So Many Expats in Dumaguete 🇵🇭

Prevalence of Foreigners

0:01 I'm making this video now that I've spent coming up on three months here in Dumaguete. I feel qualified to talk about it and share some of my insights with you as to why I think Dumaguete is so popular, why it attracts so many different people. Of course, the vloggers have an outsized impact on the popularity of the city. In this video, I want to answer the question: why do people choose Dumaguete? Why is Dumaguete so popular? And this video, I'll give you five reasons as to why you might want to pick Dumaguete and why I think Dumaguete will continue to be popular. Some of the reasons may be negatives depending on who you ask.

0:35 Reason number one is the prevalence of foreigners here. I think there's an estimated around 5,000 foreign nationals living here in Dumaguete. So if you're somebody that, when you move overseas, you're giving up a social circle back home, then you may want to move to a place with a substantial foreigner population so you meet people with shared experiences. I get along great with Filipino people here in Dumaguete, but we don't always have the same shared experiences. We haven't been through the same struggles in America, not to say their struggles aren't important, but they're just different. And so when you are around a lot of different corners, you can kind of commiserate, 'Oh man, I don't miss this about the United States,' or 'I don't miss this about the UK or Australia.' And you get this sense that you're not alone. Some destinations abroad can feel very, very lonely. I've heard certain countries, certain cities described as very lonely places. And to counteract that, you can be selective about where you choose to settle, and that's something that appeals to Dumaguete.

1:33 There's tons of men's groups here, groups where guys can get together and hang out with other guys. Less so women, to be honest. I just don't see as many foreign women here in Dumaguete, but people can get together and bond over different topics. Some are politically aligned, some are affiliated with religious organizations, some may have a certain dietary preference, some may just form organically over time.

1:58 Additionally, if you want to go to a town that has been covered by a lot of vloggers, where you can basically learn a lot about the town without having visited here, then Dumaguete is great for that. Vlogs have covered every inch of the town, all kinds of different social topics, different venues in town, nightlife and entertainment options. There's not too many stones unturned in Dumaguete compared to some more remote locations or more sparsely populated provincial areas. And there's just a sense that you have one foot in the Philippines, one foot in the West. If you want to meet up with friends for Western food, that's an option. You want to go to a Western-style mall, that's an option. We've got Robinson's, which I like to frequent.

2:38 One thing that I found interesting is that here in Dumaguete, I've met foreigners that I never would have met otherwise if I hadn't come here to the Philippines and chosen Dumaguete specifically. I have American friends from all over the country and many different places that I've never lived. Several of my friends here have lived in Las Vegas, which is really interesting, 'cause I've never lived in Las Vegas. I have friends here who are from the Northeast, who are from the Midwest, who are from the West Coast, and even some guys from the Southern US, which has been great 'cause I don't think I would have had the chance to meet any of these guys back in the States. We're all in the rat race, we're all in the grind, we don't have time to socialize like we have time to socialize here. I've learned so many interesting things from so many different guys who I wouldn't have had these opportunities to interact with, where we just wouldn't have had the time to sit down and grab a meal together. Whereas here, it's very common for me to message a friend, 'Hey, you want to meet up for lunch here or there?' and we have the time to do that.

3:30 It's not just the presence of the foreigners here, but it's also having a time to interact with other people in a more civilized manner than back home, where maybe we're racing each other in traffic, or we are tired of standing behind the other person in the grocery line. So having this kind of calm atmosphere to interact with other Americans, I'm getting a better feeling about my fellow Americans from living here, strangely enough. There are some oddballs, but most of the guys here are great. I get along with 80-90% of the expats I meet here, and I don't expect that figure to change. Most people come here to chill out, relax. They're not looking to argue or to have political disagreements like the people back home. Not saying those don't happen here, but I personally feel that they are less frequent.

Western-Style Restaurants

4:16 It's not like you have to work with guys you disagree with where you need to pay your bills. So even if you don't get along with somebody, you're going to still have to go be around them. Here, if you don't like somebody, it's a lot easier to just distance yourself from them. And I think that really lends itself to building a better social climate because we can just organize ourselves more effectively here into social groups.

4:34 Finally, the YouTube community has been really powerful. I have people coming up to me in the mall and here in town on a regular basis that recognize me. It's been really encouraging for me to continue to build this channel by having these guys who tell me, 'Hey, your channel's very helpful, I've learned so much, this has been a great resource.' Of course, my channel is modest in size compared to guys like Mike and Paul, who have done a ton of groundwork in terms of educating would-be expats. But even so, I think that the community really does help to make Dumaguete a special place.

5:08 Point number two is western-style restaurants. A lot of guys worry, 'If I move overseas, am I still going to be able to have my hamburger? Am I still going to be able to get pizza or Italian food or sushi?' Dumaguete has all of that. Dumaguete has every different type of food that you could imagine. They've got imported steaks from the United States, they've got sushi restaurants, they've got Italian food, they've got Tex-Mex style, they've got everything you could imagine. And they even have a high-end grocery store here called BKris that has imported goods, so you're not just limited to ingredients produced here in the Philippines, but you also have all these other options. Some people are not accustomed to Filipino food, and that makes sense. Maybe they've never seen a Filipino restaurant in their home country, maybe they've never had a Filipino friend before moving here. For me, I like the Filipino food, but I grew up on Asian food. It's closer to what I'm accustomed to than probably a lot of other foreigners. If you're somebody that's not open to domestic cuisine, then that's another appeal of Dumaguete. If you want to exclusively eat Western food, you can do that here.

6:11 I cycle a lot between Filipino food, Korean food, Indian food, Japanese food, and Western food while I am here. It's not just eating Filipino food; you've got a lot of options here. You've got a lot of variety here, and you're not going to get bored of your options here. There's so many different restaurants in town, and I think new ones open up every year as different foreigners come here and bring their cuisines with them. It's really an exciting place to be in terms of food, which surprised me because it's not a major city, but there's still a lot of options that you can have here. I personally don't cook at all. I know some people love to cook. I enjoy cooking, but it's just a time thing. It's also a cleanup thing for me as a single guy. It's a lot of effort to cook and then to clean up, so I prefer going out to restaurants. And for me, there's enough variety here that I don't feel compelled to cook, whereas in small-town America, in a comparable city of its size, I would need to cook a lot, one to save money, but two because the things that I like might just not be available. That's not a problem here.

7:13 As an example, there's a chicken wing place in the North Point area called Scoville. I love Scoville, shout out to Scoville. It's a great option if you like chicken wings to go there, and you can do all you can eat for like 310 pesos is their normal pricing. There's a lot of different moderate price point places as well. It's not just high-end, it's not just expensive places. There's also plenty of budget-friendly options.

7:37 Finally, don't just feel like it's only Western food. You have other Asian cuisines here. I like those in some cases even more than the typical Western food, and I don't feel excluded at all. The one thing I would say, if you're a vegetarian, you're going to have to do a bit more legwork. There is a really good vegetarian place downtown called Green Chef, and there are restaurants that have vegetarian options, but the majority of places seem to cater to more like meat and vegetables or carb-heavy dishes. You may struggle a little bit as a vegetarian.

8:07 Point number three is that Dumaguete is not too big. I came here from California, which has, which has five large cities, depending on what you consider a large city. And Dumaguete is comparatively small. The metro population is around 150,000 people. The city I grew up in is around a population of 2 million people. So this feels like a small town by comparison. However, I have met people from very small towns or what you could call villages in the West that consider Dumaguete to be a big city, to be too big for their preferences. Be mindful of that. Compare the size of Dumaguete to the size of what you're used to, and understand that for some, it could be too big of a city. For me, it feels just right. Downtown isn't too big. There's enough variety to keep things interesting, but there's not so much going on that it feels chaotic and like people are in a rush and stressed out. This is definitely a retirement-friendly.

City Size and Atmosphere

9:00 This is definitely a retirement-friendly destination where people come here to slow down, people come here to relax. Most people are not coming here to pursue a career. There is a BPO industry here, but that doesn't apply to foreigners. There is a rush hour and there is a lunch rush. There isn't this random, middle-of-the-night traffic like you have in cities like Los Angeles or Atlanta, where traffic is bumper to bumper. It doesn't matter if it's 2:00 AM or 3:00 AM, you're just not going to see that in Dumaguete.

9:24 I've traveled around the city at like 11:00 PM or 12:00 AM, and it's pretty chill. It's pretty quiet, there's not much traffic on the road. You still have to be careful, right? I mean, you still have to be mindful and paying attention, but it's not going to be like some of these major cities in the West, or even like the big city of Manila, where you really have to plan your day around traffic.

9:44 The flip side of this is that it does seem like at times, everybody knows everybody. I have people recognizing me on the street. I met a few weeks ago or a month or two ago. Filipinos seem to have this uncanny ability to recognize faces, like they have this kind of facial recognition technology. So, it is important to be mindful that there is more accountability in this small town.

10:08 If you are stressed out or you're inconsiderate, word might go around town that you're not a friendly person, that people need to be careful around you. People need to be mindful. You have some thorns, so you want to be careful here more so than in your Western home country. Maybe you're from a big city back in the West where people are rude to each other all the time because they know, what are the odds they're going to ever see them again?

10:33 It's not like that here. Certain people have developed a reputation for being difficult to deal with or being rude, and you don't want to be one of those expats. I actually like that element of living here because I feel like I can more easily figure out if I can trust somebody or not based on mutual friend groups. Everybody seems to be connected to one another in some way or another.

10:53 Very different from the big cities in the West that I've lived in, where it seems like nobody knows anybody because there are simply that many people living in the area. I think a lot of foreigners miss that small-town feeling wherever they're from. It has changed and grown so much. I can say that about my hometown, that it's changed so much I hardly recognize it.

11:12 So, if you miss that kind of small-town feeling, I think Dumaguete offers that. It may change. I know some of my friends who have been here for, say, 10 years, have said it's changed substantially. But I think it still offers that small-town feeling to some extent, probably more so than where you're from in the US or the UK, Australia. It just has that charm.

11:31 I think some of what adds to that is you don't see a lot of tall apartment buildings here. There are some tall buildings, but there's not a ton. You have pretty good visuals of the ocean, you have visuals of the mountains. It's not like an urban jungle like some big Asian cities can feel like.

11:45 The number four reason why so many foreigners love Dumaguete is that there are lots of transportation options. Most of my friends seem to ride motorbikes. They come in different shapes and sizes. I've heard of some guys that have purchased or rented a Tuk Tuk, the three-wheelers. I've even heard of some guys owning a trike.

Transportation Options

12:04 You see some of the trikes are decorated with family names and they say this is for private use only. This isn't for public use, so it's not one of those trikes that you want to flag down and say, 'Hey, can I pay you the fare to ride across town?' So, there's all kinds of different transportation options.

12:18 There's also jeepneys, which are the converted trucks. There's also these sort of mini-jeepneys that are not quite as big as the large ones that have that stunning visual. They look more like transport vans that have these benches in the back and then also a seat in the front next to the driver. These are all reasonable.

12:34 There's plenty of public transportation options here, different from a city of its size in the US. Like, small-town America typically does not have solid public transportation. They expect that you own a car. Here, they don't expect you to own a car. Most people have a motorbike or they take public transportation.

12:52 Some guys invest in owning a car or a truck. There's nothing wrong with that, but you want to make sure you're staying long-term to own one of those types of vehicles because it's a more substantial financial commitment. It's also a bigger space commitment. You can park a motorbike all over town here very easily.

13:06 If you're driving a larger vehicle, it's a little bit trickier to find parking. Now, if I was going to live here permanently, I would buy a car. I just don't feel super comfortable with my coordination to ride a motorbike. Some people are great at riding motorbikes, they drive very carefully, they haven't had any issues. I think it's a solid option for some people that feel more comfortable with that two-wheel option.

13:27 I'm not one of those people. I don't judge those who are. Some of my best friends here in Dumaguete have those options. One of the things that makes those so convenient, aside from parking, is that you can also easily find a mechanic. There's mechanics all over the city that know how to work on those, that will know how to repair one of those.

13:42 I've heard fees are very reasonable. I've heard the parts are also very reasonable. It's a very budget-friendly option for the people that they want to get around town. They don't want to walk like a turtle like me. They want that flexibility to go up in the mountains. They want that flexibility to go to other parts of the island.

14:00 There's a reason motorbikes are so popular here among not only the locals but also the foreigners. One thing I won't comment on is the difference between buying used and buying new. I've heard differing opinions on that. I haven't purchased a motorbike, so I don't really feel comfortable discussing that topic.

14:15 Motorbikes definitely lend themselves to the social element. Several of my friends have mentioned there's a lot of places that are simply not accessible on foot, and it's a pain to get a trike there. Just get a motorbike unless you have a major reason not to, and you'll be able to see and do so many different things. You'll unlock a lot of different places.

14:33 Some have suggested, 'Hey, go learn to ride in Sorsogon rather than here. You can go to this island over there where the traffic is not so bad, where the roads are more wide open. You can kind of take your time to get adjusted.' I think that's a major factor in the appeal of Dumaguete is that, hey, I don't have to have my car anymore. I don't have to drive a car. I don't have to worry about parking.

14:54 One of my buddies loves Dumaguete expressly for that reason. He says, 'I had to drive a long way for work every day back in the US. I had to drive a long way home. I don't want to drive anymore.' So, being here in Dumaguete means I don't have to worry about getting in a car at the end of a long night. I don't have to start my day in a car. I can just take trikes around town.

15:13 The public transportation is sufficient. It really allows me to have flexibility to not have to worry, 'Okay, is there parking where I'm going? How much is the parking fee? Am I going to be able to stop at a gas station before I run out of gas?' All these things, 'Do I need to take the car for an oil change? I need to get the tires rotated?' All these things that come up when you're the owner of a personal vehicle.

15:34 That if you want to be in a place where you don't have to drive, you don't have to deal with maintaining four-wheel transportation, Dumaguete offers that. Something else to mention, if you want to go to Manila, there are direct flights to Manila. Super easy to get down to the airport and see and hop on a flight. An hour and a half later, you're at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.

Budget-Friendly Living

15:53 And from there, you've got the major metropolitan region, the capital city. You're able to travel internationally from there all over Asia. So, you don't necessarily feel as isolated as you might think being on a less heavily populated part of the island compared to, say, the BCD city which is northwest of here, or the Cebu metropolitan area, or being in Manila proper. You can easily get to Manila from the airport here.

16:16 So, super convenient. Dumaguete is super convenient in terms of transportation options, not only within the city but also to other areas. Finally, if you want to go to other parts of the island, then you have this series of buses that go everywhere. And I haven't taken a Ceres bus yet, I haven't needed to, but I've had numerous friends take them.

16:34 Talked about how they played movies on the Ceres buses, and the seats are very comfortable. It's just a super convenient way to get around if you're not a motorbike rider to go to other places on the island. They have the bus terminal downtown, and they have these signs in the windows of the buses with red and yellow lettering to tell you where the bus is headed.

16:53 The final reason that Dumaguete is so popular for retirees and foreigners in general is that it's budget-friendly. If you're a person on a limited budget, you don't have the money to live in Manila or Cebu, I think Dumaguete is a great option. Manila, in particular, if you want to live in BGC, you can pay close to Western prices to have that kind of lifestyle.

17:13 There are a number of Western expats living in BGC that earn Western salaries. They can pay for the high-end Starbucks every day. They can pay for the nice steak dinners and the imported fish from Japan and all the luxurious options that many people are seeking out when they live in a place like BGC. Likewise, Cebu has its park that has a lot of BPO jobs, businesses, and it can be pricey as well.

17:38 Dumaguete's rents aren't so high. Dumaguete's rents are probably like a half to a third of what you'd pay in those places. I think a number of other...

17:45 Other things are comparable in cost, but the big thing that you save on here is rent. Your rent is not going to be closer to what you could call international pricing, like it would be in one of those cities. It's a small town vibe. You have industry here, but it's not quite at the scale of Cebu or Manila.

18:04 There are people here that are working online or working remotely. I don't think there's quite as many as in those big cities, so Dumaguete remains really appealing to people on a fixed income. Maybe they're collecting Social Security, maybe they've got a military pension, maybe they've got a teacher pension, maybe they've got a modest investment portfolio and they want to stretch those dollars, or pounds, or Australian dollars further than what they could do in their home country.

18:30 So they come here, they can rent a modest apartment on a budget, close to public transportation options. They can take budget-friendly weekend getaways to Siquijor or to Bohol, which is another popular one. There's other parts of the island that are not going to cost you what it would cost you to go to Boracay or Palawan, maybe even more far-flung destinations that I'm not as familiar with.

18:54 I found that in Manila and in Cebu, it's common to meet people from all over the country and even all over the world. Where Dumaguete, it's more common that I meet people from all over the island, from other parts of the island. It doesn't necessarily have the same magnetic pull of people coming to work that those bigger cities have. It still has that, but I don't think it's quite as extreme as Manila or as Cebu.

19:19 I didn't realize this until I came here, but plenty of people that live in Manila and in Cebu, they've come from every corner of the Philippines to work in different industries. Dumaguete seems to be more pulling from the island and less so from other places. There are people here from other parts of the Philippines.

19:37 It's very common for a guy, he meets a nice woman in another part of the country, he wants access to some of the western amenities at a budget-friendly price point, and they'll move here together. But I often meet people here from Bayawan, from Bayis, from Basay, from other parts of the island than I do meet people here from Manila or Davao or Cebu.

19:58 Most of my friends here range from 50 to 70 years old. In fact, a lot of my subscribers are in that age range as well. They've had a lengthy career back in the States or in Australia, they've saved their money, they've lived below their means. They're ready to come to a place to really enjoy it and to have a slower pace of life.

20:16 Many of them could afford to live in Manila or Cebu, but I think a lot of them just want something slower-paced than those places. They don't feel like they need to be in the business center to advance their career anymore. They want to chill out, they want to slow down, they want to enjoy life, and Dumaguete really lends itself to that.

20:32 Not just in terms of financial budget, but also freeing up your time. It could take a long time to get around Manila. It can take a long time to get around Cebu. I think that Dumaguete is a little bit more tutorial mode friendly.

20:45 This has been five reasons as to why I think Dumaguete is so popular. Let me know what you think down in the comments below. Have you been to Dumaguete? Do you plan to go to Dumaguete? Maybe you've been chatting somebody online and you want to go meet them in their town and then bring them here to Dumaguete to have a more western style of living.

21:03 I think Dumaguete offers something for many different types of people. It's interesting the contrast and the foreigners I meet here, they're all not one type of guy. I think there's many different kinds of expats and foreigners here. So comment down below and give us a thumbs up if you found this content to be helpful. It helps with the YouTube algorithm.

21:19 Finally, subscribe to the channel down below if you want to see more content like this, and we'll see you soon. Bye-bye.