Expat life in Asia on a modest income
Apr 27th 2023, 6:14 am
#1
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Expat life in Asia on a modest income
I've looked high and low thru BE for a similar thread, but haven't found even one - if I've missed out on something, please will someone out there guide me to it...
There was an English gentleman in the Philippines who wrote at great length here about his iffy relationship with a Filipina babydoll who, it seems, took him to the cleaners and vacuumed what he had in his pockets (and his bank accounts). As some will recall, he opted to stay put in the country and gamely put himself through all the predictable hoops and loops, but seemingly he bounced back and is now well into his second relationship with another Filipina. Well and good to him. Alas, he ceased posting after a disagreement with another BE member. We are all the sadder for this, as he wrote well, he was entertaining and at times self-deprecatingly humorous (I personally thought he was either courageous or blindly self-destructive, but that's me, cynical old thing that I am), and he spared us no details of how good and then how bad his situation was. Such candor is refreshing. We could do with more or it here.
Anyway, prior to the big epidemic stuff-up in 2020, when so many of us had to pull up stumps and decamp back to our dreary lives in our home countries, in my case for two years and four months before Our Glorious Leaders unlocked the doors to in-out travel in Australia (some unkind conspiracy theorists would have it that this move was move to kickstart the massive Australian immigration Ponzi scheme to let almost 500,000 new migrants into the already overloaded country, this year alone). Pre Covid, living (in my case only medium-term, for at most three or four months at a time) in several SE Asian countries was easy and not so expensive. I'm thinking Indonesia (my first choice), Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. India isn't in the southeast but it did offer many places where the cost of living was amazingly low, the locals were friendly to old expats, and life was good. Goa.
Now, I'm not so sure.
Pre-Covid expat living in Asia now seems rather a nice dream. I'm hoping it won't turn into a nightmare, post-Covid prices in places like Bali have shot up, and now there is news that Jakarta is considering a Tourist Tax, supposedly to put a stop to undesirable visitors to the country, but I rather suspect the reality is that it's seen as another fast money-grab. Again if I'm wrong on this, someone please feel free to set me right. But after 10+ years of living in and out of Indonesia, I have a good handle on the place, and I see it as a cash-grab.
I could put up so many questions here, but I will start off with a few, as ideas for (I hope) others in the same situation to treat as 'brain-joggers' for their posts.
My suggestions now.
Firstly and foremostly (yes, it's a real-world word!), are there still places in Asia where a (probably retired) expat on a medium or even a low income, say solely on the age pension, get by without living in a bamboo hut or under a palm tree?
Where are you living in Asia now, and how long have you been there?
How is the cost of living where you are? How does it compare with your home country (this last one is a no-brainer, obviously, but it will be interesting to make comparisons with some costs, like internet, phone, domestic travel).
What is your budget? Highest and lowest expenses?
Are you on a pension or self-funded? No need for $$ specifics here, I'm not prying into how much you are worth...
How are your dealings with the locals? The bureaucracy? Immigration and customs when you fly in and out?
What are the things you enjoy and like best about where you are?
What are your future plans for expat living in your preferred place?
And lastly, a can of worms (well, maybe) - what do you least like about where you are?
This one is entirely optional. If you have a 'closer' relationships with a local, how does it affect your life and your budget?
Okay. I reckon there could be a book in this, altho' whether or not it would be a bestseller is a big question mark. We can all have input in it, but sharing the royalties may be a big headache. Okay, in a dream world...
In my next post I'll write about why I decided to spend time in Indonesia after I retired in 2012, how I planned my first stay there, and how it has turned out. I'm in Surabaya (back to Australia soon for my six monthly catch-up-on-everything visit, mostly to do with health services as I'm in my 70s and no longer as spry as I was or the dashing expat sex symbol I long fancied myself as being, ha! to that). Likely there for two months, in time for winter in the Antipodes, good one! Then to Indonesia again, with maybe a longer stay in Malaysia for reasons I'll go into in a future post.
The tourist tax may put a big damper on my plans to stay there, but I'll wait for it to be announced before I decide.
More about my life in Asia as an expat on a medium income, In my next posts. Over to you now.
There was an English gentleman in the Philippines who wrote at great length here about his iffy relationship with a Filipina babydoll who, it seems, took him to the cleaners and vacuumed what he had in his pockets (and his bank accounts). As some will recall, he opted to stay put in the country and gamely put himself through all the predictable hoops and loops, but seemingly he bounced back and is now well into his second relationship with another Filipina. Well and good to him. Alas, he ceased posting after a disagreement with another BE member. We are all the sadder for this, as he wrote well, he was entertaining and at times self-deprecatingly humorous (I personally thought he was either courageous or blindly self-destructive, but that's me, cynical old thing that I am), and he spared us no details of how good and then how bad his situation was. Such candor is refreshing. We could do with more or it here.
Anyway, prior to the big epidemic stuff-up in 2020, when so many of us had to pull up stumps and decamp back to our dreary lives in our home countries, in my case for two years and four months before Our Glorious Leaders unlocked the doors to in-out travel in Australia (some unkind conspiracy theorists would have it that this move was move to kickstart the massive Australian immigration Ponzi scheme to let almost 500,000 new migrants into the already overloaded country, this year alone). Pre Covid, living (in my case only medium-term, for at most three or four months at a time) in several SE Asian countries was easy and not so expensive. I'm thinking Indonesia (my first choice), Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. India isn't in the southeast but it did offer many places where the cost of living was amazingly low, the locals were friendly to old expats, and life was good. Goa.
Now, I'm not so sure.
Pre-Covid expat living in Asia now seems rather a nice dream. I'm hoping it won't turn into a nightmare, post-Covid prices in places like Bali have shot up, and now there is news that Jakarta is considering a Tourist Tax, supposedly to put a stop to undesirable visitors to the country, but I rather suspect the reality is that it's seen as another fast money-grab. Again if I'm wrong on this, someone please feel free to set me right. But after 10+ years of living in and out of Indonesia, I have a good handle on the place, and I see it as a cash-grab.
I could put up so many questions here, but I will start off with a few, as ideas for (I hope) others in the same situation to treat as 'brain-joggers' for their posts.
My suggestions now.
Firstly and foremostly (yes, it's a real-world word!), are there still places in Asia where a (probably retired) expat on a medium or even a low income, say solely on the age pension, get by without living in a bamboo hut or under a palm tree?
Where are you living in Asia now, and how long have you been there?
How is the cost of living where you are? How does it compare with your home country (this last one is a no-brainer, obviously, but it will be interesting to make comparisons with some costs, like internet, phone, domestic travel).
What is your budget? Highest and lowest expenses?
Are you on a pension or self-funded? No need for $$ specifics here, I'm not prying into how much you are worth...
How are your dealings with the locals? The bureaucracy? Immigration and customs when you fly in and out?
What are the things you enjoy and like best about where you are?
What are your future plans for expat living in your preferred place?
And lastly, a can of worms (well, maybe) - what do you least like about where you are?
This one is entirely optional. If you have a 'closer' relationships with a local, how does it affect your life and your budget?
Okay. I reckon there could be a book in this, altho' whether or not it would be a bestseller is a big question mark. We can all have input in it, but sharing the royalties may be a big headache. Okay, in a dream world...
In my next post I'll write about why I decided to spend time in Indonesia after I retired in 2012, how I planned my first stay there, and how it has turned out. I'm in Surabaya (back to Australia soon for my six monthly catch-up-on-everything visit, mostly to do with health services as I'm in my 70s and no longer as spry as I was or the dashing expat sex symbol I long fancied myself as being, ha! to that). Likely there for two months, in time for winter in the Antipodes, good one! Then to Indonesia again, with maybe a longer stay in Malaysia for reasons I'll go into in a future post.
The tourist tax may put a big damper on my plans to stay there, but I'll wait for it to be announced before I decide.
More about my life in Asia as an expat on a medium income, In my next posts. Over to you now.
Last edited by scrubbedexpat143; Apr 27th 2023 at 6:17 am.
Apr 28th 2023, 1:45 am
#3
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Joined: Oct 2021
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Re: Expat life in Asia on a modest income
Many thanks for your suggestion, Jack.
However, I am one of those (there are many of us) 'odd ducks' who isn't on Facebook. I was for a brief time before I retired, but the flood of unintelligent yap yap I found there led me to closing my account with them, an episode in itself so difficult and frustrating as to be worthy of writing about.
Being somewhat old fashioned and preferring face to face contact, I make good use of Skype, which lets me have sensible discussions with my partner and close friends.
I also use a few other sites for contact with friends only. They all serve their purpose, but I see hanging out on them as wasted time.
My own investigations into all this have convinced me that I'm only one of many who prefer to un-Facebook ourselves. Maybe we are addicts in recovery. Not being on FB is no loss to us.
BE is as good a place as any for my thread. We have the 'expertise' here to ensure a lively and, I'm sure, informative discussion on those aspects of expat life that are entirely relevant to us. .
However, I am one of those (there are many of us) 'odd ducks' who isn't on Facebook. I was for a brief time before I retired, but the flood of unintelligent yap yap I found there led me to closing my account with them, an episode in itself so difficult and frustrating as to be worthy of writing about.
Being somewhat old fashioned and preferring face to face contact, I make good use of Skype, which lets me have sensible discussions with my partner and close friends.
I also use a few other sites for contact with friends only. They all serve their purpose, but I see hanging out on them as wasted time.
My own investigations into all this have convinced me that I'm only one of many who prefer to un-Facebook ourselves. Maybe we are addicts in recovery. Not being on FB is no loss to us.
BE is as good a place as any for my thread. We have the 'expertise' here to ensure a lively and, I'm sure, informative discussion on those aspects of expat life that are entirely relevant to us. .
Jun 9th 2023, 1:36 am
#4
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Joined: Jul 2004
Location: Victoria
Posts: 1,280
Re: Expat life in Asia on a modest income
We are all the sadder for this, as he wrote well, he was entertaining and at times self-deprecatingly humorous (I personally thought he was either courageous or blindly self-destructive, but that's me, cynical old thing that I am), and he spared us no details of how good and then how bad his situation was. Such candor is refreshing. We could do with more or it here. .
