Chester and his favourite squeaky green ball. He tells me he is not asleep, just resting his eyes!
When I left Bahrain, finally, in March 2022, many people asked me to share my journey to and in the Philippines, my retirement home. Chester (the Hooman) suggested there is a lot of material online about retiring in the Philippines and maybe I could help people thinking of moving here by sharing my experiences.
So, in this Blog I want to share the journey to having our own house here in Bagon Sikat, Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines.
I constantly see posts like:
" I have 3 days to see the Philippines in December and a budget of $20. Where should I go?"
Every Pinoy in Elementary school learns that:
"The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of around 7,641 islands that are broadly categorized under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines (accessed 8.9.22)
Now this information is on Wikipedia so there is no excuse for not doing your research online. One of the phrases often used at the company where I worked in Bahrain (Bahrain Petroleum Company or Bapco for short) was "Let's drill down into the data" - ironic for an oil company whose revenue came from refining the oil drilled by Saudi Aramco and Tatweer Petroleum.
Palawan is one of the largest islands (actually it's an archipelago of 1,780 islands)
According to Wikipedia:
"Palawan (/pəˈlɑːwən/), officially the Province of Palawan (Cuyonon: Probinsya i'ang Palawan; Tagalog: Lalawigan ng Palawan), is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of 14,649.73 km2 (5,656.29 sq mi). The capital city is Puerto Princesa. Palawan is known as the Philippines' Last Frontier[5] and as the Philippines' Best Island.[4]
The islands of Palawan stretch between Mindoro island in the northeast and Borneo in the southwest. It lies between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. The province is named after its largest island, Palawan Island (09°30′N 118°30′E), measuring 450 kilometers (280 mi) long, and 50 kilometers (31 mi) wide.[9][10]
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palawan (accessed 8.9.22)
If you want to visit there is plenty of information online. It is called the "Last Frontier" as the next stop after Palawan is Malaysia.
For those who ask, " Can I drive around Palawan in a day?" the roads here are very slow, no motorways, lots of roadworks (especially before elections) and it can take 7 hours to drive from Puerto to El Nido, and 4 hours from Puerto to Brookes point in the South.
One of my "Countdown to Palawan" Posters, Photo taken at Bato Ni Ningning
To see Palawan fully a car is insufficient. You need a four-wheel drive to access viewpoints like Bato Ni Ningning and to see the Pawikans at the Secret beach. If you want to see the beautiful island of Coron or learn about Cuyunon (one of the many indigenous tribes here) you will need a boat to get to Cuyo, likewise for the amazing Balabac Islands at the southern tip of Palawan.
The road to see the Pawikans (baby turtles) at the secret beach near Alimanguan is just a track!
Again, you can get more information from Wiki:
"The province is composed of the long and narrow Palawan Island, plus a number of other smaller islands surrounding it, totalling roughly 1,780 islands and islets. The Calamianes Group of Islands to the northeast consists of Busuanga, Coron, Culion, and Linapacan islands. Balabac Island is located off the southern tip, separated from Borneo by the Balabac Strait. In addition, Palawan covers the Cuyo Islands in the Sulu Sea. The disputed Spratly Islands, located a few hundred kilometers to the west, are considered part of Palawan by the Philippines, and is locally called the "Kalayaan Group of Islands".
The 14 km white sand beach at San Vicente, Palawan
Palawan's almost 2,000 kilometers (1,200 mi) of irregular coastline is lined with rocky coves and sugar-white sandy beaches. It also harbors a vast stretch of virgin forests that carpet its chain of mountain ranges. The mountain heights average 1,100 meters (3,500 ft) in altitude, with the highest peak rising to 6,843 feet (2,086 m)[10] at Mount Mantalingahan. The vast mountain areas are the source of valuable timber. The terrain is a mix of coastal plain, craggy foothills, valley deltas, and heavy forest interspersed with riverine arteries that serve as irrigation.[9]"
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palawan (accessed 8.9.22)
The view of the Mountains that form the backbone of Palawan from my bedroom
I once read that to take all your data from one source is Plagiarism, while to take from many sources is to be "well researched", and all my blogs are "well researched"!
"Palawan has been cited as the “Best Island in the World” by an international travel magazine and rank among the best islands in the world for several years." (2013, 2016, and 2017)
Source: https://citiglobal.com.ph/blog/rank-palawan-among-the-best-islands-in-the-world/ (accessed 8.9.22)
More recently it was voted into "the third spot in the annual Condé Nast Traveler (CNT) readers' choice awards for top islands to visit in 2021.[104]"
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palawan (accessed 8.9.22)
Source: https://palawan-news.com/el-nido-mayor-defends-town-vs-travel-blogger/ (accessed 8.9.2022)
The hard question for me was, having visited Palawan on vacation on 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020 where I should live when I retired.
Sadly, Palawan has been a victory of its own success. The awards and backpackers filling the vans from Puerto (once the only airport) to El Nido (which always was promoted as the most beautiful spot in Palawan) led to the then President to threaten to close it for rehabilitation like he did Boracay. When Boracay closed for rehabilitation many of the hotel and tour operators relocated to Palawan and tourism increased here.
"A threat to close a second world-famous but pollution-threatened beach in the Philippines was averted Thursday, drawing a sigh of relief from the local beleaguered tourism industry.
President Rodrigo Duterte shuttered the white-sand resort of Boracay island for six months last year, calling it a "cesspool", and his government had since threatened to do the same with the El Nido resort."
August 1, 2019
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/philippines-lifts-threat-shut-down-second-top-resort-110532522.html (accessed 8.9.2022)
So, El Nido got wiped off my places to live list, alongside Port Barton and Sibaltan. When I first moved here, I planned to get land on San Vicente beach and build a property there and then I read about this:
"Property giant Megaworld is developing 462 hectares of beachfront and inland properties in San Vicente, Palawan into an ‘eco-tourism township’, as the company remains optimistic on the fast recovery of the country’s tourism industry after the pandemic.
To be named Paragua Coastown, this 27th Megaworld township will feature some of the most beautiful beaches along the coastline of San Vicente, including Port Barton, one of the most famous tourist attractions of the town known for its 22 small islands. It is also strategically located within a few minutes away from the San Vicente Airport, which serves regular flights to and from Manila and Clark.
Paragua Coastown will be highlighted by hotels and resorts, health and wellness sanctuaries, cultural center, educational institutions, a boutique hotel district, a shophouse district, as well as residential developments such as private villas, serviced apartments, themed residential villages, and a mangrove reserve park. "
Source: https://www.megaworldcorp.com/news-and-updates/megaworld-earmarks-p40-b-develop-462-hectare-eco-tourism-township-palawan (accessed 8.9.22)
Someone who told me they forecast the beach will welcome 300, 000 people a day when the development is complete. When Ran and I stayed there in 2019 there were probably only 5 people on the whole 14 km beach.
The beach at San Vicente in 2020
I certainly do not want to retire to another El Nido where the town beach looks like this:
So, I decided to move to Puerto Princesa! It's central, has an airport and shopping malls, hospitals and vets and all the things you would expect in a capital city.
When I first rented a property here in February 2021, ready for when I left Bapco on 14.2.21 Jhoanna found a place for me in Bancao- Bancao in the south of Puerto. Then COV 19 shook the world, and the Philippines closed its borders to foreigners like me. The owner of the property, Daniw, wanted to sell it. Jhoanna moved my belongings into storage and when I finally got my tourist visa in March 2022 I returned and spent a month touring Palawan searching for a suitable property to rent.
A Festive interpretation of the Blue House by Chester (the Hooman)
There are 433 Barangays (small towns) town) in Palawan.
Bagon Sikat has a young population ("According to the 2015 Census, the age group with the highest population in Bagong Sikat is 15 to 19, with 846 individuals. Conversely, the age group with the lowest population is 80 and over, with 36 individuals."
Source: https://www.philatlas.com/luzon/mimaropa/puerto-princesa/bagong-sikat.html (accessed 8.9.22)
One of the many young boys who go past my window daily
As for Languages most people think that English and Tagalog are the main languages spoken in the Philippines but in Palawan:
"There are 52 languages and dialects in the province, with Tagalog being spoken by more than 50 percent of the people. Languages native to the islands are Cuyonon (26.27 percent), and Palawano (4.0 percent). Kinaray-a is also present at 19 percent."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palawan (accessed 8.9.22)
There are some similarities with Bahrain, my home for the last 12 years:
"Having natural gas reserves of approximately 30,000 trillion cubic feet, the province is the only oil-producing province in the country.[75][76] In addition, tourism is also a thriving sector, having received 1.8 million tourists in 2018, a 21% year-over-year increase from 2017.[77]
Pearl diving used to be a significant economic activity for Palawan until the advent of plastics.[citation needed] The world's largest pearl, the 240 millimeters (9.4 in) diameter Pearl of Lao Tzu, was found off Palawan in 1934."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palawan (accessed 8.9.22)
Hopefully that give you a top-level view of The Philippines. Palawan, Puerto Princesa and my Barangay. If you want to see inside Chester's house, you can read or watch part one ( https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2022/09/tbk-tells-making-of-chesters-house-part.html for the blog and Chesters House Tour vlog- part one for the vlog.
We have now recorded part two where Chester shows you around the ground floor of his house and you can see that vlog by clicking the picture below:
That is all for Chester and I for now- we are going take a week's vacation in Sabang and will be back on 20 September
Best wishes!
Hello, I am The British Kabayan! Feel free to read my stories. 
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