I lived in Chiang Mai quite a lot and I like it. I'm going to live in Philippines however. I wonder, what would Philippines' Chiang Mai, an analog of Chiang Mai in Philippines? Not too small, not expensive and which would have a good infrastructure.

Dumagete might be I think.

Edited March 26, 201313 yr by Bezpoleznyak

Dumaguete is a very small city. I spent a week there and saw a few foreigners, but not many. Not much to do other than hang out in the park area by the sea. Lots of locals there every night. With that being said, it 's a beautiful place, but nothing like CM.

Maybe Cebu? I was only there for a few days. So can't help much there.

Baguio is probably more like CM, especially if you like a fresher climate as I do. I personally think it's one of the nicest places I have ever been on the whole planet (that was in the 70s/80s), but you do take your chances with earthquakes. I missed a very big one by just a couple of days. Small ones you get all the time.

I'm so glad to have been able to go to so many places back when the world was still big and not yet totally trampled by the masses, and plastered all over Youtube. The same places are so disappointing now.

thanks for advise.

Definitely not Dumaguete which I have visited and found pleasant enough. Agree Baguio would be the closest, although haven't been.

Definitely not Dumaguete which I have visited and found pleasant enough. Agree Baguio would be the closest, although haven't been.

Even though it has been pleasant?

Dumaguete, like most island towns in the RP, is a quiet provincial place. Nice enough, but quiet. I can remember visiting such towns where the entire day's excitement was deciding which tree to sit under in the park, and what flavour ice cream to eat. And that was about all there was to do there also.

Cebu is a fairly large city, but it's about the only large city in the RP outside of Metro Manila and I didnt like it very much. Most foreign visitors to Cebu seem to stay well outside the city at the beach resorts. Other "cities" in the RP are really just towns of varying sizes as far as I'm concerned.

Baguio is probably more like CM, especially if you like a fresher climate as I do. I personally think it's one of the nicest places I have ever been on the whole planet (that was in the 70s/80s), but you do take your chances with earthquakes. I missed a very big one by just a couple of days. Small ones you get all the time.

I'm so glad to have been able to go to so many places back when the world was still big and not yet totally trampled by the masses, and plastered all over Youtube. The same places are so disappointing now.

I read that Banaue and the rice terraces around there are pretty cool places to check out. I'd like to visit them some day...

I first went to Banaue, Bontoc and Sagada in the late 70s. The scheduled transport along the mountain trail from Baguio was a once-daily decrepit old bus. At the time the mountain trial was 9 hours of single lane track made of mud and rock, with some stunning views across the river valleys and down onto the clouds and mist. Often the views included buses that had fallen over the edge on previous trips. Also drove myself there in a car 5 years later. In the car you were supposed to register with the police before starting out at each end.

Baguio is nice in that it is only a couple of hours drive from the plains (and then on towards the inevitable beaches which are absolutely everywhere in RP), yet the climate is not tropical at all.

Definitely not Dumaguete which I have visited and found pleasant enough. Agree Baguio would be the closest, although haven't been.

Why not?

Definitely not Dumaguete which I have visited and found pleasant enough. Agree Baguio would be the closest, although haven't been.

Why not?

Dumaguete is much less of a "there" than CM. (As in there's no there there.) I think people who love CM for what it is would be totally bored in Dumaguete. I must say I got the feeling Dumaguete is a very CONSERVATIVE city with a strong Christian influence, so if you like that, there it is. It could have been a coincidence but I kept running into fanatic fundamentalists there.

I know Baguio is a much more robust city. Look at tripadvisor restaurants on the two to get a feel for the vast differences in sophistication/options.

Cebu City I kind of liked but much bigger than CM.

Edited April 5, 201313 yr by Jingthing