[scandibro]

I've spent a good part of my twenties in Asia, SEA in particular and also Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore on travels. Mostly due to massive yellow fever, which I am slowly cured of it seems. Still enjoy asian women, but not anymore than a similarly hot white or black girl.

My question for those who've lived for longer times in more than one of SEA, EE or Latin America, which did you prefer longer times?

I've moved out of Denmark, my economics are offshore and I have no plans of moving permanently back there in the next 5 years, so I am looking for a place to call home for a year or so.

I thought that would be Thailand, but honestly, when my preference for asian girls is not as strong as before, I don't really know if I like Thailand enough. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool place, but the daily small cultural annoyances and lack of infrastructure makes it a bit less livable.

I was thinking of trying out Poland or the Baltics. They're close to family and friends in Scandiland too and they have feminine women. Shit weather though.

I'd love nothing more than lounging on the beach in Latin America with some hot curvy latina, but worried about safety and having to learn English.

Anyway, let me hear your opinion on which you like the better?

[JayJuanGee]

(11-14-2013 06:36 PM)scandibro Wrote:  

I've spent a good part of my twenties in Asia, SEA in particular and also Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore on travels. Mostly due to massive yellow fever, which I am slowly cured of it seems. Still enjoy asian women, but not anymore than a similarly hot white or black girl.

My question for those who've lived for longer times in more than one of SEA, EE or Latin America, which did you prefer longer times?

I've moved out of Denmark, my economics are offshore and I have no plans of moving permanently back there in the next 5 years, so I am looking for a place to call home for a year or so.

I thought that would be Thailand, but honestly, when my preference for asian girls is not as strong as before, I don't really know if I like Thailand enough. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool place, but the daily small cultural annoyances and lack of infrastructure makes it a bit less livable.

I was thinking of trying out Poland or the Baltics. They're close to family and friends in Scandiland too and they have feminine women. Shit weather though.

I'd love nothing more than lounging on the beach in Latin America with some hot curvy latina, but worried about safety and having to learn English.

Anyway, let me hear your opinion on which you like the better?

Scandibro:

Are you in your late 20s, 30s or 40s?

Why are you considering staying in each area for approximately one year increments?

I am thinking that initially, since you are having some difficulties deciding which location (and it sounds as if you want some variety) that you may want to create a travel plan that allows you to stay in each location for 5 to 7 month increments. Accordingly, you can spend your summer months in Europe locations and the winter months in either Latin America or Asia, and include changes of venue in your budgetyou're your scheduled lifestyle.

You really seem disinclined to go back to Asia - at least for the moment, but maybe you will change your mind after a few years, since you said that you have some yellow fever, which may NOT completely go away.

So start out in a Latin American country until about April 2014 (when it starts to warm up in Europe), then spend about 6 months in Europe from April to September (when it starts to cool down) before returning to a Latin American country for about 6 months from October to March. You can pick one country at a time for each segment of your journey, and to start with maybe pick locations in which English is widely spoken in order to adapt to learning Spanish more at your own pace (though you seem reluctant to learn Spanish). Maybe Costa Rica or Belize may be somewhat more friendly for English speakers – at least for starts? If you like a particular location, then you could plan to return to the same location or chose a different location for your next segment of the journey.

This moving every 5-7 months seems to be a better route for someone that is weighing the possibility of a large number of locations, and if you want then you can return to the familiarity of Asia every few years, too, unless either your budget or your time constraints would NOT allow for you to schedule moving twice a year.

[DaveR]

Do you want to learn the local culture, or just bang your way around?

I would definitely recommend against Russia or Ukraine, because you mentioned the weather, infrastructure and your illness. Medical treatment in both countries is a disaster.

What about Bulgaria or Romania? Winter is easier down there, and if you're blonde (?) you'll have the advantage of looking 'exotic.'

[JayJuanGee]

(11-16-2013 10:01 AM)DaveR Wrote:  

Do you want to learn the local culture, or just bang your way around?

I would definitely recommend against Russia or Ukraine, because you mentioned the weather, infrastructure and your illness. Medical treatment in both countries is a disaster.

What about Bulgaria or Romania? Winter is easier down there, and if you're blonde (?) you'll have the advantage of looking 'exotic.'

DaveR:

When OP mentioned that he has "yellow fever," he is NOT referring to any specific physical medical illness; however, he is referring to his attraction towards Asian women, and he seems to be suggesting that he is kind of over his yellow fever and that he wants to explore other areas of the world - besides Asia / SEA.

I am NOT sure about whether that information about Op's medical condition and/or passion towards the girls that he has historically liked would affect your recommendation to OP.

Otherwise, your recommendation seems fairly solid that OP may want to consider destination(s) that will maximize his exotic value.

[DaveR]

I should read posts more carefully rather than just skimming. The comments about medical in Russia being a disaster stand correct, but probably not so relevant for Scandibro.

[Brodiaga]

Health care in Russia is pretty decent and not too expensive in larger cities for the locals who know where to find good doctors. Many Russian emigrants/expats in the US and Europe visit Russia to have dental work done, get regular check ups and and medical treatment including cheaper medicines. As for former Soviet Union, Belarus, for example, attracts medical and dental tourists even from Russia. Regular medical check-ups, which are out of reach for most people in the world, are commonplace in Russia and FSU.

However, for a foreigner who doesn't speak the language and has no connections, health care in Russia could be a disaster.

[DaveR]

(11-16-2013 06:19 PM)Brodiaga Wrote:  

Health care in Russia is pretty decent and not too expensive in larger cities for the locals who know where to find good doctors. Many Russian emigrants/expats in the US and Europe visit Russia to have dental work done, get regular check ups and and medical treatment including cheaper medicines. As for former Soviet Union, Belarus, for example, attracts medical and dental tourists even from Russia. Regular medical check-ups, which are out of reach for most people in the world, are commonplace in Russia and FSU.

However, for a foreigner who doesn't speak the language and has no connections, health care in Russia could be a disaster.

I don't know what your background is or where you got that information, but it goes directly against everything I've ever heard, and I've been in the region for over a decade and speak Russian fluently. It's true that it's possible to find cheap treatments in Russia, but they won't be comparable to anything you'll get in countries with regulated medical industries. American Russians may go there if they don't have health insurance in the US. Counterfeit medicine is a huge problem in Russia, as are Soviet-era drugs which either don't work or have dangerous side-effects. Doctors aren't highly paid or respected as they are in other countries, they're under-trained, and in many cases still using procedures that haven't been used in the West since World War II. Then you've got decrepit hospitals where the latest equipment is a cardiograph from the '90s. There are a few private clinics which offer Western-standard treatments, but they're not cheap at all. In other words: Russia is hardly the place anyone would come to for medical treatment if they had another choice. The only people talking it up are Putin and his PR guy, Gennadiy Onishchenko.

Everything is better regulated in Belarus, which is why it attracts *some* people from Russia who can't afford to go to Finland or Estonia. Medical tourism is also popular in Western Ukraine where they offer magic water treatments and other quackery.

[Brodiaga]

DaveR:

Don't want to derail the thread with a long debate, but here are some examples:

-A girl I know in the US, who came here from Belarus and didn't have insurance in the US came back home for a couple of months and spent most of that time visiting doctors and dentists. Her parents are doctors, so that helped, of course.
-I know some Russians who live in the UK and travel to Russia to for medical check-ups and treatment. Over there, health care is free, but the GP's main job is basically to deny people access to specialists unless it is an emergency, particularly in the poorer neighborhoods where many immigrants live.

I wouldn't go to Russia/Eastern Europe for medical treatment if i had access to affordable health care in a first world country through insurance or otherwise, but I would go there if the other option was to not get treated or face bankruptcy. As for dental work, I am actually considering going to Minsk to get some dental work done.

[DaveR]

(11-16-2013 07:17 PM)Brodiaga Wrote:  

DaveR:

Don't want to derail the thread with a long debate, but here are some examples:

-A girl I know in the US, who came here from Belarus and didn't have insurance in the US came back home for a couple of months and spent most of that time visiting doctors and dentists. Her parents are doctors, so that helped, of course.
-I know some Russians who live in the UK and travel to Russia to for medical check-ups and treatment. Over there, health care is free, but the GP's main job is basically to deny people access to specialists unless it is an emergency, particularly in the poorer neighborhoods where many immigrants live.

I wouldn't go to Russia/Eastern Europe for medical treatment if i had access to affordable health care in a first world country through insurance or otherwise, but I would go there if the other option was to not get treated or face bankruptcy. As for dental work, I am actually considering going to Minsk to get some dental work done.

I think we basically agree - it's mainly to do with cost and access rather than quality. And I wouldn't say there are no good doctors in Russia and no bad ones in the UK, but the whole system is dysfunctional, like most things the government runs here, unfortunately.

Wouldn't it be cheaper to go to Canada for dental treatment, if you include travel costs?

[InternationPlayboy]

I assume you meant being worried about having to learn Spanish in Latin America. And yeah, it would be a huge help if you chose to move there, but I don't think that safety is really that big of an issue. The dangers in South America are blown way out of proportion in my opinion.

[JayJuanGee]

(11-16-2013 08:52 PM)InternationPlayboy Wrote:  

I assume you meant being worried about having to learn Spanish in Latin America. And yeah, it would be a huge help if you chose to move there, but I don't think that safety is really that big of an issue. The dangers in South America are blown way out of proportion in my opinion.

IP:
You have traveled quite extensively through South and Central America... Do you think that there are parts of South/Central America in which Spanish may NOT be really necessary, at least in the short term? Likely, OP will need to chime in on this as well to say the extent of his reluctance to learn Spanish b/c it does appear that he already has a few languages under his belt, which may facilitate learning Spanish.

[JayJuanGee]

I was waiting for OP to respond to these various questions that were posed to him in the last couple of days about his personal travel plan circumstances, but now he got BANNED, for some reason. Accordingly, he is NOT going to be able to answer these questions.

Nonetheless, I did like the outline of his plan for supposedly five years of travel b/c his outline of a plan seems to be in the ballpark of some of the travel considerations that I have been pondering - though I am planning to start out in SEA - which he had claimed to have already done (fictional or NOT, who knows?).

Oh well, if OP is NOT real (or is NO LONGER here on the forum - which may be the same for all intents and purposes), then RVF guys participating and/or interested in this thread could still maintain the theme of the thread by posing variations of OP's scenario into our own thinking about travel planning.

My personal plan at the moment is to attempt to travel for the next 20 to 30 years (and I am in my 40s), yet I remain unclear about how long a guy of my age and circumstances could live in a form of mobile existence and to move every 6 months? So currently, I am NOT even clear about how real this is going to play out for me? At the moment, I am going through some painstaking efforts to get rid of a lot of my personal belongings and to put several of my personal things in storage in the event that I change my mind about a travel lifestyle. And, yes, i am also NOT 100% clear about whether my finances are solid enough for such b/c I am working out both passive income and quasi-active income that is NOT location dependent.

So, i would be interested if guys are interested in continuing the thread in spite of the BAN of OP and to hear about the personal circumstances of guys in this forum who are making similar kinds of plans for long term travel or who have been engaging in such a traveling lifestyle to keep moving from location to location in low cost areas of the world, whether that be SEA, Latin America or Eastern Europe.

[DaveR]

JJG, here's a rundown from my perspective. I've never really liked Asia except for Hong Kong, so everything I write is from a European perspective:

You need a base so you can build up a network of friends and contacts. I was a complete nomad a few years ago, but I've found that as I age, I'm more picky about who I hang around with. That makes it more difficult to build a network of good friends. Half a year away is short enough that they won't forget you and long enough to allow you to 'recharge' your energy in another place.

If you cover two places per year (base + temporary destination), you can avoid the extremes of both Summer and Winter. Summer is really uncomfortable in the old stone cities of Europe, especially considering that you'll be walking around at least a bit - it isn't possible to drive everywhere like in the US and other colonial countries.

Living out of a suitcase is ok for a year or so, but for any longer than that I've found it much more comfortable to have a larger "kit" which I take from place to place. I've probably got 150kg (~300lb) of stuff. Things like: computer equipment (printer, monitors, keyboard), hifi, sports equipment, coffee machine, my own pillows, extra linen because apartments often only have one or two sets, maybe even a projector/TV if you're into movies. Also my household 'bait' (Chinese fan, fragrance oil burners, Moroccan lanterns, and various other trash that impresses women). It's impractical to drag that much stuff around in suitcases, so the options are: travel by car, use freight companies to transport it, or buy everything each time. You'll also find that while it's easy to find a furnished apartment, they can feel a bit clinical without some personal stuff lying around. In any case, high class women aren't going to be impressed if you're living like a college student in a place which is practically empty.

Owning a car helps with the above and also allows you to get out of the city during Summer. You'll want to do that because otherwise it starts to get monotonous if you live right in the centre. It also allows you to chose an apartment without having to worry about the proximity of supermarkets and other stores. You can decide 100% based on night/day logistics - whatever suits you.

[Nordicbro]

(11-16-2013 05:51 AM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

Scandibro:

Are you in your late 20s, 30s or 40s?

Why are you considering staying in each area for approximately one year increments?

I am thinking that initially, since you are having some difficulties deciding which location (and it sounds as if you want some variety) that you may want to create a travel plan that allows you to stay in each location for 5 to 7 month increments. Accordingly, you can spend your summer months in Europe locations and the winter months in either Latin America or Asia, and include changes of venue in your budgetyou're your scheduled lifestyle.

You really seem disinclined to go back to Asia - at least for the moment, but maybe you will change your mind after a few years, since you said that you have some yellow fever, which may NOT completely go away.

So start out in a Latin American country until about April 2014 (when it starts to warm up in Europe), then spend about 6 months in Europe from April to September (when it starts to cool down) before returning to a Latin American country for about 6 months from October to March. You can pick one country at a time for each segment of your journey, and to start with maybe pick locations in which English is widely spoken in order to adapt to learning Spanish more at your own pace (though you seem reluctant to learn Spanish). Maybe Costa Rica or Belize may be somewhat more friendly for English speakers – at least for starts? If you like a particular location, then you could plan to return to the same location or chose a different location for your next segment of the journey.

This moving every 5-7 months seems to be a better route for someone that is weighing the possibility of a large number of locations, and if you want then you can return to the familiarity of Asia every few years, too, unless either your budget or your time constraints would NOT allow for you to schedule moving twice a year.

Hey man, I got banned for some heated argument in the Everything Else forum, lesson learned, will just stay away from there.

Anyway, good points, I'm early 30s btw. My major issue with the 5-7 month thing is as DaveR writes, I would like a base to settle where I know I can return.

I'm currently leaning towards checking out Poland and Estonia since they're both close to home and people speak English, then go abroad for 4-5 months at the time in Asia or South America. That would work for sure. If I was a rich mofo, I'd just buy a condo or two abroad in warm destinations and rent them out while I was in Europe.

My main gripe with Asia is that I feel I'm missing out. I like asia and asian women and all that, but the grass is greener, and I've always been attracted to feminine, curvy, dark haired medditeranean looking women. Maybe I'm missing out something I'd really enjoy in south and central america, because I chose the easy way out in Thailand and asia?

(11-17-2013 07:49 PM)DaveR Wrote:  

JJG, here's a rundown from my perspective. I've never really liked Asia except for Hong Kong, so everything I write is from a European perspective:

You need a base so you can build up a network of friends and contacts. I was a complete nomad a few years ago, but I've found that as I age, I'm more picky about who I hang around with. That makes it more difficult to build a network of good friends. Half a year away is short enough that they won't forget you and long enough to allow you to 'recharge' your energy in another place.

If you cover two places per year (base + temporary destination), you can avoid the extremes of both Summer and Winter. Summer is really uncomfortable in the old stone cities of Europe, especially considering that you'll be walking around at least a bit - it isn't possible to drive everywhere like in the US and other colonial countries.

Living out of a suitcase is ok for a year or so, but for any longer than that I've found it much more comfortable to have a larger "kit" which I take from place to place. I've probably got 150kg (~300lb) of stuff. Things like: computer equipment (printer, monitors, keyboard), hifi, sports equipment, coffee machine, my own pillows, extra linen because apartments often only have one or two sets, maybe even a projector/TV if you're into movies. Also my household 'bait' (Chinese fan, fragrance oil burners, Moroccan lanterns, and various other trash that impresses women). It's impractical to drag that much stuff around in suitcases, so the options are: travel by car, use freight companies to transport it, or buy everything each time. You'll also find that while it's easy to find a furnished apartment, they can feel a bit clinical without some personal stuff lying around. In any case, high class women aren't going to be impressed if you're living like a college student in a place which is practically empty.

Owning a car helps with the above and also allows you to get out of the city during Summer. You'll want to do that because otherwise it starts to get monotonous if you live right in the centre. It also allows you to chose an apartment without having to worry about the proximity of supermarkets and other stores. You can decide 100% based on night/day logistics - whatever suits you.

I like this, it may be what I will do. Bulgaria is crime ridden though, as in serious mafia involvement, that's what I've heard. A biz partner of mine is a Romanian, but I'm not sure if it is really a place to live permanently.

I'm considering Poland and Baltics now mostly, close to Denmark, cheap, feminine girls and they speak English. Estonia was just ranked as second best english ability in the world of non native speakers.

Poland is closer though and bigger. I think I want to try out Poland as a base.

Agree on the needing base thing and interesting how you travel with that much stuff. I think I will do that next time too, is freight expensive?