I am mystified probably coming from South Asia, what makes Thailand so attractive? when you can do similar cost arbitrage with many places in Carib and Latin America, while being in the same time zones and probably better way to get in touch with US based clients.
No one has mentioned it, so I'll say that one of the things that I found most pleasant about Thailand was the religious aspect of it. I'm more of an atheist, but spending time in a primarily Buddhist country has a very different feel from a primarily Catholic or Muslim country.
Also:
- There are still cost differences between Latin America and Thailand.
- The weather is awesome. Wearing shorts and short sleeves 24/7/365 is great.
- I love Thai food and it's easier to eat vegetarian there than in Latin America.
- There's no expectation that foreigners need to learn Thai. Beyond 'hello' and 'thank you' they basically expect to be speaking English (or Chinese).
- I've always liked hanging out with Australians and New Zealanders and there's a lot of them in Thailand.
- The internet is much better. Not only than Latin America, but also better than I get in the US.
On the negative side, foreigners are looked at as sources of money and not everyone is good at pretending they're interested in something else. It's very easy to feel dehumanized and that you're only interesting to them because you have money. Also, while many people are listing girls as a positive, in Bangkok the assumptions they make about white men made it hard for me to be there. It gets depressing to be offered sex that often. Considering you get all benefits of Thailand in other locations as well, I strongly recommend potential expats consider Thai destinations other than Bangkok.
If one spends time integrating into their society (for example, learn their language instead of just using English all the time), then one may be treated a little more positively. They don't expect you to speak Thai because they see you as someone who won't stick around and as a result, like you said, merely a money source.
I agree 100%. I am currently an expat with local language skills. When other expats complain about getting treated differently because they're foreigners, and then you find out they've been here 10 years and have no local language skills, it's easy to understand why.
It's dramatically safer than most of South America and the Caribbean. Having lived for the better part of a decade in both Thailand and the Caribbean, the people in Thailand seem much friendlier.
And most of their economies are on an upward trajectory in SE Asia. While the caribbean and many parts of latin America are mostly spinning their wheels in position.
Sense of security? Everyone knows of the potential security issues in latin america, but thailand "we" don't know a lot about. A sense of the exotic? For americans it is all the way over in asia. Being in the middle of the huge asian market? The girls? The food? The cost?
I myself have relocated to latin america (oaxaca, mexico) and enjoy the lifestyle here, but being from Europe which is in the middle of the two I can easily see myself having ended up in thailand or that general neighbourhood had I not planted seeds here with a job and family =)
Food, safety, proximity to other Asian destinations, low cost, fast Internet, everything close by (e.g. one can take a break from Bangkok with a quick flight to the south)... it goes on.
The internet in Latin America sucks compared to east Asia.
It's not even remotely close. I say this having used 130 gigs of high speed mobile data over the past month, tethering wherever I felt like it, and spending under $30 USD for the privilege.
Hey, have you been to china? Internet isn't really great there especially if you venture outside of the Chinese net. Heck, some websites won't even work without a vpn....
I have been mostly bouncing between Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan, but even so, what Latin American city offers internet service at a similar speed and price as you could get in Chiang Mai, Saigon or Singapore? I sure haven't seen one.
I have lived most of my life in Brazil, and even though I am very privileged, the following has happened to me:
1) Watch stolen by drug addict with a syringe when I was 12 years old
2) Cellphone stolen by a thug with a glass shard when I was 16
3) Also when I was 16, three thugs tried to steal my cellphone, they said they would blow my brains if I didn't comply and faked having a gun (I didn't).
4) Two thugs invaded my frat house, held us hostages with handguns, and stole all we had (I will never forget the cold metal of the gun touching my head, while I was threatened).
5) My car was jacked right in front of my house.
6) Another cellphone stealing incident that I'd rather not share in details.
7) My spare tire was stolen while I was in a bar for a couple of hours.
This is just what has happened to me in less than 30 years. Stories like those abound. My girlfriend also went through (4) and (7), independently of me. Pretty much everyone I know has had a cellhphone stolen at some point in their lives.
If you want to actually experience the dread that is living in Brazil, search for "brazil" in reddit's /r/watchpeopledie.
Latin America really varies by country. You'd have to be insane to want to spend time in Venezuela right now. Brazil, especially north Brazil has a reputation for violence.
Chile on the other hand is very safe, has good infrastructure and is a pretty pleasant place to visit with lots of varied scenery and low corruption. They even have a startup incubator program. The beaches don't have warm water unfortunately.
For what it's worth the U.S. has four cities in the top-50 list. I've been to a couple of them. Yeah you can't be a dummy, but I don't think most people there are in fear of their life.
No matter what I do, I would always look like a foreigner in Venezuela. This is also true in Thailand but they seem to do a much better job of protecting farang from violent crime.
When you're living in Latin America as an expat, the odds are pretty strong that you're in or near a tourist resort with very little (observable) crime. I say observable because, yeah, of course a mafia is operating in the area, but it's not an all out war like in Tijuana or Juarez because it's not lucrative for the mafia to scare tourists off. Tourists go to the mafia's bars and restaurants at the end of the day, which is part of how they launder money.
It's not like you're gonna spend your whole time in the resort. Otherwise why bother going to Latin America? We have resorts here in the US too.
Indeed, most people who travel to Latin America want to travel and do sight-seeing. And that can be dangerous, especially for "gringos" (Anglo-Saxon whites) because they are perceived as wealth targets by kidnappers.
You don't really have that problem in a place like Thailand.
I am very hesitant about visiting visiting Brazil especially since it would cost me $$ as an American (yes, I understand it's reciprocal).
However, I don't think it's fair to lump all of Latin America together. I found living in Peru for 9 months safe, and I travelled all over the country. I also visited Bolivia and Colombia but less extensively. In fact, most of these places felt safer than SF after you know the lay of the land.
The huge majority of men go there for women, food, weather, in that order. (Not sure why this is getting downmodded - I know a lot of professional expats who live there and after a few drinks they all say those are the big draws.)
You have a better living cost arbitrage in SEA, specifically in Thailand. With an easy availability of everything you’d need as an expat (simple apartment and car/moto rentals), you get a much better bang for you buck. The barrier of entry is low and you can easily set up a routine in less of a day.
SA requires you to learn Spanish and you’ll struggle a lot trying to figure out things in he beginning.
I think one potential of Latin America is the time zone lines up better with North America. This might not matter, depending on what kind of business you're doing.
If your clients are in Europe then being 5 hours ahead is actually better than being in the same timezone (especially if you're nocturnal and only wake up at 11am ;)
Thailand has a ton of western tourists making it very adapted to their 'needs' and greatly reduces the 'risk' of culture shock. So if you're the sort of person who wants to a warm cheap country, but still want to be able to go to a different pub every night where you can hang out with white native English speakers then Thailand is pretty good bet.
This is also based on the assumption you are in a client/service business. However as someone with a startup in Thailand the timezone is always the first point of contention for most of us, So not disagreeing with you on that point. Not having a US number can also work against you when trying to set up meetings with partners, you get put at the bottom of the call sheet always.
For someone working with UK/West European clients the time zone means you can enjoy the daytime and work in the evening which I prefer. The 9-5 is too engrained from last century workhouses to change but doesn't suit a balanced lifestyle
Some people prefer the culture, the food, the party scene, the girls. Also, it's pretty safe and comfortable for expats. Also, English is widely spoken in Southeast Asia
