So im a kid in New England US of A and have a $600 airline credit which expires shortly after Christmas. My plan is to leave for coldest months up here and return early April. Basically, ive got to decide on a place in the next few days and book this bitch. Ive gotten advice from several people and it occurred to me that this sort of move is common among you degens so maybe i can get some advice(i know this question is common but im starting this thread wit the intention of updates later). Ill have around 15 dimes in a schwab checking acct (don’t plan to use it all).
Poker is not a large factor in my decision.

Im looking for warmth, a secure modestly priced bedroom where you can get some peace of mind. Near the ocean would be nice, a genuine middle class area where people don’t aggressively hawk **** to you because your European.

The philippines is a leading contender right now, thers no language barrier to overcome as well. Ill load some pics if I can get myself established somewhere.

Your going to get hawked to hell. However you have up to 15k to use which for 3 months
which give you a lot of options.

Go to the Philippines check a few places out. If you can't find the ideal spot you can sack the Philippines off and book a flight to Thailand/Bali for $100.

Id guess it depends on where you are. If your in a area where all the locals live on the tourism industry then yes. I don’t plan to live in one of these areas because itll cost more than I want to spend, im not trying to live in a resort town. I think in Costa Rica thered be much more of a divide between local and visitor whereas in the tropics you have more of a melting pot effect so ill have less cats trying to hustle me and the general vibe towards europeans will be more accepting.

Hmm well id be nice to know where im going before I get there instead of just arriving with my **** in a duffle bag and no plan. I guess that’s another benefit of the phils, its nearby a lot of places itd be cool to travel to. Ill give u degens and disaffected malcontents the straight dope periodically if ihave an inet connection. The good but also about the size the roaches in the local jail.

You say you're a kid - how old are you? You may run into some issues if you're not 18.

In any case, $15K should be more than enough. If it's your first time travelling there, I would suggest booking a hotel before you get there, and looking around for a place to stay longer term after you arrive.

I say kid as a habit of speech like wats up kid. Im in my early 20s, 3 mo isn’t long term but I know what you mean. Im hoping I can find a month to month or short term lease deal somewhere. Ill have to see if I can find anything listed on the interwebs before I go.

I wouldn't commit to living anywhere a month (Asia or otherwise) before seeing it myself. Rent a hotel for a week and visit the place in person to be sure.

+1 bigtime

"Hmm well id be nice to know where im going before I get there instead of just arriving with my **** in a duffle bag and no plan. I guess that’s another benefit of the phils, its nearby a lot of places itd be cool to travel to. Ill give u degens and disaffected malcontents the straight dope periodically if ihave an inet connection."

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/searchResult?q=thailand

http://wikitravel.org/en/Philippines

http://wikitravel.org/en/Boracay

http://wikitravel.org/en/Cebu_%28city%29

http://wikitravel.org/en/Thailand

http://wikitravel.org/en/Chiang_Mai

http://wikitravel.org/en/Ko_Samui

I am confused. You say you are from New England, yet you refer to yourself as a Euro?? Your money will go a long way in all the S.E.A. countries. You will def get hawked in the PI, which I think is pretty normal.

Thanks for the links man, ill look into them. Im not going to commit myself to anything without being there.

I meant European as in racially but yes im from New England. My american paper should have good value over in S.E.A, especially if I stay out any resort areas. If I was planning on staying for more than 3 mo id probably be sweating my lack of any definitive plan a bit more.

With $15k for 3mo in SEA you might have to eat plain rice most of the time but I'd give you at least 2-1 on surviving if you ration water well. gl

Buy a ticket where you can cancel the return date and rebook it for free or for a small charge - different tickets have different expiration period. That way you have more flexibility if you end up loving/hating it out here. For Thailand I think Korean is a good choice because the price is usually good, they allow you to rebook a year out and they don't charge for it. I'm not sure what a good option for PI would be - maybe someone else can chime in.

If I were you I wouldn't think about it too much. I agree that booking a hotel for a few days before coming is a good choice. It would also be a good idea to have the address written down for the taxi.

Besides both of these things I really think the best way to enjoy your trip is to basically just jump into it and make it more of an adventure.

what I would do to have your options....................sigh

just book a flight anywhere in asia

Thought id shoot you guys an update for everyone that offered advice. After a few delays it turns out im leaving this Wed morning, the airline credit exp date was later than I thought. My airline credit covered my ticket from the east to LAX and the ticket from LAX to Cebu cost $680.

But here’s the dynamic that I think poker aficionados on here would find interesting. Basically it’s easy to get a 59day visa for $60USD in the Philippines. If you stay any number of days over 59 however you automatically have to pay for a 2 month extension and some kind of ID card with your fingerprints and other bio info on it. All this will run you just shy of 200USD and because I didn’t plan to stay much longer than 59 days anyhow id thought Id just bounce and go to Hong Kong early because that’s the airport id have to go threw anyway. Now if it turns out that I have around 8 days in HK then perhaps I should hit up the Macau cash games filled with asian degens. Id be playin no limit exclusively and at a stake level of around 2-5usd. At some level I feel that spending the small amount of time I have there looking at 83o surrounded by degenerates is well kind of degenerate. Im not happy about playing that stake level but I feel honestly that id be playing scared money to play any higher.

I look forward to hearing about the Macau cash games.

I am in South America ATM; and had fun playing with rich euro degens in Aruba for a couple days, I took the winter off from the north east as well (with about half the cash you have) and would like to do it in Asia sometime.