August 10, 2025 • 46 mins
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In this episode of The Cost of Living Abroad Pod with Mike the ‪@thecodingtravelbug‬ we compare the best affordable places to live and retire early in SE Asia, including a full monthly budget breakdown of Pattaya Thailand and Da Nang Vietnam, and a discussion of the pros and cons of living in Vietnam vs Thailand, and why expats are leaving Thailand and moving to Vietnam.
Watch this interview on Youtube here
Episode chapters:
0:00 backstory and living in Tokyo Japan
5:00 Da Nang Vietnam cost of living in 2025
7:45 Cost of living in Vietnam vs Thailand (Half what it is in Thailand or less)
11:30 road trips and train travel in Vietnam
14:20 Laos Travel advice - Luang Prabang and Vientiane
16:00 When did you move to Thailand
20:00 How do you make money online?Â
21:30 How much money do you need to retire in Thailand?
22:15 Bangkok 2015, When I arrived in Thailand
24:00 Buying a condo in Bangkok vs Buying a Condo in Pattaya
28:00 Why expats are leaving Thailand for Vietnam
29:01 getting out of Thailand for a month and a day…
30:00 Da Nang if you need to focus and beach….
31:00 healthcare and aging in southeast asia
41:00 Where is best to retire in 2025? (Thailand vs Philippines vs Vietnam)
42:50 Da Nang Vietnam is definitely in my future
46:00 How to live on $300, but make $2000
Leave us a 5 star review — it helps more than you think.
In this episode of The Cost of Living Abroad Pod with Mike the ‪@thecodingtravelbug‬ we compare the best affordable places to live and retire early in SE Asia, including a full monthly budget breakdown of Pattaya Thailand and Da Nang Vietnam, and a discussion of the pros and cons of living in Vietnam vs Thailand, and why expats are leaving Thailand and moving to Vietnam.
Watch this interview on Youtube here
Episode chapters:
0:00 backstory and living in Tokyo Japan
5:00 Da Nang Vietnam cost of living in 2025
7:45 Cost of living in Vietnam vs Thailand (Half what it is in Thailand or less)
11:30 road trips and train travel in Vietnam
14:20 Laos Travel advice - Luang Prabang and Vientiane
16:00 When did you move to Thailand
20:00 How do you make money online?Â
21:30 How much money do you need to retire in Thailand?
22:15 Bangkok 2015, When I arrived in Thailand
24:00 Buying a condo in Bangkok vs Buying a Condo in Pattaya
28:00 Why expats are leaving Thailand for Vietnam
29:01 getting out of Thailand for a month and a day…
30:00 Da Nang if you need to focus and beach….
31:00 healthcare and aging in southeast asia
41:00 Where is best to retire in 2025? (Thailand vs Philippines vs Vietnam)
42:50 Da Nang Vietnam is definitely in my future
46:00 How to live on $300, but make $2000
Leave us a 5 star review — it helps more than you think.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Basically getting out of Dodge for six months in a day.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
That is the thing interesting.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
But now that I'm here Denang, is it if you're
doing anything where you need to focus a bit and
get some work done, you're not just into partying twenty
four to seven. You like the beach, but you also
like to have places to get away, and you like
relatively cheap places. I have yet to find a better
balance of everything than this city right here.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Anyway, I'm Evan and nice to finally meet you. Let's
just take right into it. What was the sort of
the moment that was like the tipping point or the
starting point for you? Like me? You're a Canadian, right,
So when did you set off on this journey?
Speaker 4 (00:39):
What made you leave home? So?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, probably started when I was like ten and my
parents took me back to England and I realized, you know,
I loved the castles and stuff as.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
A kid, but I love to travel.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
And after second year of university, I took my scholarship
money and I went to Europe and I hitchiked around Europe.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
So I was a digital knowan mad.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I guess before there was digital, just had paper maps
and lonely planet and So when I got back to
I went to school in Italy for a year, and
when I came back, I got you know, finished my degree,
and I moved to Japan. Travel has been in my
blood for a long long time. Japan was the first spot,
which is was in like the nineties, in the nineties,
(01:20):
I think it was nineteen ninety two. Yeah, a long
time ago.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
And an arrow and like culturally too, Japan is that
like it's zenith right, Like Japan is like the coolest,
most happening place sort of the.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Bubble had just burst a couple of years earner.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Okay, so what did you go to Japan for a
job for fun? All the above?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I got a job.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I landed a job basically a friend's dad was doing
business with a university in Japan and they said, you know,
there'd be a good connection. They got me a job
teaching English at a university in Japan.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, absolutely in that in that era, Like like you,
I started as like an analog nomad, and that's the
absolute goat. You teach English and you do it in person.
And if you can get a job before you land great,
If you can't, you show up sight unseen and start
asking around, right. It makes me think of like Dave's
e SL cafe.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh I know that guy. Yeah, I've had him a
few times.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, we used to see each other on the circle
on the on the LT circuit. Legendary super nice guy,
like the great guy.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, and yeah, that's a friend who doesn't know that's
like a one of the original sort of work abroad job.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Boards for English teachers.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
And he I mean, I'm sure he was like bootstrappedick
coding it himself, right.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, yeah, he html you had all the little.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
You know, a guy who was one of my favorite
YouTubers in Vietnam one it is still a guy named
Ninja teacher.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
I don't know if you've heard of him.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I have heard that name. I don't know why.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
He's in saigone now and he came here as an
English teacher.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
His name is Alex.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
He runs a TAFL program right and teaching this is
four language that you can either if you can take
it either online or in person.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Oh great.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
But I think of him also as like one of
the first sort of Western digital even though as an
in person business the first like digital nomads living in
d Nang posting about Nan I mean probably five years
ago now at least, right, which is like I would
come here on vacation in twenty nineteen, there was not
(03:21):
I mean Antung Walking tourist area was still under construction.
There was no sort of digital nomad XPAC community here.
Poh and yes, right, but in Danang City, Yeah, no,
it's all brand new.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
So you just mentioned about the community here being relatively new,
very new, Like how new is it sounds like a
start of a joke, Like no, it's I mean, it's
it's baby steps.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
I mean, it hardly exists, right.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I think that it's somehow I think that the XPAC
community or the idea of one Indi Nang is bigger
than the reality. Like there's very few Westerners living here
today right now.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I took a drive because I wanted to see, you know,
some other areas. I went over that big bridge that
like over the inlet, waited and I was going around
that area by that northern beach, thinking well, it must be.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Nice up there. It's a beach. It is there.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I didn't pass one other non Vietnamese person. I mean
it's our driving around.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I only live three kilometers from here, and when I
go the so story.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
I should frame this properly.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I see expats, they're Koreans and Taiwanese yea and sometimes Japanese.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Still, but statistically, the.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Ninety percent of the expats and foreigners in Vietnam are
still our Korean are Taiwanese their business owners. Yeah, we're
kind of getting ahead of yourself here, but that's the
same people who you know have no clue come at
me in the comments.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
So you can't retire the U can investments.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Well, ask the ninety thousand Koreans who are doing that
because they're here and it's happening and it's real, right, Yes,
I mean culturally like us in the literal sense coming
from Canada America. It's like two or three percent of
the league little expats in the country or Westerners sorry,
North Americans, European the European community like serials bigger. Yeah,
(05:07):
but and the number is tiny, it's it's I don't
even know if it's ten thousand. It's a tiny, tiny,
tiny number. Right, Yeah, this is it is nothing comparable
to Thailand, to the Philippines. It is a totally burgeoning,
brand new thing. I think that a lot of the
North American community that is here, including my friends.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Are v a Q too.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
There are people who are returning to explore their roots here, Canadians,
Americans who were born abroad, second generation, third generation and
are coming back to explore that.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I mean compared to say, Bangkok. I mean that the
digital nomad community that I've seen is very narrowly focused,
mostly around the Mean area, and for good reason, because
that's where all the infrastructure you need to do that
kind of thing is in the western amenities. Yeah, great food,
great breakfast, great food and very affordable.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Clearly it's been a while since you lived at home. Yeah,
so maybe.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Cost of living wasn't as much of a factor for
coming here. But what is your sort of typical day
and the life costs you in de Nang? What are
you spending breakfast, lunch, and dinner? And then I actually
write that stuff down.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I have a budget up.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I write everything down because I knew we're a meeting.
I actually added up thirty one days of general expenses.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Okay, so I broke it down last night.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Yeah, let's hear it.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
And I did it without any like my chat GPT
thing that's out for example, I didn't include anything that
is not like just day to day living.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Right, so, I know, like digital subscriptions, US operations, just
your basic like bottom of mass, loves hierarchy, the food
to close the house, the roof over your head.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And my coat. You know, I go to coworking most days.
That's two hundred and ten thousand. I included my electricity
which is one point five million, and my rent is
separate help just my rent is five hundred three bucks
for a two bedroom places.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Bout thirteen million, fourteen fourteen.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Million, yeah on the money, and my my total after
thirty one days was eight hundred and forty two dollars
of day to day like that's including drinks out, it's
including everything everything.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yeah, so you're all in here. Five hundred change, rent,
eight hundred change for everything. Total costs of living attack
on fifty bucks on either sides of under fourteen hundred
dollars basically.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, oh well, I guess if you have my scooter
which is in our one point five million and.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Sixty bucks, yeah, yeah, so yeah, say about fourteen.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Hundred Yeah, easily under fifteen hundred of the room.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah. And I'm not trying to like I.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I I'm not unlike the A lot of the particularly
younger entrepreneurs here that I've.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Met, they're really.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
You know, laser focused on starting some small business, so
they're more cost a way.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
And I'm you know, I'm you know, I'm older, and.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I just I have a job, you know, doing software development,
so I don't think too much about how much things cost.
And even with that, my cost of living here is
half of what it is in Thailand, like.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Half half, I.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Did.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
I was interviewing another creator, a guy him Josh on
the Move recently and we actually just we were like
debate in a fun way and a friendly debating it
because he's in Pouquette and obviously I'm here, and we
were going back and forth on our cost What I
was saying, Yeah, and Josh, joshucks is a fantastic cost
of living video from when he was into aang. It's
I think he's got like a half million views or
something now. Numeo cost of living calculator said Bouquette is
(08:44):
seventy two percent more expensive than here. Not which is
that's crowdsourced information. That's not me, it's not Josh. That
was our like our third party, and it's I.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Don't know, that's probably the same kind of thing where
you get these crowdsource things that say like New Jersey
is the most livable city in the world.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Or something that.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Right, So I would take that the greatest salt because
of all the places you could be getting expensive in Thailand,
Pouquette is number one.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
But do you think it's will be more or less
than you think it's more than double here seventy percent
is like, like, it's not you think it's low or high.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Oh it's low, it's low.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Oh it's way low.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Right, But Josh's think it is high, and I was like, no, no,
And people in the comments think it's high, and I'm like, no, no,
it's really not.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah, if you've spent any time Pouquette, which I have,
like I live down in Jumpcien Beach, you know that's
what my condo is. And that is a if you're
eating Western food, it's the cheapest place to eat Western
food because it just is. But it's more expensive to
eat high food. And but I you know, I eat
a home. I eat a lot of fruits and stuff
like that. I'm not out anywhere near as much as
(09:46):
I'm here. I eat out every day here, every day,
and still.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Just the cost of stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
It adds up so fast in Thailand now, and pouquette
is double whatever it is in the rest of Thailand.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
I love Bangkok. I've been going there long, way longer
than I've been coming to Vietnam. I went to Bangkok
first time twenty eleven when I was.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
In Australia two thousand and one.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
For me, yeah, so whatever, fifteen years, twenty five years.
I love the city. It's one of my favorite places
in the world.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Phenomenal places, the vibe of it, the feel it's so
much enter always feels like, yes, I'm in Southeast Asia,
this is it, this is what I dreamed of. It
has that, like you know, Paris, France kind of romance
for me at least, it really does.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Like but I first sat at night instead.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
All of it, the lights, the people, the food, the
smells at everything.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
But but I think it's it's undeniable.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
It's i mean, just twice as expensive as a sychon,
and I think can noois even cheaper than psychon, and
Danang is way cheaper than I.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Okay, that's a good question, because like I'm sure people
watching you know your your video, they don't have a
feeling for that, and neither do I. I've been to
Psygon but in two thousand and four, and i'd been
in a Hanoi of like seven years ago.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
I have no idea. So you're saying Danang is seriously cheaper.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Oh yeah, that was.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
My wife and I moved from Saigon to Danang. It was,
and we lived in an expensive part of Saigon, in
a wealthy suburb. But we were like, sure, we're gonna
work remote, we're gonna do things for ourself, Let's move
to Danang because it's forty percent cheaper, and one hundred
percent it is. It's like just instantly everything went down.
Our rent went down, our food costs went down, you know.
(11:23):
The only thing that sort of stayed relative the same
as childcare, especially in English language. Childcare is very expensive
everywhere I think in the world. Yeah, so, and that's fine.
But other than that, everything went down.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
The food. I guess.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
The transportation is the same too. You know, I own
a motorbike and it costs like twenty bucks I think
to put it on the train to get it up here.
And then gas is yeah, nothing, gases nothing. That's that's
actually a fun tip too for anyone coming, or you can.
I think a lot of people think they have to
get a scooter and drive the little country. You can
drive right on to a passenger train with your scooter
(11:58):
and then walk down to the car, so you can
anywhere anywhere. Not man, so you can on their pub
it's because it's just a part of it. You have
to I think when you buy your ticket, you have
to buy like with scooter ticket.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Man.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
But there's I did not know that there's like a
train car full of scooters. So you can, like right
in other words, you can do your driving around the north. Yeah,
take your bike on the train from Annoy down to Ninbin.
Do you're driving around Nimbin train down the DMZ right. Wow,
so you don't actually have to drive through thirteen hundred
kilometers or whatever the coast.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Wow, Like the world has just opened up for me
because actually I'm curious about this, Like I use a bike.
I got kind of rightfully. So in one of my videos,
I said, you know, you should get a bike when
you're looking for a place so you can see the area.
And someone says, like it's so dangerous to drive bikes
to Southeast Asia. It was a little bit like over
(12:48):
the top about it, like you know, Death Rays two thousand.
It's not that bad, but if you're not used to
driving a bike, you want to go slow a little bit.
But having said that, there's an ancient ruins Meisan or something.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
And is that drivable?
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Yeah, for sure, for sure?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
What what for you would be I've only got like
three weeks left.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Can you give me the two places that you would
go to, like on a weekend drive?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Have you driven anywhere outside of the Dan city one time?
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (13:21):
So the number one is to drive to the top
of the hill to high End Pass. Oh, okay, stunning
and that's doable. It's one of the fantastic Motorbay trip.
It's you can continue over the hill all the way.
There's a little valley and some quiet town there, and
then a couple hours farther.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
As a way.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Oh that's pretty far.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
That's a pretty long drive. That's it's a real sort
of road trip. But just the hop top of Highband
Pass is stunning.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And the other one would be you could drive.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
To mes On to the Ruins.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
It's a bit long, but you know, you can go
to queen Yon by train as I think seven hours
the trains aren't slow, but nice here and they're not
stunning first class.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, do you get the stuff?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah, what's the like Midnight Star Explorer across Canada.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
It's not that, but it's.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
It's it's also not that price either.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
It's also not like crowded the way they are in
India or parts of mainland.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Yeah, there's people. It's busy, but not not not too much.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, I like trains. I went from Luang Prabang beginning
of the year.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I was up in Luang Prabang and I just took
the train to Vangien and that's an hour and you're
going through the mountains without fear of going off the
edge of a cliff in a van.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
I really want to get to Laos. I have not
been yet.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
It is high, My lass is great.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
It is one of my all time favorite places. People
are lovely there.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Well okay, well tell me about that before we get
back to the Thailand Vietnam ding. Yeah, tell me what
your experiences alloos.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I admit that a lot of my bias is because
the first place I went to was Luang Prabang, which
is just it's right on the on a river, it's
it's historically preserved town and they have all kinds of rules.
I care not allowed to like honk your horn or anything.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
So it's truly peaceful.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
But Lootian food is a lot like Thaie food. So
there's all my favorites are there already, but even better. Okay,
they add lemon grass and stuff like that. It's it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
The people are again.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I can use high I can speak tie to people
there and they'll understand me. They're charming, they're just they're
not used to foreigners in the way that there's no
feeling that it's a it's jaded yet and it's not
super discovered. It's a very tourisme place, but it's not
yet discovered.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
It feels like.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Vung Viien is not very well developed, and you can
see it's it's backpacker roots.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
They're fairly easily.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
But even Venienn I was there for like a week
and just going to coffee shops.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
It's the people.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
The mountain scenery up in the north is who just
like stunning.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
It really is a beautiful place.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
And the beer you're a low yeah, you buy that
when you're in Laos. It's not the same it's brewed there.
It's phenomenally good. So yeah, I love Laos.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
When did you you said the first time you went
to Bankok was two thousand and one. You are or
were settled in John Tienne, So how did when did
you actually start living in Thailand long term? What's what's
your background of Thailand?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
As with many stories, back in about two thousand, when
the internet was finally arrived in Japan, there was a
website called U date dot com and I met a
Thai girl at that time because I was still pretty
young man, so I was, you know, not the old
guy that I am now. And she worked for a
(16:49):
Swedish telecommunications firm, so she was all over Southeast Asia, right,
and she said, why can just zip over to Japan?
And that led a year of this kind of relationship
with a lot of jealousy and all kinds of stuff
in there.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
But that's for an another video.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
But my very first trip to Bangkok because I went
after she came out to Tokyo.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I went to Bangkok and spent.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
A few weeks, and I had this idea because I
had no idea of Southeast Asia even though I'd been
living in Japan.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Than like a decade. I almost I had.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
No idea, so I thought everyone had like the Vietnamese
hats they had here, and there's like like you see
in the old Kung Fu movies, you know, more combat
with you know, smoke coming off of like you know,
food stands and stuff.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
And she picked me up in her audi.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Right because she was well wealthy, Yeah, she's a rich one.
Drove me over these highways, these raised highways in the
city that were way more modern and well developed than
even the Shutoko and Tokyo. There's that kind of loop
road that goes all over Tokyo. It's called the Shutoko,
and it was better than that. We go to her place,
(17:57):
which is downtown thirtieth floor, and I'm looking down and
I'm hearing I'm seeing like jungle stuff in the middle
of Bangkok. I'm hearing tropical bird sounds and thinking, how
have I not come to this place before? You know,
I was just hooked on Bangkok and I didn't see
all that dodgy stuff.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
You know, I mean because that was not you know,
because yeah, your introduction was not through Kawson Road. It
was a wealthy, upper middle class.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I just saw like normal high life.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
And you know, every time I went over there, we
would go to gol Smulia, we'd go up to chang Mai,
we would go to Huahin, and we.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Would see all these beautiful places.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
And I just loved the food. Yeah, so that got
me hooked, and I knew someday I got to leave Japan.
But also had I mean, a university job, You're only
working six months of the year, right, but you're getting
paid for twelve. So it takes an awful lot of
motivation to leave that. But I honestly didn't really like
(19:00):
living in Japan my last ten years.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
It was a lot of reasons.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
It just wears you down a bit, if to tell anecdotally,
like when I'm in Japan.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
So I used to write textbooks. Also, I've got five textbooks.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
That are still a revenue stream there you go, using
university still in Japan, and I wrote those with a publisher.
So I used to work a lot of extra hours.
I would go to the same Starbucks and the same
late night restaurant called Sizeia, which is like this Italian
restaurant chain.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
One everyone knew who I was.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
But do you think, especially at the restaurant, anyone would
say hey, Mike, how you doing. What they would do
is they would they wouldn't look in the eye, you know,
they'd say, you know, go chi mon. They give much
of that those you know, when you're when you're ready
or whatever, just a order. And I would think that's
very cold, like how is it that this is the thing.
And then when I was in Thailand my first time,
(19:58):
Patti her name was Patty and I were leaving a
parking lot and there was some poor guy directing traffic
in a brown thing in the middle of the sun,
you know, not making a lot, and we're now a
bmw at By.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
This point, she'd yeah, I leveled up.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
She'd bought another car, and I gave him.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
In Japan, they called the ashaka.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
It's like a small bow and he just smiled and
bowed back and I and.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
It was just this this.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Small thing of just like, okay, that's human interaction. And
I would go to Starbucks a year later and they go, Mike,
how are you? I got to move here. So in
twenty fifteen, I had turned fifty, I had my first
app in the in the app store.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
So I taught myself how to do app development back
up in two thousand and nine or something, I was
in a startup. I get pulled in by a buddy
of mine as the education guy because I have a
master's in education. Now that got me into the digital world.
I asked my buddy in America, what do we have
to do to learn how to code? Like, what does
(21:07):
it take? I want to learn how to make iPhone apps?
And he just started sending me links to books and
he said learn that. And then when I kind of
got that, he goes, all right, We talked about it.
He goes, okay, learn this. When I got that, and
then I got a full health check, I thought, okay,
let's pull the plug. And I was very worried because money,
What am I going to do? What if this doesn't work?
(21:29):
And my officemate, who secretly I think just wanted me
to leave because he probably it's from Manchester guy. He says,
it doesn't matter how much money you have now, you
don't have enough to make it till you know the
finish line. You will have to find work. But you
don't like living here and you absolutely love living in
(21:50):
Southeast Asia. So just if it's not going to be
this year, when is it going to be?
Speaker 4 (21:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Right, So I thought, okay, put in my note, moved
over to Thailand, and then got a just part. I
got basically consulting work from a Canadian company. Construction company,
built their their app they needed, and I got yeah
on at the bank.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
I got hired on at a bank in Bangkok.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I arrived in Thailand in twenty fifteen, and I was
in Bangkok for the first few years.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Basically took a couple of years where I didn't do much.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
You know, I wasn't like immediately trying to get work
doing coding. I was just I was making my own apps.
I don't want to be political. But when the first
Trump app and I actually made an app called elect Blue,
even though I'm not American, that helped people find their
local representatives.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
So I put that in the.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
App stop and I was in Meamar and I made
one that's like, lets you track how far you've done
with your finger, so like if you're walking around ruins
or something, you could just map the distance. I did
that over beers one night. Yeah my balcony. Fine.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
But then uh, yeah, I got this.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I got a job for a construction company in Canada
that needed an app done, and I moved down to
the beach and I was down there for a couple
of years, and then I got another job offer from
a kind of headhunter guy with accenture Thailand basically, and
I'm yeah. I worked on their iOS app from ground up.
I came in a month after they started and right
(23:23):
to the end.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
And yeah that's.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
And that led to buying in John Tien. So I
know tons of people are always curious about the rent
versus by the long term thing. What led to you
actually looking for a condo? How was the process?
Speaker 1 (23:43):
So when I was working at on the bank job
it was COVID. I got the job like a month
before COVID hit Thailand, so that was like perfect timing.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I was one of those lucky people.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I had a job, I was living right downtown, had
this nice big apartment down to Soy thirteen. And after
about a year and a half of that, we're all
starting to think like is this thing going to end?
And as you get older, you don't want to you know,
beaten dog food for the rest of your life, so
you think a little bit about I don't want to
(24:18):
be worried about rent for my whole life. So I
found a little one bedroom place out in Udom Soup,
which is about seven stops away from downtown.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Perfect mix area.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
It's got mostly ties like market, it's got proper time
markets and everything. But it's also got a guy, a
Canadian guy runs a bar there there you go, called z.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I can't remember what it's called now, but anyway, you
give me the connection, I'll try and go interview them.
Sometimes whenever you're back there, I'll come visit you an interview.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, he's from Alverta.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
I rent that place out now, but a couple of Filipinos.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
But yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
So I found a place in a condo that I
had rented like five years prior that I really like,
and I just went into the agent who I knew
and bought one. And it was one point five million bought,
which is about at that time, I guess forty five
thousand US yep I rent. I charge on a two
year contract nine thousand, so that's about twenty two hundred
(25:19):
and seventy bucks I guess.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Yeah, two and seventy a little under three hundred give
or take.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, which is cheaper than what people are charging there.
But it's just you know, better to have people in
your condo than not.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
So what did you find it a sticky situation? Was
it easy to do for you as a.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
The only downside is when you buy in Thailand you
have to show proof that you've brought the money from abroad.
So I had literally sent some money that I had
in my account here over back.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
To Japan and then just.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Oh interesting, yeah, the same day.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Just so a legality that you have to show that
you're wiring money, which is part of visas often right.
Was it was that tied to your visa process?
Speaker 2 (25:58):
No? No, no, it's completely separate.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
I just think I'm thinking of maybe like the Malaysia
sack on home and here, right, ambassador visas and stuff.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Yeah, that's what they want to see.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
They want to see you're bringing in X amount of
dollars and that's part of the approval process and then
can also be part of your buying process.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Which is fine, Yeah, which is fine.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Well mist over here is that people think, oh, it's insane,
I need one hundred and twenty thousand dollars hit the
investment of visa. Then you can use that money to
start your business. Yeah, that's not very much money to
start it, right, Like it's like, yeah, my Pepe. Even
people who try and ask me or figure out how
you can come and live here for nothing.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
No, that's it's not real life. Yeah, you can't live
anywhere for nothing.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Exactly, you need to make the first thing you need
to do is figure out your income streams. Yes, whether
it's a pension or a job. There's no such thing
as a free lunch. And what are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (26:42):
You either burning down your savings or you're working enough
to maintain even cares.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
And if you're burning down your savings, you shouldn't. I'm
in my opinion, you shouldn't come because then.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
It's just a clock. It's just a clock, right, totally, It's.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Just a clock counting down to zero, and it's going
to affect all your decisions.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
And yeah, after that, I just basically I wanted to
transition to another job. So I started working for an
American company, and I thought, why am I living in Bangkok?
Even though I love Bangkok, I also don't like living
there because it's the air is bad, and I don't
I'm not the you know, rooftop restaurant kind of guy anymore.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, so those days are gone for me.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
So I just I bought another one down in John Tien,
and that was two point six million sixty square meters.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
It's nice.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
It's a corner unit, all windows everywhere. But I'm right
across from a bar complex and they opened a heavy
metal live bar like two months after.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I moved in.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Oh god, so I.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Get that until the wee hours. Yeah, it's not good.
What are you gonna do?
Speaker 3 (27:47):
And so but John ten is still your your home,
your permanent base right now. So what brought you to
Da Nang? Why leave Thailand for Vietnam? Is it a
temporary thing, a scouting trip for you?
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Yeah? What are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
A bit of both.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
It's scouting because I'm always looking for that place where
I could use as an alternative, because you get I
get a bit bored of living in the same place
all the time. I typically do two or three months
a year away anyway, no matter what. But Thailand last
year started introducing some new potential laws. One was that
all money you bring into the country, they're gonna start
(28:24):
asking tax on.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
And you get a lot of people like in comment
sections in the in the you know trolls, a lot
of trolls. Well, if you could you know you should
pay your part and stuff like that. It's like, yeah,
but taxes are meant to give you something back, like
that's all points. Yeah, and yet none of that in
Thailand as a foreigner.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
But it got worse then.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
They were saying, well, we're going to start looking at
your whole world income and we're gonna do what America does,
which is, if you are a resident of Thailand, you're
going to be paying whatever, in my case be like
twenty five percent probably of everything I make to the government.
And if you are a resident, which is defined by
six months or more. And all my friends said, my
(29:07):
Canadian buddy who I trust for everything, he knows his stuff,
and he's like, don't worry about it won't happen. But
it's like, yeah, but if it does, I don't want
to deal with that. And I'd love to travel. So
this is my next three months. I've already done two
in the Philippines. I'll be in Japan in August for
a couple of weeks, and then I'll be over to
Europe for a month to visit the team. Basically getting
(29:28):
out of dodge for six months in a day. That
is the thing interesting. But now that I'm here. I
will say to anyone listening to this video that Denang
is it if you're doing anything where you need to
focus a bit and get some work done. You're not
just into partying twenty four to seven. You like the beach,
(29:51):
but you also like to have places to get away,
and you like relatively cheap places. I have yet to
find a better balance of everything than this city right here.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Like Joshua Move for example, he said he would recommend
De Nang for tourism because it's he's a bit a
younger guy, it's kind of boring or there's not so
much to do. And I'm like, I agree, But that's
exactly why I wanted to go there, right because I
have little kids, and I'm not looking for night right now,
I'm coming off of five awesome but hectic, dynamic, fast
(30:20):
pace in tense years, and it's like, on, yeah, we're
looking for the change of pace.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Right and this place really does that. Yes, But it's
a real city.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
There's an international airport, Riverside High cho there's all the businesses,
there's anything you need, right, there's there's real there's manufacturing
and stuff over there too, Right, there's real. It's mostly
tourism here, but there is manufacturing. There is industry in
the city. It's its own place. They're now merging all
the municipalities. We won't talk.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
What's your experience been with healthcare and medical Japan was great?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, of course, well that's not really Southeast Asia, Seastasia,
but still but you have to wait forever. Japan, even
though everything's free and it's it's not great. There's no
like informed consent or anything.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
You just go in.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
The doctor just downloads a bunch of stuff you did.
If you ask a question, they freak out. Yeah, but
that was another thing when I moved over to Thailand.
Even when I was visiting, I would do my health
checks in Thailand. Just the quality of healthcare and Thailand
is off the charts in terms of paying for it.
I normally pay just you know, out out of pocket,
(31:27):
but I do have insurance.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
It's changed. Started off being.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
BUPA, and then it was British, I think, and now
it's which you know, it's basically another company keeps buying
out these ones. But as you get older, if you're
an older person thinking of moving over to Southeast Asia,
it's it's good to know that the younger you get
into insurance, the better you can get kind of a deal.
(31:53):
And then you know, pit insurance people off each other,
which is what I do when they go to raise
my rate. I go to signa and I try and
get them to sweeten the pot. And then I go
back to these guys and say, well, I'm going to
get this, and they go, okay, hold on, I'll talk
to my boss. So I've managed to keep my things
fairly though I'm paying right now at sixty.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
I turned sixty in March, geesh.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
And.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
I'm paying seventy about seventy thousand something, so twenty one
hundred dollars US give or take a year. And that
is my emergency thing. That is if that is only
for two things, which is if my heart has a
problem or I have cancer. That is the reason I
(32:38):
got I keep that insurance because that will bankrupt you.
But other stuff, anything else, Even if I had an
accident on my bike, I wouldn't use my insurance because
I get ten percent back, and that's part of the deal,
right if you don't use it. But I know people
who live here. I won't mention any names because you
might watch it. He's in the Philippine. He proudly says
(33:01):
he doesn't. He's pushing seventy no insurance and never gets
checked up. It's like taking time on man, you need insurance.
I feel that you need insurance. But that's maybe the
Canadian way of looking at it, right, We're used to having.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
I mean, yeah, I'm a Safe Doing affiliate, you know,
like full disclosure. I sell Safe Doing Nomad insurance. I
think it's one hundred percent necessary for sure, and.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Especially for nomads because they're the ones driving around.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Of courts and people. Look.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
People will say, oh, you're not an expert. It's like, no,
I'm not an expert. I'm just sharing my own experience.
And my experience is safety wing until the point where
you set up domestically in Vietnam and then you get
bowed yet or any other look, or you can go
to HSBC or the same talking and you can compare
the different rates.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Yeah, while you're still a traveler nomad, you get safety
in and then you step up or move into a
permanent health life insurance combo that you can buy through
your bank, and it's just it's just it's it's a
no brainer.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
As far as I'm certain. It's absolutely no.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Oh, absolutely no brainer.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
The number of people I will see on especially on TikTok,
that's my main platform, right westerners in Thailand. I saw one.
It was it was a while back action now, it's
probably five years ago, but it's stuck in my brain.
He'd been out diving and he had just stubbed his
(34:22):
toe somehow or part of his foot on something and
he got sepsis.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
She's got blood poisoning. He's in a Thai hospital.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
He has no money, no insurance, and it's bills are
racking up, like you know, to the tune of whatever,
six seven hundred bucks a day. Was like, it's in
a good hospital for the for the first bit. And
he's like, I don't know what I'm going to do.
And it's like, well that's why now like Thailand, I
think they you have to have insurance.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Now I think to come in I'm not sure.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
But I think depends on Jesus.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah, they were.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
They were moving in that direction, and for good reasons,
because people mop out on bikes all the time, and
they hospitals for short term stuff. If you go to
a Western hospital or like any of the you know,
the Bangkok hospitals. You know, it's all through Thailand.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
They have those. They're expensive.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Now, they are not cheap anymore, right, They're way cheaper
than America, which is my pet peede. Every time someone says, well,
it's a lot cheaper than America, it's like, dude, everywhere
is cheaper than American healthcare. You can't use that outlier,
that idiotic system, which is the other side of that
with people saying. One guy wrote on my channel, like,
(35:31):
why are you comparing with the West? Like you're living
in Vietnam and living in Asia. It doesn't matter anymore.
It's like, yeah, but that's how people think, and especially
I'm the same as you.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Like everyone who watches my.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Stuff on the YouTube channel, they're all abroad, and for
them to make sense of it, they need to think, well,
this is how much I pay for rent here. That's
how much I'm going to pay for there. And that's
how they can figure out a strategy, which is again
what your videos always are aimed at. It seems I
got a question about that.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Actually, sure, it's how to plan, Yeah, it's how to
figure out how to plan to compare, and that's it, right.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
I watched a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Of your videos coming here, and to be honest, there's
not like a paid promo or nothing.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
To be honest.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
One of the reasons why Dnang really was like, Okay,
I'll go is because I saw.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Enough of your videos to go. Yeah, that's that's the
right place to me. I didn't take any course that
you have though, but you have courses.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Right if they're optional. Man, the free content's all free, right.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
But that's to help people I guess who are like
abroad figuring out a plan.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Is it's yeah, look, it's it's for the like the
most recent one set of membership where it's like everything
I've ever made, the guides, all the detailed stuff. It's
how to live in Southeast Asia. It's everything. Man, it's
like the addresses and phone numbers of every hospital in
southeastag It is like you download it, you have it
on your phone.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
It's all the information you need. Wow, it's basically and
I pay someone put those together. The guides.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
I mean I've act check them and everything, but like
I have a research assistant, a VA who does it
for me, and it's it's all the information you'd want
and it's in one place.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
And that's what I think of what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
I'm curating it, right, putting it all together in an
easy access place, and someone can pay me either a
monthly membership or an annual membership get access to all
that stuff. And then more recently, I made a sixty
minute Move to Vietnam course which is linked to my
channel description. And this, you know, is a promo. Go
go ahead and go ahead and buy it. You can
watch it right now. And what it basically is is
it's like an FAQ, Right, It's like the six to
(37:32):
eight eight modules, the six to eight questions answered in
three to five minutes in a direct, explicit way. For
someone who's coming here for the very first time, or
considering coming for the very first time and has no
idea what to do when they got off the plane. Yeah,
for someone like you who's lived in an Asia for
twenty years. Right, it's for someone who goes, what the
(37:53):
hell do I do with banks?
Speaker 4 (37:54):
When I get there?
Speaker 3 (37:55):
There it is right there, I tell you exactly how
you go and set up your first account, your digital account.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
It's for someone coming.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
What the hell do I do with hospitals? Well, these
are the five go to hospitals. This is where you
go into Nay, this is where you go in psychon this.
It's just that, right, It's just it's all out there.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
On the internet.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
You want to do it yourself for it, you want
it done for you. I've done it for you, right,
It's just that simple, like it's it is.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
But I think it's more than that, now that you've
told me. What it is is that when you go
on the internet these days, because anyone who's using Google
now knows that you are more you're getting results from
people who want to sell you something rather than someone
who just says, I've been here a long time. I'm
just you know, the stuff you're giving is not a
(38:36):
paid thing, right, You're doing it to the best of
your knowledges are five hospitals for example, or five whatever.
And actually, even though I've lived in this region all
my life, literally like all my adult life, when I
first came here, I have no idea what to do
about banks.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
I was having a lunch.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
With a Vietnamese American guy i'd met.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
At the high We just went and had some lunch at.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
The co working space and he's got a bank account.
I said, well, can I get one? He's like, yeah,
I'm not sure, I would work for you.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
That's exactly what it is. That's the exact answer that
it's provided.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
It's so if I could use that kind of information,
because I don't want to be having people who think
they know.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
And I think the move to Vietnam one.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
I swear to God, if you just do the thing
about the banks, it'll save fifty bucks. It pays for itself,
right and for me, obviously, I make it once and
then it's there forever, so I can charge whatever I
want for it, right, I can charge a low price
for it.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
And it's or like there's a couple, there's how to
find a house there? Right, and it has like websites
and things that you know you wouldn't know about unless
someone told you. And it's just that it's the frequently
asked questions that I'm sorry, I love you guys. I
when you ask a question, there is no time to
answer twenty thousand people's questions.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Right, Well, I mean TikTok, I get if I get it,
I happen to little views.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
On one of them.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
I've got thirty thousand comments, yea, and I as they
roll in, I'm kind of trying you, but I don't answer.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Any sixty Now you're probably entering the last quarter thirty
percent of your life.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
Yeah, knock on wood. Yeah, and what I hope so,
I hope you.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
I hope you got another twenty thirty forty years and
however many want.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Yeah, so waiting for that big scientific breakthrough.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
Yeah, what's is? What's the future in those years for you?
Is it Thailand?
Speaker 4 (40:22):
Is it Vietnam? Is in Southeast Asia?
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Do you think you're going to have to be Southeast Asia?
Mostly because in terms of cost of living, Yeah, you
could move to say Eastern Europe or places like that.
But even though I'm Canadian, I'm a giant starts with
a pee in rhymes.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
With WHISSI about cold.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
I don't like cold weather, and so I am, and
even Japan because they don't use insulation in most of Japan.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
So your house, hannoi is cold?
Speaker 4 (40:50):
Annoi gets cold?
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah? When I was up there, yeah it gets cold. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
You know you you walk home in Tokyo and it's
minus three, It's gonna be minus one in your house
when you get home, and they only heat one room.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Now that's not for me.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
But also when I moved to Japan, and I started
making more money than I'd made before. You know, I
was working at a university. The smart thing to do
it would have been to go back to Vancouver Island
and buy a house or something or put it down payment.
But instead I bought our money suits and you know
Salvatore fed I got my shoes and waterski you know,
(41:23):
water skis and all kinds of crap that I didn't
even ever use.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
I bought a dry seat.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I was constantly buying stuff that I didn't need because
I just I was stupid and young. It's twenty three
or something, and now I literally could not even with
making America well with I could move back now if
I kept this job until I basically crossed the finish line.
But I now that's not what I want to be doing.
(41:50):
So my plan is to set up shop in one
or two places and bounce around a bit.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Like this. Danang is definitely my future that I can
tell you.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Philippines would be, but it's gotten prohibitively expensive and annoying
trying to find places to live there. Philippines getting a
condo is just it's annoying to the to the max.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Now it's all agents and Airbnb and middle people stuff
like that.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
So it's either going to be here, maybe Laos for
a bit, but I still don't really checked Laos out.
There's long term Thailand one hundred percent for sure. Yeah,
that's that's where I'm heading. I love Thailand to you,
I think.
Speaker 4 (42:33):
For me.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
The other place in the mixes Malaysia. I really really
I love Qualumpour. I love Nang, the conservative religious aspects
about it. For me, I can't even be a positive
I love.
Speaker 4 (42:45):
I have kids.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Yeah, I don't mind at all my kids growing up
somewhere with regulation, with rules societies.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
It's twenty five dollars beers there.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
That got to me though, Eh, that's six bucks. I
can afford six bucks beers. Hey, another pointer. You can't
afford a six Get a second.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Job, man, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Yeah, I know you can find fifty cent beers here,
but yeah that ain't if you're you got any more
than fifty cent beers to bring you to Southeast Asia.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Well that's I mean.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
When you were talking about the difference in what people
are looking for in content in terms of younger digital
nomads and whatever, and when I was in Europe after
between my second and third year, I went Uh. So,
I was in England, but I went to Europe for
about two months of that and I hitchhiked around used
trains a bit, but I mostly was hitchhiking because I
(43:32):
had no money.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
And I literally slept on a beach and.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Nice because someone actually some American guy stole my money.
We were up on the leaning Tower Pisa, and and
he said, hey, y'all, watch your guys stuff because he
was he had.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
No money, he was desperate, you know, a subscriber mind.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Someone tried to steal his wallet and dirty fingers last weekend.
And it was two white guys, a team, two white
guys working together. So man, it is any anywhere there's
tourists in the world, there's these Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Like even back in Europe. It wasn't local as you
worried about. It was other travelers because people get.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
I had my passports stole then once in Poland, and
it was stolen by you know, I'm ninety nine percent
sure by the Spanish guy who was in the room
with me. Just logistically there wouldn't have been anyone else.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Yeah, no, no, But I mean in terms of content,
I was. I was living in Europe in a way
that I would never live now, you know what I mean.
So when people are looking at how much it costs,
for example, to live in Dnang for you know, a month,
there are people who will legitimately say, like they do
in Changmi. You know, I can live in Changmi for
(44:34):
three hundred dollars a month, And.
Speaker 4 (44:35):
You can can if you really want.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Yeah, and when when you're kind of younger and you
just want to be traveling, that's exactly where my mind
was at as well.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
But there's traveling and there's living.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
When I first got to Sigon, I would I had
my house and paid for and healthcare paid for. I
would live on four hundred dollars a month, but not
because I had four hundred dollars a month, because I
was saving money.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
Like, that's a different habit. We're not talking if.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
You only have three hundred dollars a month, do not
come here if you have two thousand dollars a month,
But you figure out a way to enjoy your life
on three.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
Hundred power too, exactly.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
That's a different situation, right, That's fantastic advice, that's it, right, Like,
and there's a good, a good clarification there, totally live
on three hundred bucks, live on five hundred bucks. Everything
you need in your life is at the beach and
the cafe and the cheap apartment. You can easily do that,
But it doesn't mean it's a good idea to come here.
If that's why you have, it's a bad idea to
come over here for lots of the other reasons.
Speaker 4 (45:31):
We've talked about right words to live.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
By right there, that is excellent advice.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
What's the question I didn't ask What should I have
asked you? What did you want to say that we
didn't get to? When we're going to meet for beers next?
Kidding A eleven fifty nine am all right, man, thank
you so much coming.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
On having fantastic talking to you abount like seeing all
your VIDs.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
This has been super helpful.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
Thanks, Like I said, and I'll say to everyone on
camera to I don't know when I am going to
set up some sort of monthly event in de day.
Yeah you should so when it happens, it'll be in
It'll be in the YouTube posts. I'll mention it again.
But I want to have a gathering and just start
the word else. Watching my most recent video is here,
the best videos here, and Mike's channel, The Coding travel
(46:24):
Bug nice is right here.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Nice
Basically getting out of Dodge for six months in a day.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
That is the thing interesting.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
But now that I'm here Denang, is it if you're
doing anything where you need to focus a bit and
get some work done, you're not just into partying twenty
four to seven. You like the beach, but you also
like to have places to get away, and you like
relatively cheap places. I have yet to find a better
balance of everything than this city right here.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Anyway, I'm Evan and nice to finally meet you. Let's
just take right into it. What was the sort of
the moment that was like the tipping point or the
starting point for you? Like me? You're a Canadian, right,
So when did you set off on this journey?
Speaker 4 (00:39):
What made you leave home? So?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, probably started when I was like ten and my
parents took me back to England and I realized, you know,
I loved the castles and stuff as.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
A kid, but I love to travel.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
And after second year of university, I took my scholarship
money and I went to Europe and I hitchiked around Europe.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
So I was a digital knowan mad.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I guess before there was digital, just had paper maps
and lonely planet and So when I got back to
I went to school in Italy for a year, and
when I came back, I got you know, finished my degree,
and I moved to Japan. Travel has been in my
blood for a long long time. Japan was the first spot,
which is was in like the nineties, in the nineties,
(01:20):
I think it was nineteen ninety two. Yeah, a long
time ago.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
And an arrow and like culturally too, Japan is that
like it's zenith right, Like Japan is like the coolest,
most happening place sort of the.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Bubble had just burst a couple of years earner.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Okay, so what did you go to Japan for a
job for fun? All the above?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I got a job.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I landed a job basically a friend's dad was doing
business with a university in Japan and they said, you know,
there'd be a good connection. They got me a job
teaching English at a university in Japan.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, absolutely in that in that era, Like like you,
I started as like an analog nomad, and that's the
absolute goat. You teach English and you do it in person.
And if you can get a job before you land great,
If you can't, you show up sight unseen and start
asking around, right. It makes me think of like Dave's
e SL cafe.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Oh I know that guy. Yeah, I've had him a
few times.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, we used to see each other on the circle
on the on the LT circuit. Legendary super nice guy,
like the great guy.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yeah, and yeah, that's a friend who doesn't know that's
like a one of the original sort of work abroad job.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Boards for English teachers.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
And he I mean, I'm sure he was like bootstrappedick
coding it himself, right.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Yeah, yeah, he html you had all the little.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
You know, a guy who was one of my favorite
YouTubers in Vietnam one it is still a guy named
Ninja teacher.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
I don't know if you've heard of him.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I have heard that name. I don't know why.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
He's in saigone now and he came here as an
English teacher.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
His name is Alex.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
He runs a TAFL program right and teaching this is
four language that you can either if you can take
it either online or in person.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Oh great.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
But I think of him also as like one of
the first sort of Western digital even though as an
in person business the first like digital nomads living in
d Nang posting about Nan I mean probably five years
ago now at least, right, which is like I would
come here on vacation in twenty nineteen, there was not
(03:21):
I mean Antung Walking tourist area was still under construction.
There was no sort of digital nomad XPAC community here.
Poh and yes, right, but in Danang City, Yeah, no,
it's all brand new.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
So you just mentioned about the community here being relatively new,
very new, Like how new is it sounds like a
start of a joke, Like no, it's I mean, it's
it's baby steps.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
I mean, it hardly exists, right.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I think that it's somehow I think that the XPAC
community or the idea of one Indi Nang is bigger
than the reality. Like there's very few Westerners living here
today right now.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I took a drive because I wanted to see, you know,
some other areas. I went over that big bridge that
like over the inlet, waited and I was going around
that area by that northern beach, thinking well, it must be.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Nice up there. It's a beach. It is there.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
I didn't pass one other non Vietnamese person. I mean
it's our driving around.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I only live three kilometers from here, and when I
go the so story.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
I should frame this properly.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
I see expats, they're Koreans and Taiwanese yea and sometimes Japanese.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
Still, but statistically, the.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Ninety percent of the expats and foreigners in Vietnam are
still our Korean are Taiwanese their business owners. Yeah, we're
kind of getting ahead of yourself here, but that's the
same people who you know have no clue come at
me in the comments.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
So you can't retire the U can investments.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Well, ask the ninety thousand Koreans who are doing that
because they're here and it's happening and it's real, right, Yes,
I mean culturally like us in the literal sense coming
from Canada America. It's like two or three percent of
the league little expats in the country or Westerners sorry,
North Americans, European the European community like serials bigger. Yeah,
(05:07):
but and the number is tiny, it's it's I don't
even know if it's ten thousand. It's a tiny, tiny,
tiny number. Right, Yeah, this is it is nothing comparable
to Thailand, to the Philippines. It is a totally burgeoning,
brand new thing. I think that a lot of the
North American community that is here, including my friends.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
Are v a Q too.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
There are people who are returning to explore their roots here, Canadians,
Americans who were born abroad, second generation, third generation and
are coming back to explore that.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I mean compared to say, Bangkok. I mean that the
digital nomad community that I've seen is very narrowly focused,
mostly around the Mean area, and for good reason, because
that's where all the infrastructure you need to do that
kind of thing is in the western amenities. Yeah, great food,
great breakfast, great food and very affordable.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Clearly it's been a while since you lived at home. Yeah,
so maybe.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Cost of living wasn't as much of a factor for
coming here. But what is your sort of typical day
and the life costs you in de Nang? What are
you spending breakfast, lunch, and dinner? And then I actually
write that stuff down.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I have a budget up.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I write everything down because I knew we're a meeting.
I actually added up thirty one days of general expenses.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Okay, so I broke it down last night.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Yeah, let's hear it.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
And I did it without any like my chat GPT
thing that's out for example, I didn't include anything that
is not like just day to day living.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Right, so, I know, like digital subscriptions, US operations, just
your basic like bottom of mass, loves hierarchy, the food
to close the house, the roof over your head.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And my coat. You know, I go to coworking most days.
That's two hundred and ten thousand. I included my electricity
which is one point five million, and my rent is
separate help just my rent is five hundred three bucks
for a two bedroom places.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
Bout thirteen million, fourteen fourteen.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Million, yeah on the money, and my my total after
thirty one days was eight hundred and forty two dollars
of day to day like that's including drinks out, it's
including everything everything.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yeah, so you're all in here. Five hundred change, rent,
eight hundred change for everything. Total costs of living attack
on fifty bucks on either sides of under fourteen hundred
dollars basically.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, oh well, I guess if you have my scooter
which is in our one point five million and.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Sixty bucks, yeah, yeah, so yeah, say about fourteen.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Hundred Yeah, easily under fifteen hundred of the room.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Yeah. And I'm not trying to like I.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I I'm not unlike the A lot of the particularly
younger entrepreneurs here that I've.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Met, they're really.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
You know, laser focused on starting some small business, so
they're more cost a way.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
And I'm you know, I'm you know, I'm older, and.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
I just I have a job, you know, doing software development,
so I don't think too much about how much things cost.
And even with that, my cost of living here is
half of what it is in Thailand, like.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Half half, I.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Did.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
I was interviewing another creator, a guy him Josh on
the Move recently and we actually just we were like
debate in a fun way and a friendly debating it
because he's in Pouquette and obviously I'm here, and we
were going back and forth on our cost What I
was saying, Yeah, and Josh, joshucks is a fantastic cost
of living video from when he was into aang. It's
I think he's got like a half million views or
something now. Numeo cost of living calculator said Bouquette is
(08:44):
seventy two percent more expensive than here. Not which is
that's crowdsourced information. That's not me, it's not Josh. That
was our like our third party, and it's I.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Don't know, that's probably the same kind of thing where
you get these crowdsource things that say like New Jersey
is the most livable city in the world.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Or something that.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Right, So I would take that the greatest salt because
of all the places you could be getting expensive in Thailand,
Pouquette is number one.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
But do you think it's will be more or less
than you think it's more than double here seventy percent
is like, like, it's not you think it's low or high.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Oh it's low, it's low.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Oh it's way low.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Right, But Josh's think it is high, and I was like, no, no,
And people in the comments think it's high, and I'm like, no, no,
it's really not.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah, if you've spent any time Pouquette, which I have,
like I live down in Jumpcien Beach, you know that's
what my condo is. And that is a if you're
eating Western food, it's the cheapest place to eat Western
food because it just is. But it's more expensive to
eat high food. And but I you know, I eat
a home. I eat a lot of fruits and stuff
like that. I'm not out anywhere near as much as
(09:46):
I'm here. I eat out every day here, every day,
and still.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Just the cost of stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
It adds up so fast in Thailand now, and pouquette
is double whatever it is in the rest of Thailand.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
I love Bangkok. I've been going there long, way longer
than I've been coming to Vietnam. I went to Bangkok
first time twenty eleven when I was.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
In Australia two thousand and one.
Speaker 4 (10:08):
For me, yeah, so whatever, fifteen years, twenty five years.
I love the city. It's one of my favorite places
in the world.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Phenomenal places, the vibe of it, the feel it's so
much enter always feels like, yes, I'm in Southeast Asia,
this is it, this is what I dreamed of. It
has that, like you know, Paris, France kind of romance
for me at least, it really does.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Like but I first sat at night instead.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
All of it, the lights, the people, the food, the
smells at everything.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
But but I think it's it's undeniable.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
It's i mean, just twice as expensive as a sychon,
and I think can noois even cheaper than psychon, and
Danang is way cheaper than I.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Okay, that's a good question, because like I'm sure people
watching you know your your video, they don't have a
feeling for that, and neither do I. I've been to
Psygon but in two thousand and four, and i'd been
in a Hanoi of like seven years ago.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
I have no idea. So you're saying Danang is seriously cheaper.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Oh yeah, that was.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
My wife and I moved from Saigon to Danang. It was,
and we lived in an expensive part of Saigon, in
a wealthy suburb. But we were like, sure, we're gonna
work remote, we're gonna do things for ourself, Let's move
to Danang because it's forty percent cheaper, and one hundred
percent it is. It's like just instantly everything went down.
Our rent went down, our food costs went down, you know.
(11:23):
The only thing that sort of stayed relative the same
as childcare, especially in English language. Childcare is very expensive
everywhere I think in the world. Yeah, so, and that's fine.
But other than that, everything went down.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
The food. I guess.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
The transportation is the same too. You know, I own
a motorbike and it costs like twenty bucks I think
to put it on the train to get it up here.
And then gas is yeah, nothing, gases nothing. That's that's
actually a fun tip too for anyone coming, or you can.
I think a lot of people think they have to
get a scooter and drive the little country. You can
drive right on to a passenger train with your scooter
(11:58):
and then walk down to the car, so you can
anywhere anywhere. Not man, so you can on their pub
it's because it's just a part of it. You have
to I think when you buy your ticket, you have
to buy like with scooter ticket.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Man.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
But there's I did not know that there's like a
train car full of scooters. So you can, like right
in other words, you can do your driving around the north. Yeah,
take your bike on the train from Annoy down to Ninbin.
Do you're driving around Nimbin train down the DMZ right. Wow,
so you don't actually have to drive through thirteen hundred
kilometers or whatever the coast.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Wow, Like the world has just opened up for me
because actually I'm curious about this, Like I use a bike.
I got kind of rightfully. So in one of my videos,
I said, you know, you should get a bike when
you're looking for a place so you can see the area.
And someone says, like it's so dangerous to drive bikes
to Southeast Asia. It was a little bit like over
(12:48):
the top about it, like you know, Death Rays two thousand.
It's not that bad, but if you're not used to
driving a bike, you want to go slow a little bit.
But having said that, there's an ancient ruins Meisan or something.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
And is that drivable?
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Yeah, for sure, for sure?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
What what for you would be I've only got like
three weeks left.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Can you give me the two places that you would
go to, like on a weekend drive?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Have you driven anywhere outside of the Dan city one time?
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (13:21):
So the number one is to drive to the top
of the hill to high End Pass. Oh, okay, stunning
and that's doable. It's one of the fantastic Motorbay trip.
It's you can continue over the hill all the way.
There's a little valley and some quiet town there, and
then a couple hours farther.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
As a way.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Oh that's pretty far.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
That's a pretty long drive. That's it's a real sort
of road trip. But just the hop top of Highband
Pass is stunning.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And the other one would be you could drive.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
To mes On to the Ruins.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
It's a bit long, but you know, you can go
to queen Yon by train as I think seven hours
the trains aren't slow, but nice here and they're not
stunning first class.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, do you get the stuff?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah, what's the like Midnight Star Explorer across Canada.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
It's not that, but it's.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
It's it's also not that price either.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
It's also not like crowded the way they are in
India or parts of mainland.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Yeah, there's people. It's busy, but not not not too much.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, I like trains. I went from Luang Prabang beginning
of the year.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
I was up in Luang Prabang and I just took
the train to Vangien and that's an hour and you're
going through the mountains without fear of going off the
edge of a cliff in a van.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
I really want to get to Laos. I have not
been yet.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
It is high, My lass is great.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
It is one of my all time favorite places. People
are lovely there.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Well okay, well tell me about that before we get
back to the Thailand Vietnam ding. Yeah, tell me what
your experiences alloos.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I admit that a lot of my bias is because
the first place I went to was Luang Prabang, which
is just it's right on the on a river, it's
it's historically preserved town and they have all kinds of rules.
I care not allowed to like honk your horn or anything.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
So it's truly peaceful.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
But Lootian food is a lot like Thaie food. So
there's all my favorites are there already, but even better. Okay,
they add lemon grass and stuff like that. It's it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
The people are again.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I can use high I can speak tie to people
there and they'll understand me. They're charming, they're just they're
not used to foreigners in the way that there's no
feeling that it's a it's jaded yet and it's not
super discovered. It's a very tourisme place, but it's not
yet discovered.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
It feels like.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Vung Viien is not very well developed, and you can
see it's it's backpacker roots.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
They're fairly easily.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
But even Venienn I was there for like a week
and just going to coffee shops.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
It's the people.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
The mountain scenery up in the north is who just
like stunning.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
It really is a beautiful place.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
And the beer you're a low yeah, you buy that
when you're in Laos. It's not the same it's brewed there.
It's phenomenally good. So yeah, I love Laos.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
When did you you said the first time you went
to Bankok was two thousand and one. You are or
were settled in John Tienne, So how did when did
you actually start living in Thailand long term? What's what's
your background of Thailand?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
As with many stories, back in about two thousand, when
the internet was finally arrived in Japan, there was a
website called U date dot com and I met a
Thai girl at that time because I was still pretty
young man, so I was, you know, not the old
guy that I am now. And she worked for a
(16:49):
Swedish telecommunications firm, so she was all over Southeast Asia, right,
and she said, why can just zip over to Japan?
And that led a year of this kind of relationship
with a lot of jealousy and all kinds of stuff
in there.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
But that's for an another video.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
But my very first trip to Bangkok because I went
after she came out to Tokyo.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I went to Bangkok and spent.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
A few weeks, and I had this idea because I
had no idea of Southeast Asia even though I'd been
living in Japan.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Than like a decade. I almost I had.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
No idea, so I thought everyone had like the Vietnamese
hats they had here, and there's like like you see
in the old Kung Fu movies, you know, more combat
with you know, smoke coming off of like you know,
food stands and stuff.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
And she picked me up in her audi.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Right because she was well wealthy, Yeah, she's a rich one.
Drove me over these highways, these raised highways in the
city that were way more modern and well developed than
even the Shutoko and Tokyo. There's that kind of loop
road that goes all over Tokyo. It's called the Shutoko,
and it was better than that. We go to her place,
(17:57):
which is downtown thirtieth floor, and I'm looking down and
I'm hearing I'm seeing like jungle stuff in the middle
of Bangkok. I'm hearing tropical bird sounds and thinking, how
have I not come to this place before? You know,
I was just hooked on Bangkok and I didn't see
all that dodgy stuff.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
You know, I mean because that was not you know,
because yeah, your introduction was not through Kawson Road. It
was a wealthy, upper middle class.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
I just saw like normal high life.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
And you know, every time I went over there, we
would go to gol Smulia, we'd go up to chang Mai,
we would go to Huahin, and we.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Would see all these beautiful places.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
And I just loved the food. Yeah, so that got
me hooked, and I knew someday I got to leave Japan.
But also had I mean, a university job, You're only
working six months of the year, right, but you're getting
paid for twelve. So it takes an awful lot of
motivation to leave that. But I honestly didn't really like
(19:00):
living in Japan my last ten years.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
It was a lot of reasons.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
It just wears you down a bit, if to tell anecdotally,
like when I'm in Japan.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
So I used to write textbooks. Also, I've got five textbooks.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
That are still a revenue stream there you go, using
university still in Japan, and I wrote those with a publisher.
So I used to work a lot of extra hours.
I would go to the same Starbucks and the same
late night restaurant called Sizeia, which is like this Italian
restaurant chain.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
One everyone knew who I was.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
But do you think, especially at the restaurant, anyone would
say hey, Mike, how you doing. What they would do
is they would they wouldn't look in the eye, you know,
they'd say, you know, go chi mon. They give much
of that those you know, when you're when you're ready
or whatever, just a order. And I would think that's
very cold, like how is it that this is the thing.
And then when I was in Thailand my first time,
(19:58):
Patti her name was Patty and I were leaving a
parking lot and there was some poor guy directing traffic
in a brown thing in the middle of the sun,
you know, not making a lot, and we're now a
bmw at By.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
This point, she'd yeah, I leveled up.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
She'd bought another car, and I gave him.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
In Japan, they called the ashaka.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
It's like a small bow and he just smiled and
bowed back and I and.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
It was just this this.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Small thing of just like, okay, that's human interaction. And
I would go to Starbucks a year later and they go, Mike,
how are you? I got to move here. So in
twenty fifteen, I had turned fifty, I had my first
app in the in the app store.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
So I taught myself how to do app development back
up in two thousand and nine or something, I was
in a startup. I get pulled in by a buddy
of mine as the education guy because I have a
master's in education. Now that got me into the digital world.
I asked my buddy in America, what do we have
to do to learn how to code? Like, what does
(21:07):
it take? I want to learn how to make iPhone apps?
And he just started sending me links to books and
he said learn that. And then when I kind of
got that, he goes, all right, We talked about it.
He goes, okay, learn this. When I got that, and
then I got a full health check, I thought, okay,
let's pull the plug. And I was very worried because money,
What am I going to do? What if this doesn't work?
(21:29):
And my officemate, who secretly I think just wanted me
to leave because he probably it's from Manchester guy. He says,
it doesn't matter how much money you have now, you
don't have enough to make it till you know the
finish line. You will have to find work. But you
don't like living here and you absolutely love living in
(21:50):
Southeast Asia. So just if it's not going to be
this year, when is it going to be?
Speaker 4 (21:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Right, So I thought, okay, put in my note, moved
over to Thailand, and then got a just part. I
got basically consulting work from a Canadian company. Construction company,
built their their app they needed, and I got yeah
on at the bank.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
I got hired on at a bank in Bangkok.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
I arrived in Thailand in twenty fifteen, and I was
in Bangkok for the first few years.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Basically took a couple of years where I didn't do much.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
You know, I wasn't like immediately trying to get work
doing coding. I was just I was making my own apps.
I don't want to be political. But when the first
Trump app and I actually made an app called elect Blue,
even though I'm not American, that helped people find their
local representatives.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
So I put that in the.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
App stop and I was in Meamar and I made
one that's like, lets you track how far you've done
with your finger, so like if you're walking around ruins
or something, you could just map the distance. I did
that over beers one night. Yeah my balcony. Fine.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
But then uh, yeah, I got this.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I got a job for a construction company in Canada
that needed an app done, and I moved down to
the beach and I was down there for a couple
of years, and then I got another job offer from
a kind of headhunter guy with accenture Thailand basically, and
I'm yeah. I worked on their iOS app from ground up.
I came in a month after they started and right
(23:23):
to the end.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
And yeah that's.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
And that led to buying in John Tien. So I
know tons of people are always curious about the rent
versus by the long term thing. What led to you
actually looking for a condo? How was the process?
Speaker 1 (23:43):
So when I was working at on the bank job
it was COVID. I got the job like a month
before COVID hit Thailand, so that was like perfect timing.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I was one of those lucky people.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I had a job, I was living right downtown, had
this nice big apartment down to Soy thirteen. And after
about a year and a half of that, we're all
starting to think like is this thing going to end?
And as you get older, you don't want to you know,
beaten dog food for the rest of your life, so
you think a little bit about I don't want to
(24:18):
be worried about rent for my whole life. So I
found a little one bedroom place out in Udom Soup,
which is about seven stops away from downtown.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Perfect mix area.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
It's got mostly ties like market, it's got proper time
markets and everything. But it's also got a guy, a
Canadian guy runs a bar there there you go, called z.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I can't remember what it's called now, but anyway, you
give me the connection, I'll try and go interview them.
Sometimes whenever you're back there, I'll come visit you an interview.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, he's from Alverta.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
I rent that place out now, but a couple of Filipinos.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
But yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
So I found a place in a condo that I
had rented like five years prior that I really like,
and I just went into the agent who I knew
and bought one. And it was one point five million bought,
which is about at that time, I guess forty five
thousand US yep I rent. I charge on a two
year contract nine thousand, so that's about twenty two hundred
(25:19):
and seventy bucks I guess.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Yeah, two and seventy a little under three hundred give
or take.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, which is cheaper than what people are charging there.
But it's just you know, better to have people in
your condo than not.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
So what did you find it a sticky situation? Was
it easy to do for you as a.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
The only downside is when you buy in Thailand you
have to show proof that you've brought the money from abroad.
So I had literally sent some money that I had
in my account here over back.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
To Japan and then just.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Oh interesting, yeah, the same day.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Just so a legality that you have to show that
you're wiring money, which is part of visas often right.
Was it was that tied to your visa process?
Speaker 2 (25:58):
No? No, no, it's completely separate.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
I just think I'm thinking of maybe like the Malaysia
sack on home and here, right, ambassador visas and stuff.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
Yeah, that's what they want to see.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
They want to see you're bringing in X amount of
dollars and that's part of the approval process and then
can also be part of your buying process.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Which is fine, Yeah, which is fine.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Well mist over here is that people think, oh, it's insane,
I need one hundred and twenty thousand dollars hit the
investment of visa. Then you can use that money to
start your business. Yeah, that's not very much money to
start it, right, Like it's like, yeah, my Pepe. Even
people who try and ask me or figure out how
you can come and live here for nothing.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
No, that's it's not real life. Yeah, you can't live
anywhere for nothing.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Exactly, you need to make the first thing you need
to do is figure out your income streams. Yes, whether
it's a pension or a job. There's no such thing
as a free lunch. And what are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (26:42):
You either burning down your savings or you're working enough
to maintain even cares.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
And if you're burning down your savings, you shouldn't. I'm
in my opinion, you shouldn't come because then.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
It's just a clock. It's just a clock, right, totally, It's.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Just a clock counting down to zero, and it's going
to affect all your decisions.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
And yeah, after that, I just basically I wanted to
transition to another job. So I started working for an
American company, and I thought, why am I living in Bangkok?
Even though I love Bangkok, I also don't like living
there because it's the air is bad, and I don't
I'm not the you know, rooftop restaurant kind of guy anymore.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, so those days are gone for me.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
So I just I bought another one down in John Tien,
and that was two point six million sixty square meters.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
It's nice.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
It's a corner unit, all windows everywhere. But I'm right
across from a bar complex and they opened a heavy
metal live bar like two months after.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I moved in.
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Oh god, so I.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Get that until the wee hours. Yeah, it's not good.
What are you gonna do?
Speaker 3 (27:47):
And so but John ten is still your your home,
your permanent base right now. So what brought you to
Da Nang? Why leave Thailand for Vietnam? Is it a
temporary thing, a scouting trip for you?
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Yeah? What are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
A bit of both.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
It's scouting because I'm always looking for that place where
I could use as an alternative, because you get I
get a bit bored of living in the same place
all the time. I typically do two or three months
a year away anyway, no matter what. But Thailand last
year started introducing some new potential laws. One was that
all money you bring into the country, they're gonna start
(28:24):
asking tax on.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
And you get a lot of people like in comment
sections in the in the you know trolls, a lot
of trolls. Well, if you could you know you should
pay your part and stuff like that. It's like, yeah,
but taxes are meant to give you something back, like
that's all points. Yeah, and yet none of that in
Thailand as a foreigner.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
But it got worse then.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
They were saying, well, we're going to start looking at
your whole world income and we're gonna do what America does,
which is, if you are a resident of Thailand, you're
going to be paying whatever, in my case be like
twenty five percent probably of everything I make to the government.
And if you are a resident, which is defined by
six months or more. And all my friends said, my
(29:07):
Canadian buddy who I trust for everything, he knows his stuff,
and he's like, don't worry about it won't happen. But
it's like, yeah, but if it does, I don't want
to deal with that. And I'd love to travel. So
this is my next three months. I've already done two
in the Philippines. I'll be in Japan in August for
a couple of weeks, and then I'll be over to
Europe for a month to visit the team. Basically getting
(29:28):
out of dodge for six months in a day. That
is the thing interesting. But now that I'm here. I
will say to anyone listening to this video that Denang
is it if you're doing anything where you need to
focus a bit and get some work done. You're not
just into partying twenty four to seven. You like the beach,
(29:51):
but you also like to have places to get away,
and you like relatively cheap places. I have yet to
find a better balance of everything than this city right here.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Like Joshua Move for example, he said he would recommend
De Nang for tourism because it's he's a bit a
younger guy, it's kind of boring or there's not so
much to do. And I'm like, I agree, But that's
exactly why I wanted to go there, right because I
have little kids, and I'm not looking for night right now,
I'm coming off of five awesome but hectic, dynamic, fast
(30:20):
pace in tense years, and it's like, on, yeah, we're
looking for the change of pace.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Right and this place really does that. Yes, But it's
a real city.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
There's an international airport, Riverside High cho there's all the businesses,
there's anything you need, right, there's there's real there's manufacturing
and stuff over there too, Right, there's real. It's mostly
tourism here, but there is manufacturing. There is industry in
the city. It's its own place. They're now merging all
the municipalities. We won't talk.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
What's your experience been with healthcare and medical Japan was great?
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, of course, well that's not really Southeast Asia, Seastasia,
but still but you have to wait forever. Japan, even
though everything's free and it's it's not great. There's no
like informed consent or anything.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
You just go in.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
The doctor just downloads a bunch of stuff you did.
If you ask a question, they freak out. Yeah, but
that was another thing when I moved over to Thailand.
Even when I was visiting, I would do my health
checks in Thailand. Just the quality of healthcare and Thailand
is off the charts in terms of paying for it.
I normally pay just you know, out out of pocket,
(31:27):
but I do have insurance.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
It's changed. Started off being.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
BUPA, and then it was British, I think, and now
it's which you know, it's basically another company keeps buying
out these ones. But as you get older, if you're
an older person thinking of moving over to Southeast Asia,
it's it's good to know that the younger you get
into insurance, the better you can get kind of a deal.
(31:53):
And then you know, pit insurance people off each other,
which is what I do when they go to raise
my rate. I go to signa and I try and
get them to sweeten the pot. And then I go
back to these guys and say, well, I'm going to
get this, and they go, okay, hold on, I'll talk
to my boss. So I've managed to keep my things
fairly though I'm paying right now at sixty.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
I turned sixty in March, geesh.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
And.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
I'm paying seventy about seventy thousand something, so twenty one
hundred dollars US give or take a year. And that
is my emergency thing. That is if that is only
for two things, which is if my heart has a
problem or I have cancer. That is the reason I
(32:38):
got I keep that insurance because that will bankrupt you.
But other stuff, anything else, Even if I had an
accident on my bike, I wouldn't use my insurance because
I get ten percent back, and that's part of the deal,
right if you don't use it. But I know people
who live here. I won't mention any names because you
might watch it. He's in the Philippine. He proudly says
(33:01):
he doesn't. He's pushing seventy no insurance and never gets
checked up. It's like taking time on man, you need insurance.
I feel that you need insurance. But that's maybe the
Canadian way of looking at it, right, We're used to having.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
I mean, yeah, I'm a Safe Doing affiliate, you know,
like full disclosure. I sell Safe Doing Nomad insurance. I
think it's one hundred percent necessary for sure, and.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Especially for nomads because they're the ones driving around.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
Of courts and people. Look.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
People will say, oh, you're not an expert. It's like, no,
I'm not an expert. I'm just sharing my own experience.
And my experience is safety wing until the point where
you set up domestically in Vietnam and then you get
bowed yet or any other look, or you can go
to HSBC or the same talking and you can compare
the different rates.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
Yeah, while you're still a traveler nomad, you get safety
in and then you step up or move into a
permanent health life insurance combo that you can buy through
your bank, and it's just it's just it's it's a
no brainer.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
As far as I'm certain. It's absolutely no.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Oh, absolutely no brainer.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
The number of people I will see on especially on TikTok,
that's my main platform, right westerners in Thailand. I saw one.
It was it was a while back action now, it's
probably five years ago, but it's stuck in my brain.
He'd been out diving and he had just stubbed his
(34:22):
toe somehow or part of his foot on something and
he got sepsis.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
She's got blood poisoning. He's in a Thai hospital.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
He has no money, no insurance, and it's bills are
racking up, like you know, to the tune of whatever,
six seven hundred bucks a day. Was like, it's in
a good hospital for the for the first bit. And
he's like, I don't know what I'm going to do.
And it's like, well that's why now like Thailand, I
think they you have to have insurance.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Now I think to come in I'm not sure.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
But I think depends on Jesus.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah, they were.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
They were moving in that direction, and for good reasons,
because people mop out on bikes all the time, and
they hospitals for short term stuff. If you go to
a Western hospital or like any of the you know,
the Bangkok hospitals. You know, it's all through Thailand.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
They have those. They're expensive.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Now, they are not cheap anymore, right, They're way cheaper
than America, which is my pet peede. Every time someone says, well,
it's a lot cheaper than America, it's like, dude, everywhere
is cheaper than American healthcare. You can't use that outlier,
that idiotic system, which is the other side of that
with people saying. One guy wrote on my channel, like,
(35:31):
why are you comparing with the West? Like you're living
in Vietnam and living in Asia. It doesn't matter anymore.
It's like, yeah, but that's how people think, and especially
I'm the same as you.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Like everyone who watches my.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Stuff on the YouTube channel, they're all abroad, and for
them to make sense of it, they need to think, well,
this is how much I pay for rent here. That's
how much I'm going to pay for there. And that's
how they can figure out a strategy, which is again
what your videos always are aimed at. It seems I
got a question about that.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
Actually, sure, it's how to plan, Yeah, it's how to
figure out how to plan to compare, and that's it, right.
Speaker 2 (36:05):
I watched a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Of your videos coming here, and to be honest, there's
not like a paid promo or nothing.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
To be honest.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
One of the reasons why Dnang really was like, Okay,
I'll go is because I saw.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Enough of your videos to go. Yeah, that's that's the
right place to me. I didn't take any course that
you have though, but you have courses.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
Right if they're optional. Man, the free content's all free, right.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
But that's to help people I guess who are like
abroad figuring out a plan.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Is it's yeah, look, it's it's for the like the
most recent one set of membership where it's like everything
I've ever made, the guides, all the detailed stuff. It's
how to live in Southeast Asia. It's everything. Man, it's
like the addresses and phone numbers of every hospital in
southeastag It is like you download it, you have it
on your phone.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
It's all the information you need. Wow, it's basically and
I pay someone put those together. The guides.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
I mean I've act check them and everything, but like
I have a research assistant, a VA who does it
for me, and it's it's all the information you'd want
and it's in one place.
Speaker 4 (37:08):
And that's what I think of what I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
I'm curating it, right, putting it all together in an
easy access place, and someone can pay me either a
monthly membership or an annual membership get access to all
that stuff. And then more recently, I made a sixty
minute Move to Vietnam course which is linked to my
channel description. And this, you know, is a promo. Go
go ahead and go ahead and buy it. You can
watch it right now. And what it basically is is
it's like an FAQ, Right, It's like the six to
(37:32):
eight eight modules, the six to eight questions answered in
three to five minutes in a direct, explicit way. For
someone who's coming here for the very first time, or
considering coming for the very first time and has no
idea what to do when they got off the plane. Yeah,
for someone like you who's lived in an Asia for
twenty years. Right, it's for someone who goes, what the
(37:53):
hell do I do with banks?
Speaker 4 (37:54):
When I get there?
Speaker 3 (37:55):
There it is right there, I tell you exactly how
you go and set up your first account, your digital account.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
It's for someone coming.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
What the hell do I do with hospitals? Well, these
are the five go to hospitals. This is where you
go into Nay, this is where you go in psychon this.
It's just that, right, It's just it's all out there.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
On the internet.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
You want to do it yourself for it, you want
it done for you. I've done it for you, right,
It's just that simple, like it's it is.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
But I think it's more than that, now that you've
told me. What it is is that when you go
on the internet these days, because anyone who's using Google
now knows that you are more you're getting results from
people who want to sell you something rather than someone
who just says, I've been here a long time. I'm
just you know, the stuff you're giving is not a
(38:36):
paid thing, right, You're doing it to the best of
your knowledges are five hospitals for example, or five whatever.
And actually, even though I've lived in this region all
my life, literally like all my adult life, when I
first came here, I have no idea what to do
about banks.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
I was having a lunch.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
With a Vietnamese American guy i'd met.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
At the high We just went and had some lunch at.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
The co working space and he's got a bank account.
I said, well, can I get one? He's like, yeah,
I'm not sure, I would work for you.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
That's exactly what it is. That's the exact answer that
it's provided.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
It's so if I could use that kind of information,
because I don't want to be having people who think
they know.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
And I think the move to Vietnam one.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
I swear to God, if you just do the thing
about the banks, it'll save fifty bucks. It pays for itself,
right and for me, obviously, I make it once and
then it's there forever, so I can charge whatever I
want for it, right, I can charge a low price
for it.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
And it's or like there's a couple, there's how to
find a house there? Right, and it has like websites
and things that you know you wouldn't know about unless
someone told you. And it's just that it's the frequently
asked questions that I'm sorry, I love you guys. I
when you ask a question, there is no time to
answer twenty thousand people's questions.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Right, Well, I mean TikTok, I get if I get it,
I happen to little views.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
On one of them.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
I've got thirty thousand comments, yea, and I as they
roll in, I'm kind of trying you, but I don't answer.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Any sixty Now you're probably entering the last quarter thirty
percent of your life.
Speaker 4 (40:08):
Yeah, knock on wood. Yeah, and what I hope so,
I hope you.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
I hope you got another twenty thirty forty years and
however many want.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Yeah, so waiting for that big scientific breakthrough.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
Yeah, what's is? What's the future in those years for you?
Is it Thailand?
Speaker 4 (40:22):
Is it Vietnam? Is in Southeast Asia?
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Do you think you're going to have to be Southeast Asia?
Mostly because in terms of cost of living, Yeah, you
could move to say Eastern Europe or places like that.
But even though I'm Canadian, I'm a giant starts with
a pee in rhymes.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
With WHISSI about cold.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
I don't like cold weather, and so I am, and
even Japan because they don't use insulation in most of Japan.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
So your house, hannoi is cold?
Speaker 4 (40:50):
Annoi gets cold?
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah? When I was up there, yeah it gets cold. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
You know you you walk home in Tokyo and it's
minus three, It's gonna be minus one in your house
when you get home, and they only heat one room.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Now that's not for me.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
But also when I moved to Japan, and I started
making more money than I'd made before. You know, I
was working at a university. The smart thing to do
it would have been to go back to Vancouver Island
and buy a house or something or put it down payment.
But instead I bought our money suits and you know
Salvatore fed I got my shoes and waterski you know,
(41:23):
water skis and all kinds of crap that I didn't
even ever use.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
I bought a dry seat.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
I was constantly buying stuff that I didn't need because
I just I was stupid and young. It's twenty three
or something, and now I literally could not even with
making America well with I could move back now if
I kept this job until I basically crossed the finish line.
But I now that's not what I want to be doing.
(41:50):
So my plan is to set up shop in one
or two places and bounce around a bit.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Like this. Danang is definitely my future that I can
tell you.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
Philippines would be, but it's gotten prohibitively expensive and annoying
trying to find places to live there. Philippines getting a
condo is just it's annoying to the to the max.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Now it's all agents and Airbnb and middle people stuff
like that.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
So it's either going to be here, maybe Laos for
a bit, but I still don't really checked Laos out.
There's long term Thailand one hundred percent for sure. Yeah,
that's that's where I'm heading. I love Thailand to you,
I think.
Speaker 4 (42:33):
For me.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
The other place in the mixes Malaysia. I really really
I love Qualumpour. I love Nang, the conservative religious aspects
about it. For me, I can't even be a positive
I love.
Speaker 4 (42:45):
I have kids.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Yeah, I don't mind at all my kids growing up
somewhere with regulation, with rules societies.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
It's twenty five dollars beers there.
Speaker 4 (42:53):
That got to me though, Eh, that's six bucks. I
can afford six bucks beers. Hey, another pointer. You can't
afford a six Get a second.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Job, man, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Yeah, I know you can find fifty cent beers here,
but yeah that ain't if you're you got any more
than fifty cent beers to bring you to Southeast Asia.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Well that's I mean.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
When you were talking about the difference in what people
are looking for in content in terms of younger digital
nomads and whatever, and when I was in Europe after
between my second and third year, I went Uh. So,
I was in England, but I went to Europe for
about two months of that and I hitchhiked around used
trains a bit, but I mostly was hitchhiking because I
(43:32):
had no money.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
And I literally slept on a beach and.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Nice because someone actually some American guy stole my money.
We were up on the leaning Tower Pisa, and and
he said, hey, y'all, watch your guys stuff because he
was he had.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
No money, he was desperate, you know, a subscriber mind.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Someone tried to steal his wallet and dirty fingers last weekend.
And it was two white guys, a team, two white
guys working together. So man, it is any anywhere there's
tourists in the world, there's these Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Like even back in Europe. It wasn't local as you
worried about. It was other travelers because people get.
Speaker 3 (44:04):
I had my passports stole then once in Poland, and
it was stolen by you know, I'm ninety nine percent
sure by the Spanish guy who was in the room
with me. Just logistically there wouldn't have been anyone else.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Yeah, no, no, But I mean in terms of content,
I was. I was living in Europe in a way
that I would never live now, you know what I mean.
So when people are looking at how much it costs,
for example, to live in Dnang for you know, a month,
there are people who will legitimately say, like they do
in Changmi. You know, I can live in Changmi for
(44:34):
three hundred dollars a month, And.
Speaker 4 (44:35):
You can can if you really want.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Yeah, and when when you're kind of younger and you
just want to be traveling, that's exactly where my mind
was at as well.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
But there's traveling and there's living.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
When I first got to Sigon, I would I had
my house and paid for and healthcare paid for. I
would live on four hundred dollars a month, but not
because I had four hundred dollars a month, because I
was saving money.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
Like, that's a different habit. We're not talking if.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
You only have three hundred dollars a month, do not
come here if you have two thousand dollars a month,
But you figure out a way to enjoy your life
on three.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
Hundred power too, exactly.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
That's a different situation, right, That's fantastic advice, that's it, right, Like,
and there's a good, a good clarification there, totally live
on three hundred bucks, live on five hundred bucks. Everything
you need in your life is at the beach and
the cafe and the cheap apartment. You can easily do that,
But it doesn't mean it's a good idea to come here.
If that's why you have, it's a bad idea to
come over here for lots of the other reasons.
Speaker 4 (45:31):
We've talked about right words to live.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
By right there, that is excellent advice.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
What's the question I didn't ask What should I have
asked you? What did you want to say that we
didn't get to? When we're going to meet for beers next?
Kidding A eleven fifty nine am all right, man, thank
you so much coming.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
On having fantastic talking to you abount like seeing all
your VIDs.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
This has been super helpful.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
Thanks, Like I said, and I'll say to everyone on
camera to I don't know when I am going to
set up some sort of monthly event in de day.
Yeah you should so when it happens, it'll be in
It'll be in the YouTube posts. I'll mention it again.
But I want to have a gathering and just start
the word else. Watching my most recent video is here,
the best videos here, and Mike's channel, The Coding travel
(46:24):
Bug nice is right here.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Nice
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