Maybe you should consider Danang…

see What's the best digital nomad city in Vietnam?

I live in Ubud Bali. $1200 will work, depending on how much you spend on rent. It’s easy to live here cheaply if you eat cheap local food and not inflated western prices. It’s not exactly a stimulating ‘city’ though - we’re in the jungle here

@holeinthehand Good to hear you will be training!

I tried 2 gyms (you will find them both on Google Maps).

Lanna Muay Thai - This place was a cool semi-outdoor gym. Only did 1 session here and it was HARDCORE. They will push you to your absolute physical limits. The schedule only had two classes per day when I was there. 1 class at 6AM and the other in the evening. Wasn’t super convenient for me.

Chiang Mai Muay Thai Gym - This place is in the NorthWest corner of the old city (big square on the map!). It’s indoor with astro-turf floor (fake grass). I trained here regularly and the crew was cool as well. The best part was the convenience. The classes weren’t at a specific time but they were flexible, so your training session would start as soon as you arrived. Kinda like a private session but only ~$9USD per session if I remember correctly.

Hope that helps. Best of luck!

It does not resemble anything like Muay Thai, it is closer to Aikido but I would not take it to learn martial arts because lessons were quite crowded when I was attending and different age groups of people whose main motivation is VISA.

look up the group Chiang Mai digital nomads on facebook if you haven’t already. I am thinking about it myself.

One person I’ve talked to said it’s basically Muay Thai and a good chunk of the classes are just basic drills which arent so bad if its just exercise. They probably have to draw a balance between those who are genuinely interested in martial arts i.e. me vs those who just want to do the bare minimum for visa purposes. Others have told me you dont even have to go or go that often.

I’m def interested in the bodyguarding aspects too

Personally I wouldn’t want to live in Seminyak/Legian/Kuta in Bali. So let’s just take Canggu as an example.

Yes the beaches have dark sand, stray dogs and depending on the amount of rain the night before; quite some garbage.
Still the atmosphere is nice and the surfing is good.

I think food prices are on par with CM, scooter rental is cheaper, but alcohol is more expensive.
CM is cleaner and safer though.

Housing it really depends what you want, but if you want a pool it can get quite expensive (assuming you want to be sort of close to the beach). My 2br western villa with a pool about a 5min ride to the beach was about $1200/month (excl. electricity, cleaning, internet).

There are sometimes rooms available in a shared villa with a pool for as low as 3.5m/month ($225). But they are rare, your best bet is to keep an eye on the canggu community facebook group.

Climate-wise, Bali is your best bet between June and October.

Be careful though, we rescued someone once that was taken off the shore by a wave (unnoticed by anyone except his 2 passive friends who did not know what to do and never called for help and myself). I also had been in a bad situation previously (big waves, strong currents and stupid course of action). And I heard about much worse stories…

While travelling last year, I had planned to head to CM , but opted to head to Bali instead. Like Conni (who was at the Dojo around the same time as me, hi), I stayed in Canggu due to the surfing (didn’t even bother checking Ubud . If that’s something you want to pick up, then Bali is the place. If you just want a nice beach, you should probably stay in Thailand and head to Koh Lanta or some other island. Tourist visas in Indonesia only last 2 months, so you’ll have to do some frequent visa runs or change the status if your plan is to stay there long term.

I was able to find a crappy room in Canggu for 150usd/month, 600 meters from the beach (and 300 meters from the Dojo). It’ll be very hard to find a room in a villa w/pool for 250usd, but I don’t think it’s impossible. I’d say that you’ll have to share the villa with other people though.

I was spending around 600-700 usd/month in Bali, between the room, coworking, food (always ate out), board rental, bike (you can bring the price down a lot if you negotiate a long term rental, don’t be surprised by the initial asking prices). I wasn’t partying though (but it definitely looked like a great place to be single…)

I wrote up a pretty comprehensive guide for Canggu in Bali (which in the end, it comes down to Ubud versus Canggu - I lived in both, both are great, but I prefer the ocean for surfing).
I included lots of reasons why Bali is awesome for digital nomads and also reasons why you won’t like it. I also compare Canggu to Ubud.
Here you go: http://www.connibiesalski.com/blog/canggu

In terms of living expenses: I don’t think Bali is cheaper than CM. HOWEVER, the quality of living is better I find. Internet has improved massively, especially in the coworking spaces (Dojo and Hubud) and 4G around the island.

In the end, you have to go and find out for yourself. I love Bali as a digital nomad waaaay more than CM, but that’s just preference.

Good luck!

Interesting the opinion that Bali is cheaper than Chiang Mai.

I lived in Chiang Mai for many years but did a month in Bali at the tail end of 2015. Prices were nowhere near but we were staying in Seminyak.

Were you staying in Ubud?

I find it fascinating that such a small place has become so popular. It’s almost like a miniature Chiang Mai, right? Personally I wouldn’t be keen on living in Bali if I wasn’t pretty close to the beach (i.e. 10-15 mins by bike max).

I’ve spent a few months in both Bali and CM and love them both. I agree with you on the ease of living aspect of CM as well as the quality of life. Bali is generally less developed than CM and since you were in CM in March-(dry and hot), Bali will feel quite a bit more tropical and lush but still very hot. The cost of living was very similar for me with Bali being a bit cheaper overall. The internet speed was quite a bit slower in Bali and I relied on both a 4g sim and my apartments wifi which was so-so(~5mbps but it fluctuated a lot). There are plenty of restaurants/cafes/bars with wifi but again the connection was somewhat unstable so I tended to use my sim card most of the time. There are a lot of great beaches as well in Bali so you can escape the heat to some extent. Driving is a bit crazier in Bali than in CM but more so around Kuta or Denpasar than in UBUD or less populated areas.

Overall I think Bali would be a great choice for you to check out without breaking the bank and still providing a similar quality of life.

It’s been a few years since I rented in BKK, but last time, I took an Airbnb for a few nights and negotiated with the owner for longer term. They were happy to give a significant discount to not pay the Airbnb tax and have a stable tenant.

in vietnam if someone makes it then you can get it - not sure if the same in thailand. basically i’m saying the state doesn’t get involved when it comes to prescription meds. it’s simply a market-based economy. if you can reach someone in country they can just wander down to the local shop and see if they can get it. yes doctors in vn prescribe things, but it isn’t like in au/nz/us where a doctor needs to write on a piece of paper to authorise you getting it, you simply need to know what you want so you can then go and actually purchase it.

I went to Koh Lanta last year and it had great wifi even in remote areas. I stayed at the Ozone resort and the internet was stable at around 20mbps for download speed. Also went to Kohub but I really didn’t like it as the place wasn’t clean to me (the toilets were clogged but perhaps they have fixed them now).
One of the big downside on this island to me is the road, there are gaps everywhere and sometimes people drive like crazy, I think the road destruction is due to the 2004 tsunami.

Apart from that the island is awesome, I really liked it there and if you’re the kind of person who’s looking for a peaceful island and great people you’ll enjoy it (nightlife is also very present on the island).

I’ve spent quite a bit of time on both islands and like they both for different reasons.

But Koh Lanta wins currently for digital nomads, we had the Nomad Summit island retreat there after the conference this year.

Ko lanta is alot of tourists

Both islands are nice. They are less mainstream compared to Phuket, Samui etc. but still have pretty good infrastructure. Probably the optimal combination to get things done

Ko Lanta is smaller than Phangan.
Wi-Fi should be good on both (depending on venue), and you can use mobile internet from telecom provider (such as Ais, True etc.)

PS: Usually March-April are the hottest months in this region.

Ah same question here! I know that koh phangan has for sure good WiFi, but I would like to see ko lanta this time.
I’m arriving in Thailand on the 7th what about you?