Where Is This Picture Taken?

Super Typhoon Kate hit Davao plum on the nose....looks like she tracked west, saw Davao and went for it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Kate_(1970)

Phew. That one was a close shave. It bobbled about a bit before missing Davao by a whisker. I don't believe Davao sits in an impregnable bubble...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Bopha_2012_track.png

45 kph (max) winds? Nothing other than a brisk breeze which might have done some damage to badly-secured tin roofs. Rain, certainly and a lot of water but in fact neither of the rivers did overflow. A mildly unpleasant day.

Yes, you got me. It's a fair cop! However the city was not hit directly because high ground to the south of the city protected it and I note that they eye shrunk abruptly as soon as Kate made landfall. My wife has family some of whose older members were living in the city at the time; I'll ask them about it.

1 typhoon every 40+ years .... that's acceptable odds.

But those odds are changing, havent you heard. The earths surface temperature has risen and is rising and the seas are warming and these phenomena are becoming more prevalent as a consequence....warmer seas mean bigger typhoons.

And what? I'm not quite sure what you're expecting, John. I'm 63 years old and experiences have taught me to adopt a pragmatic approach to life. We do, after all, have only one life and it's far too short. I am not going to spend what little remains of the rest of my life worrying about when the next typhoon is going to hit. The city has not been hit by any typhoon in over 40 years and, who knows, it may well be another 40 before the next one. Global Warming or no Global Warming. But I am not going to worry about that very slight possibility.

Three years ago, Mae and I decided to research "better" places to live as we wanted to get away from Cebu and its high level of crime, over-crowding and polluted air. And, it has to be said, Cebu is by no means immune to typhoons and other natural disasters; I lived through a typhoon strike on that city. Our research showed that Davao ticked all our boxes with Palawan coming a close second.

A lot of expats - not necessarily British - live in and around Davao City, many more live on Cebu with quite a number living in the northern half of the island and on those smaller islands offshore (Bantayan and Malapascua). There are also numerous expats living on Leyte, Panay, Samar, Mindoro - in fact there are expats living in areas that are far more prone to typhoons, earthquakes and higher levels of crime than Davao. And many continue to do so. They are certainly less risk-averse than I, some one might even consider to be foolhardy. But hey, it's their/our life, who is anyone to judge or criticise? One might advise people moving to the country to think very carefully before taking up residence in "typhoon alley" - broadly speaking between Cagayan de Oro and Subic - but that's all one can do, advise.

I know I tease you about your "checklist" but in fact I think you're very sensible to maintain one if you're even remotely interested in moving here for your retirement years. I suspect you've already decided that the Philippines would not be your idea of heaven but I wonder if you have considered Malaysia which would at least put your wife within easy striking distance of her homeland should she wish to visit her family. The "Malaysia: My Second Home" programme is currently the best retirement visa option open to westerners in the entire region and there are few, if any, restrictions on home or business ownership, unlike the Philippines. I'm told that other than Peninsular Malaya - which would be my #1 choice but for the higher cost - the area around Kuching (Sarawak) is a good choice, more so than Sabah. Penang, whilst cheaper than the mainland, is a little pricier but very popular with Brits, Australians and New Zealanders. Filipinos do not need visas to visit Malaysia (it's another ASEAN country) nor do Brits and the MMSH programme is a relatively pain-free process.

Well, I guess thats as close as I will get to an accurate posting on the matter! They are rarely forthcoming. As opposed to the " wot natural disasters" or " it wasnt worth getting the kite out for " type respons....

I'll take that as a compliment!

A quote from me and a quote from Fred - yup, you see we take a more pragmatic view.

I have experienced a typhoon here, the one that struck Cebu City towards the end of 2007. I and my girlfriend of the time were living at the top of Citylights Tower 2 which is perched on a rocky outcrop high above the city, just above the Marco Polo hotel. The day before the typhoon was due, the building management decided that all residents living above the 5th floor should evacuate themselves and our landlady turned-up with a couple of workers. She booked us into the Marriot - at her expense - whilst her workers taped-up all the windows. Fortunately our apartment suffered no damage at all but others, whose owners didn't tape-up the windows, did have some of their windows broken. But that was nowhere near as frightening as other typhoons/cyclones/hurricanes I experienced in my seagoing days.

I had a few nice days in Tower 2, very nice