Alan Reeve
I regarded my retirement in the Philippines as the place that I would settle down and live out the rest of my days. I felt that I had seen a good many countries, around a third of the world and had achieved most of what I wanted to achieve. Both my banking career and teaching career had given me a wonderful life and so I felt ready to “settle down”. The boxes were all ticked on my criteria (a warm country, a country not embroiled in a war, an English-speaking country, a country with no visa issues with my British passport, a reasonably stable country politically, an affordable country and a welcoming country wanting to attract foreign investment).
I bought a car, a trike, a couple of fishing boats that I converted to glass-bottomed boats, a bungalow, a two-storey house called “Alan’s Place” right on the beach and there was a golf course nearby plus a group of islands called “Capones” to take the boats and enjoy a picnic, all this meant that I had all that I would want and need. What could go wrong?
San Narciso house, Philippines
Before the end of the first year the troubles started with my neighbours on all sides who were driven by greed and jealousy. They set about making life very difficult for me and attempted to provoke me into committing a crime against them in the hope that I would be either arrested or deported so that they could “steal” my property. They were able to attack me with impunity backed up by the local mafia and sanctioned by the local “Barangay” captain.
Trikes illegally blocking driveway, San Narciso, Philippines
It started with my neighbour behind me digging up the boundary markers and putting his wall inside my property. The local authority dug up my plants and the death threats started. The neighbours to my left decided they wanted to convert the “right of way” granted as access to their property into their own private garage by erecting a gate in the middle of the night denying me access to my own property. Squatters then moved in and started sleeping on the beach portion of my property that I paid a yearly rental to the government. The local community then decided to block my access to my house by illegally parking in front of my garage.
In 2017, I tried everything I knew to make peace with the neighbours through meetings with the local government, the governor and I even went to the office of the president to plead my case. All my attempts fell on “deaf ears”. The destruction continued of my fencing, blocking my driveway and then the burning of my property started.
I decided the best form of defence was to document and record all the illegal acts against me and never retaliate which is what they wanted me to do and sit and wait for “Karma” to restore the “status quo”. I was advised by the police not to execute the arrest warrants they had issued against anyone otherwise it would be worse for me. My tactic was to just let them do whatever they wanted to but I told them that if anything happened to me that they would be held accountable even if someone else did something to me. Reverse psychology, it was to be my insurance that kept me out of harm’s way for the next 5 years till I could sell everything and leave the country.
However, on the flip side I enjoyed my golf, managed to grow some lovely red chillies in the garden, put a jacuzzi on my balcony to watch the sunsets and even helped the local school kids with their essentials they needed to go to school.
My Sister’s visit to the Philippines
My sister and brother-in-law came for a visit in October 2017 which was fantastic.
In 2018 the arson attacks continued, a new tactic was added which was putting nails into my tyres. They continued trespassing on my property and the local “mafia” kept on threatening me, destroying my water pump and stealing my property.
Vandals destroying fencing, San Narciso, Philippines
Despite all of the issues, I still continued running an Airbnb business and enjoying my life as much possible and in April 2018 my youngest nephew and his long-term partner came out for a visit. They were on a “world tour” and it was fabulous that they stopped by to stay for a few days.
In August 2018 I flew back to the UK for my oldest nephew’s wedding, a tremendous event to attend!
My oldest nephew’s wedding, England
I did not know it at the time but this picture taken with my beloved sister just before I flew back to the Philippines was to be the last photo taken of us together before she died.
Amanda and myself
In 2019 I built up the Airbnb business by adding more and more huts to accommodate a total of 44 people from the initial number of 4 from when I first started. I also kept an armed guard plus ten dogs on the property so this just infuriated the local community even more as they couldn’t destroy anything anymore so that forced them to switch over to new tactics in the future.
I would have some more great success on the golf course with another hole-in-one on exactly the same hole on the same golf course on the same month (March) but just two years apart – the first one was in 2017 and the second one was in 2019, would the sequence continue? Stay tuned for March 2021!
Anvaya Cove golf course, Philippines
January 2020 arrived and little would I know that the world I had lived in for the best part of 60 years would change beyond anything I could have imagined.
It took two world wars before the international community decided that they should establish international law, a Geneva convention, a world health organization, a peacekeeping force, a G5 (extending to a G20), a united nations but despite all of that wars still continued to break out in the Falklands, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and our most recent one in Ukraine. Now why is that? It is because the “local mafias” that operate in every country establish their own laws which are more powerful than international law and do what they like inside their own countries leaving the international community “sitting on their hands”, powerless to intervene for fear of sparking a 3rd world nuclear war which will destroy our planet once and for all.
The local mafia backed up by the local police stopped my attempts to prevent people blocking my driveway and broke down my fencing once again. Same situation, I could do nothing inside their country and I would get no help from the international community applying international laws. Since when is it fine to burn, destroy, threaten, harass and steal and not be held accountable for those actions? Since 1945 apparently.
End of year greetings from England
Then on 7 April 2020 a “dreaded” phone call came in from my brother-in-law. It was to tell me that my sister had died from a massive stroke. I was devastated. I held a vigil every evening for 60 days and lit a candle to light the path to heaven for her. Amazingly, during that time, her favourite flower from the Frangipani tree in my garden blossomed for the very first time.
At the beginning of 2021 I closed down the Airbnb business and put the property up for sale. I had had enough following more hassle from the local authorities blaming me for dumping garbage which I had nothing to do with and proving that it wasn’t me from footage from my CCTV cameras. On 19 April 2021 I came down with hypertension, pneumonia in my right lung, liver and kidney failure. I thought this was the end. I isolated myself for 2 months and took the medication subscribed. By June 2022 I went for a medical check-up and everything was back to normal, quite remarkable.
In October 2021, I finally had a buyer for the house, he had bought the hotel behind me and wanted to link it up to my house to have direct beachfront access. I then had to get back my bond of USD 20k logged with the Philippine Government. Getting money back from the government of the “island of thieves” required playing them at their own game along the lines of “when in Rome…” that process took until March 2022.
Just before I left the Philippines, back to golfing, I got another hole-in-one, this time on a different golf course, however the month of March was the same but I had skipped a year so instead of 2021, it came in 2022!
San Narciso. Philippines
I managed to close the door on the Philippines in March 2022 and returned to the UK to also find “closure” for my sister’s death and to get all the paperwork ready for my move to Mauritius. I arrived in the UK in the morning of 15 March 2022, and in the afternoon my first great niece was born on the bathroom floor – what a welcome! It will be extremely interesting to see if the personality of my first great niece will be the same as my sister’s personality. I do happen to believe in a form of reincarnation. We will see and time will tell on that particular prediction.
I also spent some time catching up with old friends.
My youngest nephew then announced his marriage date set for 20 August 2022, so I immediately set up plans for a return to the UK in August for 3 weeks. First of all, I needed 3 months to settle in Mauritius. I found a nice house with the beach and golf course close by – perfect!
The August wedding was held in Whitstable, Kent by the beach, it was absolutely wonderful!
I returned to Mauritius at the end of August 2022 to continue enjoying my retirement and to complete this “biography”. I will also stay true to my vows (never marry again, never “own” anything again, never drink spirits again, never smoke again and stay asset poor and cash rich, for the rest of my days.
I will continue to keep as physically fit as I can by playing some golf with the various society groups namely “Ropey’s” on Wednesdays, “Animal’s” on Fridays, “Murphey’s” on Sundays, tennis on Thursdays, beach walking on Saturdays plus some “stretching in the gym” and swimming in both the sea and a pool.
I will keep as mentally fit as I can by playing bridge, solving sudoku puzzles, wordle words and geography and trading the currency markets Mondays to Fridays, I can “beat” the market on average 15 days out of 20 each month and I am currently working on becoming the first person to “beat the chaos theory” and make money 20 out of 20 days each month. That will be my 2nd “world first” achievement in my life, so stay tuned for that book to be published.