As I previously mention in the entrepreneurship thread, I have made the decision to stop all of the location based work I have in Beijing and temporarily leave China for the winter of 2018-9. My reason for doing so are several.
Requested Response
I'd appreciate any suggestions about cities where I could spend the winter.
I've spent time in Malaysia and really like the country, but I've also heard good things about Jakarta. Bali is vacation economy, but I hear it's cheap as dirt, so that might be an option.
Your thoughts and feedback will help me to expand my list of possibilities and then narrow it down to a final decision.
If anyone is also working on a business, ideally not a print-on-demand t-shirt company (but rather something involving a real, scalable product involving some level of innovation no matter how simple) and would like to join me for this quest, please ask questions below or PM me. I'm fairly strongly against the idea of having flatmates, but I wouldn't rule it out altogether if it meant a significant cost of living reduction and other advantages.
- As of the end of the this month, other than 8 weeks of vacation travel outside of the country, I'll have been living in Beijing for 4 years non-stop. I need a break from where I've been living and there's no better time to do that than in the winter when the weather and social opportunities in China suck.
- I've been actively developing several products over the past three years, but working enough hours to pay for the high cost of living in Beijing makes it hard to have extra free time and energy to work on product development. I'd like to focus on product dev exclusively for a period of time.
- I need to give myself a firm deadline to motivate me to switch over to semi-location independent work. I've made real strides towards this so far this spring by confirming that I have a skillset for location independent work that clients are willing to pay good money for. While I still need to discover had easy it will be to come by this type of work on enough of a routine basis to pay my living expenses, the potential very much seems to be there.
- A think a change of location for a few months will be good for inspiring additional creativity. I haven't struggled with having creative ideas, but it never hurts to get some fresh perspective.
- Must have a low cost of living. It would be ideal to pay about $200USD per month (or less) for a decent apartment that serves my basic needs.
- It needs to be a place with a 90 day visa on arrival (or routinely available on advance at an embassy) for Canadian passport holders. The last thing I want to be doing is spending money on visa runs and deal with the stress of "what if they don't let me in again next time?"
- Internet needs to be optimal, as I anticipate engaging in VOIP calls and Skype video chats with clients throughout the globe.
- The local women need to be cute. Not ridiculously attractive, but definitely fun and cute.
- Tropical or subtropic weather.
- South East Asia would be ideal, as I don't want paying for my flight to bite into my savings too much. I'll need to live on saving for the duration of the winter if I am to focus almost exclusively on product development, so that rules out anywhere that would cost more than $1000 to fly to. SEA locations that would cost less than $300 to fly to from Beijing would be preferred as it would allow me to stretch out my stay for as long as possible.
- Good local cuisine would be preferred. I'm not a picky eater, but I'd prefer to live somewhere with local restaurants that serve up tasty, reasonable healthy fair at a low cost.
- I'd like to avoid anywhere incredibly impoverished (Philippines) where safety is questionable and you have to be worried about looking like you might have cash. I don't mind a place with a tourism economy as long as it is safe enough to walk about alone at night.
- A low level of daily corruption would be preferred. It would be nice to be able to take taxis with constantly having people try to rip me off.
- The local language doesn't matter. I'm flexible.
- A local expat entrepreneurial start-up scene would be nice. I don't need a "group" to feel motivated, but it would be nice to meet a few people and hear their stories and bounce some ideas back and forth.
Requested Response
I'd appreciate any suggestions about cities where I could spend the winter.
I've spent time in Malaysia and really like the country, but I've also heard good things about Jakarta. Bali is vacation economy, but I hear it's cheap as dirt, so that might be an option.
Your thoughts and feedback will help me to expand my list of possibilities and then narrow it down to a final decision.
If anyone is also working on a business, ideally not a print-on-demand t-shirt company (but rather something involving a real, scalable product involving some level of innovation no matter how simple) and would like to join me for this quest, please ask questions below or PM me. I'm fairly strongly against the idea of having flatmates, but I wouldn't rule it out altogether if it meant a significant cost of living reduction and other advantages.
I'm the King of Beijing!