After my first visit to the Philippines in 2001, Carol and I have planned to try life there. There are several factors; the warm and friendly Filipino people, tropical climate and lower cost of living. The later was important because for nearly all my working life I worked for small non-profit agencies and have no private pension or medical insurance. We'd have to depend on my Social Security income. But, frankly, the desire for a late-in-life adventure in the exotic tropics.

We decided to sell my home of twenty-five years, "Stafford Manor", a 150 acre farm with lovely Federal-era farmhouse built in 1824. We were successful in finding sympathetic buyer in 2004. We then worked, over the last two and one-half years, to divest ourselves of decades of accumulated possessions including other real estate, furniture and two cars. Now it appears that we have been successful in all of this. Both cars were sold on eBay and sold very quickly. One buyer was from Chicago and flew to New York to pick up the car.

We purchased our Cathay Pacific tickets early in 2006 and began packing in ernest. We rented a storage unit in Plattsburgh, NY and packed all the things that were to go the the Philippines into boxes for shipping. This included books, kitchenware, photos, tools and housewares. When packing was complete, we rented a Budget truck to move the packed boxes to Albany for shipment.

Our plan is to drop off our rental car at the Burlington, Vermont airport, fly to NYC, stay overnight there, fly to Hong Kong the following day, spend the night in the Hong Kong airport and fly to Manila the next morning. We'll spend a week or two there making medical contacts and exploring. Then we'll head to Cebu City, where we'll spend a month and then on to Bohol, Dumaguete, Iloilo and Bacolod. We want to explore several location before we decide where to settle. Once we make our choice, we will rent for a year to see if our choice stand the test of time. See the Iloilo pages for a continuation of our adventure.