Could someone do one for Morocco? I heard the live scene is pretty soft, but that's all i know.

I would like to know more about the live scene in marocco, maybe you could share your knowledge?

Thanks

Sorry, i just it in some thread, don't know anything besides that.

South Africa

Cost of Living - 3 Far cheaper than the first world. Probably vaguely on par with South America. If you don't base yourself in Johannesburg or Cape Town it gets even cheaper.

Recreation - 10 A world in one country. Ito natural beauty all we don't really get is snow. An amazing climate. Culture, history, night life, rock, pop, jazz, classical its all there for you to find.

How Scary? - 3 Certainly not nearly as safe as the 1st World. While things are steadily improving a tortured history and massive inequalities will continue to fuel crime. As Soah indicated if you are sensible you should be ok. Don't go exploring townships at midnight for a taste of the real Africa!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...=feeds-newsxml

Poker Playing - 6 B+M in a licensed venue is explicitly legal. Online remains a legal grey area - but no one has ever been prosecuted. While online poker is not a legislative priority in SA this seems to indicate that government is working towards regulation.

Country - Venezuela, Maracaibo
Firsthand Experience? Yes

Cost of living - 8 - Basic items such as food and rens are going to be cheap, arguably cheaper than thailand. Finding an apartment could be somewhat troublesome but it depends on your budget obviously.Public transportation sucks a lot but taxis are also cheap. Electronics are rather expensive.

Recreation - 7 - Depends on what you like to do. Nightlife there are a few clubs 3-5 that a lot of people frequent, most of the clubs are frequent by 18-24 y/o people. There is no such thing as a "pub" where you only go there for drinks, while some clubs might have tables expect at least 75% of the people dancing. There are very "natural"places to go close to the city as well.

For people that like eating out, there are many restaurants (over 200) and quality of the food in general is going to be good. Street food is very good.


How Scary - 7 - if you stay within "safe" areas I think is VERY safe. YMMV. The police is perceived to be highly corrupt.

Poker Playing - 8 - There are 2-3 casinos with big whales all nights, not sure about the rake but probably on the high side. For online poker, internet is not fast but generally reliable.

How Easy to get there an stay there? - 8.5 - I think only people from Colombia require a Visa to get to Venezuela, besides that I think most countries are welcome and get a 90 day stamp, I am not sure about extensions but shouldn't be too much of a problem.

FWIW, I have lived in Buenos Aires and Thailand (Bangkok and Phuket). In Buenos Aires and in thailand you can get away without knowing any Spanish or Thai, however I think you need to be able to speak spanish to get away in Maracaibo, other than that I think is a decent destination for anyone looking for a "exotic" place to live at. Tourist are very rare in Maracaibo, which probably is good to get girls, I guess it depends...

The city is very hot all the time and probably one of the hottest cities in South America, I think the avg temp is 32c...

There are no signs in english so the major trouble is probably going to be the language.

Anyhow I was born in that city and I havent been there in around a year, probably will be next year (at some point).

P.S: In before Hugo Chavez.

stormbind,

how easy is it to get to and from South Africa? How easy is it to get to other neighboring countries?

Stormbind--I think you meant to have like a 7 for cost of living in South Africa--you talk about it being "far cheaper" than Western Europe and US. Anyhow, I disagree, and pretty much found Cape Town about as expensive as it is here in Atlanta. Maybe housing is 25% cheaper. Restaurants and taxis were the same. Joburg seemed a good it cheaper, but I don't guess people would want to move there.

Venezuela getting a 7 for safety is just crazy. By that rating Mexico should surely be a perfect 10.

Well, I wasn't rating Venezuela, in fact I was rating "Maracaibo", what makes you think is crazy though? Have you been there and had any problems? I lived 90% of my life there and no problems. I would give caracas a 4.5 or a 5. I would give cities such as Merida a solid 8.5...

Never been there. But judging by the homicide rate for the country as a whole, I'd say nothing in the whole place deserves more than a 5...at very best.

What percentile of safety would you put Maracaibo in compared to the entire globe? I'd put it at 20% tops...very generously. Venezuela's murder rate is 20 times or so higher than just about the entire European and Asian continents, so you'd have to make a really convincing argument that all of the less-commonly-reported crimes, like robbery and carjacking, are proportionally much less common than murder. Is it cool to live alone in a detached house near the city center with no bars on the windows or wall around the house? Because it is here in the US, and it is just about everywhere in the world.

I'm not saying people shouldn't live there because of crime. I've always wanted to go to Maracaibo, and I've been to a bunch of Latin American countries that are about as dangerous. But anyone who does so should do it despite the astronomical crime rate; suggesting that the safety situation would be something favorable that draws someone towards the place (which a 7 would imply) is really bad advice.

I never intended to give advice, in fact I was only giving my opinion on the place.

Would you mind giving sources for your claims? I rather not make an argument though, is not the point of the thread.

You make tons of claims in this thread, generally disagreeing with people, a couple of people have posted their opinion of places that I have been where I also disagree, then again, that is not the point of this thread.

Your point is the same as two guys arguing whether a girl is a 5 or 9...

Anyhow, my suggestion is indeed very bias as any other opinion. Why haven't you visit Maracaibo yet? Hot as hell but nice place overall.

wiki

Probably as good of a global index of crime as any. Most of the countries that really screw up their homicide rates are African ones. On the other hand, rates of crimes like robbery are useless for the purpose of comparison: tons of countries don't have functioning legal systems, so these crimes are never properly reported.

Africa definitely looks better than it is by this measure and Latin America worse (since a big portion of Latin American murders are between rival gangs).

I think my point is more important than that. People could make decisions based on the information given on this board--that's the whole point of it. So we should try to be as accurate as possible.


And I am planning to go to Maracaibo whenever I visit Colombia, which could be a while away. It seems like a hell of a bus ride away from most of Colombia, but there's probably interesting stuff to see along the way.

Fair enough.

From Bogota if you go all the way up you will end up in Maracacibo, FWIW, from bogota going up you will find medellin, santa marta and cartegena, all really cool places, if you ever make it to Maracaibo let me know I might be there...

@ orange

How easy is it to get to and from South Africa? How easy is it to get to other neighboring countries?

South Africa has 3(?) international airports it is easy to get to SA. 1 000s of folks managed to make the trip for the soccer so I am sure you can too. Neighbouring countries can be accessed by road or flight.

T50_Omaha8

Cape Town is a tourist city and a lot of 1st worlders retire there. The prices in Cape Town are notoriously high. Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Durban should be cheaper than Johannesburg.

need info about Canada... anyone? thank you

need info about Macau plz