Affordable Places in Asia
There are 302 Affordable Places in Asia like Canggu, Chiang Mai and Bangkok with an average cost of living of $1,231/month, internet speeds up to 80 Mbps and temperatures ranging from -17°C to 33°C 2.238°F to 91.378°F.
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Bali is amazing, but Canggu isn't really that great -- actually there are SO MANY better places, like Uluwatu, Gili Islands or even Ubud that I can't understand the hype. As almost everyone said below, beaches are crappy, roads are terrible, sidewalks are non-existent and having a motorbike is a must. On the other side, food is great and cafes are pretty reasonable with all those incredible bowls. Anyway I wouldn't recommend it for more than a week.
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 33° 91° 28° 83°🥵AQI 40$1,365 / mo19MbpsChiang Mai used to be N.1 for the digital nomad life. It is still great and you can find really cheap apartments (300-400$) and restaurants (2-3$ for a main). Wouldn't recommend staying there during the burning season. The best area is Nimman, but it's also the most expensive. You can stay in the old city that's very nice but that gets noisy during the weekend for the night markets. Last but not least, very safe city. All in all would go back in a heartbeat.
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety ☀️ Feels 30° 86° 27° 81°AQI 582$1,094 / mo23MbpsDon't believe the prices on here for an apartment. 686 usd/month refers to an apartment in a high class condo, right in the city centre and seconds away from the BTS(train station). Just remember this, people working at supermarkets make 2 usd/per hour. If you want to live like a local, then you can save a lot of money. If you don't mind a 5-10 minute walk from the BTS, then you can easily get a one bedroom apartment for 300 USD per month, in a high class condo, plus with free golf cart ser
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 33° 91° 30° 87°🥵AQI 643$1,543 / mo25MbpsDefinitely check out The Key (on near Zhong Xiao Dun Hua station) if living here for more than a month. Cafe + Gym + Bar all in one, monthly membership about $50 USD. English-friendly, no contracts. Made my 3 month stay here immensely better with fast wifi in the cafe and it's a great feeling to be able to work out immediately after working.
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 19° 66° 19° 67°AQI 344$1,921 / mo20MbpsAfter having lived here for two months, I've got to say that this must be one of the worst places in Asia. The only reason I am still here is because I'm stuck due to the covid-19 situation. There is nothing to do here, except going for a walk at the beach. No events, no social life, no activities. Mind you, this has nothing to do with the current situation, it was the same before things got shut down because of the virus. The locals don't really like foreigners and you can feel that often, eve
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 23° 73° 23° 74°AQI 325$935 / mo17MbpsThis island is a total gem. It has everything one desires in a paradise island! There is a huge higher consciousness/yoga/meditation/vegetarian/vegan community plus epic full moon and half moon parties, omg totally worth checking out! And the internet connectivity and speed on the island is good too. I've had no problem doing work from my laptop as a Digital Marketing Specialist either.
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 29° 84° 26° 79°🥵AQI 596$1,254 / mo18MbpsThe noise pollution here is insane. The prayer calls from the mosques seem to reverberate throughout Penang. Seems like they are competing for who can be the loudest. This really ruined Penang for me and I cut my time short.
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 39° 102° 30° 86°🥵AQI 417$1,105 / mo17MbpsReally enjoying Seoul so far. It is very hard to make friends at first as not many people will speak English or are too afraid to. Maybe easier in Itaewon. For phone service, I was able to get month to month service on KT with unlimited data for only 35,000 won a month. Check out the desk with a sign in Thai on the electronics floor at IPark Mall connected to Yonsan station for this deal. They speak great English as well.
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety ☀️ Feels 1° 34° 1° 35°AQI 668$2,352 / mo19MbpsHonestly, this is an awesome place to be if you're actually trying to get work done. It's a bit of an older vibe than Canggu, and there's certainly a big chunk of yogi's kicking around — but I liked it much better than Canggu and found it less pretentious. Plus, you can drive down there in 45mins whenever you want some beach or party vibes. As others mentioned, there's some great coworking spaces, cheap warungs, some really nice spots to stay cheaply if you go just outside of the mad tourist
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 31° 88° 26° 79°🥵AQI 269$1,788 / mo12MbpsBengaluru, January 4-9, and 13-13, 2020. Had a good time in Bengaluru ( formerly Bangalore). At first I stayed at the Parijatha Gateway Hotel, Near Soap Factory Metro, which was ideal for my purposes. Transit & shopping was nearby, and there was a mall and good food. The Metro in BLR is VERY modern and smooth- be prepared to be patted down (women and men separately) to get into the station, and you can but a metrocard at the ticket window. In Bangalore the internet is VERY fast (it is India
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌤 Feels 24° 75° 24° 74°AQI 84😷10$743 / mo18MbpsManila is an incredibly welcoming city and cheap to live. Accommodation in ultra luxurious condos is reasonable, foot massage whilst tapping out emails (£7 per hour) makes working from here a no brainer. Agree living in the Greenbelt area is a no brainer. Vegetarian choices can be limited in some places but excellent (and so cheap!) Delivery services are available, including diet chef stuff which is unaffordable anywhere else. The streets feel safe inside Makati and the areas around greenbelt
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 34° 93° 29° 84°AQI 4111$1,478 / mo8MbpsLiving in Bangkok since 2015, I refused to go to Phuket longer than I could. I strongly believed in rumors that Phuket was all about prostitution and dirty beaches... oh, how I was wrong! Phuket is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I’d say you can find the same conveniences you’re used in Bangkok, but with a beach - actually many of them, ofter pristine and desert if you rent a motorbike and explore by yourself. Forget about Patong and go to Karon, Surin, Kattatani, Paradise and Freedom Beach instead... you’
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 38° 100° 30° 86°🥵AQI 3112$1,615 / mo27MbpsSiem Riep has a nice suburb feeling. At first sight it seems there's not much to do besides Angkor Wat and Pub Street, but you can go swimming, do bicycle tours, floating village day trip... I don't have best social skill, but in Siem Reap it was so easy to make new friends. Locals and tourists! I've worked at Garage Society Coworking Space. Pretty nice place. I don't understand the cons of slow internet. I've bought an LTE 4G Sim card for 10 USD with 10 GB. There's also free and mostly fast
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌤 Feels 31° 88° 28° 82°AQI 4013$1,058 / mo8MbpsFirst time I was in KL was in 2015 as a backpacking student. I stayed for 2 weeks at an airbnb in Bangsar South and I loved it. Met up with Uni friends, made new friends and I really like the relaxed atmosphere, despite being in a huge city. Fast forward, 3 years later, I went by myself to KL for a 3 days stay on a visa run from Chiang Mai. I stayed in a hotel near Bukit Bintang. I actually really didn't like it - I think because I was by myself, in a fairly wild part of the city and got so us
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 36° 97° 29° 85°🥵AQI 6014$1,292 / mo17MbpsTerrible internet even taxi drivers can't use maps and don't know where they are going. Super boring. Congested with traffic and horns. No infrastructure. Bums everywhere. Sketchy people. Davao city is a scary and weird place. There are zero foreigners here. Check the expat group on Facebook it's a handful of creepy old men. I guess Filipinos that live here that are pumping up the reviews for this place because they are proud of where they are from and love their president and his beloved city.
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 36° 97° 29° 85°🥵AQI 3515$1,562 / mo11MbpsAs Canggu is filling up, people are moving Northwest-wards passing through Pererenan and Babadan and ending up in Munggu where it's still calm, with not much development.
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 34° 93° 28° 82°🥵AQI 4016$1,510 / mo14MbpsPalawan, officially the Province of Palawan, is a province of the Philippines that is located in the MIMAROPA region. Its capital is the city of Puerto Princesa, but it is governed independently from the province as an urbanized city. The islands of Palawan stretch from Mindoro in the northeast to Borneo in the southwest and it lies between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. The province is named after its largest island, Palawan Island, measuring 450 kilometres long, the province is composed
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 39° 102° 30° 87°🥵AQI 3617$1,414 / mo6MbpsI stayed in Hoi An much longer than I planned (10 days) because it was so pleasant. Yes, tourists everywhere. But my hotel was gorgeous and cheap and the wifi was plenty fast for work. When not working I biked out to the beach or through the paddies or into town (too crowded for a bike most times but functional if needed) or just around the countryside. Had some of my friendliest encounters here and as a single woman, always felt safe - night or day.
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 23° 73° 23° 74°AQI 3218$1,030 / mo24MbpsPeople - People are generally friendly - Not too many scams like BKK - Scams are low here because the city doesn't have the same attractions like BKK - Never ran in to a Digital Nomad here like Chiang Mai Language - English level is very low - If they can speak a little bit of English the people are shy to use it - Languages that you can use to get by are Thai, Cambodian and Lao Health - Hospitals have long line ups throughout the day. - Locals go in the morning to take a number, when their t
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety ☀️ Feels 29° 84° 27° 81°AQI 4419$1,054 / mo81MbpsCebu city isn't safe, and internet is really slow unless you have a fiber connection. Most of areas are unsafe at night, some are sort of dangerous at daylight too. Even in deep province of Cebu island (such as Carcar city) I've been feeling much safer than here. Also don't forget about terrible road traffic and the fact that most of locals here doesn't speak English.
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 40° 104° 30° 85°🥵AQI 820$967 / mo6Mbps"Don't go to Jakarta" is what people from Jakarta tell you. But you do. It can't be that bad, right? Then you arrive. Although "arriving" is a big word for getting stuck in traffic first for hours. When you do finally arrive in your apartment, you open the windows and wonder why you can't see further than 10 meters. It must be a foggy day? No, it's not fog, it's smog, and it's an every day occurrence in Jakarta, a city that is now competing with Beijing for worst air quality in the world. Wh
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 36° 97° 30° 86°🥵AQI 5122$1,223 / mo11MbpsSri Lanka is a great country to visit and explore on vacation, but it is not good for nomading. The internet is the worst I've experienced in 3 years of travelling around SE Asia. Usually I would supplement terrible wifi with mobile data but I found this also terrible. I visited several places in Sri Lanka, including supposedly up-and-coming nomad destination Welligama. There are very few cafes that are fit for working (almost none with AC/power), Western food is expensive (and so is Sri Lankan
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌥 Feels 41° 106° 31° 87°🥵AQI 5423$957 / mo9MbpsUluwatu is an amazing place, in my opinion way better than Canggu and even Ubud. Why? There’s not much traffic, beaches are amazing, there’s a significant Brazilian/Portuguese community around which reflects in ethnic restaurants pretty good and affordable. Surf culture is present, so the laid back lifestyle. Maybe it’s hard to find an actual “home”, I always prefer to stay in cheap guesthouses such as 3D Homestay, with a nice swimming pool. Enjoy the morning in the beach and catch the
⭐️ Score 💵 Cost 📡 Internet 😀 Fun 👮 Safety 🌧 Feels 35° 95° 29° 83°🥵AQI 2124$813 / mo9Mbps{descriptionFromReview}
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