ussprinceton

South Korea has plenty of paved roads dedicated for BiCycles only throughout the country. In the Philippines, not so much. There are a lot of filipinos in Korea and vice versa. There are a lot of koreans in the Philippines. But, let me post videos to do the talking

Maelochs

I don't speak any of those languages nor understand the political or economic situations in either country, nor have any close friends in either .... I assume there is good cycling in a lot of places, so other factors would weigh heavily.

Of the two, I think Korea might be more stable, and more temperate, while the Philippines seem to be hotter in climate and politics .... and more crowded. If Korea has a lot of bike-only roads .... that is a pretty strong draw, depending on where those roads are. if the good bike routes are a million miles from civilization, o all all mountainous .... not so good for a retired person perhaps.

Of course,. you might be retiring at age 40 after serving 20years .... I have no clue .... about much of anything.

Rage

Oh man, keep us in the loop. Would love to do similar one day.
Have always wanted to spend some time cycling in South Korea and the Philippines.
And funny thing is, I’m kind of living the scenario Maelochs describes in the above post. I was furloughed at the beginning of the pandemic with no sign I will be returning to work anytime soon. So kinda retired in my forties and at loose ends.

ussprinceton

lol, yeah. Thanks for the reply. I'm actually from the Philippines, but moved to the US when I was 10 years old with my family. I do still speak 2 languages, which are Ilocano and tagalog. Make that 3, which is english of course. I have plenty of family and friends in the Philippines. I am a dual citizen. When I visited the country back in 2012-2013, I saw that there were so many Koreans living there now. When I was a young kid, there were Koreans already there, but not as many like it is today. I welcome them. I love everything Korean. They are established and there to stay. Korea is not too far from the Philippines, so I could just fly there, take my '19 S-Works Tarmac SL6 and just tour the country for a few weeks with my family members..... I graduated from Elon University in '03. After that, I joined the US Navy. I didn't serve the 20 years asked before retiring 'cause I had other plans. However, I do have to say, it was a blast while I was in the military. I traveled to so many different countries, and experienced a lot of things in the short period of time I were there. In Guam, I had korean girlfriends that were so beautiful and pretty. I could write a whole essay about it, but that is for some other time. Also, while serving, I met the mother of my son. We have a long distance relationship right now, building our nest egg. She is a nurse that has worked in different countries. I send money to my son every now and then. He is 14 and into cycling as well. He has both a mountain and road bikes. In the last mtb race he was in, he took 13th place. He is cycling almost everyday and is getting stronger. One of the reasons why I'm retiring in the Philippines is to enjoy being with friends and family. I now work at a retirement community here in Chapel Hill, NC. One of my brothers, who works with finance, said that I could retire early, even as a civilian. While living here in the US, I do ride with my brothers, when we can. Here is a video of me and one of my brothers in a trail around the High School I went to.

ussprinceton

thanks for the reply. There are a lot of foreigners married to koreans and filipinos. If you are single, maybe you can marry someone and move there. A lot of people do that. Here is an example.....

ussprinceton

american father and son cycling in the Philippines. The mother is filipino

ussprinceton

my son Harumi in the Philippines





me and Irene, the mother of my son

shelbyfv

For an unfortunate period of about 6 months we had TMI about the tribulations of riding in the Philippines. If you are compelled to live in one of those two places, Korea would probably be better.

Rage

Great pics of the family. You might got an up and comer in the cycling world there.

And I could probably go either way without much difficulty.
Lived in Singapore and Malaysia for a while and adapted to life there pretty easily.

I’m probably going to have to take my blushing bride along, though. Which might not be too far out of left field as she recently expressed some dissatisfaction with her work.
Will know more in a month or two.

ussprinceton

yeah, you're right, Korea is probably better. However, I'm already a dual citizen, US and the Philippines. Korea is close enough from the Philippines, that I could just fly there, tour the country for a couple of weeks, then fly back. I may do that several times. In the meantime, I've been cycling here in North Carolina, US. with one of my brothers

ussprinceton

thanks. I'm blessed to have such a great family, not just the immediate, but also the extended. Glad to know you've lived in parts of Asia before. Singapore and Malaysia are nice. Take your bride, wherever you go, and enjoy.

Litespud

there’s a poster on here sometimes - cube wheels” who’s in Manila IIRC. From how he describes it, cycling in the Philippines (at least where he is) is a nightmare - crazy traffic, bad roads, abusive cops

Rage

Thanks! We’ll have to see what the future holds for us.
We are both up for travel and I’m currently free to do so but we may be stuck in NYC for a little while longer yet.
Long story but we got our hands on the house next door to ours and are doing some work there.
Who knows what our finances are going to look like afterwards. I been out of work a long time!

Let us know how retirement is going so we can live vicariously through you lol.

datlas 

My wife is from South Korea and although we have not visited there for 25 years, we hope to go in the future and the main goal would be to visit family, I would love to get some cycling in. We are so tied to the USA that relocating there would not be easy. Plus, my Korean is awful!