@mikeintaiwan

I love Taipei, extremely underrated place—not sure why, though I'm fine with that. The cleanliness, amenities, and kindness of the people will remind you of Tokyo.

(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

- Relaxed city to live in and incredibly safe. Nice if you want access to nature in southern Taiwan. Not so much english but locals are very friendly and will always try to help you. - Lots of cheap food available but while some is tasty, most is highly processed and full of oil/sugar . If you want decent quality food, it won't be much cheaper than back home. Many restaurants have an order card, so if you can't speak chinese you can grab the card and a pencil and use your phone to translate the

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

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 -

Been there for a week, in March 2022, and If you happen to stay in El nido, you should definitely go to FRENDZ, where they have a nice open space where you can work, and the connection speed was like 300down/100up!!

I grew up in Chicago and still return fairly often. I love the character of the different neighborhoods, the variety of architectural styles, and as others have said, the food scene is incredible. It's easy to make friends in the suburbs, perhaps not so much in the city itself. I have never witnessed racial tension here, and have been pleasantly surprised by the interracial friendliness I have observed. There are a wonderful selection of forests and parks just about everywhere, and the museu