Always Carry a Towel.

Howdy,

I'm Chop.

I am 35 for another couple months, I am a Texan living in Missouri, USA and I am spinning up to do more traveling and adventuring and whatnot in the near future, so I thought I would get in on this whole newfangled blogging thing.

I currently own a gun shop (Patriot Gun & Outfitters) which does pretty well and a t-shirt company (MOAZ Tees) that doesn't. I also work for the Miller County Sheriff's Department as a dispatcher. My average day is about 16 hours between my shop and MCSD and sleep.

Prior to being back in Missouri I spent the last three years in and around Minot, North Dakota in the oilfields and before that I spent 4 years in Iraq as a contractor.

I have had a lifelong wanderlust which I blame on my mother. At an early age we would watch British Comedies and I spent my early years wanting to meet all these people and listen to their cool accents in real life.

I went to Iraq when I was 25 and it was the first time I had ever left the country. While I was there, I saw some pretty amazing things and met some of the best people I know.

Iraq afforded me another great thing... the ability to finally slake my need for travel and seeing the world. I came home more often than I wished, but I did get to see Russia, Amsterdam, Dubai, Thailand and The Philippines. While I was in North Dakota I also took a trip to Canada. Outside of a few stateside destinations, my favorite being Deadwood, South Dakota, I have not been able to travel much since 2009. I have decided to change that.

This blog will show my progress and the places I travel among anything else that interests me to talk about... which is a pretty extensive list.

I am always reading blogs and books about travel and looking up prices for living different places overseas and I. recently finished A Better Life for Half the Price: How to prosper on less money in the cheapest places to live by Tim Leffel which gave me lots of good information about various places around the world to live at for cheap. Information that I may relay in a later post.

I like cheap, cheap is my friend... I am a poor bastard after all.

I have talked to my brother, Chris about what I want to do and being the truly great person he is, he was on board with the decision to sell the shop so he could work on his projects and I could work on mine. He is no longer able to be there very often due to his schedule and my need to travel, I fear, is going to start causing my life to shorten if i don't hurry up and start doing what I believe I was always meant to do... not going all Genghis Khan and trying to the impregnate the world... yet... just seeing the world... for the moment, conquering comes with patience.

So, I am going to try my hand at long term travel. I plan on using the money I make from the shop as a cushion until I can line up some means to to make myself some funds at the first destination I plan on moving to for an unknown amount of time... (subject to change), The Philippines.

The Philippines have a lot of advantages outside of cost, which is pretty phenomenal...

A personal plus is the fact that my little brother Darwin and his family are from the Philippines and even though he is currently working in Dubai, UAE with his wife, I know that I can rely on the rest of the family for a little help if i need it.

The true reason that I have settled for the Philippines over Thailand, Bulgaria and several other places I have been looking at as my first stop is because I have also been talking to my brother R-Lo about moving his family there with me. He likes the sound of the cost of living too. I honestly don't think it will happen but I am hopeful. Even if it is after I go and pave the way for them to come there, I'd still be grateful to have him there, it has been too long since I saw him, his wife and my nephews.

It is hard to find anyone in the country without at least a basic understanding of English which is great for those who have no intention of learning any of the languages of the Philippines... or those who worry about traveling because they wont understand anyone... which is difficult to do these days.

There are 7,107 islands that make up the Philippines which means there is a TON of coastline (5th largest in the world) and a veritable shit-ton of things to do and see, all for cheap. The last time I was in the Philippines, I bribed the crew of the ferry we were taking from Cebu to Bohol to let my brother, his family and I drive the ferry... its dumb but it cost next to nothing and how many places in the world would even consider that.

Possibly the most famous part of the Philippines are the  throngs of short, tiny, gorgeous Filipinas who have a happy inclination to loving them some white guys or possibly foreign guys in general... but I'm honkey white so I have only experienced it one way... so suck it, you PC bastard. As a guy, if you are lonely, you can easily get taken in by this brown land of plenty and in some cases get taken. If you have a gut feeling that not everything is good then break it off. Filipinas are amazing girls and I hear all the time they are probably the best wives in the world but just be careful cause it is an odd thing getting so much attention after living in the states and not being Channing Tatum. It's easy to fall head over heels for the first person to treat you that way. I'm not saying that first person may not be the one for you... just saying, be careful... it is a completely different world than what you are used to if you have more than one experience with girls stateside.

I am currently reading The Grown-up's Guide to Running Away from Home: Making a New Life Abroad by Rosanne Knorr to see if I get any more tips on moving along with reading several blogs on moving, culture, night life and women. I have been looking through OLX for the prices of apartments and houses in different areas, not that I will pay for one online but the pricing is a good baseline for the first week or so when I have boots on ground to be able to actually see these places.

There are a few amenities I am looking for in a place and the only reason some of these make it to the list is because I have seen several places without 1 or all of them.
1. Good Internet... I have to make money somehow
2. Air Conditioning... I am not built for heat or humidity, rather... I know this sounds dumb as I am moving to a hot/humid country... I don't mind heat too much if I am doing something enjoyable... but if I am sitting in my house writing on this thing or working... or even worse, sleeping... i don't want to be sweating my danglies off.
3. A stove, I want to live in the Philippines like a local and not like a tourist, I plan to cook... and though I don't do it often, i like to cook.
4. A refrigerator... I don't care if i go to the market daily and never put food in the fridge... i may need it for all my orange soda and sweet tea during my online endeavors... I will find a use.
5. Washer for clothes... I know there is probably a local lady i could pay to do it but depending on how much that is, i would be better off doing it myself... a dryer would be superb too.

I guess that is it... this is who I am and my plan to work towards in the near future. I will post when new things develop or something new interests me enough to write about.

-Chop

I hope you enjoy the links, i do not agree with 100% of everything I linked to but I do understand where they are coming from. Please tell me what you think.