Trip report Jan/Feb 2025 - Cebu & beyond - Research if an elderly gay retiree can live comfortably in Cebu

[bkkmfj2648]

Day 42 (08 February 2025) – Day 2 / Night 3 on Boracay

Prior to eating breakfast in the hotel, I discussed the mystery of that place (the ruins after Diniwid Beach) that we explored yesterday with Mr. B.  The Italian guy that we met on the beach was also perplexed about their mysterious existence. We eat our breakfast and return to our room, as there is still some lingering rain – giving me more time to contemplate.  I whip out Google Maps and I start perusing the area north of Diniwid Beach and voilá – this label with the word “Ruins” appears in the Google search results.

I click on the West Cove Ruins symbol, and there it is, the place that we were at yesterday. As this site does not have an official web link, you instead can read the comments of visitors, where crazy things like these were written:

• Really interesting to walk around the ruins of this illegally built resort. Interesting story behind it.
• West Cove Ruins is a small but fascinating site that offers a glimpse into the area's mysterious history. The ruins of the place are located against the background of a beautiful natural landscape, with lush vegetation and a sense of peace that surrounds the visitors. The buildings, although they are crumbling, retain unique architectural elements that tell the story of days gone by.
• The experience at the place is especially suitable for history buffs and nature lovers. Wandering among the ruins allows you to imagine how the place was used in the past, and with a little imagination - turn it into a center of culture and human activity.
• There was once an illegally built resort here, which was demolished. Now it is the ruins of this old hotel and just a beautiful place for a walk.
• Lost place right by the sea. Remains of an old hotel complex, partly inhabited by locals.

Then further down in the Google search results, some people have written some articles about this place and its related history to a sordid past regarding Boracay’s recent history, which I found to be totally fascinating.

Below is an image of this place when it was open in all of its glory.  It was known as the “Boracay West Cove Resort”, which was opened in 2006. This massive structure consisted of 4 floors with 24 rooms – so it was very exclusive.  It was owned by the controversial, Crisostomo Aquino.  In February 2018, a demolition order was given by the government to this resort, due to it violating zoning requirements and for operating without business and building permits. So, it was able to operate for only 12 years.  What a waste of money.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1026362

Boracay West Cove Resort before being demolished in 2018

You may all remember that the then President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, made the following shocking statement about Boracay in February 2018, where:

Duterte was raging that Boracay’s famous turquoise waters smelled “of shit” and warning of an environmental disaster from unchecked growth and a failing sewage system that made it a “cesspool.”

Shortly after that statement, Duterte ordered Boracay to be closed (on 4 April 2018) for six months so that it could undergo a process of rehabilitation.

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/regions/651254/strained-by-tourism-phl-s-once-idyllic-boracay-checks-in-for-rehab/story/

As I was reading all of this outloud to Mr. B., he remembered all of these things, and then he showed me a Philippine TV news story about this event.  It was mostly in the Philippine Tagalog native language, so Mr. B. translated for me the important parts.  In this news video, they showed shocking images of very long sewer pipes that were extended into the sea from the nearby hotels and resorts where the shit was literally being pumped into the sea.  Yuck!!  Imagine, the Boracay guests of pre-2019 were shitting in their hotel toilets and then later in the day, swimming in their diluted feces.  Yuck!!

https://mylifesamovie.com/why-there-are-abandoned-beach-resorts-in-boracay/

The good news is that Mr. B. and I, we witnessed the positive outcome of Duterte’s radical 2018 governmental edict, as now Boracay is clean and very environmentally friendly.  In fact, the major transportation allowed on the island are tricycle (3 wheeled) electric vehicles and a small amount of passenger vans.  There did not seem to be any cars on the island.  To arrive on the island of Boracay, you must take a ferry, and displayed in the ferry there are many of these signs:

As there is currently an initiative underway to build a bridge between Caticlan on the mainland of Panay island with Boracay.  I personally think that this would be devastating to Boracay, as there is just not enough infrastructure capacity on this small island (7 km long and 1km wide) to support car traffic on the tiny streets.  If they are to build a bridge, then I would suggest that they do so like they did in Venice, Italy – where when you drive over the bridge into Venice, the road ends directly in front of a humongous parking garage, where you must park your car and then transfer yourself and your belongings onto the “Vaporetti” (public water bus system).  In the case of Boracay, it could be the electric 3 wheeled tricycles to substitute the Vaporetti.

After discovering all of this as a result of walking to those ruins yesterday, it gave Mr. B. and myself a warm feeling that Boracay was saved from total environmental disaster.  Every time, while walking on the White Beach Path, which is a white powdery sand natural walkway that runs alongside the sea in front of the stores, restaurants, and clubs, we would feel the sand rise up ever so slightly, and see one of the below markers expose itself – thus giving us the comfort that in year 2019 a proper sewage treatment system was installed throughout Boracay.

Another one of Duterte’s edicts was the elimination of the fire shows on the beach – as it was deemed that the kerosene that is used in the flaming torches was causing pollution.  But later on in this trip report, we will share with you how the ingenious Philippine people got around this unfortunate Duterte edict.

Ok, enough about sewage, politics, and wastewater treatment – back to what we did today.

As we already completed visiting the primary tourist attractions on the western facing part of Boracay, it was time to change our direction to the eastern facing direction = Bulabog Beach.  From our hotel at Boat Station 2 to Bulabog Beach is only a 1km walk, as they both sit at one of the narrowest points of the island, and perhaps 2.5km at its widest point on the northern shore.

Along the way sits, Balabag Lake, which is in the center of the island, which contains the Balabag Wetland Park. 

In the nighttime it is used as a meeting point and a place to sit down and relax and chill.  On the outer perimeter are many stores and shops that face towards the large square of wetland.

We arrive onto Bulabog Beach and are amazed to see the sky full of people kitesurfing, kiteboarding, and wingfoiling.  There were too many to count.

This side of Boracay is very windy and is perfect for these sporting activities.  In addition, there are many schools and rental shops to help you get started and coaches along the beach to help you along.  It is very well organized and the eye candy was very stimulating, as it takes a certain kind of musculature structure and body to be able to do these types of physical sports. Below is an example of what we saw:

The other cool thing about this side of Boracay are the lovely beach front homes that have a South Beach Miami type of look.

Before heading back to our side of the island at White Sand beach Boat Station 2, we take the obligatory Bulabog Beach I Love Boracay photo:

Me and Mr. B. posing with the Bulabog Beach windfoils in the background

We head back to our favorite coffee shop, “Real Coffee” (see yesterday’s post to learn more about this special coffee shop) and enjoy our usual meal and coffees.

We head back to our hotel to relax and shower and change our clothes. We notice from our balcony that the Pontoon Bridge (pier) in front of our hotel is magical, as there are many sailboats floating by, as we approach the oncoming sunset.

We head out to find a place to have dinner and we see that the shoreline is packed with people trying to get a good position for the sunset.

We decide to eat at the Boracay Uptown restaurant where we had an excellent meal and we were entertained for most of the night.  Firstly, by a surprise marching band that played directly in front of the restaurant.  They all were wearing the number 18 on their shirts, which is coincidentally the lucky number of my Thai boyfriend – so I was happy to share this spontaneous universe type of event with him.

And this was followed up by a great fire show.  You may remember that I earlier said that Duterte banned fire shows on the beach in his 2018 edict – so the restaurants and bars now do them on their property.  In our case it was outside, but we would also see these fire shows occurring inside restaurants and bars – and in my opinion, it is just a matter of time before one catches on fire and they will only have Duterte to blame and then perhaps they would amend this law and let them do these amazing shows directly on the beach where it is much safer.  In Thailand they are performed on the beach.  One BIG difference that I noticed is that in the Philippine version they had a woman and in the many Thai versions that I have seen over the years I never noticed a woman fire show performer.

 

 

We take a leisurely stroll along the beach walk towards Boat Station 1, and then we eventually work our way back to our hotel to call it a night.

 

No massages or extra-curricular activities today.

 

Day 42 (08 February 2025) – Day 2 / Night 3 on Boracay concluded.

[bkkmfj2648]

Day 43 (09 February 2025) – Day 3 / Night 4 on Boracay

 

At morning breakfast, I notice a boat with many gay flags parked on the Platoon Bridge (pier).

To no avail, we tried to understand if they offered gay trips.

Upon closer inspection, we see the words, “Mega Paraw 2 Adventures” written on the hull of the ship.  But nowhere on the internet nor from the people boarding there was anything obviously gay about this vessel.  If any of you  know about this company – let me know…

Today I told Mr. B., I want us to swim in the sea today, even though the green algae is still intense in parts:

Walking towards Boat Station 1, we find a clear area where it is good to swim.  The water is chilly – as it has been raining off and on during our sojourn here.

No sea algae here in this location

We relax for a little while on the shoreline and then we put some clothes on and walk over to our daily addiction of “Real Coffee” (see 2 days prior update for a description of this wonderful place).

Returning to our hotel, we take a walk out onto the Platoon Bridge (pier) to see that gay boat up and close, but nothing reveals her secrets to us.

 

Back to our hotel to relax.  Later for our dinner choice, I ask Mr. B. to choose the restaurant, and he chooses the Henann Crystal Sands Resort, where we eat in their Sapphire restaurant, opting for their fixed price all-you-can-eat seafood dinner buffet. 

 

[bkkmfj2648]

Please note that the above trip report update = Day 43 (09 February 2025) – Day 3 / Night 4 on Boracay

is INCOMPLETE - as the gayguides.com server is refusing any additional updates.

I will write to @TotallyOz to see if the situation can be resolved.

After this situation is resolved I will then either repost the above update or create a new one.

I am sorry for this inconvenience.

[bkkmfj2648]

Day 43 (09 February 2025) – Day 3 / Night 4 on Boracay continued:

ok, picking up this thread from this point forward:

Returning to our hotel, we take a walk out onto the Platoon Bridge (pier) to see what that gay boat looks like up and close, but nothing reveals her secrets to us.  We note that it has the name = “Mega Paraw 2 Adventures”.  Searching on the internet does not disclose anything gay about this company.  Perhaps they just like gay flags??

https://www.facebook.com/megaparawtravel/

https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/111111647267615/mega-paraw-boracay/

 

Back to our hotel to relax.  Later for our dinner choice, I ask Mr. B. to choose the restaurant, and he chooses the Henann Crystal Sands Resort, where we eat in their Sapphire restaurant, opting for their fixed price all-you-can-eat seafood dinner buffet.  

https://www.henann.com/henanncrystalsands/savor/sapphire

It being Sunday night, the price was 1,199 pesos ( ~ $20.67 USD), which in my mind was amazing value for what was on selection.  Instead of posting many pictures of what was on offer, I post this Filipino FB video of the selection:

https://www.facebook.com/jayzarrecinto/videos/unlimited-seafood-buffet-at-sapphire-hennan-crystal-sands-resort-boracay/1924108991364542/

Just watch up to the 2 minute marker – as he then goes to eat with his family, which is not so interesting.

After stuffing our faces, we venture deeper into the Boat Station 1 area – as we need to buy our souvenirs and/or t-shirts as we return to Cebu tomorrow evening.  Mr. B., successfully buys some small pearl earrings and a bracelet for his work colleagues.  As we never ventured into the little market stalls prior to today, we notice that there are many female Muslim workers – as we had not seen them before in our other adventures.  I bring it to Mr. B.'s attention, to understand the ratio of Roman Catholics (78.8%) vs. Muslims (6.4%) in the Philippines. According to Google AI, the remainder of the population (14.8%) is made up of; 11% Protestant, 2.6% Iglesia ni Cristo, and 1.2% to other.  Prior to this revelation, I had thought that the Philippine population was in the 90% percentile as Roman Catholics – so it was good to learn about religious diversity in the Philippines.

We head back to our hotel to go to sleep and I mention to Mr. B., that I really like our “grandma” type of heavy duty curtains in our hotel room because you don’t see these types of curtains anymore and they are very good at keeping out the morning light.

No massages or extra-curricular activities today.

 

Day 43 (09 February 2025) – Day 3 / Night 4 on Boracay concluded.

 

[NIrishGuy]

I almost feel guilty reading your reports above as it's starting to feel like a personal travel recommendation blug 🙂  This as I've literally just booked 8 nights at the Fairways and Bluewater Resort in Borocay for us and reading your report is giving us lots of great tips (again) and also backing up a lot of the research we'd carried out before booking too re nice places to eat etc.  Keep up the good work !   lol 

[macaroni21]

You originally refered to the pier as Pontoon Pier, but lately, you're calling it the Platoon Pier. Auto-correct somewhere?

[bkkmfj2648]

26 minutes ago, macaroni21 said:

You originally refered to the pier as Pontoon Pier, but lately, you're calling it the Platoon Pier. Auto-correct somewhere?

I think that my mother's hereditary dementia is acting up.

It's official name is: Pontoon Bridge.

The problem that I have is that my brain associates it to being a "pier" instead of a "bridge". And with this brain confusion I start to call this bridge/pier by other names.  Poor excuse on my part - I need to pay more attention to details.

In my mind, a bridge has two sides and you use a bridge to cross from side a to side b.

In the case of Boracay, this Pontoon "bridge" has no other side - as it just ends at the sea - which is used to allow the larger ships/boats to temporarily moor in the deeper part of the water to allow their passengers to embark or disembark.

Also, I associate the word, "Pontoon" with the military - when they need to establish a floating structure.  When I look at Boracay - the LAST think that I associate this paradise with is the military.

So, big brain fart on my part....

Sorry....

[macaroni21]

Typos and confusion are one of the main reasons why I prefer to blog over at Shamelessmack than put trip reports here. I need the luxury of time to proof read and make corrections.

Like so many others, an instant post here on this forum will usually contain multiple typos and mistakes. Just look at my post about scam centres on Myanmar border. Embarrassingly full of mistakes. For example, I typed "reploying" instead of "redeploying".

[bkkmfj2648]

22 minutes ago, macaroni21 said:

Like so many others, an instant post here on this forum will usually contain multiple typos and mistakes.

I agree 200%.

One of the BIG negatives with posting on this forum is that the EDIT option disappears after I believe 15 minutes - so I try really hard to perform a pre-edit in Word and then a post-edit after I post here in this forum - but sometimes mistakes and typos sneak through.  My "Platoon" vs. "Pontoon" error was exacerbated by the gayguides.com server acting up in that I kept encountering:

• slow response posting and editing times,
• Upload failures,
• time outs where the EDIT option would already expire due to the slowness of the server.

so, this particular update to this thread was very problematic.  Normally, the gayguides.com server performs very well.

 

[bkkmfj2648]

Day 44 (10 February 2025) – Day 4 on Boracay

 

Our return flight to Cebu is in the evening at 19:40pm and we try to ask our hotel for:

• A late check-out,
• Or, to avail us to another room, so that we would have our own bathroom and a place to shower and to store our stuff.

Unfortunately, the hotel is fully booked – as it is high season and consequently, we need to check out at 11am and store our luggage in the hotel.

I kept teasing Mr. B. that we were about to become homeless – and he laughed – as we would only be homeless for 5 hours – as Mr. B. had already called  

to book our return to the Caticlan airport for 4pm.  I believe that our quoted return fare was only 650 pesos each ( ~ $11.26 USD).

As Mr. B. had already completed his souvenir purchases the night before, it was now my turn to do my shopping and I had seen a store the prior night that I really liked for its quality t-shirts, but when we returned to our hotel last night it was already closed.

https://www.facebook.com/fiestasouvenirsboracay/

I buy 2 shirts for myself and 1 for my Thai boyfriend.  I have a weak spot for t-shirts that are embossed, where the letters protrude and appear to be coming out of the garment.

I ask Mr. B. if he wants one and he declines my offer – as Mr. B. is truly a modest guy.

Now that my shopping is out of the way, we still have way too many hours to kill.  So, while walking northbound towards Boat Station 1, we come across the  open air shopping mall.  We never noticed it before, as we were more in a nature and sightseeing mode.  This place is really huge and full of both local mom & pop stores, as well as high end brands.

https://info.myboracayguide.com/boracay-dmall/

I kept noticing many tourists eating some yummy ice cream that was served in these big coconut shells    and I told Mr. B. that I needed to have one.  The name of this shop is    https://www.facebook.com/cocomamaboracay/

and their ice cream combined with mango is truly decadent and so yummy.  Mr. B. also had one.

We still need to kill like 1.5 to 2 hours so we return to our daily favorite “Real Coffee” shop,

https://www.facebook.com/originalrealcoffeeandteacafe/

where we eat our food VERY slowly and drink our coffees even more slowly.

We return to our hotel at 3:30pm with only 30 minutes to kill and we change out of our beach sandals, wipe off the sand, and put our socks and sneakers on.  The efficient and well organized Layod’s team  arrives early and off we go in their van to the Boracay Jetty Port to wait for our ferry back to the Panay island mainland.  We wait perhaps 10 minutes for the ferry to depart and then before we know it we are back at the Caticlan Jetty Port.  We exit the ferry and another Layod’s team is waiting for us and drives us in their van back to the Godofredo P. Ramos Airport – and that ride is very short – like 7 minutes. 

We do the check-in and then go to our Gate 2 to wait for our flight departure which isn’t for another 2 hours.  So more time to kill.

Flight departs on time and we arrive like 10 minutes early into Cebu Mactan airport.  I say goodbye to Mr. B., as he takes a taxi back to Cebu city and I take a taxi back to Mactan Newtown, which only takes 17 minutes.  I realize that I am already missing Mr. B. - he is truly the perfect travel companion.

I am super excited about my new AirBnB, as it is in my favorite Mactan Newtown building = One Pacific Residence (OPR).  Check in is a breeze with the security team as they remember me.

You may remember that I stayed here before and I was very happy with the prior AirBnB, except for the balcony sea view, which was out onto the Magellan Sea, where there are those 6 dilapidated ships from the 2021 super typhoon Odette stuck out in the sea.  In this new condo, it has a view onto the Hilutungan Channel with a direct view of Olango island, Mactan airport, and Cebu city skyline.  Unfortunately, as it is around 10pm, there is not much to see – but I am very happy with the layout of this larger condo unit.

 

No massages or extra-curricular activities today.

 

Day 44 (10 February 2025) – Day 4 on Boracay concluded.

[macaroni21]

1 hour ago, bkkmfj2648 said:

so, this particular update to this thread was very problematic.  Normally, the gayguides.com server performs very well.

Well, at least you seem to have the discipline of taking notes each day, so even if the forum goes into freeze mode for a few days, the information is still with you. (I am assuming you've got notes seeing how you're able to write trip reports several days after the actual date).

I try to take notes myself when I am travelling, but I'm not always consistent about it. 

I remember a few years back, I tried to write a trip report directly into this forum about M-star massage in Silom soi 6. The first gremlin was my referring to the place as M-sense. Fortunately I realised my mistake before I clicked SEND. While I was editing the post, I saw more mistakes, including referring to Soi 6 as Soi 8. And then I was mortified to realise that my description of the M-star visit was heavily confused with a separate visit I made to 9-teen massage across the soi. In trying to clean up the post, I got the 2 visits more and more confused, and without any notes in hand, it became impossible to disentangle the facts. The only thing I could do was to delete the whole thing 😭

[bkkmfj2648]

4 minutes ago, macaroni21 said:

Well, at least you seem to have the discipline of taking notes each day, so even if the forum goes into freeze mode for a few days, the information is still with you. (I am assuming you've got notes seeing how you're able to write trip reports several days after the actual date).

ok I will give away my secret.  I take many pictures of the activities that I do and when I need to write my trip report I connect my phone to my laptop and I peruse the photos that I took on a given day and that triggers the memories for the trip report.  I also have my timeline setting turned on in Google, so that all of my movements are being recorded - this system is not perfect - as Google many times associates me visiting places that I have not visited.  But between the photos from my phone and the Google timeline - I am able to put together a trip report - even after many days have past.  In fact, when I started my trip in Cebu, the first AirBnB did not have a desk, so I could not make any trip reports - so I was like 15 days behind when I finally moved to my second AirBnB that had a proper table and chair so I could create a desktop workstation.  Also, when I write my trip reports, I like to augment them with maps and web links - as I find these very handy when I need to repeat a previous trip or I need to gather information from an already concluded trip for a friend.

For this 62 day trip - it has been very helpful that I am often with Mr. B. - as he helps me to remember what we did on those days that were intense - where we visited many places in a single day.

 

[macaroni21]

Ok, before your Filipino story goes back to Cebu, a few more questions about Boracay. I am not interested in retiring to Cebu, but I may be interested in visiting Boracay.

1. Did you see any money changers or ATMs of international banks?

2. What was the ratio of domestic to foreign tourists? Were packaged visitors (e.g. from China or Italy) numerous?

3. (You may not want to answer this question, I will understand). Did you and Mr B share a room, and if so was it twin beds or a double bed and was there any reaction from hotel reception?

4. I see from Google maps that Boracay doesn't really face any big expanse of water. Certainly it doesn't face the Pacific ocean, not even the south china sea, but it is sort of behind some other islands. How much wave action was there? Like Jomtien or less than that? Calm seas may account for the algae bloom.

5. Any idea when is low season?

[bkkmfj2648]

24 minutes ago, macaroni21 said:

1. Did you see any money changers or ATMs of international banks?

Here in Cebu I primarily use the BPI (Bank of the Philippine Islands) ATMs.  I note that I saw some of these BPI ATMs here in Boracay - but I did not use any.  The reason why I prefer BPI over the other Philippine banks is that I had the best success when using their ATMs over the other banks (mainly MetroBank).  I heard that BDO Bank is also ok for international bank cards.

I have used my USA bank card, and my European bank card, and my HongKong bank card and they all worked in the BPI machine - so I would consider that as passing the international bank test.  Note that there is a fixed ATM usage fee of 250 pesos.

This Boracay and Wise web pages may help: https://www.boracayinsider.com/atms/

https://wise.com/gb/blog/atms-in-the-philippines

 

29 minutes ago, macaroni21 said:

2. What was the ratio of domestic to foreign tourists? Were packaged visitors (e.g. from China or Italy) numerous?

There was a dramatic difference on the weekend - where the number of domestic tourists greatly increased (mainly on Saturday / Sunday).  For the other days, it was primarily foreign tourists.  So, during the weekend I could say 50% domestic and 50% foreign.  Outside of the weekend, the ratio felt like 30% domestic and 70% foreign.

For packaged visitors, I only saw small groups of Koreans - but I do not know if they were part of a package tour or just a bunch of Koreans traveling together.  For the EU tourists they were predominately French and Italian - but they were not high in numbers nor in packaged tour groups.  There were also some Russians - but nowhere near the number of Russians that we see in Pattaya / Jomtien.

33 minutes ago, macaroni21 said:

3. (You may not want to answer this question, I will understand). Did you and Mr B share a room, and if so was it twin beds or a double bed and was there any reaction from hotel reception?

We had requested from the hotel 2 twin beds but what we got instead was a king size bed.  So, we slept together but there was no hanky-pank.  The hotel reception did not hesitate with our check-in or room assignment.  Even the larger staff never said anything or batted an eye.  We did see other gays around but there was never any feeling of being under observation or harassment.   I am sure that many people thought that Mr. B. and I were a couple - where I was the old retired sugar daddy with my young Filipino boytoy.  

37 minutes ago, macaroni21 said:

4. I see from Google maps that Boracay doesn't really face any big expanse of water. Certainly it doesn't face the Pacific ocean, not even the south china sea, but it is sort of behind some other islands. How much wave action was there? Like Jomtien or less than that? Calm seas may account for the algae bloom.

The wave action was light and placid on the western side of Boracay where we were and was similar to Jomtien - but much cleaner than Jomtien - no brown coffee color.  However, on the other eastern side of Boracay, there were waves and it was much more windier on that side of the island - which was conducive to the amount of wingfoiling, windsurfing, and kitesurfing we saw there.  The waves were not huge but the water was much more agitated than on the other side of the island.

We were told that the annual algae bloom season is from February to May and is caused by the run off caused by the rainy season which brings fertilizer nitrates and related runoff into the sea and with the warming of the sea temperature.

54 minutes ago, macaroni21 said:

5. Any idea when is low season?

They say low season is from June to November because that is when the wet season (rain and occasional typhoons) is.  We need to remember that in December 2021 the super typhoon Odette hit Cebu - which rarely ever gets any typhoons.  I believe that the last major typhoon (Ursula) to hit Boracay was in December (Christmas) of 2019.  So, I might be cautious of December - even though December is not listed as being in low season from a weather point of view.

[EricV]

I thought this might fit in here: looks like the Thai government is revisiting the tax rules for money transferred from abroad:

https://www.pattayamail.com/latestnews/news/thailand-could-ease-rules-on-income-from-overseas-490793

To early to tell, but might be worth watching...

[bkkmfj2648]

27 minutes ago, EricV said:

I thought this might fit in here: looks like the Thai government is revisiting the tax rules for money transferred from abroad

Wow - hallelujah!!!   If this really does come true.

I think the key phrase written in that Pattaya Mail article is this one:

Quote

Finance minister Pichai Chunhavajira said a change in the global economic situation was relevant but did not elaborate.

hmm, what could that be?

Perhaps the USA pulling out of the OECD because of their emphasis on the idea of implementing a Global Minimum Taxation scheme which the new administration has deemed as being "extraterritorial" and discriminatory towards American citizens and American businesses.  Related legal article can be seen here at:

https://tax.weil.com/latest-thinking/now-you-see-me-now-you-dont-oecd-me-president-trump-signals-significant-changes-in-global-tax-policy/

This was already forecasted by Mr. Benjamin Hart from Integrity Legal when he gave his recent Thailand tax presentation to the PCEC (Pattaya City Expat Club) earlier this week on Wednesday 12 February 2025.

This important PCEC meeting was recorded and can be watched on their YouTube channel at:

 

 

[bkkmfj2648]

Day 45 (11 February 2025) with extracurricular activities - finally 😋

Upon waking up in the morning I immediately open the curtains and step out onto the balcony to see if my desired objective to have an unobstructed view onto the Hilutangan Channel and Olango island is realized.

View from my balcony when looking left.

Not only did I get a view onto Olango island, but I also got a view onto Bohol island off into the distance.  Note that in the Hilutangan Channel there are no wrecked and/or dilapidated ships to ruin the view.  So, I am really a happy camper now.  It took me 3 different distinct stays here in Mactan Newtown to understand in which direction is the best sea view.  The way that this new township was constructed, most of the units are facing the Magellan Sea – which in my opinion is not the most majestic view of the sea.

Looking straight forward from my balcony I have a view of the southern part of Mactan island.

View from my balcony when looking directly forward.

Then when looking right from my balcony I have an excellent view of the Mactan–Cebu International Airport (MCIA) and then behind the airport is the Cebu city skyline, with the mountains behind Cebu city.  Note the Cebu Pacific aircraft with the yellow tail fin sitting in front of the airport terminal.

View from my balcony when looking towards the right

All in all, this condo out of the 5 condos that I have rented from AirBnB here in Cebu is my most favorite.

This new condo does not have a washing machine, so this gives me a chance to try out the Mactan Newtown Wash n Dry franchise here in the township.  After the trip to Boracay, I accumulated a lot of dirty laundry.  This franchise shop is directly adjacent to where I stored my luggage prior to departing for Boracay.

https://www.facebook.com/p/Wash-N-Dry-Mactan-Newtown-100063930938292/

Pricing is reasonable for my 3.6 kilos of dirty laundry.  But, where they get you to pay more is as follows.  The above favorable price schedule requires that you wait for 4 days.  For an escalated pricing scheme of 89% more, they can give you your laundry next day at the close of business.  I chose that option = Rush Laundry, as I did not want to wait 4 days.

My total cost was 3.6 kilos * 66/kilo  = 237.6 pesos ( ~ $4.12 USD) – which in my opinion at this elevated price is amazingly good value for money and time.

Next stop was back to the Mactan Newtown Alfresco open air food court for lunch.

Life is good – yes – pork again with pasta and spring rolls.

Speaking of pork, the township is busy preparing for the Cebu Lechon Festival – one was being roasted while I was eating my lunch.

After lunch I return to the X10 luggage shop to retrieve my 2 bags of stored items – 1 big luggage from Thailand and a Metro shopping bag full of the towels to protect the bed mattress during massages and sheets to block the light.  In this new condo, not necessary, as it has excellent sun blocking curtains.

https://luggagestoragecebu.com/

 

When I arrive back to the OPR condo building the security team looks confused – as if I am checking in again (I had already checked in the night prior with my small luggage from Boracay).  We laughed and I told them that this was the rest of my crap from my 62 trip in the Philippines.

I get back to my condo room and I empty out my additional luggage and I start to feel very horny as it is now more than 1 week since I have had an orgasm.  Oh no, what is wrong with me.

I enter into Heesay and I find this cute masculine sexy young 23 year old Filipino guy who will come to my condo and give me a nice massage with the ES (extra services) that I requested.  We agree that he will come at 18:30pm and I will meet him out on the street in front of the OPR condo complex.  In the meantime, I prepare the bed with the towels that I previously retrieved from the X10 luggage storage shop and I alert my Thai boyfriend back in Jomtien that I will have a massage.  All is good.

I stand outside on the street and every macho guy that passes I keep thinking is it him?  Then I see a guy mysteriously look at me and then keep walking – but he was hiding behind the next pillar of the covered walkway.  He messages me on the Heesay app that he is here and wants to know where I am.  So, I walk over to him, thinking that it must be him and I say my name to him and he smiles and says his name, Jeff.  I really like what I see and I am super excited.  We go to the OPR security desk and the security guard asks me in which condo do I belong to and I totally forgot my new condo number.  I fumble for my condo keys and thank God it was written on the keychain and I show it to the security guard.  I try to lighten up the tense moment saying that I just returned to OPR after being away on Boracay and the security guard smiles and registers Jeff in the ID book and off we go up to my room.

I ask Jeff if he wants anything to drink and he says no.  I ask if he needs a shower and he states that he already had a shower before coming here.  I then take him out to the balcony so that he can see the amazing view and he points out to me where he is lodging in Mactan.  I find out that he is meandering around the Philippines as a “4Hire” guy, paying his way as he goes.  He is originally from Bohol which he says is beautiful but boring as hell and that is why he left.  He arrived by boat to Cebu the night before.  Then he goes back into the living room and takes off all of his clothes except his boxers and I get naked and I lay down on the bed and he starts to massage my back and shoulders.  He is really good at it for only being 23 years old.  He takes his time to do my entire back side from my neck down to my feet but after a while (I am super horny from too many days of abstinence) I turn over and I am already rock hard.  He massages all around my third leg and finally he gives it a tug and then I remove his boxers and he is completely naked with a perfect tanned tone swimmers body and a nice cut Filipino cock.  He gets me close to orgasm already – I told him to do it slowly and he did but I was just too horny.  So, I ask him to stop and then I tell him to lay down and I lick his nipples, caress his groin and balls and slowly massage his dick with that Japanese oil that I bought when I was back in IT Park from that gay couple.  I also give him a great blowjob.  He really likes it and is moaning more and more and so I slow down my cock massage rhythm, as I love to see the guys desire their orgasm more and more.  Eventually, he cannot resist the sensual strokes to his cock head that he shoots out a big load all over his chest.  WOW!!  I clean him up with the Kleenex and then he does the same to me – but I don’t last long as he is just too masculine and sexy and I am too horny that I explode.  We clean up taking showers and I dress so that I can bring him down to the security desk as it is very easy to get lost in the OPR complex that has 4 towers – with only 1 main entrance/exit point.

We walk together towards the main entrance of the Mactan Newtown township entrance, but I depart from him when I get near my favorite food stall and we say our goodbyes.

I eat at my favorite food cart place, An’Dale, totally satisfied – in all senses.  Life is good.

https://www.facebook.com/andaleeats?mibextid=LQQJ4d

I head back to my room after I finish my meal and I clean up the bedroom and then I have a LINE chat with my Thai boyfriend back in Jomtien.

Now very sleepy and happy – so off to bed.

 

Day 45 (11 February 2025) concluded.

 

 

 

[bkkmfj2648]

Day 46 (12 February 2025)

Wake up and have breakfast. 

I decide that today is a good day to simulate an elderly retiree using the public transportation to get from Mactan Newtown to the Ayala mall in Cebu Business Park (CBP).

I walk to the beginning of the Mactan Newtown township where there is the bus transportation center.  A Ceres bus for IT Park is starting to leave and I run towards it and they let me on.  It is 10:30am.  I sit down and the Ceres bus conductor comes to me and issues me a ticket  and I pay 51 pesos ( ~ $0.88 USD)  for the 1 way trip to IT Park.  The bus is kind of empty and very nice inside and has good air-conditioning.

The bus makes many stops along the way and perhaps after 30 minutes of traveling it is now full.  We arrive at the IT Park bus terminus and it is 11:47am, so the total elapsed time was 1 hour and 17 minutes (77 minutes).  Now I need to figure out how to get to the Ayala mall in CBP.

• --> Note: from what I can tell, there are 3 bus companies sharing this route: Ceres / Sugbo / CIBUS
• I could not find out the operating hours of this bus - but there was a Reddit post that states that this bus runs 24/7 every 30 minutes - with the caveat - if the bus fills up prior to the 30 minutes it will already depart.  source Reddit here (the article is in Tagalog - so you need to translate it):

 

The bus conductor remembers that I asked her about the Ayala mall bus and points it out to me – it was parked perpendicular to our bus.  This CIBUS bus is parked next to this sign:  with its final destination being the SM Seaside mall.  There is also the mybus, doing the same route.

I run over to it (as I did not know if it was leaving immediately) and it is now 11:50am – but the bus did not depart until 12:18pm.  The conductor issues me a ticket,  and I pay 15 pesos ( ~ $0.26 USD).  We arrive at the Ayala mall at 12:24pm, in front of the Maybank,   

on Luzon Avenue, which is opposite of the Alcoves entrance to the Ayala mall.

So, the total 1 way elapsed time was 1 hour and 54 minutes (114 minutes).

Time for lunch and I head up to the 4^th floor Garden Level to eat at the ever so yummy  .  The waitress remembers me from like 10 days prior and before I could say anything, she says to me: would you like the Eggs Benedict Salmon with an Okinawa iced coffee?  I was so impressed.  I said can I also have a side of……she finished my sentence with, sausage.  I told her that I am very amazed at her memory skills.  Lunch is served and I am very happy:  

https://www.facebook.com/p/Abaca-Baking-Company-4th-Floor-Ayala-Center-Cebu-100090856277197/

And no, that is not a bottle of opened white wine, but instead is a bottle of “free” service water – which I did not drink – after my experience a couple of weeks ago, with a major incident of diarrhea, that was caused by "service water" = tap water --> No way.  I only drank my bottled water.

I go down to the second floor to the Bench Fix Salon, 

   

https://shop.fixsalon.com/

where I had my previous hair color treatment.  Unfortunately, the lady who did it before was not there.  So, I accept the assigned beauty assistant.  I show her the color that was previously done and I could tell from her face that she did not agree.  Well, she does my hair and of course it is not as dark as I like.  The mistake that I made was that I did not show her the official color box that my hair treatment guy gave me back in Thailand, which has the number A42 assigned to it – as there are millions of colors and gradients of color.  Instead, I only showed the beauty assistant what my haircut looked like that was done by her colleague 3 weeks prior.  Oh well, lesson learned.  My hair looks good – but it is not intense and dark enough.

I head over to my favorite coffee shop, Treat Street Café,  which is just outside of the Rustan’s department store on floor 2.  I order my usual delicious avocado pie and Spanish latte.   

https://treatstreetcafe.com/

Back on Boracay, I broke my favorite neon green and black sneakers, and I look for a replacement in the  shoes store.  Prior to going to Boracay, I had seen a pair of sneakers that I liked that were black with a couple of subtle neon green stripes.  I must have walked the entire Ayala mall 2 times and then finally I saw the store down on the ground level while I was walking up on the 2^nd level.

https://dcshoes.com.ph/

The 2 male clerks were very happy to help me and when they found out that I am from the USA, they were like, how could you not already have a pair of DC shoes.  So, I had to explain to them that I left the USA in 1999 from Colorado, and I did not believe that DC shoes were popular or known in Colorado.  Anyway, I was happy to buy my first pair of USA sneakers in the Philippines – another proof of globalization.

Now I go outside of the Ayala mall to wait for the bus back to IT Park at the bus stop opposite of the Maybank.  I see a lot of people standing around waiting for various jeepneys (a type of bahtbus) and buses.  But none are going to IT Park.  As I am the only non-Filipino, many motorbike taxi guys and regular taxi guys keep trying to solicit me and I keep resisting by politely refusing their offers.  After 30 minutes of no luck, I start looking in Google and there are 2 conflicting suggested areas for the bus to IT Park.  One is where I was standing and the other was over at the Metro store.  So, I walk over to the Metro store and start waiting there but no buses appear for IT Park.  After now waiting 30 minutes, I decide to walk to IT Park, as it looked nearby on Google maps.  Google states that it is a 30 minute walk and is 2km.  So, I start walking on the very busy Archbishop Reyes Ave, as it is now rush hour and the problem with walking outside of CBP or IT Park is the lack of or intermittent sidewalks, where you are forced to walk out into the traffic.  I do this and it is an ok experience – no worse than some of the walks that I have done in Pattaya city in that chaos. I started walking at 16:55pm and I arrived at 17:22pm at the IT Park Transport Terminal, with an elapsed time of 27 minutes and a cost of ZERO pesos.

Luckily, at 17:30pm there was a CIBUS bus departing for Mactan Newtown and it was easy to locate:   

As it is now rush hour, the bus is super packed with people standing.  I was lucky, as I got a seat for the long journey.

 

The return bus is comfortable and very well air-conditioned. The cost was the same = 51 pesos.  We arrive at the Mactan Newtown bus terminal at 18:52pm for a total elapsed time of 1 hour and 22 minutes (82 minutes).  I also need to factor in the TOTAL transit time of 27 minutes of walking plus 8 minutes of waiting time plus 82 minutes on the bus = 117 minutes.

 

Exiting the bus terminal to re-enter into the Mactan Newtown township I had an elated feeling – similar to the feeling I get when I need to venture into the center of busy Pattaya city for several hours and when I jump off of the bahtbus in Jomtien, I am always happy – as there is that sense of escaping from the urban jungle and intense chaotic traffic, noise, and related pollution.  Additionally, out in Jomtien and also out in Mactan Newtown, the air is just so much fresher at the sea.

Again, living here as a retiree in Mactan Newtown might get old – in the sense that:

• The transit time between Mactan Newtown to Cebu city is near to 2 hours versus the 15 to 20 minutes from Jomtien to Pattaya city,
• The Mactan Newtown township is still not yet completed and it is still missing some essential services.  They have yet to finish the 4 additional condo buildings, new shopping mall over at the sea, the convention center, and the big new museum.  So, perhaps in another 3 years, Mactan Newtown would be great for a retiree to live in with all of the required amenities – thus negating the need to go into Cebu city on a frequent basis.
• But, I must say --> the sea views are awesome from here in Mactan Newtown versus Cebu city – and we need to remember that the condos in Cebu city often don’t feature balconies – and if they do, they are not always sea facing (instead they would be mountain facing -or- worse yet, internal facing onto another condo unit or blank wall).

 

Back to my condo to relax and then call it a night.

 

No massages or extra-curricular activities today.

 

Day 46 (12 February 2025) concluded.

 

[floridarob]

9 hours ago, bkkmfj2648 said:

No massages or extra-curricular activities today.

This part is getting repetitive....get going 😝

[bkkmfj2648]

2 hours ago, floridarob said:

This part is getting repetitive....get going

See previous day's post = Day 45 (11 February 2025) --> extracurricular activities occured 😛🤪😜🍆💦

[macaroni21]

Two hours to get into the city!  Similar to travelling from Jomtien into Bangkok.

[bkkmfj2648]

1 hour ago, macaroni21 said:

Similar to travelling from Jomtien into Bangkok.

wow yes - I had not yet made that association.  Bravo!!

The primary problem with the Philippines is the bad infrastructure, such as lack of good roads to handle all of the traffic.  Alternative transportation is available, such as jeepneys (bahtbus), buses, motorbikes, taxis, and tricycles - but they all need to travel on the same clogged up roads.  Walking is another strategy, but often you need to walk amongst the traffic due to a lack of sidewalks - which can be dangerous when the impatient motorbikes aggressively ride in that tiny space between the cars and the edge of the road and/or wall.

The 3 bubble (Jim Carrey Truman Show) communities that I wrote about extensively in this trip report all have excellent sidewalks, and transportation within these planned communities is efficient and comfortable - but these 3 bubble "fake" communities only represent like 1% to 2% of the land mass of the greater CEBU area - so, if you want to live here - you are forced to step out of these bubble communities and deal with the true reality of the chaos, traffic, pollution, noise, etc. 

[macaroni21]

If I were you I would quickly try the same route using Grab and see how that works out in comparison, preferably on the same day of week so it factors out traffic variability by day of week. It is 16 km (10 miles to Americans) and even if the car managed no more than 30 km/hour (20 miles/hour), it should only be half an hour.

If one were living there, it's not a trip one would need to make every day. One can plan for twice a week and get all  downtown chores done; the Grab costs twice a week shouldn't add up to that much.

[reader]

You mentioned this movie in earlier post. It’s currently available on Netflix in Thailand and may well be elsewhere. Recommended.

[bkkmfj2648]

3 hours ago, reader said:

Recommended.

How many kleenex boxes did you consume?  For me many - as this was such a heartwarming movie.

 'How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies' =  "Lahn Mah" หลานม่า