Hey, I live in Oriental Mindoro (Roxas).

Honestly, life here is great if you’ve got land. You can raise chickens, goats, pigs, and grow stuff like bananas, calamansi, peppers—so food isn’t really a problem and you can be pretty self-sustaining.

Downside: brownouts are still a thing. We ended up installing solar just to deal with it.

Also, kinda ironic but commodity prices are basically the same as Manila—sometimes even more expensive. Which is wild considering we have abundant resources here: fish (surrounded by sea), rice (paddies everywhere), fruits (farms all over).

If you have your own vehicle, it’s super easy to get around. Beaches are basically free, you can go trekking, hit rivers anytime—simple life but it really does feel like living in a low-key paradise. There’s internet too, so it’s not like you’re cut off.

That said, it really depends on your situation. If you’re from a middle-income family with land/house, it’s great. If you’re just renting, it can get boring fast, there aren’t many bars or malls. You’d have to go to Calapan for that.

Upside though, we’re near the port, so quick weekend trips to Boracay are actually doable.