4 ms·

Bangkok is not what you described. Bangkok is a great city, not too polluted, there are not a lot of poor people. Bangkok is like Manila. I spent a lot of time

by bogota69 11mo ago

Bangkok is not what you described. Bangkok is a great city, not too polluted, there are not a lot of poor people. Bangkok is like Manila. I spent a lot of time working is South East Asia. Jakarta is the worst city, yes it is big but very filthy like New Delhi or India in general. Second filthiest is Malaysia. The cleanest city is without a doubt Singapore.

moneywoes 11mo ago
what is the cheapest for a nomad
- itake 11mo ago
  Vietnam. source: I've been to almost every country in SEA at least 3x. (Brunei was once, never went to Timor-Leste). Check the forex changes and rent prices if you don't believe me. Harder to factor in is visa costs. Vietnam, you need to leave every 90 days. So you need to buy a $25usd visa + flights/buses + hotels for 3-5 days while you get your next visa. Thailand, you only need to leave every 6mo on the DTV.
  - exidy 11mo ago
    Thailand is cracking down on visa runs and people staying quasi-permanently on short-stay visas: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/visit/thailand-steps-up-scrutiny-of-foreigners-making-back-to-back-visa-free-visits/articleshow/125558883.cms https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/visit/thailand-step...
    - doix 11mo ago
      The parent mentions the DTV visa which is the opposite of the visa-run strategy. Realistically though, if you're a "nomad" from a country with a powerful-ish passport you can come to Thailand for 60 days, extend once for 30 days for a total stay of 90 days. After that you can do a bit of a loop between Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Philippines in whatever order you prefer and come back to Thailand in a year. They'll have no problem letting you in again. It's pretty easy to spend a year in SEA without raising eyebrows at any border if you're willing to change countries somewhat often and don't mind AirAsia flights.
      - itake 11mo ago
        That is basically my life. I've visited almost every country in the region this year (+ China and Japan) on a tourist visa. The problem for me personally is this life is stressful on relationships, health, and personal productivity. Spending a weekend every 1-2 months to deal with travel (and arrangements) is exhausting and expensive on productivity hours.
ignoramous 11mo ago
> very filthy like New Delhi Think you mean Delhi NCR? New Delhi is pretty small, and mostly houses political and social elite.
- bandrami 11mo ago
  I love that they put all the diplomats in Chanakyapur which would be like Italy putting them on Machiavelli Lane
darkwater 11mo ago
N=1 but my experience with Philippines and Malaysia is exactly the opposite.
itake 11mo ago
> not too polluted Are we talking about the same Bangkok? I'm talking about the Bangkok in Thailand where they literally shut down the schools due to air pollution being so bad [0]. What Bangkok are you referring to? Malaysia is wayyy cleaner than Indonesia, both in air quality and trash on the ground. [0] - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/24/bangkok-pollution-hundreds-schools-closed-free-public-transport https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/24/bangkok-pollut...
- projectazorian 11mo ago
  Bangkok has seasonal haze incidents that can get bad enough to close schools etc. Those are a scourge across all of SEA and are generally caused by slash-and-burn agriculture practices. It's much different from having bad AQI year-round. I'd hardly say Bangkok is a clean air capital, but it's next to the ocean with no significant mountains nearby so usually pollution gets blown out to sea.
  - decimalenough 11mo ago
    > it's next to the ocean with no significant mountains nearby so usually pollution gets blown out to sea. So is Jakarta, and it's still pretty polluted.
darrenf 11mo ago
> I spent a lot of time working is South East Asia. Jakarta is the worst city, yes it is big but very filthy like New Delhi or India in general. Second filthiest is Malaysia. Malaysia's a pretty decent size country, not a city. Can't say as I'd have referred to KL as filthy on any of my visits (admittedly only 3 times over the past 12 years). Kuching wasn't filthy either.
thedrexster 11mo ago
This is such an odd position to create a burner account to argue...
- medstrom 11mo ago
  If it seems odd, maybe it's not what they're doing.
decimalenough 11mo ago
For me Manila is the uncontested worst city in SEA. All of Jakarta's downsides, plus an absolutely horrific airport, worse traffic, extremely limited public transport network (which doesn't extend at all to the places where most business travellers go, namely Makati/BGC), higher crime and more violent crime too (lots of guns around), and worse food. About the only upside is that most people speak some English, which is manifestly not the case in Jakarta.
- jeromegv 11mo ago
  I guess we just have different experience of Manila. In most places you would go as a visitor, either tourist or business, you're not really likely to see a lot of violence. I've been there 10 times over 10 years, and really nothing truly bad happened or even seen or heard by fellow travellers. I've been harassed by street kids, that's about it. Do people talk that crime exists? For sure. You have to be smart, just like any other big city. But I don't see how you'd truly put yourself into a dangerous situation. There's lots of security everywhere westerners might hang out. Airport has seen lots of improvements recently. But yes, traffic is horrendous, public transit as well.
wraptile 11mo ago
I'd take Bangkok over Singapore any time of the day/month/year. There's still a bit of chaos in Bangkok in 2025 but once you spend a few days there and learn how to avoid peak traffic hours and areas it's incredibly charming and charistmatic city with loads of activities and opportunities for all classes of people. Singapore while clean is incredibly dull and characterless unless you're a billionaire.
- kafkaesque 11mo ago
  "Learn how to avoid peak traffic hours." Most people living in Bangkok cannot do this. Also, a very high percent of the time, the Icon Siam area is extremely congested (even on weekends). Yes, you can avoid living in or going to that area, but there are also very few nice areas in Bangkok in general. Most don't have the luxury of the flexibility to avoid certain areas and/or certain peak travel times (which in BKK are many throughout the day)
  - wraptile 11mo ago
    > "Learn how to avoid peak traffic hours." Most people living in Bangkok cannot do this you can absolutely do this. Once you learn how to live there and design your own routes with motorbike taxis, sky train etc you do save a lot of time. It's still quite bad but it's 20 minutes vs 2 hours sort of better.
    - kafkaesque 11mo ago
      Every time I tried taking a motorbike taxi, they charged me probably three times more than a local to just travel maybe 1km, not to mention Bangkok has one of the deadliest roads in the world, if not the deadliest. I have explored pretty much all of Bangkok and I don't think the MRT and BTS are as convenient as some people make it out to be. It is built as it is in any other city where it's very concentrated around the city centre but anything right outside of that is terrible. Also, for two weeks in December you have the Red Cross festival. I challenge you to schedule your day every single day to avoid that mass of hell if you live anywhere in a 2km radius of that. Even if you call a tuktuk or a motorbike, they will absolutely NOT come to get you if they think there's too much traffic, or worse, they will tell you to get off somewhere where it's convenient for them. Like a lot of foreigners, you seem to have built your life avoiding many things in Bangkok, which you can do in any city, but that's not the point. You are compensating for how poorly the city is built and how poorly the city is ran. A city is not appealing if you have to self-impose so many restrictions and find so many workarounds.
deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]

moneywoes 11mo ago

what is the cheapest for a nomad

itake 11mo ago
Vietnam. source: I've been to almost every country in SEA at least 3x. (Brunei was once, never went to Timor-Leste). Check the forex changes and rent prices if you don't believe me. Harder to factor in is visa costs. Vietnam, you need to leave every 90 days. So you need to buy a $25usd visa + flights/buses + hotels for 3-5 days while you get your next visa. Thailand, you only need to leave every 6mo on the DTV.
- exidy 11mo ago
  Thailand is cracking down on visa runs and people staying quasi-permanently on short-stay visas: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/visit/thailand-steps-up-scrutiny-of-foreigners-making-back-to-back-visa-free-visits/articleshow/125558883.cms https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/visit/thailand-step...
  - doix 11mo ago
    The parent mentions the DTV visa which is the opposite of the visa-run strategy. Realistically though, if you're a "nomad" from a country with a powerful-ish passport you can come to Thailand for 60 days, extend once for 30 days for a total stay of 90 days. After that you can do a bit of a loop between Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Philippines in whatever order you prefer and come back to Thailand in a year. They'll have no problem letting you in again. It's pretty easy to spend a year in SEA without raising eyebrows at any border if you're willing to change countries somewhat often and don't mind AirAsia flights.
    - itake 11mo ago
      That is basically my life. I've visited almost every country in the region this year (+ China and Japan) on a tourist visa. The problem for me personally is this life is stressful on relationships, health, and personal productivity. Spending a weekend every 1-2 months to deal with travel (and arrangements) is exhausting and expensive on productivity hours.

ignoramous 11mo ago

> very filthy like New Delhi Think you mean Delhi NCR? New Delhi is pretty small, and mostly houses political and social elite.

bandrami 11mo ago
I love that they put all the diplomats in Chanakyapur which would be like Italy putting them on Machiavelli Lane

darkwater 11mo ago

N=1 but my experience with Philippines and Malaysia is exactly the opposite.

itake 11mo ago

> not too polluted Are we talking about the same Bangkok? I'm talking about the Bangkok in Thailand where they literally shut down the schools due to air pollution being so bad [0]. What Bangkok are you referring to? Malaysia is wayyy cleaner than Indonesia, both in air quality and trash on the ground. [0] - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/24/bangkok-pollution-hundreds-schools-closed-free-public-transport https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/24/bangkok-pollut...

projectazorian 11mo ago
Bangkok has seasonal haze incidents that can get bad enough to close schools etc. Those are a scourge across all of SEA and are generally caused by slash-and-burn agriculture practices. It's much different from having bad AQI year-round. I'd hardly say Bangkok is a clean air capital, but it's next to the ocean with no significant mountains nearby so usually pollution gets blown out to sea.
- decimalenough 11mo ago
  > it's next to the ocean with no significant mountains nearby so usually pollution gets blown out to sea. So is Jakarta, and it's still pretty polluted.

darrenf 11mo ago

> I spent a lot of time working is South East Asia. Jakarta is the worst city, yes it is big but very filthy like New Delhi or India in general. Second filthiest is Malaysia. Malaysia's a pretty decent size country, not a city. Can't say as I'd have referred to KL as filthy on any of my visits (admittedly only 3 times over the past 12 years). Kuching wasn't filthy either.

thedrexster 11mo ago

This is such an odd position to create a burner account to argue...

medstrom 11mo ago
If it seems odd, maybe it's not what they're doing.

decimalenough 11mo ago

For me Manila is the uncontested worst city in SEA. All of Jakarta's downsides, plus an absolutely horrific airport, worse traffic, extremely limited public transport network (which doesn't extend at all to the places where most business travellers go, namely Makati/BGC), higher crime and more violent crime too (lots of guns around), and worse food. About the only upside is that most people speak some English, which is manifestly not the case in Jakarta.

jeromegv 11mo ago
I guess we just have different experience of Manila. In most places you would go as a visitor, either tourist or business, you're not really likely to see a lot of violence. I've been there 10 times over 10 years, and really nothing truly bad happened or even seen or heard by fellow travellers. I've been harassed by street kids, that's about it. Do people talk that crime exists? For sure. You have to be smart, just like any other big city. But I don't see how you'd truly put yourself into a dangerous situation. There's lots of security everywhere westerners might hang out. Airport has seen lots of improvements recently. But yes, traffic is horrendous, public transit as well.

wraptile 11mo ago

I'd take Bangkok over Singapore any time of the day/month/year. There's still a bit of chaos in Bangkok in 2025 but once you spend a few days there and learn how to avoid peak traffic hours and areas it's incredibly charming and charistmatic city with loads of activities and opportunities for all classes of people. Singapore while clean is incredibly dull and characterless unless you're a billionaire.

kafkaesque 11mo ago
"Learn how to avoid peak traffic hours." Most people living in Bangkok cannot do this. Also, a very high percent of the time, the Icon Siam area is extremely congested (even on weekends). Yes, you can avoid living in or going to that area, but there are also very few nice areas in Bangkok in general. Most don't have the luxury of the flexibility to avoid certain areas and/or certain peak travel times (which in BKK are many throughout the day)
- wraptile 11mo ago
  > "Learn how to avoid peak traffic hours." Most people living in Bangkok cannot do this you can absolutely do this. Once you learn how to live there and design your own routes with motorbike taxis, sky train etc you do save a lot of time. It's still quite bad but it's 20 minutes vs 2 hours sort of better.
  - kafkaesque 11mo ago
    Every time I tried taking a motorbike taxi, they charged me probably three times more than a local to just travel maybe 1km, not to mention Bangkok has one of the deadliest roads in the world, if not the deadliest. I have explored pretty much all of Bangkok and I don't think the MRT and BTS are as convenient as some people make it out to be. It is built as it is in any other city where it's very concentrated around the city centre but anything right outside of that is terrible. Also, for two weeks in December you have the Red Cross festival. I challenge you to schedule your day every single day to avoid that mass of hell if you live anywhere in a 2km radius of that. Even if you call a tuktuk or a motorbike, they will absolutely NOT come to get you if they think there's too much traffic, or worse, they will tell you to get off somewhere where it's convenient for them. Like a lot of foreigners, you seem to have built your life avoiding many things in Bangkok, which you can do in any city, but that's not the point. You are compensating for how poorly the city is built and how poorly the city is ran. A city is not appealing if you have to self-impose so many restrictions and find so many workarounds.

deleted 11mo ago

[deleted]