Chiang Mai == Noobie Heaven?
- Thread starter SirKonstantine
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I'm curious - What kind of cost of living do you have in an area like Chang Mai?
Reason I ask is I'm from central Ohio and looked up the median market prices in that area and I can't say I'm impressed the least. Food costs seem to be quite low (I imagine most of the poorer people grow/raise boatloads of food and suppress food prices) but for housing, utilities and the like the prices are actually lower here in Central Ohio, and the big difference here is that we're not in the 3rd world.
I'm curious if someone was to bring to market a location somewhere in the US, Canada or another 1st world nation, if people would flock to it if prices could be heavily suppressed.
Prices are low in Chiang Mai, because demand is low. People are not very productive in Thailand so they don't make a lot of money and therefore there is low purchasing power.
In poor countries, you have a large low class, a small middle class and a very small upper class. Therefore products are made for the lower classes and the upper classes since that is the largest aggregate demand.
That means you generally get low quality products at low prices or high quality products at high prices - higher than in the west - because a middle class product in the west is an upper class product in the east.
Food is lower quality, housing is lower quality, clothes are lower quality.
To live an upper middle class lifestyle, with exact comparable products is not much cheaper. A lbs of quality chicken is cheaper, but not that much cheaper.
Because poor countries do not have unions or productive labor, the real thing that is cheap is un-educated, un-productive labor. You have tons of people with few skills, who can sit outside your condo or wash your clothes or suck your dick.
Because the country is warm, you also don't need much to survive (less evolutionary stress, but that is another discussion), therefore, someone young and healthy can rough it in an apartment, which would give stares and have parents asking if you're doing ok, because you won't freeze to death and you won't have to care that your condo is going to fall apart after 10 years compared to western which may have stood for over 100 already.
Savings from moving to a poor country therefore mostly consists in living with low quality products, which do not feel low quality due to local factors.
I'm in a city cheaper than Chiang Mai, live a pretty isolating existence at the moment, and I'd say I'm about $2500/month. So not dirt cheap, but definitely not expensive.
I can say the wealthy Thai people suck massive donkey penis though. Bunch of xenophobic cunts, who think they're the master race, or some shit. If they only knew how puny their world was, and how they really sized up...
Have you ever lived in Thailand? It's not 3rd world. I have everything available to me that you do, except the business connections / marketing. For day-to-day life though? I have the exact same available to me.
Yeah, the idea of 3rd world is certainly not what it used to be 10-20 years ago. You'll find a lot of the same shit everywhere. Except maybe places like africa/central america that are beyond fucked. If you buy stuff at wholefoods, you'd be surprised at how cheaper real organic food is in other parts of the world, locally grown. It's probably a good idea in your 20/30s to spend a few months or even a few years away from your country, but the tradeoff is that you wouldn't want to raise children there or call it home. I'm talking about se asia and eastern europe.
It's worth pointing out one thing.
If you want to live in SE Asia to save money, you can live on next to nothing and save a lot.
However
If you want to live the same life you lived back home, i.e eat good food, drink the good stuff, go out, go to gym, do windsurfing, then it very quickly adds up and often ends up costing you more than you spent back home.
What's standard back home, might often be considered luxury in Asia.
So if you're not a peasant, don't go to SE Asia to 'save money'
If you want to live in SE Asia to save money, you can live on next to nothing and save a lot.
However
If you want to live the same life you lived back home, i.e eat good food, drink the good stuff, go out, go to gym, do windsurfing, then it very quickly adds up and often ends up costing you more than you spent back home.
What's standard back home, might often be considered luxury in Asia.
So if you're not a peasant, don't go to SE Asia to 'save money'
The cold war classifications put sweden and finland in the 3rd world and western sahara in the 1st. It's subjective
Chiang Mai is for fucking idiots. Vietnam is where it's at. The food is better, girls are better and you don't have to worry about them being men. Thailand isn't really that cheap either. Especially in god dam Chiang Mai.
Pretty much the whole of Thailand is a ladyboy/peasant's paradise. You seem surprised?
I should know - I've lived there. Have you not noticed the washed up fucking Europeans and Americans all over the place. I seen/done shit out there you won't even believe. Saw some guys on Koh Phangan once outside the 7-11 at 9am with gangrene, drinking Thai whisky, with no money and no ticket home, that's when I realized shit is real out there...
Even so, Thailand is the shit.
I have a nice spacious studio apartment with mountain view, computer desk and fast internet for $150 per month. It is crazy how cheap it is for decent accommodation.
I don't hang around the "digital nomad" places like Punspace so I don't encounter many other nomads. OP why did you hang out in these places for a whole month if you find them annoying? You can go work in any of 500 quiet coffee shops if your apartment or hotel doesn't have a desk.
It is a very pleasant city to live with cool ancient architecture (moat with fort walls and tonnes of pretty temples). Big city infrastructure (malls etc..) but small town vibe, you can cycle everywhere.
It is definitely not 3rd world. I am coming to the end of a year here then will move on. I highly recommend it. We spend around $1500-2000 a month for a couple (we are rather thrifty/budget minded). This is eating local food and reasonably priced international places.
Best time to arrive is now as it is starting to get cooler. Worst time is March because the air is dangerously smokey. Will probably come back at some point, it makes a good base for Asian travel.
I don't hang around the "digital nomad" places like Punspace so I don't encounter many other nomads. OP why did you hang out in these places for a whole month if you find them annoying? You can go work in any of 500 quiet coffee shops if your apartment or hotel doesn't have a desk.
It is a very pleasant city to live with cool ancient architecture (moat with fort walls and tonnes of pretty temples). Big city infrastructure (malls etc..) but small town vibe, you can cycle everywhere.
It is definitely not 3rd world. I am coming to the end of a year here then will move on. I highly recommend it. We spend around $1500-2000 a month for a couple (we are rather thrifty/budget minded). This is eating local food and reasonably priced international places.
Best time to arrive is now as it is starting to get cooler. Worst time is March because the air is dangerously smokey. Will probably come back at some point, it makes a good base for Asian travel.
Only the ones you've met and considering the bullshit you spew, including the above, it's no wonder they treat you like garbage.
He doesn't deserve to live in Thailand with an attitude like that. Total faggot. Doesn't know fuck all about Thailand.
No, they're just assholes. It's not me. I got on excellent with everyone in my old neighborhood, and it's only 20km down the road. We always helped each other out, grabbed stuff from the market for each other, shared meals, and so on. It was great. I remember when my parents came out, we were out on the patio having dinner, and about a dozen people came over individually at different times to welcome them to the neighborhood. How cool is that, right?
So no, it's not me. I just live around snobs. They're all government workers, so they're the nationalistic Thais. I live around a bunch of police captains, city councillors, university headmasters, and shit like that. They simply view white people as second class citizens, and there's nothing I can do to change that. I could be Brad Pitt, and I promise, it wouldn't matter.
We get on just fine. We're polite, respectful, and courteous to each other, but yeah... they don't like me, but I don't give a fuck either, so it's all good.