You should check Thao Dien in Saigon. It's like a small island, a kinda Beverly Hills. That's where most expats live, no traffic, you don't feel like living in a megacity even if you are only ~20-30 minutes from District 1. You get plenty of high-end restaurants (just check "restaurant" on Google Map and see by yourself), French, Italian, Indian, Vietnamese fusion cuisine, American, ton of Japanese restaurants (a small Japan Town), Thai, Arabic, you can find everything. Living there with kids would be much better compared to BKK imo and you get a ton of private schools, ton of expats kids and rich Vietnamese kids live here, also super safe. Been living in Saigon for 2 years, AMA.

The only plus for living in Thailand compared to Vietnam is for degenning. Except from that Vietnam>Thailand

yes it will be good once its effects are noticeable. will only take 1 quarter or tourism projections to falter and they will need to loosen up visa requirements and the baht will fall. but who knows when that will happen could be 6 months or 2 years from now

supnigga: crab and pork stuffed shell and crab pad thai was last day i was in bkk wish i went sooner

im wondering what city puts vietnam at number #2 on the list for best places to live as an expat. saigon is cool and ill probably return but its absolutely filthy and not pedestrian friendly. i walk everywhere so found that annoying. in comparison bkk and pattaya even are very clean when walking around, electricty and internet almost never goes out, no public shitting (saw this everyone in saigon) and food cleanliness is a bit higher in thailand.

That area looks really nice. Can you rent an apartment there for a reasonable price or has the influx of expats shot up the prices?

Really? I have to trust you as you lived there before but my limited visits to Saigon I felt like it was so much nicer than BKK as far as having wider sidewalks and actual trees. I assumed that was the French influence in city planning. Goes to show perspective I guess.

Someone was making a bunch of noise in my apartment building last night and the manager is blaming me even though I had nothing to do with it. Combined with the last incident with the bar girl from Soi 7 they're now evicting me.

Guess I'll be bouncing around between hostels until I can figure out something permanent. Never paid attention before because I didn't need it, but does anyone know where I can charge a cell phone in public? Was thinking McDonald's or something, but everything's different here.

I copy paste a post I made about it in the Vietnam thread

If you want to live in a megacity, yea the area is pretty nice, living here you feel like living in a big village. Tbh I have lived in Saigon for one year and never been there (gf living in Saigon since 5 years and never been there as well lol until I moved here), heard about it but I was like yea all expats and rich Vietnamese living in a same place, fk that. Then after 1 year I got tired about the traffic madness and non stop honking so I went there and really I was mind blown this area is like a hidden gem. You will never see any tourists here, so basically any westerners or non Vietnamese Asians (mostly Japanese, most South Korean live in D7) they are all expats, 100% guaranteed. Super easy to network with people who are living here long-term. For the expats population, in short most young people living here are English teachers, digital nomads then most of the others expats are business owners/rich or retired dudes. So you got all that in just a ward in District 2. Never saw an expat community packed like that in one nice place anywhere else in SEA.

Thao Dien (no traffic unless rush hours), Da Nang, Nha Trang, Vung Tau.

I don't know where you lived in Saigon but for me I barely experienced any power outages (maybe 2-3 max in 2 years), same for ADSL no problem. I agree with you for the city center it's a mess + crazy traffic, non stop honking and even with all the big streets and parks, I could not see myself living there long-term. And the rental prices there are overpriced.

You know April is our summer here? It's brutally hot. Like delay marriage for honeymoon hot. Ok, a little dramatic but definitely do not think you're going to be staying in a no A/C fan only type of lodging.
Since you're coming in April, you might as well come during Songkran (Buddhist New Years). Massive water fight that oldies like me like to complain about. Chiang Mai is where it's most crazy.
Get your Hep A/B shots and tetnis update before coming. You don't want to know where that water comes from that you are getting drenched with.

If you're not into big cities then you're not missing a ton by not spending too much time in Bangkok. Grand palace and reclining buddha are worth a visit if you're into that type of stuff.

No reason to make advanced bookings for anything. You can fly anywhere in the country for around $75-$100 and that is buying the ticket the day before travel. Agoda, tripadvisor always good to find guesthouses. You should be able to get decent places for $50 or a little less but $50 is good for budgeting.
ATMs are always my go to but good to have $500 or so in cash in case of emergency.

Good luck, you'll have a fun time.

Do you Bangkok locals think Air BnB is the way to go for a 1-2 month rentals or are there better options? I'm finding a lot of cool apartments for 1000-1200USD. Is this at reasonable for short term rentals? Coming from Europe my sense of whats good value is way of.

Also, I usually haggle on Air BnB. Would this be reasonable for BKK in December and January or is that peak season? Thanks for all the info so far and I appreciate any help with my questions

standard. onnut has airbnbs closer to 600ish. but prime areas the prices you quoted is normal. nov-jan is high season s probably cant get discount but i guess doesnt hurt to ask

I think I agree. If it weren't for the weird culture of constant horn beeping and to a lesser extent traffic running both ways on one way streets, Vietnam seems like the best spot and I'd probably move.

What's the best areas to live in Vietnam?

Saigon, Da Nang (the biggest coastal city), Nha Trang (nicest beaches), Vung Tau (close to Saigon, ~ 2 hours).

Will have to check out Nha Trang and Vung Tau next trip, cheers.

Thought Da Nang was a bit of a hole but probably in the wrong area. Loaddds of construction and cars beeping their horns at 4am. Definitely couldn't live there lol

Random question, but how hard is it to find high quality beef in Bangkok? I'm ideally looking for grass fed steak, but I'm not sure if that's a thing in Thailand yet.

In that case you need imported Australian beef. Easily available at Tesco, Villa market etc. Will be somewhat expensive, but not that bad.

Paleo Robbie is an old 2+2'er. I try to support him when I can.

Does anybody even go out and bang anymore?

compared to thailand, is vietnam easier to get a longterm visa for a german guy? i wanna move to soa, but these constant visa runs and stuff is tilting

From my understanding, Vietnam is waaaayyyy easier to renew visas.
Don't know about get a long term visa.

Most of the time you can extend (1x 3 months extension ~$250) your visa up to three times via an agent, so you are good for ~1 year. After that you do a visa run, come back here and do again the extensions until you can't then visa run again etc.

Things are always in flux but if Vietnam ever becomes a popular destination (unlikely as viets are generally scammers, thiefs, scumbags and spies sniffing around in the foreigners business) things will probably go anti foreigners visa wise as well.

Low to no privacy apartment setups are the norm (people from the front desk to neighbours can always watch what's going on) and condominium buildings that offer more privacy are rare.

Things were setup like this by commies so they have stronger control but south east asians are extremely nosy in general and nobody trusts each other.

I would recommend the Philippines instead if you really want to do South East Asia but the glory days are long gone and being a foreigner in SEA these days offers very diminishing returns.

With such a negative attitude, it's hard to imagine anyone would be positive towards you.

What were some bad experiences that you had that made you have such a view?