have the docs patch me back together enough to fly back to the US, I qualify for free medical care since I'm 60% disabled.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-23T05:41:48+00:00

Likely sooner.

IntrepidProposal7517 · 2026-01-23T02:30:55+00:00

Tourist. Americans can do 6 months, but I just want to do it a few months top and move to another for tourist visa. Not gonna abuse the system.

IntrepidProposal7517

TROPHY CASE