@kumi

(It seems my paragraph formatting is being removed due to the length of my comment, so sorry you'll have to deal with the wall of text if you want to read this, haha) Have been in Bangkok for the past 6 months. I've been nomadic for the past 4 years across Europe & the US, and as someone who is used to walking everywhere and greenery, I found it quite difficult living here. I spent my first 5 months living in Airbnbs, which were fine for around $6-800/m, and for the last month decided to live in

You could do worse, you could do better. Filthy & stressful, you have to Grab everywhere, even a short walk results in dodging aggressive motorbikes. Locals are super unfriendly, way worse than Hanoi, so not sure why everyone raves about how friendly they are in comparison. Poor quality in everything, even the luxury experiences are a total rip-off. Surprisingly underdeveloped too, not even a bar on their observation deck in Bitexco. Internet is really good, but stay as far from D1 as you can -

Chiang Mai has had a deep Buddhist influence running over the last 1,000 years and this can be felt in the helpfulness, patience and generosity of the Thai and long-term transplants you come across. The city has an active community scene (nomads, spiritual seekers, hikers, creatives), several mountains with hiking spots and waterfalls surrounding the city, over 20 water bodies inside the city -- many have cafes and walks around, several public parks, and over 13 national parks with campgrounds w

So… amazing food. Great public transportation. Very clean. But very conformist. Self expression limited. The irony of seeing an exhibit on graffiti, yet no actual graffiti in the streets. And the causal racism especially if you’re brown. You could be British born but still expect to be sat far away from everyone else at cocktail bars, experience comments and have weird assumptions made.

City was cheap and pretty but there's not that many cafes to work from, plenty of tourists and it was hard to make friends. If you go here make sure to rent a motorbike and check out the nature but there are better places to live at in Vietnam.

Stayed in PP for around 2 months. I would say it appeals to a certain type of person. Unlike capital cities in neighboring countries, I found the vibe to be more relaxed. The city basically shuts down at 9pm. I would say if you want to visit, you should be willing to invest more in accomodations. I tried keeping my budget similar to those in Bangkok and that was my biggest mistake of my stay here. The Airbnbs I booked for around $20-25 a night had very slow wifi, no hot water or no water at all

Chinese companies are building casinos everywhere, using Chinese labour and attracting Chinese clients who are presumably laundering money as there are much closer casinos to China than Sihanoukville. This place is getting worse, not better. However, it's the gateway to some nice islands.

I'd skip Vientiane if I was you. It's mostly for Chinese business people. But there's not much to see or do there. We visited the unexploded bomb museum, which was interesting but tiny. There's some French cafes and massage places. But everything is quite basic. I'd just go straight to Laung Prabang if you want to see more of Laos. Or Vang Vieng if you want to party. Vientiane wasn't very remote worker suitable either, just like entire Laos. Internet is slow and if it's not slow it's unstable