Chiang Mai == Noobie Heaven?
- Thread starter SirKonstantine
- Start date
Too much muhnie. Shit made me laugh bricks.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-TPZ15OHOM"]Asian Restaurant Discount Prank - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-TPZ15OHOM"]Asian Restaurant Discount Prank - YouTube[/ame]
WARNING: GROSSLY SUBJECTIVE GENERALIZATIONS PROBABLE THROUGHOUT THIS POST
I've spent about six of the last ten months in India. Mostly Goa but have been to many other parts.
Tons of foreigners do come to India and tons of them stay for long periods of time, but they aren't 'digital nomad' types. IME they fall into one of a few categories: yoga/spiritual guru, psychedelic/hippie/druggie and adventure sports.
India has its own yearly expat and longterm tourist cycle just like most other well-traveled countries. Roughly it goes like this: get a six month visa from October to March and spend that time in Goa doing yoga, going to trance parties and taking loads of drugs. When that's done pack up your shit and do a visa run to Nepal/Sri Lanka/Thailand/etc. and come back to either Rishikesh for more yoga and chillums or Manali/Kasol/Parvati/Ladakh for trekking and chillums. There are shitloads of people who do this year in and year out and have for many years. It's a well-worn trail.
I think there are a few reasons that many digital nomad types don't choose India. One is its historical reputation in the traveler community. As Scarecr0w said it's known to be a place to find yourself and find enlightenment (fucking lol at that).
There's also the fact that on the whole Indian building and service standards aren't great. Comparing Goa India to a place like Bali Indonesia which uses the same building materials and does most of the same shit it's not even on the same level.
There's also the unfortunate fact that there are many many places in India that are absolutely fucking disgusting.
Then there's the women. For the average traditional Indian girl there may be present a pretty strong ethos of saving one's self for marriage. There may be present a pretty strong ethos of not sleeping with foreigners. There may be present a deeply ingrained acceptance of an inevitable arranged marriage. And there may be a stupidly thick wall up regardless of their upbringing and specific culture. Not bad or good per se, just the way it is, and not too appealing for most digital nomad types.
Getting past an Indian girl's cultural and family defenses can be tedious and annoying. There are plenty of more outgoing and sexually open Indian girls but many of them can be found in places like Mumbai/Delhi/Kolkata/Bangalore/etc. and no one wants to stay there because Indian cities are fucking madness. That and many 'liberated' Indian women are headache-inducing for various reasons.
And then there's also the simple fact that there are better places to choose from if you're looking for likeminded people to surround yourself with: Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Costa Rica, etc. They have established expat entrepreneur communities and they're just as beautiful with better facilities.
In the balance though as qualo said there are parts of India that are stunning. The Himalayas are breathtaking, Goa's beaches are very nice, and there are places here and there like Udaipur that do it right. Streets are clean, service is good, city is beautiful, food is nice, internet is solid, very few power outages, etc.
For my part I've enjoyed my time here. I was in Manali in the lower Himalayas for about six weeks over the summer and loved it. Chill and enough off the beaten path that it's a good place to stay productive without a lot of distraction. Monster hikes, hot days, cool nights, apple orchards everywhere, strong Tibetan influence, awesome momos.
For the next few months I'm just off the beach in a nice and quiet part of North Goa. No nts nts all night around me but it's a quick scooter ride away when I want it. Internet is meh, that's the only major downside. Food is great, beaches are great, girls are great, parties are great. Goa draws a solid crowd from all over Europe and elsewhere from December to March. It's a really fun season. People definitely come here to blow off steam and do shit they don't do back home. Goa is much like the Nevada of India. It's easy to get sidetracked in the high season because there's always a lot of fun things to do, or do nothing at all and hit the beach all day. It takes discipline but I maintain a good balance between work and play.
Chill places I can recommend in India: Goa north of Anjuna (Vagator/Mandrem/Asvem/Morjim/Arambol), Gokarna, Hampi, Udaipur, Rishikesh, Old Manali.
Two areas I'm looking at :
#1 - 74k people, 91.4% white, median household income of $37k.
#2 - 52k people, 92% white, median household income of $36k.
The first area has a decent fiber network and they did tell me they can do upto 10gbps in the county, but i have no clue on pricing.
Ross County, Ohio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pickaway County, Ohio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Ross county, it's starting in the Appalachian foothills. A friend of mine just told me that the USDA has a facility for anyone/businesses that live there. If you're located in the are you can actually get free packaging, and all associated facets with food production in the US. This is a federal thing and not just a local thing, so you can essentially source local food, package it and sell it nationally for an extraordinarily low cost. He's starting up production for some non-GMO foods that have insane profit margins.
You been to Pune? From what I've read it seems like a college town but close to Goa.
I haven't. Have heard the same but also heard that it's a pretty boring business city. Well laid out though supposedly compared to other Indian cities. Pune is also home to the Osho Center which since he passed has gone downhill from what I have heard. More of a spiritualism factory these days.
Check out Southern Europe before you head off to Thailand. Some amazing cities here, great infrastructure, cheap cost of living, safe... I couldn't live in Thailand - people there are just too different - good for a vacation, but definitely wouldn't settle there lol.
Edit: right now we spend about $2000/mo (not counting going out) and we live really well. Like everything is fucking awesome.
Edit: right now we spend about $2000/mo (not counting going out) and we live really well. Like everything is fucking awesome.
I own a business. I applied for an Investment Visa.
The first visa I got was for 1 year, then 2 year, then 4 year. After 7 years I applied for permanent residency.
This, but whatever makes them happy eh? They probably don't ever intend to go back home anyway.
So you're in Tenerife now, eh? I'm curious, what's it like living there? Been there on vacation before, but never lived there. Is it actually worthwhile living there? How are supplies? For example, what's the range of food in grocery stores like? Can I get quality cuts of beef, good wine, sour cream, cheese whiz, and shit like that? If you need a new TV or some furniture, is it readily available, or does it have to be shipped from Morocco or Spain?
Is there many expats there, or is it more the weekend tourist from the UK looking to see how drunk they can get? How are the locals? Are they friendly towards expats, despise them, somewhere in the middle, or?
Most don't have a choice. The $500 for the plane ticket is out of their budget range.
^^ Oh, and what's the cost of a quality rib-eye there? I didn't know this until a couple nights ago when I was chatting with my mom on Skype, but apparently she pays about $23/kg for quality Canadian grade A rib-eye, and I pay $50/kg for the shitty leftover rib-eye Australia doesn't want.
I didn't know this before, because gotta admit, I don't really look at prices. I just look at my bank statements once a month or so, to see how much I spent. We ended up comparing prices though, and fuck me, I'm paying more than double for the shitty Australian leftovers, while she gets kick ass Canadian beef. Talk about a rip off. Thank fuck rent is cheap here.
EDIT: If you're in Thailand, head over to Tops Supermarket, and grab an Australian rib-eye. 1500 baht/kg for those bad boys, apparently. And maybe I'm wrong, but I'm quite confident Australia has better beef than that, so we're getting the shit they don't want.
I didn't know this before, because gotta admit, I don't really look at prices. I just look at my bank statements once a month or so, to see how much I spent. We ended up comparing prices though, and fuck me, I'm paying more than double for the shitty Australian leftovers, while she gets kick ass Canadian beef. Talk about a rip off. Thank fuck rent is cheap here.
EDIT: If you're in Thailand, head over to Tops Supermarket, and grab an Australian rib-eye. 1500 baht/kg for those bad boys, apparently. And maybe I'm wrong, but I'm quite confident Australia has better beef than that, so we're getting the shit they don't want.
Do I have to point out the obvious?
In your years in Thailand have you ever seen a cow?
And I don't mean Ox or Buffalo, I mean an actual cow.
Do I have to point out the obvious? If you want to live a life in Thailand comparable to the West, you'll be paying import taxes on various items.
Yes, there's no cows here. Lots of buffalo though, but we're not allowed to eat them. Not sure about ox, but some buffalo burgers would be awesome! Pretty sure they won't be selling those any time soon though. Being mean to buffalo here is kinda equivalent to being mean to elephants -- you're just not allowed to do it, and nobody tolerates it.
I was simply stating, if you want a nice rib-eye, it's going to cost you twice as much for probably a third of the quality.
Imported goods cost more, who woulda thunk it?
Edit:
You can get dog meat pretty easy in Thailand. It's a decent alternative to beef if your on a budget.