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

[khaolakguy]

Well done for your reports, thank you for sharing all this information!

[macaroni21]

It's been a great series of reoprts. I learnt more about Cebu than I ever thought I would !

I note that you're off to Danang late April for a few months. That would coincide with the hot, humid season in Vietnam. Perhaps the seaside part of the city wouldn't be so bad but my previous experience with Vietnam has taught me to avoid this season.

[bkkmfj2648]

16 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

note that you're off to Danang late April for a few months. That would coincide with the hot, humid season in Vietnam.

1 year ago, to escape the crazy 5 day Songkran bazooka water gun madness here in Pattaya I went to Da Nang for 2 weeks - so that would be around the 10th of April.  The weather was still dry and fantastic and bearable.  We need to remember that in Da Nang, the rainy / dry season is not in exactly synchronized with Pattaya's as per the below.

This year we will be heading over to Da Nang immediately after Songkran ends here in Pattaya - which should end on USA tax filing deadline date of 15 April 2025.  I am anticipating that the local Pattaya government will again extend the Songkran water fighting festivities to 5 days like they did last year - as it was found to be a HUGE money maker for the city.

So, we will probably end up arriving into Da Nang around the 20th of April, which should give us 3 more months of dry season before the ugly season arrives.

Like my trip to Cebu - the goal of this trip is to determine if I could live in Da Nang as a retiree - so it will be good for me to experience BOTH the Dry and Wet seasons - to see if I can bear the ugly wet season.

When I moved from Budapest to Pattaya (Jomtien) in September 2022, as a fresh new retiree, we had many many wet monsoon days immediately after I arrived - and I was totally amazed at how severe it can get - especially when my European umbrella broke (the fabric split in half) when it was extended, from the weight of the water droplets that were coming down from the sky.  Also, many times in that September, while trying to walk back to my condo - I was soaking wet from flash flooding that inundated the street - as the water tends to travel in a hurry downwards towards the sea - creating huge gullies in the beach sand.  This is a nightmare when you are exiting the bahtbus (songthaew) into a river of rapidly moving water.  I had never experienced water drops so big and abundant and frequent before in my life.  Even with growing up on Long Island - where we had several hurricanes over the years - where the wind was more of an obstacle than humungous water droplets falling out of the sky.

So, it will be good for me to experience this September 2022 experience in Da Nang - in my opinion.

I've heard that the winds coming off of the East Vietnam Sea (South China Sea) can be violent during the wet season.

[macaroni21]

But the rainy season won't begin till towards the end of your planned 130-day stay in Danang. And anyway I wasn't referring to the wet season. I was referring to the mid year period when the weather is in the mid thirties but very humid. Days are muggy and sticky.

Like in Thailand, I prefer the wet season (even if it comes with storms and some flooding) than the hot humid season in the middle of the calendar year. Rain cools everything down.

Actually, we shouldn't be in the Philippines forum for this discussion. Perhaps you will consider opening a similar thread in the Vietnam forum as you prepare for your trip.

[bkkmfj2648]

Post trip report update - about the process to leave the Philippines.

Today Jeff (the massage guy back in Cebu) asked me how my flight was back to Thailand and it made me remember the below incident that I think needs to be shared with all of you.

I make this update in case what happened to me at the airport may happen to you.

During the check in process at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport - at the Cebu Pacific check-in desk, it took forever for me to convince them that I had a legal right to live in Thailand.  They kept wanting me to show them my onward ticket.  I showed them my passport with my Thai immigration retirement visa stamp - but that was not good enough for them, because in addition to the retirement visa stamp they wanted me to show them my address card - which we don't have in Thailand.  In lieu of an address card, I showed them my Thai driving license - which on the back has my address printed.  After this being escalated for verification with a supervisor, they finally agreed to allow me to be properly checked in.

I believe that the following below factors may have played a role into this difficult check-in event:

• I was not able to get a direct flight back to Thailand from Cebu - so I had to first take a domestic flight from Cebu to Davao.  Consequently, I was checking in at a domestic desk with a Cebu Pacific employee, who was obviously not well trained about how to deal with someone who was checking their luggage all the way through to Bangkok,
• In the Philippines, they issue us foreigners, an ACR (Alien Certificate of Residence) card, after staying here for in excess of 59 days.  As I stayed for 62 days, you may recall that during my last visit to the BI (Bureau of Immigration) I was obligated to pay for the ACR card, even though I was leaving the country 4 days later (the physical plastic card is made available to you after 1 month and it is required to have physical possession of this ACR card to receive additional tourist visa extensions - which I believe can be extended for up to 3 years in total, in 2 month increments).  I believe that this ACR card displays your address - and the Cebu Pacific check in agent was expecting me to display a Thai equivalent of Thailand's ACR card.

• I was able to get around this problem by showing them my Thai driver's license - which displays my address.  But, this begs the question, what would happen if I did not have a Thai driver's license?  Not all retirees that live in Thailand have a Thai driving license.

When I arrived at the Davao International Airport, I had to physically exit the domestic wing of the Davao International Airport and walk over to the international wing and do the immigration exit procedure there. I had to pay the tourist exit clearance fee to the immigration official, who then reviewed my last BI tourist visa extension and then stamped my passport with an exit stamp:

Then after passing through immigration I had to redo the security check for international flights.

So, do not spend all of your Philippine pesos before exiting the country - as you will need to pay this exit clearance fee.  Note that this fee changes depending on the departure city - as I see from the internet that this fee is set locally.  The fee for Cebu was different than the fee for Davao.

https://ph.usembassy.gov/exit-clearances/

At immigration in Don Mueang airport, before leaving the immigration desk, I specifically asked the Thai immigration official if my passport was physically stamped - she showed me the stamp - as I told her that this stamp was CRITICAL to my:

• resetting of my now new 90 day reporting cycle - as required for a Thai non immigrant O retirement visa,
• need to show accrued time outside of Thailand in this 2025 tax year.  I now have 59 days that were physically outside of Thailand for tax purposes.  I was physically outside of Thailand for 62 days, but 3 of those days were the final days of the 2024 tax year.  As the requirement to be a non tax resident is > 180 days, I will need to be cognizant that my stay in Vietnam should be for more than 122 days.

I was very relieved that there were NO automatic gates at the Don Mueang airport, where you just show your passport and breeze through without getting any physical stamps in your passport.  I was dreading the idea of having to prove that I was physically outside of Thailand for tax purposes without having these ever so important physical stamps in my passport.

 

[floridarob]

20 hours ago, bkkmfj2648 said:

about the process to leave the Philippines.

I just landed in Manila...44hr travel time from my house in Mexico, so no complaints from people living on this side of the world how Brazil and Colombia is too far, lol


 

 

20 hours ago, bkkmfj2648 said:

at the Cebu Pacific check-in desk

That says it all 🥺

[macaroni21]

23 hours ago, bkkmfj2648 said:

In the Philippines, they issue us foreigners, an ACR (Alien Certificate of Residence) card, after staying here for in excess of 59 days.  ......  the Cebu Pacific check in agent was expecting me to display a Thai equivalent of Thailand's ACR card.

To be fair, the problem was really created by Thailand, not the Philippines. If you have some kind of residency in Thailand, then Thailand should have issued you a document or card to prove it. Not too long ago, someone showed me a "Malaysia Second Home" card, so it seems to me that other countries may be doing this routinely.

Thailand in its usual disjointed-policy way, seems to be creating all sorts of residency options, which besides being confusing and potentially vague, don't come with a card or formal documentation? Thailand may think it's OK so long as they have stored the information in their database - which @bkkmfj2648 does not fully trust, thus wanting physical stamps on his passport - but foreign countries and airlines cannot access the Thai databases to verify status.

So I would say it's Thailand that created this problem for you, not the Philippines.

[macaroni21]

It seems to me that you need to give thought to possibly similar difficulties for your next leg (130 days in Danang).

Do you have a Vietnam visa to cover this entire period? If not, can you be sure that whichever airline that's taking you to Danang will let you board?

What will happen when you try to return from Danang to Thailand? Will whichever airline accept your driver's licence as proof of residency in Thailand?

[bkkmfj2648]

4 hours ago, floridarob said:

44hr travel time from my house in Mexico

You were practically Tom Hanks in the movie The Terminal - but perhaps it should be renamed = Airplane Fuselage

I have NEVER in my life traveled for 44 hours - other than when I got the crazy idea to drive coast to coast across the USA, which took me 5 days - with driving between 10 to 15 hours each day.  Once was enough.

[bkkmfj2648]

1 hour ago, macaroni21 said:

Do you have a Vietnam visa to cover this entire period?

As soon as I finish the filing of my USA tax return - that is the next project on the list for the preparation for our 130 day trip to Vietnam.  Just last night, I had my Thai boyfriend sit with me at my computer so that we could get him a Hong Kong based debit card with his freshly new Thai passport - so that getting money in Vietnam will not be problematic.  As I am quite sure if he tried to use his Kasikorn Thai ATM card it most likely would not work in Vietnam ?

So, we will both apply for the 90 day tourist visa and then towards the end of this 90 day period we will employ the services of the famous Lynn Visa agent - who will take us on one of their giant busses over to Laos - to do a border run, where we would get an additional 90 day tourist visa.  Many of the expats and digital nomads who call Da Nang their home rave about Lynn's service.  However, it is a grueling all day event - where you wake up like at 4am and return perhaps around 8 to 10 pm.

https://lynnvisa.vn/

 

I am sure that this will all be covered in my to-be created NEW trip report to research if an elderly gay retiree can live comfortably in Da Nang over in the Vietnam channel of our gayguides.com forum.

1 hour ago, macaroni21 said:

If not, can you be sure that whichever airline that's taking you to Danang will let you board?

I will need to understand a priori before we buy our Bangkok to Da Nang tickets next week if this will be a problem.  If yes, then I will buy an adjustable ticket where we can change the return ticket date afterwards.  Also, my Thai boyfriend has asked me if he can return to Thailand for like 2 weeks at a time during our 130 day stay in Vietnam.  I am thinking to allow him to have 2 return trips - so with his ticket it may be a non issue - but for mine it may become an issue.

1 hour ago, macaroni21 said:

What will happen when you try to return from Danang to Thailand? Will whichever airline accept your driver's licence as proof of residency in Thailand?

As I already went to Da Nang during the 2024 Songkran period - when I returned - the Vietnamese airport check in people did not have this issue.  In fact, they did not even ask me to show any kind of proof.  It was easy-peasy.

 

[vinapu]

On 3/1/2025 at 12:50 AM, bkkmfj2648 said:

So, I learned a valuable lesson about geopolitics during my stay in Vietnam.  As I naively thought that since Vietnam is a Communist country that it must be very aligned with China - as it is also a communist country.

 

not quite, they even fought brief war in 1979 

[bkkmfj2648]

1 hour ago, macaroni21 said:

Thailand in its usual disjointed-policy way, seems to be creating all sorts of residency options, which besides being confusing and potentially vague, don't come with a card or formal documentation?

Yes I do agree.  But also what comes into play is the Thai mindset as to they do everything the right way and if others do not understand the "Thai way" - that they are wrong for not being able to understand.  Also, there are many governmental fiefdoms issuing these various visas, such as the BOI - Board of Investment, MOFA - Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Thai Immigration.  I do not believe that these entities are aligned or even want to be aligned - as there are "fiefdom interests" at stake.  Consequently, what would be best for us users of these said visas is not considered.

2 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

which @bkkmfj2648 does not fully trust, thus wanting physical stamps on his passport

And herein lies a potential HUGE problem.  If I would use one of the automated gates on entry back into the Kingdom and consequently my passport is not stamped - I would have NO ability to prove:

1. When my required 90 day reporting begins and ends to determine if I am in compliance - potentially incurring a find and/or harassment at the immigration office.  Yes, it should be recorded in their digital database - but do I get to see that screen when it is displayed to the immigration officer?  How can I defend my position without physical proof?
2. That I was physically outside of Thailand for more than 180 days to avoid becoming a tax resident in the 2025 tax year.

Recently, @reader posted the below article where due to the bad procurement procedure regarding the purchase of the biometric system underlying database subscription - tons of data was not stored.  

How would one defend himself against this type of bureaucratic incompetence ?

I have lived here long enough (also in Italy - as there are many similar bureaucratic nightmares) to learn my lesson and to be 300% prepared for the unknown obstacles that have yet to present themselves.

2 hours ago, macaroni21 said:

So I would say it's Thailand that created this problem for you, not the Philippines.

I would say yes and no.  I believe that the training of the Cebu Pacific check-in clerk who was working in a situation where the bulk of the check-ins were for domestic flights - she was clueless about what to do in my case.  I think that with more experience and better documentation within the Cebu Pacific check-in system this issue could have been resolved with better training.

Back in year 2000 when I was still a student in Rome Italy - I had this same problem/issue at the London airport because I did not have an onwards ticket when I was trying to return from London to Rome because I only had 1 passport at that time - which was USA.  So, they tried to block me from boarding my flight back to Rome until we sat down and discussed my issue with the UK supervisor that I was a student in Italy with a USA passport who had the legal right to live in Italy with my then student visa.

So, these rules that are often invented by seasoned bureaucrats are not tested out to see if they would work for various  what-if scenarios.

[Raposa]

On 3/2/2025 at 5:13 PM, Raposa said:

Vietnam was never aligned with China, despite of or because of they being within the sino cultural sphere. They were always afraid of being absorbed. They fought off the Chinese after they kicked the Americans out. They say the Americans or the French will never return, but they can’t be sure of China.

During the Cold War they were aligned with the USSR, and it was an USSR-Vietnam alliance that toppled the bloodthirsty Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. 

With the USA retreating from the rules based, human rights based order they were the architects of 80 years ago, the withering of multilateral institutions, and Europe being confined to the role as a museum, standing up to China for small countries will be very costly. This will be true world wide.