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AdiBoo
Joined: 26 Aug 2006
Posts: 12
Location: Quito, Ecuador
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 Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:16 pm Post subject: Which City Is Best For Happiness and Well-Being? |
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Hi. I'm interested in traveling to Asia soon for a big adventure. I have a year teaching experience, a TEFL, and a BA from a top-tier American university in an unrelated field. I'm 25 and male.
I have a knack for languages, and currently speak three. Generally my learning curve with languages is considerably faster than the middle of the pack, though I'm not freakishly good by any means.
I'd like to go somewhere in Asia - probably SE, but open-minded - where I can make enough money to get by and save a little. I'd like to learn to speak the language casually within 8 months time (willing to study hard), and I'd like for the locals to in general have a very healthy relationship with foreigners (ie curious/engaged as opposed to xenophobic and aloof).
Like many more well-seasoned travelers, I prefer places that are both reasonably off-the-beaten path but also have enough infrastructure to make for some cosmopolitan comforts. Great food and cultural happenings are nice to have.
Like most any 25 year old male, I'd love to meet and cavort with beautiful women. This wouldn't be my sole reason to go anywhere, but I'm only slightly ashamed to admit that it - like salary, cultural commodities, cost of living, and cuisine - has an impact on my decision-making process.
So where should I - or one like me - go? Please don't refer me to other forums, give me the thoughts! The internet is such an intangible place, and TrekEarth and Lonely Planet can only tell one so much.
Hit me back, I'm curious about opinions.
AdiBoo |
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englishmaster
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 118
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| Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 11:34 am Post subject: |
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I'd recommed Taiwan. It's not in southeast Asia, but it's close, and subtropical to boot. The west coast has a good infrastructure, while the mountainous east has some off-the-beaten-track places. There is a good number of western restaurants there. You could study Mandarin and have a good chance of hooking up with a local lass.
The only place I've taught in southeast Asia is Malaysia, and it's hard to get a good salary here (although I have one). It's a little dangerous, too.
You don't want to go to Korea unless you're desperate for money (nothing wrong with that!).
If you really want to go to southeast Asia, try www.shambles.net, which has listings of schools and colleges in the region to which you can apply.
Good luck. |
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friendoken
Joined: 20 Jan 2008
Posts: 41
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| Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2008 6:04 am Post subject: |
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Hi,
I highly recommend Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. I've been here two years and it is everything you are looking for. I teach at Panyathip Bi-Lingual School. It is a great gig, 17 hours a week, with a salary (not hourly wage) of $1000 clear a month. It also offers paid vacation, and holidays plus all national holidays off with pay. M-W-F done at noon, and T-Th done at 2pm. I have an hour off for lunch and the school feeds us for free. If you like Thai food, Laos food is the same. I also teach M-W-F at Logos Academy from 5-9pm, that job pays $10/hr. Taxes are 10% off the top and that is it.
So I clear a little over $1300 US a month. Not too bad for 26 hrs a week, especially when you consider the average monthly wage for a Laos worker (teacher, police, bank clerks etc) is $40/month. That is not a typo.
It is around 30C everyday of the year with very low humidity from October to June, then the rainy season starts, when it usually rains twice a day, around 4pm and again around 4am, usually for about 1-2 hours each time.
The people are all very welcoming to foreigners. The women are the most beautiful in the world, with the exception of Filippina's, who are equally as beautiful.
The food here is delicious and there are many restaurants representing various tastes from around the world; Indian, French, Italian and a great steakhouse. A decent sized rib steak with fries and peppercorn sauce is $2.50. Laos food can be had anywhere for about $1.50 for a great tasting meal.
I will never leave. I met a beautiful lady, bought a piece of land on the Mekong River and built a 1000 sq. ft. two bdrm bungalow for $18K, land-labour-material included.
There is tons of ESL work here. You will only be unemployed as long as you want to be.
A beer in a bar costs between 70 cents and $1.20 depending where you are. That is a 660ml bottle. They will deliver a case of 12 bottles to your house for $7.00, truly awesome.
It isn't an insane party place like other countries cab be. Everything closes at 11:30 pm by law, although Don Chan palace disco stays open till 2am as well as two other after hours clubs I know.
The only other place I have taught is Korea, and unless you are after money, and only money, I would avoid it like the plague. It is a horrible place. All you need to do is read the Korean forums regularly. All everyone does is bitch and complain about all the crap they are going through. Do you read much of that from SE Asia?
Laos. It is a quality place to be. The land of 1,000,000 elephants. 'Nuff said. |
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StephenDNZ
Joined: 12 Jan 2009
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:35 am Post subject: Teaching in Laos |
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| Hi, I was interested in your praise of Laos,, I was in Vientiane last year on Christmas day actually.. a lovely place... they should make you the Cultural Ambassador.. ha ha.. keep up the good life.. |
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Jati
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
Posts: 155
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| Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:41 pm Post subject: |
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| friendoken wrote: |
The people are all very welcoming to foreigners. The women are the most beautiful in the world, with the exception of Filippina's, who are equally as beautiful.
I will never leave. I met a beautiful lady, bought a piece of land on the Mekong River and built a 1000 sq. ft. two bdrm bungalow for $18K, land-labour-material included. |
Wow. You paint a very tempting picture and I won't be surprised if Vientiane is swamped with TESL teachers in no time at all.
Having seen Lao women -and Filipinas- I would have to agree that there are some beauties, but the most beautiful in the world? Come on. That is quite a subjective statement.
What does your wife's mother look like? IMHO, some Asian women don't weather too well and the beauty at 21 is a bit worn by 30. Some age quite well, however, thus I tend to look at the mother to see what might become. Have you seen some of the Malay, Chinese and Indian beauties in Malaysia? How about a nice mixture...Chinese...Malay....European....etc.?
Anyway, glad to hear that someone is happy with their lot in life. I am also happy, but in Malaysia instead, like englishmaster and can say that it isn't nearly as dangerous as the KL-based people make it out to be. You just have to get out of KL (and Johor).
My house (1150 ft2) cost me US$43k, but it is close to the city center and near the beach (South China Sea). And it is in my name (I know that in Thailand it has to be in the name of a Thai.) My salary runs around US$1300 per month, but I don't need to work two jobs to get that. We work 40 hours per week (16-20 hours of class), and hanging out with the Malays outside classroom hours is no problem.
If younger, and single, I would consider NE Thailand or Laos; I spent a very pleasant two weeks in a Thai village beside the Mekong River one year. Wonderful area! Loved it. |
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Nabby Adams
Joined: 08 Feb 2008
Posts: 215
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| Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2009 1:32 am Post subject: |
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Frendoken should have said that he paid for the land but that he doesn't own the land. Foreigners can't own land in Laos.
One divorce and you lose the lot.
50% chance of divorce when 2 people are from the same culture. I'd imagine it would be higher for international marriages. |
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RiverMystic
Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 1986
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| Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:48 am Post subject: |
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| Jati wrote: |
| Travel Zen wrote: |
| Do you have any pictures ? |
Working on it.
Tell me how you got your Anita Baker picture uploaded. The board policy is that picts (avatars) have to be less than 6kb, and no larger than 80 pixels x 80 pixels.
I uploaded an image, but it was too large. I tried to re-size and got only a tiny picture that isn't worth uploading. |
Go to a host site like www.photobucket.com , and open an account (it's free). You can then post photos on that site, and in turn post the link here, or an "Img" (I think it's called), which will display the photo here on Dave's. If you fiddle around with it for a while, you'll work it out (like all these things). |
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Jati
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
Posts: 155
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Jati
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
Posts: 155
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| Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:23 pm Post subject: |
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Trying out the IMG function:
Julie Hoi, Malaysian Chinese
[IMG]http://i731.photobucket.com/albums/ww315/Teak-Jati/JULIE8.jpg[/IMG] |
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Jati
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
Posts: 155
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| Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 11:25 pm Post subject: |
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Whatever....
Not deleted yet so I will keep going!
Here is an example of what I was saying about a lot of beauty under the tudong (head-covering):
Malay girl with tudong
http://i731.photobucket.com/albums/ww315/Teak-Jati/withtudung.jpg
Same Malay girl, without tudong
http://i731.photobucket.com/albums/ww315/Teak-Jati/withouttudung.jpg
My first four years, I taught mostly Chinese students. Here are two of my students from that time period.
http://i731.photobucket.com/albums/ww315/Teak-Jati/yanleelinsie2.jpg
Afterwards, I moved to a college that has mostly Malay students. At first, it was hard to recognise the girls since almost all of them wore the tudong. I did not realise how much we use the hair and ears of people to remember them. It forced me to focus upon the face and personality. After a while it became easier and I began to see that there were some real beauties under that 'tent'!
It is funny sometimes, because there are occasions when Malay women, who normally wear the tudong, do not.
For example, when visiting the Malaysian islands off the east coast, some women will take the tudong off at the jetty and not put it back on until they return to the mainland. This happened on one school-sponsored trip that I took with a group of students, male and female. At first, I did not recognise the girls without their tudongs! |
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parrothead
Joined: 02 Nov 2003
Posts: 342
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 8:31 am Post subject: Re: Which City Is Best For Happiness and Well-Being? |
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| AdiBoo wrote: |
| I'd like to go somewhere in Asia - probably SE, but open-minded - where I can make enough money to get by and save a little. |
Ability to save money greatly depends on the individual. Some searching through these forums will give you rough estimates. In general, teaching jobs in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan are the best opportunities for someone with your qualifications to earn the most money.
None of them is in Southeast Asia, however, so the next tier would be Viet Nam, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.
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| I'd like to learn to speak the language casually within 8 months time (willing to study hard) |
Being trilingual already, perhaps you are a fast study. I personally don't think 8 months is near enough to be casually conversational. I've heard that Bahasa is reasonably easier than tonal languages like Vietnamese, but I have no personal experience. It also takes much longer to acquire a foreign language if you are busy teaching/speaking English all day at your job. Ideally, you could enroll in language classes and study hard for a few months before you start working.
| Quote: |
Like most any 25 year old male, I'd love to meet and cavort with beautiful women. This wouldn't be my sole reason to go anywhere, but I'm only slightly ashamed to admit that it - like salary, cultural commodities, cost of living, and cuisine - has an impact on my decision-making process.
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Nearly everyone is beautiful to someone. I reckon anywhere you go there will be a nice gal or two interested in frolicking around with you. |
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moneyoriented
Joined: 11 May 2008
Posts: 76
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| Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 8:23 am Post subject: Malaysia |
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[quote="Jati"]
| friendoken wrote: |
| Anyway, glad to hear that someone is happy with their lot in life. I am also happy, but in Malaysia instead, like englishmaster and can say that it isn't nearly as dangerous as the KL-based people make it out to be. You just have to get out of KL (and Johor). |
Hi - what part of Malaysia are you in? I've heard that KL and Johor are a bit dangerous - but you're saying pretty much anywhere else is fine? What are some places you'd recommend, and why?
Cheers!
Tom |
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nomad22
Joined: 14 May 2007
Posts: 71
Location: Auckland, NZ
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| Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:45 am Post subject: laos |
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| hard to beat laos whichever city you choose, but vientiane wins hands down. ive worked and lived in asia for 9 years and laos holds a special place in my heart. go to laos, you wont be sorry. |
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nomad22
Joined: 14 May 2007
Posts: 71
Location: Auckland, NZ
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| Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:47 am Post subject: |
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| Nabby Adams wrote: |
Frendoken should have said that he paid for the land but that he doesn't own the land. Foreigners can't own land in Laos.
One divorce and you lose the lot.
50% chance of divorce when 2 people are from the same culture. I'd imagine it would be higher for international marriages. |
yes all that is true. foreigners cant own land in laos. it must be ina laos person's name. this naturally is a risk. |
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Jati
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
Posts: 155
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 11:19 pm Post subject: Re: Malaysia |
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[quote="moneyoriented"]
| Jati wrote: |
| friendoken wrote: |
| Anyway, glad to hear that someone is happy with their lot in life. I am also happy, but in Malaysia instead, like englishmaster and can say that it isn't nearly as dangerous as the KL-based people make it out to be. You just have to get out of KL (and Johor). |
Hi - what part of Malaysia are you in? I've heard that KL and Johor are a bit dangerous - but you're saying pretty much anywhere else is fine? What are some places you'd recommend, and why?
Cheers!
Tom |
On the east coast, both Kuantan and Kuala Terengganu are nice. Kota Baru is also east coast, but the state is very conservative and traffic is heavy in KB city.
Along the west coast, there are some decent places, such as Alor Setar, Kangar, Penang (mostly a Chinese city), Malacca, and Seremban. Over on the island of Borneo, both Kota Kinabalu and Kuching are very decent for expat life. I haven't been in Kuching, but all other cities mentioned I have visited.
Cities smaller than these would have fewer expats (except for Miri, in Sarawak, which is a centre for oil and gas companies), and thus fewer amenities. Work would also be harder to find.
What do I like? Housing is cheaper than KL or Johor (or Penang island). There are no expat ghettos, so you have to mix with locals. English is used much less, thus, I get to use Malay, which allowed me to get to functional fluency. Pace of life is slower and, what's the word? Languid.
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