www.joethor.com 
(UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
It's been a long time since I filled in everybody on what I have been doing.
To make a long story short, I've been here in the Philippines for almost a year and a half and
during that time I have set myself up to have a  life over here. 
When I first got here (to Dagupan) I bought a car and received a special retirement visa. 
Then I traveled around the main island of Luzon looking for a nice place to settle down.
 I found a real nice place to live (San Juan) and moved into a small apartment.
 After that I meet a beautiful girl, we take a trip to Thailand and upon returning I take up surfing. 
Two of my kids came to visit me here last fall and while they were here I adopted a nice dog, Charly.
Several times I went back to the USA to visit my kids and dad.
The latest event is I bought a sailboat (in Dumaguette, on another island) where it sits until I
can go there and learn to operate it and then sail it back here to my place in San Juan.
That's it in a nutshell, a more detailed tour with pictures follows:
 

The inside of my beach apartment in San Juan.  Rent is around 10,000 pesos a month (about $200 dollars)

I started making these things from the stuff lying around on the beach.

The steering wheel on my sailboat.  Or is that the rudder?  Going to learn how to sail it then cruise around Asia.

A good surfing beach on the east coast, Baler, bad road going there though.

Rice and vegetable fields up in the mountains of Luzon.

Another view of the beach at Baler, very clean and nice there.

AChristmas party that the Little Surfmaid Resort gave to the local orphange.

The outside of my boat, 45feet long, a lot of room inside.

An inside view of my boat looking forward

This is a view of the countryside near where my girlfriend grew up.

My Charly, a Pomeranian and Japanese Spitz mix.  Everybody knows him here!

A fishing party on the beach where I live, anybody who helps pull in the net gets a share of the catch.

Krystle and Samantha, my daughters at Yosemite park.

A trio of Kalinga boys, they live in the Mountain Province on the main island of Luzon.

A statue in a park near Linguyan, the capital of Pangasinan (near Dagupan where I first lived after coming to the PI).

Carina, she works at the Little Surmaid Resort located on the beach close to where I live. 

My car, a Toyoto 4 wheel drive SUV.  Traffic is kinda crazy here but I have learned to drive real defensively!

The view of the ocean from my front door.  I rent from a filipina lady who used to work in England.

The famous Angkor Wat ruins in western Cambodia.

The nice Star Plaza hotel in Dagupan.  I stayed there for 3 months for $20 night when I first came to the Philippines. 

A sunset view in Subic Bay.  I used to come here when there was a huge US navy base here 35 years ago.

Got a flat tire in Pattaya, Thailand.   

Ruins at Anchor Wat, these temples are 2000 years old.  There are hundreds of these structures scattered around this area.

A view from the mountains overlooking Tagaytay south of Manila.  That's a volcano cone in the upper left corner.

A nice town square in Laoag City, NE Luzon. There is a lot of horse driven carriages here.

A house we were considering to buy just north of here near the town proper of San Juan

The beach side view of the Little Surfmaid Resort where Carina works. 

 
Back to my homepage
 
Email / Yahoo Messenger:  josephthor@yahoo.com
Cell / Text:  639298935903
San Juan, La Union, The Philippines