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Everything is so expensive
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024
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i see. All the old people traveling, or ill people for that matter, get their medications at pharmacies or hospitals.
a living space is usually found online through any one of dozens of apps, you can rent a house or an apartment or a condo or even a hostel, whatever you like, for $100(hostel)to $400(personal house), utilities included, per month.
a lot of the personal houses or monthly hotels have maid service.
there are so many ways to get housing through your phone or laptop, that housing is a non-issue these days.
The longer you stay in one place, the cheaper the housing is too.
I hung out with this cool group of old expats who have been living abroad in Cambodia for 15 to 40 years, and they were living on social security like kings renting houses in the neighborhood for less than a hundred bucks, eating sushi and drinking beer at their local hangout and swapping stories every night about the good old days.
especially after you're living somewhere, it's super easy to find local unlisted cheaper housing.
Just because I love sharing the story, there was a beach house community built in China, and since it's 1 hour drive out of the city and they hate not living in cities, that beach house was leasing for $200 a year.
there was a condo in a mountain community I visited outside of chongqing that was $120 a year.
That's all utilities and water included.
housing is absurdly cheap in a lot of places, especially if you're not in the middle of the city, and still reasonably cheap if you are nearer to or within the city.
I was in Thailand earlier this year and there were 30 different private houses within a 10-minute walk to the beach for less than $300 a month, private rooms for half that.
monolingual is a problem if you speak hindi or Mandarin, or something that isn't English.
a billion and a half people speak Hindi or Mandarin each, but within one country and very sparingly in the rest of the world.
If you're monolingual and you speak English?
you're lucky and you'll be able to communicate wherever you go.
there are great apps for learning languages, Duolingo has gone down the shitter but drops is a really interesting new app with a simple fun language teaching style.
and after you go to a restaurant in a new country, you pick up a few words if you are trying at all.
I like studying languages, especially food, so I usually start there, but I also know people that have lived in the same country for 10 years who don't learn any other language but get along fine because 1. most people can speak some level of English, 2. most places have English or romanized translations of their product 3. they can go to a supermarket or point at food and 4. they ask other expats for help with whatever they want that their language skills don't allow them. there's always a local expat community willing to help, because everyone has free time.
fundamentals are fundamental everywhere.
any of those basic necessities are accessible through an English language app, or like the medicine, available in any pharmacy or local shop, and most frivolous luxuries are also accessible through an English language app or international supermarket, so getting any fundamentals while traveling abroad is a non-issue as far as I've ever encountered or heard about, regardless of age.
Thanks. I'm not partial or full retirement age yet and I don't take any medications beyond aspirin or paracetamol. I'm supposed to, but I don't have funds for that or insurance either, right now. A lot of the meds I'm okay without anyway, afaict. But this is information I'll definitely look into. I'm okay being outside the city as long as I can get there or get what I need. I assume public transportation might be available, outside city or suburbs?
Have you ever been to Laos, Cuba or Vietnam? Can you please tell me a bit about any of those you've visited? Thanks.
yeah, public transportation is available everywhere, but most people have a electric scooter or motor scooter to get around everywhere anyway.
I've been around most of Southeast Asia. and whatever medication you can't afford in the states, you can afford the generic brand with identical active ingredients in Southeast Asia (and Europe).
Laos, I lived in for 3 months, and absolutely loved it. i lived in Luang Prabang, field capital that a lot of people moved out of so it's a little bit slower but still has a night market and tons of great restaurants and shops and everyone is super laid back.
really great food, which all costs $2 or less, The Mekong river ensconces the entire city, you can take riverboats if you want to just for fun or if you want to visit other towns.
there are like a bunch of different waterfalls all around the city that you can take a bike to or hike to or whatever.
that city is actually so small. I think they only have a couple buses, but with a bicycle you can drive across the city in 20 minutes anyway.
love laos, was considering settling down there, which happens with most countries i visit, hahaha.
nothing is more expensive than the US, and food is great. everywhere, and people are almost always great, Plus you have all the better social infrastructure and healthcare and everything so every time I'm in a new place, I'm like, yeah, this is a life!
cambodia is even smaller, they have cool dragon boat races, there's this town I love called kampot where this Japanese guy moved and he just has a large porch that he puts a couple tables and chairs on and he makes sushi and homebrews beer, so that's the cool spot to hang out at.
Vietnam! The food in Vietnam didn't wow. me as much as the others, but pho is pho, and I basically just ate pho for 3 months, and never got sick of it cuz it's the best.
when I went to Vietnam I bought a bicycle in the town. I landed in and then just rode out of the city, and I just chose North on a whim, and then discovered a week into my trip and 50 Mi North that the entire North part of Vietnam is all mountains and the entire South part is all flat, so I didn't see a single other foreigner for the 3 months that I was there. but those might be the most friendly and gracious people I have ever met.
like one guy ran out of his house to flag me down just to convince me to have breakfast with him, and we walked through his personal grove of dragon fruit, banana and mango trees that he just picked fruit from and we ate and then he cooked for me and played music and I was like. thank you so much but I have to go catch this train and he was like "go. thank you so much for spending the morning with me and visiting Vietnam"
this other guy sitting on his porch sipping tea waved me down, and then we communicated through Google translate, and then I ate dinner with him and his parents and they made the best amazing food I had the whole time I was in Vietnam.
it just kept happening over and over again, that's some random Vietnamese person would flag me down and do something incredibly kind and gracious.
and it's beautiful! like so much of all of Southeast Asia, so much of those countries are completely undeveloped, so you just have wild jungles all around you and it's stunning. and waterfalls everywhere.
I lived in a small town in Thailand and I just spent 2 weeks learning all of the constellations because the sky was like crystal clear and there was no light pollution where I was, a private house for I think $7 a day? with the best Thai restaurant I found in the whole country right next to my cabin.
yeah, it's difficult to go wrong with any place Southeast Asia, especially if finances are a concern.
sorry I speech to texted all of this, so there might be some bullshit mistakes all over the place.
you do not have to be retirement age to retire, btw, I started traveling in my 20s and I was like why would I stop doing this?
"do you want to come back, make car payments and have a mortgage? We shoot children a couple times a day! Don't get caught in the crossfire, you can't afford it! make sure to pay taxes, but you can't tell us what we're going to do with them!"
sorry for the run on,, I really do love talking about it hahah, and since I'm basically retired(work on what I want when I want) I have plenty of time to do it.
You make it sound so amazing! I could read your stories all day due days if I had no other obligations! If you ever visit southeastern US, and I'm not out of it yet, give me a shout - we'll do food and beer.
I didn't notice mistakes, and I agree with your USA assessment. May all your travels continue to bring you joy. Cheers!
thanks, it has been amazing so far.
and without financial stressors or many societal stressors really, I'm able to be in the moment a lot more and enjoy what's around me, do what I like to do(what a coincidence, food and beer are kind of high on my list).
that sounds fun; if I get back to area of the States, I will let you know.
have a good one, and if you have questions about any of this stuff on any level, hit me up.
I obviously have a lot of free time to respond, hahaha.
Very welcome! If I travel, I've bookmarked this thread so maybe we'll cross paths in more pleasant places.