***Drinking your coffee while listening to the sound of the birds, the smell of the grass and the freshly bloomed flowers in your garden, the cold foggy breeze, is the life in the countryside for you? is it worth it to leave your city life in exchange for mornings like this? ***
Hello Filipino Hive Community, greetings from Bacolod City!
In my introductory post, I have mentioned that I was born in the capital city, a city girl, I grew up with malls just a walking distance, I mean you can't really walk on the highway, the traffic was already bad, way back in 2016 so imagine it by now? the Mayor of our city created a special path-walk so commuters and people can just walk, because imagine getting stuck in the traffic for 2-3 hours? 😓 It's a part of the daily routine of majority of people living in the city, am I right?
*During rush hour, vehicles are no longer moving and you will see commuters almost occupying the whole road, taking chances to ride even full Jeepneys and Buses *
City life is really good, but it is slowly taking the life out of me
In 2016, my Father noticed how stressed I was when I go home, the traffic situation is worst especially if it is raining, I no longer have the time to sit with them and chat, I just want to have dinner,and sleep, honestly, work is not tiring, it is the travel time that was so exhausting, during his short vacation they decided to plan their retirement and they said they wanted to avoid the noise, traffic and the pollution in the city so they wanted to buy a house in the countryside, It wasn't an easy decision and you have to take a lot of things in consideration, first, the house you are about to buy, is the place safe? are the basic utilities such as water, electricity and internet reliable? second, your job, if you are to move to another city or place, of course you have to consider potential job or source of income and third, are you a nature lover?? because if not, I'm sure you will die of boredom in the countryside 😅
2018, we bought a little house near the Highlands part of Bacolod, City, specifically in the Northeastern part, after we sold our house in the city, we moved to Bacolod and because we are carrying a lot of things, such as some of our furniture and my dog, we traveled via ship, our new home is far from the city proper, and when I say far, man , you have to be home at 6:00pm, literally, "the province way of life", if you don't have your own ride, there won't be any public transportation available as early as 7pm, and cabs won't even drive you all the way to the mountains neither, no matter how much you offer to pay them 😅
people in the countryside do really sleep early and start the day before the sun is up, their timeline here is different, compared to the city where it doesn't really sleep, thus the exhaustion 😴😞
life became so simple, at first, I was very resistant, I would always ask myself if this was a good decision, as there were frequent outages, and because we are located near the mountains, internet is weak, also, the weather here is extreme, when it is sunny, it is really hot, and when it is raining, the thunder and lightning are crazy ⚡ ⛈️ but the best part of all is the Amihan Season (Southeast Monsoon/ Siberian Wind every December or January in Asia), I remembered my first time to experience waking up and seeing the fog covering the garden, the cold breeze (aaaaaaah coffee weather ☕) I and my mom would usually stroll around every morning and I mean, just look at the view
We would also visit the nearby lake ranch called "Bantug Lake Ranch, owned by the land developer of our village too, they have a lake, where you can go fishing and ride a boat, they have special animals too, such as this peacock and they are selling plants, it made us so giddy because taking care of animals and gardening are activities we can't do this in the city, because of the limited space, we planted flowers, vegetables, fruits, I will write about this hobby soon, wait for it.
Until now, a lot of my friends in the city would always ask me,if "is it worth it?" because, admit it, the common misconception of people from the city to the province life is; it doesn't have malls, it is only farm fields and animals and mountains, LOL, we have malls here too, and roads here are wider and better than in the capital city, the only difference is that you have to drive around 40 minutes from the Highlands to the city, which is exactly the same thing in the city, where you have to stay on the road for more than 40 minutes because of the traffic, I have been staying here for almost 8 years now and I noticed a lot of changes and development in the city proper, and let's go back to the question "Is it all worth it?" YES, It's totally worth it to sleep every night with peace in your mind, you are near the nature and living a simple life, with my family and my pets, I couldn't ask for more, so if you have been contemplating to move to the countryside, maybe this is your sign, go for it 😊
Thank you for reading this another lengthy post, all the pictures I have attached are all mine, some are edited by Canva, but no AI involvement.
*** Did I encourage you to buy a house and move in the countryside? let me know in the comment section 😃