So I may be coming into a role where I'll be working equal time rotation (28 days on day 28 days off) and one of the positives is that I can literally live anywhere in the world. While I love travelling, I'm getting a bit tired of living out of 2 bags, or a car when I'm lucky, and not having a home base.
Optimistically planning ahead, I'm curious about some of the other people here who have setup long term abroad in places like Asia. Not like for 6-12 months, but thinking 5 years+ (AmericanInBangkok?). I'm thinking potentially of getting a place in Bali, the other option would be to be boring and just set up in Canada or Australia.
So for those who've lived abroad, how did you manage? First off just having close friends or relationships with people? Until you get basically fluent with the language which is a multi year process, it's almost impossible to have real conversations with people, so what do you do for friends? There are expats, but again, aside from the fact that you're both foreigners in a foreign country, you may not have much in common.
From reading lots of trip reports, It seems the longer people stay in SE Asia, the more trivial annoyances seem to get to them. Hopefully this doesn't come off as too racist or condescending, but the education here is bad, and dealing with people who aren't even grade 9 educated can be incredibly frustrating. It's literally like dealing with children. I'm often telling people my dad's age we need to shut the door to the house to keep in the cold air, and keep out the mosquitoes, or that if you just leave a tap running and walk away, we'll eventually run out of water since we're on a well. Basic thought processes like that are beyond many people. As many other people have mentioned too, the women aren't much better. Basic English, very inwardly focused, not super aware of what's going on in the world or having any interest to travel. Good enough to stick your dick into, but for actually hanging out with and talking with not so much.
I make satirical jokes which completely go over these people's heads, and something as simple as moving my self into check when playing chess is so funny that people are literally falling out of their chairs, so I find it impossible to relate.
The other issue is that no matter how long you are abroad, no matter how well you learn the language, you'll always be a foreigner. I speak passable Indonesian now, but in the tourist areas, even speaking Indonesian and telling people what certain things should cost, some people refuse to budge from tourist pricing.
So is it possible to truly integrate into Asian society? Or is all you can do is just stay in gated communities hanging out with other expats.
Optimistically planning ahead, I'm curious about some of the other people here who have setup long term abroad in places like Asia. Not like for 6-12 months, but thinking 5 years+ (AmericanInBangkok?). I'm thinking potentially of getting a place in Bali, the other option would be to be boring and just set up in Canada or Australia.
So for those who've lived abroad, how did you manage? First off just having close friends or relationships with people? Until you get basically fluent with the language which is a multi year process, it's almost impossible to have real conversations with people, so what do you do for friends? There are expats, but again, aside from the fact that you're both foreigners in a foreign country, you may not have much in common.
From reading lots of trip reports, It seems the longer people stay in SE Asia, the more trivial annoyances seem to get to them. Hopefully this doesn't come off as too racist or condescending, but the education here is bad, and dealing with people who aren't even grade 9 educated can be incredibly frustrating. It's literally like dealing with children. I'm often telling people my dad's age we need to shut the door to the house to keep in the cold air, and keep out the mosquitoes, or that if you just leave a tap running and walk away, we'll eventually run out of water since we're on a well. Basic thought processes like that are beyond many people. As many other people have mentioned too, the women aren't much better. Basic English, very inwardly focused, not super aware of what's going on in the world or having any interest to travel. Good enough to stick your dick into, but for actually hanging out with and talking with not so much.
I make satirical jokes which completely go over these people's heads, and something as simple as moving my self into check when playing chess is so funny that people are literally falling out of their chairs, so I find it impossible to relate.
The other issue is that no matter how long you are abroad, no matter how well you learn the language, you'll always be a foreigner. I speak passable Indonesian now, but in the tourist areas, even speaking Indonesian and telling people what certain things should cost, some people refuse to budge from tourist pricing.
So is it possible to truly integrate into Asian society? Or is all you can do is just stay in gated communities hanging out with other expats.