Moving to Another Country....Where Should I Go?

[STR8UP]

Harry,

I appreciate the valuable input. I'm a little ways away from making amove but I don't think my life will be complete unless I make the move and immerse myself in another culture. For awhile anyway.

I love asian food and asian women, so that part of the world hold some apppeal for me, but I think ultimately the standard of living, the heat, and the lack of interest in the culture (or should I say low priority of interest) would rule that area out for me. I would DEFINITELY love to spend a month in Thailand/Vietnam/Laos though. I am fukking ADDICTED to the food. I have an awesome Thia restaurant walking distance from my condo, and an amazing vietnamese joint about 5 minutes away by car. And the women....man I love hot asian chicks.

Eastern Europe holds the most cultural appeal. I've been to Prague and would have loved to have explored the outlying areas. I love the food, the art, the history, etc of that part of the world. And you are correct....some of the most amazing women on the planet.

Mexico is VERY appealing for several reasons. I love the food more than anything, but I don't know about the women. Unless they have EU ancestry they aren't attractive to me. There are some fairly cute mexican women working in the restaurants around here though....

I'm thinking more along the lines of Columbia/Brazil, leaning toward Brazil. I hear lots of good things about Brazil.

I might check out DR for the hell of it though. Wouldn't take much time or money since I'm in FL. Plus, I have a handful of Dominican friends here in the US that might be able to pull some strings to hook me up when I am there.

I am dead serious about this whole thing, although being 5+ years out I won't be firming anything up for awhile.

Seriously, if I'm still "single" at that time (which with the state of American women I don't see that changing anytime soon) and financially settled, WHY NOT?

I have always wanted to travel the world, and the women I have met in other parts of the world make American chicks look like fat and ugly and sound b!tchy and entitled.

We shall see what the next few years hold. My new business has the potential to provide me with a substantial semi-passive income that I can maintain with a telephone and internet connection from anywhere in the world, so I might as well start making preparations.

 

[Hooligan Harry]

I have been all over the world. If you are white and look American you will be murdered in most of the places you mentioned in less than three years. Russia is out of the question. South East Asia is infested with HIV and other STD's, if you go to Thailand you WILL get AIDS. Eastern Europe is piss poor and they will suck you dry. Mexico? Are you serious? Do you watch the news about the drug cartels? Central and South America, the biggest business there is kidnapping Westerners. I would recommend England, Scandinavia (if you don't mind the cold), and Australia. You are fuvking crazy if you think life is better in the places you mentioned. You may have this pretty little image in your head that everything is better there, it's not. It's horrible living conditions and you will die if you make a mistake. It's not rosy like USA. USA is the best place to live in the world, period. It's too bad the women here are the worst. Good luck.

What a load of bullsh1t

Im not going to turn this into a USA bashing thread, but it is far from the best place in the world to live. It does not rank anywhere on worldwide surveys and indexes when it comes to measuring quality of life or standard of living. This is not my view, these are the findings of surveys conducted by research companies. Google that **** before you make wild claims like that.

Your best countries, for quality of life and standard of living are almost always Australia, the Scandinavian countries and Canada. Low unemployment, very few social issues, excellent benefit schemes, good education and social services, high life expectancies. The USA does not even feature in the top 10 half the time.

You seem to miss the point. I dont think Str8up is looking to move to a country where he can get a job and work his 40 hours a week with union pay and medical benefits. He is looking to retire, which means he needs to retire to a place where the dollar has the kind of purchasing power to afford a rock star lifestyle on an average American wage.

You cant get that in the UK. You cant get that in Scandanavia. You cant get that in Australia, where the people earn more than the Americans do in the first place. You need to go to poorer, developing countries.

Where have you traveled that your life is at risk? Do you think the drug cartels in Mexico kill westerners for fun? Do you think the Russians are going to murder you because you are an American? Of course people get kidnapped in Colombia. It happens. But these places are not the war zones you are making them out to be.

No wonder Americans have developed a reputation for ignorance. When I have to read bullsh1t like this, from someone who says he has traveled, then I just dont know sometimes.

The poorer the country, the more social issues and problems there are. However, countries that do no have a culture of violence (IE: anywhere outside Africa/Middle east) and are not dirt poor (IE: eastern Europe,some South American countries) provide a better quality of life than a first world country ever will. Not if you are a wage slave, if you have retired there.

Which means that an upper middle class person in Brazil is going to live the life an upper middle class person in the USA only dreams of.

You have never left your front door have you?

 

[Hooligan Harry]

Harry,

I appreciate the valuable input. I'm a little ways away from making amove but I don't think my life will be complete unless I make the move and immerse myself in another culture. For awhile anyway.

I love asian food and asian women, so that part of the world hold some apppeal for me, but I think ultimately the standard of living, the heat, and the lack of interest in the culture (or should I say low priority of interest) would rule that area out for me. I would DEFINITELY love to spend a month in Thailand/Vietnam/Laos though. I am fukking ADDICTED to the food. I have an awesome Thia restaurant walking distance from my condo, and an amazing vietnamese joint about 5 minutes away by car. And the women....man I love hot asian chicks.

Eastern Europe holds the most cultural appeal. I've been to Prague and would have loved to have explored the outlying areas. I love the food, the art, the history, etc of that part of the world. And you are correct....some of the most amazing women on the planet.

Mexico is VERY appealing for several reasons. I love the food more than anything, but I don't know about the women. Unless they have EU ancestry they aren't attractive to me. There are some fairly cute mexican women working in the restaurants around here though....

I'm thinking more along the lines of Columbia/Brazil, leaning toward Brazil. I hear lots of good things about Brazil.

I might check out DR for the hell of it though. Wouldn't take much time or money since I'm in FL. Plus, I have a handful of Dominican friends here in the US that might be able to pull some strings to hook me up when I am there.

I am dead serious about this whole thing, although being 5+ years out I won't be firming anything up for awhile.

Seriously, if I'm still "single" at that time (which with the state of American women I don't see that changing anytime soon) and financially settled, WHY NOT?

I have always wanted to travel the world, and the women I have met in other parts of the world make American chicks look like fat and ugly and sound b!tchy and entitled.

We shall see what the next few years hold. My new business has the potential to provide me with a substantial semi-passive income that I can maintain with a telephone and internet connection from anywhere in the world, so I might as well start making preparations.

If you have passive income generated in the USA, and Asia appeals, the standard of living will have no impact on you at all. The standard of living is only a concern if

1) You move to a country where the cost of living is much higher than the USA, eg: Russia, Western Europe
2) You intend to work a job in those countries.

If you had a measly $60 000 a year in Thailand or the Philippines, you could afford to live in a palace with an ocean view, eat out every day, have a house full of servants and not have a care in the world.

The standard of living is not a concern if you have a passive income generated in the USA simply because the purchasing power of the dollar is so high.

Its not THAT long a flight to the USA from the Phillipines or Thailand. Stop over in hong kong, 8 hours to LA. Its about 15 hours. If you doing it 4-5 times a year, its not going to kill you.

 

[Zunder]

What I find amazing is that Americans will go on and on about how fvcked up their country is, but will then say "it's still the best country in the world".
I will risk upsetting my DJ American Friends by saying UTTER BVLLSH!T.
May have been once - but no more.

For quality of life, in a first world country, you CAN NOT beat New Zealand, or Australia.
Chick wise -as mentioned previously - may not be as rosy as it once was down here.

 

[Colossus]

Well I was first going to say go somewhere where you cant access sosuave...

But I digress.


With the exception of Brazil, all of the places you listed would be terrible choices to transfer to coming from the US. Now I am not a world traveler, but I do have a lot of foreign friends and colleagues, so I can comment with some accuracy.

Several of the post-docs I work with are from the Eastern Block countries--Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, etc. While the women there are beautiful, as you know, these are not great places to 'settle-in' and make a good life. In many respects people are lucky just to survive there---to make ends meet and avoid violence and corruption---and having a 'life' is the main reason they come to the US.

As for Russia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam--those are no-brainers and I'm not even sure why you would suggest those places. Especially Russia...bad place for a westerner to live.

Now Brazil, on the other hand, I think any American man would like. If you stay out of the southern mega-cities like Sao Paulo and Rio, most of the people are very warm and welcoming. I would recommend Curitiba or Belo Horizonte, to name a few. The food is a-m-a-z-i-n-g (but you better like beef), and the women, well, are freaking gorgeous. Portuguese is also not an extremely difficult language to learn, and it is very pleasant to the ears, as opposed to Russian or Lithuanian. All in all Brazil is a great country, if you stay out of the southern coastal cities. Brazil is also very self-sufficient economically, so they dont have to deal with a lot of foreign influence.

I will say this, though: Brazilian culture is a very machismo culture and the men there are very different from westerners. They are aggressive with women and they like to fight, so keep that in mind if you go out to any clubs.

Other good places to consider are Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand.

 

[SXS]

Go to Brazil Str8up.

It seems one of the safest out of the choices but not just that I've heard the women are smoking hot there too.

If you go to Brazil be aware of crazy possessive chicks who might want to kick your female friends ass or chop your **** off out of pure jealousy.
But when it comes to looks if you are in the right place, I think there is no better place in the world.

 

[Colossus]

If you go to Brazil be aware of crazy possessive chicks who might want to kick your female friends ass or chop your **** off out of pure jealousy.
But when it comes to looks if you are in the right place, I think there is no better place in the world.

He is right, Brazilian chicks can be VERY jealous, as can the men. They are very affectionate but don't get caught f*cking around...

 

[Perseus]

Did you just suggest him go to England or Australia to take a break from American women? Seriously?

LOL Jitterbug you crack me up

 

[scrouds]

Str8up,

I'm going to go off on a tangent here and say that maybe the problem isn't that you live in the USA, maybe its that you live in a 3rd world country (FLORIDA). I can't wait to leave orlando and go back to civilization. Probably back to NY in my case.

Please reference this map... http://www.lukecole.com/Electoral Maps/Maps10.htm

Not all places in the US suck balls like this overgrown tourist trap. I really think that you're peering over the fence and seeing fields of green green grass. And I don't need to tell you how that could just be an illusion.

 

[Fallen]

Lol, 25 different posts make 25 different opinions.

Come on, O-Town isn't that bad. Although it's kind of a tourist trap, i always liked Church Street, especially the "blazing pianos" back in the day when i was living in St.Augustine.

I suggest you come to Nuremberg, Germany. That's where i'm from and if you look at a world map, you'll realize it is the centre of the world. Period!

However, i agree that our western metropolitan areas aren't "the places to be" in the future. In terms of business, lifestyle and culture. I read an interesting article in a news magazine about the "cities of the future". Not much of a surprise there were none of our western european or american cities mentioned.

Sao Paulo, Hong Kong, New Dehli, Kiev, Singapore just to name a few.

I absolutely agree regarding business and lifestyle. Women however are a completely different issue. Believe me, they are catching up on the "entitlement attitude" and everything else faster than you might think. Don't be so quick to jump the bandwagon there or you might end up disappointed.
Try to go global with your business activities, travel a lot, meet new people from all over the world and broaden your horizons. If business is going well, you'll be able to reach every destination worldwide within 36 hours. No need to burn bridges. At least not for now.

 

[STR8UP]

As far as food, beer, and culture goes I would LOVE to live in Germany. Just not quite as "untamed" as I would like. I spent a few days in Berlin and a couple in Munich during Oktoberfest and really enjoyed it there. I also like all of the people that I have met from that part of the world. Maybe more of a case for eastern Europe? Live on the cheap, hop a train when you want a little "civilization".

As for FL, there might be something to that. I haven't lived anywhere else my adult life.

I stopped in NYC a couple of months ago and visited a chick I hooked up with a few times when she lived here, and I was shocked to see that she and ALL of her friends were in relationships. I thought NYC was supposed to be the "city of singles"?

Spent a little time in south central PA recently as well and noticed a different vibe from women and people in general.

The thing is though that I would be doing this as much for the adventure as for a refreshing change in the attitude of women. I like to see different parts of the US, but at the end of the day we still haven't fully developed enough of a unique culture we can call our own, outside a few places I have already been to. I've only scratched the surface of Europe, never been to Asia (although with my new business there is a pretty good chance that I might be going to China in the next couple of years), and never been to South or Central America, aside from Mexico.

It's a big world out there. Maybe I should be thinking more along the lines of a year long vacation to start with. That would allow me to at least get a taste of where I might want to end up semi-permanently. Couple of months in South/Central America, couple of months in the Carribbean, a few in Eastern Europe, and then a few in Asia.

The wheels are turning, turning.....

 

[iqqi]

Why pick one. Just travel and "live" in each place for 6 months to a year, or however long the feeling fits you.

If you want to be free, then you should choose freely.

Your question should be "where first?"

 

[Perseus]

If you go to China, make sure to check out the "karaoke bars"!

I'm gonna go contrary to Danger and recommend against China. You thought USA was bad, wow... you're gonna hate China.

 

[Hooligan Harry]

I cannot stress enough that people need to differentiate between high standards of living and quality of life. They are not the same thing.

Firstly, the west provides a very high standard of living but it provides a low quality of life too at times. Im not comparing it to some third world **** pit in Africa in the middle of a raging war. Im talking about how subsistence farmers in Peru can actually be happier than the wage slave in the USA working 60 hour weeks to pay off the house he never sees. Believe me, you dont really need that flat screen TV.

Secondly, the standard of living for you, AS AN EXPAT, is through the roof in developing countries. If you are going to Bulgaria or Argentina to work then the standard of living becomes a concern. If you are going with a bank balance created in a western country with a strong currency your standard of living is higher in those countries then it would be in the USA.

People leave Mexico because unemployment is high and they have few rights as workers. If you are not working a job there, but living off a passive income like Str8up wants to, he will have a higher standard of living AND quality of life in Mexico then he will in the USA simply because his dollar buys more. And that is the case for most developing countries. The trick is to find a developing country that

1) Has a growing economy
2) Does not have a culture of violence or excessive rebellion
3) Is gradually moving away from religious fundamentalism.
4) Where the standard of living is improving for the people

AND meets the requirements you have as an individual.

Which pretty much means most of Eastern Europe, South America and a large part of Asia. There is a whole world out there fellas.

 

[Ballie]

Originally posted by Hooligan Harry
The trick is to find a developing country that

1) Has a growing economy
2) Does not have a culture of violence or excessive rebellion
3) Is gradually moving away from religious fundamentalism.
4) Where the standard of living is improving for the people

I know that HH comes from South Africa and I can understand the reasons why he left. However things are getting a lot lot better here and nearly all the above apply here. There is violence and crime here - but that is true all over the world, you only need to watch CNN to verify that.

I live in Durban - perfect summer weather with the best surf breaks around. Have a top floor apartment with a full sea view that I rent for about $600 per month close to the new soccer world cup staduim . The infrastructure is definitely a mixture of first and third world but you can live a very good life.

As for the women? You can have your choice from blonde blue eyed beach babes to jungle bunnies. Are they spoilt? Ja thanks to you yanks that entitlement culture has affected the english speaking women. I have an afrikaans gf and she treats me very well in every way.

I have travelled to USA, Mexico, Germany and Brazil - but SA is home to me and I will never leave

 

[steve38]

Why pick one. Just travel and "live" in each place for 6 months to a year, or however long the feeling fits you.

If you want to be free, then you should choose freely.

Your question should be "where first?"

Best advice yet! I'm in the same boat as you and have it narrowed down to about 5 countries (3 that I haven't visited yet). And I thought it was funny that you gave Costa Rica your "hott as fukk" rating but didn't give it to Brasil. Central valley in CR has the best weather in the world. But if hot weather is really a problem, you probably can cut your short list in half. Good luck!

 

[jophil28]

Have a top floor apartment with a full sea view that I rent for about $600 per month close to the new soccer world cup staduim .

The sea view sounds good, but living near a soccer stadium ? Jeez
Perhaps that is why your rent is so cheap. He he.

 

[synergy1]

Blunt to the point of rudeness is the best way to describe them. Its a good quality as much as it is a bad one. No one sh1t tests you like a Russian. The men are always going to see what they can get away with and the women are always sh1t testing you. If you cannot handle an American woman, you are not going to be able to handle a Russian one.

Semi frequently, folks believe that leaving the united states will result in finding women very different from here. Essentially we said the same thing in different ways. I don't have a problem with the few Russian women I met, but they are much much more blunt about financial issues than their American counterparts. I suppose this takes the guess work out of it.

I was just calling it like I see it. nothing more.

 

[Hooligan Harry]

Semi frequently, folks believe that leaving the united states will result in finding women very different from here. Essentially we said the same thing in different ways. I don't have a problem with the few Russian women I met, but they are much much more blunt about financial issues than their American counterparts. I suppose this takes the guess work out of it.

I was just calling it like I see it. nothing more.

The question is. Why is a womans outright expectation that you provide for her and her future family, which has been a traditional role for a man since we were living in caves, all of a sudden a quality we despise?

Their views are not ****ed up or warped. Ours are.

 

[iqqi]

^ Interesting. New thread!