How many middle-aged men get to live their dreams? Truly live them! Pack up, sell up and start a new life in a tropical paradise? Marry an exotic, beautiful woman half their age and then spend each day doing just what you always wanted to? Not many, I'd guess. I have.

This book will relate my experiences in living my dream. I had been coming to the Philippines once or twice a year for fortnight vacations since 1988. In 2001, I met my soon to be wife, got married in 2002 and went back to Sydney, Australia. Just long enough to sell the house and accumulated junk, then fly on back and start a new life. In the thirteen years between I had married an Aussie girl who later ran off with a richer man than I was, or ever will be, monetarily anyway. Right now, I consider myself the richest man alive.

While I wrote this book, I lived in a small house in Bogo, northern Cebu. I had (and still have) two boats, two motorbikes, and a sad excuse for a car. I slept when I wanted, woke when I wanted, and filled my days doing what I wanted to. I was living my dream of becoming a full time writer. I have built, launched, and sailed a boat I designed and made with my own two hands. I have chased ethereal employment opportunities, lost money on a beachside bar and watched my savings dwindle. But, I have lived every moment to the full.

The chapters of this book are filled with my experiences and observations on topics most of the guide books fail to address. What is it really like to immerse yourself in a foreign culture? How do you deal with daily frustrations, setbacks, and simple bad luck? What can you expect if you follow the same path? How much do you need to live on, to live like a King on, or simply, to exist on?

It's all here, somewhere amongst the sarcasm, satire, and cynicism, the humour and the humility, the laughter and the pain. Please enjoy, or get angry, or laugh or cry or do whatever your emotion tells you to do. Just do it. The same goes if you feel you might want to sell up and ship out too. Sterling Hayden once wrote how most of us think we can't afford to make the big move, yet most men can't afford not to. I'll leave you with that thought, and see you over the page. - By Perry Gamsby

Here at Living In Cebu, we sell the expanded version of Streetwise Philippines. This expanded version is composed of twenty-eight chapters, separated into two parts. To purchase Streetwise Philippines, in hard or soft cover versions, please click either "Buy Now" button, below:

 

Author Perry Gamsby found his dream, and you can too!

 

Click here to sell Perry's e-book