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Interesting prompt, Might dwell on this for each city Iāve spent significant time in, āWhat message does [city] send?ā https://t.co/mi2qJ9o8j6
Skipping smaller cities Iāve lived in, (Though for the record, the message of Saginaw is ātry not to get stabbedā) Iāll give my answers for -Daegu, South Korea -Seoul, South Korea -Bangkok, Thailand -Chiang Mai, Thailand -Hanoi, Vietnam -Danang, Vietnam -Tirana, Albania
DAEGU SOUTH KOREA š°š· I was an expat here for a couple years, so thatās what shaped my experience, Along with the fact that Daegu had the best expat community in Korea https://t.co/GEgy9X0jUM
Daegu was the third biggest city in Korea, so it had all the upsides of living in a big city, w far fewer weird status games, tourists, and so on. The expat scene was large, but manageable. My āsectionā of it was less than a hundred people, but I knew *of* a couple hundred more
Overall, Daegu said to me āconnect with people.ā The city wasnāt about sightseeing or status games or going wild, It had everything you needed to have fun, meet people, do projects together, celebrate together, etcāand didnāt demand much else than simply living well
And it was similar w the expats who settled there. Other parts of Korea, the expats were notably relaxed and content, living their lives and enjoying friendships. I donāt think Iām idealizing muchāthis really did strike me as a notable feature when I lived there.
Conversations all felt like tennis matches, a lot of effort to keep going back and forth, adding in something about an underground vegan restaurant you tried, a tv celebrity you drank with, a tattoo shop you discovered,,, you have to have sth shiny and golden to show
If youāre me, you go to bangkok to spend a couple weeks eating the best street food in the world, walking around to discover new neighborhoods, see gorgeous temples, bask in the friendly Thai air, work at the coziest coffee shops, get massages, meet people from all over the world
If youāre of a different bent, you can spend the whole time never seeing sunlight, doing every drug that exists, getting wasted on drinks youāve never heard of, going to ping pong shows, ordering an unending string of sex workers to your hotel, and selling fake drugs to tourists
CHIANG MAI THAILAND š¹š Again, the disclaimer for all of these is that the time I spent there was as an expat, so thereās of course sides I never sawābut thatās true for every person in every city. There is no ā[city] says xā, only what experiences a city cultivated for people,
Coworking spaces, great food, cheap sliced fruit on every corner, book stores, yoga studios, meditation retreats, every kind of massage and bodywork you can imagine, great internet, relaxed atmosphere, temples, saffron-robed monks checking their iPhones at the grocery store,
You can get mango for breakfast, put in 3-4 hours at your favorite work-space, go get a massage, hit a yoga class, grab lunch, head back to work for a bit, go for a walk through a temple complex, stop by for group meditation, go see a movie, and get burmese salad for dinner
Itās the least walkable place Iāve ever been (I was once nicked by a motorbike WHILE STILL INSIDE A CAFE if that gives you a clue), The traffic looks like this on back streets, https://t.co/EHC7rUgBTp
This is light traffic on a main areaāimagine this during rush hour https://t.co/gq2dBSeefx
This is a pretty average crossing-the-street experience https://t.co/CZZMV19Tuf
I didnāt use AQI apps, Iād literally just look outside to check the air quality. If I could see the top of the Lotte Center building, good sign. Some days I could barely see more than dim shapes at the end of my block, bad sign https://t.co/IUQTBUYA1c
On top of the basic unliveability, the general rudeness, and the poisonous air, Hanoi also has the most dregs-of-the-world expat scene Iāve ever come across https://t.co/kByh3RJKxf
It seems to attract some pretty specific types, People with no education or skills, who want a playground where they can make enough money to drink and do drugs and use humans as their playthings It wasā¦ good god, Iām glad Iām out of there. It was a lot. Always. https://t.co/2Ov3OAZioK
I lived with this guy in Hanoi, an absolute character. Total piece of shit, but never boring. He was perfectly round, had giant umā¦ what are the giant sideburns called? Chops? Mutton Chops, there we go. Thick Hungarian accent, he couldnāt talk without yelling,
DANANG VIETNAM š»š³ I only lived in Danang during Covid, which definitely skews things. It was pretty empty already by the time I got there, and it emptied out further almost every month. That said, the overall message of Danang was āchill out, take a load offā
Youāre never more than a few minutes away from a good long stretch of beach, https://t.co/pbnCG9loq3
Thereās a giant Quan Yin statue on the hillside, which you can see from basically anywhere on the east side of town https://t.co/isbudcrbHs
Monkeys just chillin in the woods outside of town https://t.co/LPTUdHd3Z6
Danang isnāt perfect, but after Hanoi it was basically Shangri-La People were more relaxed, traffic was fine, I could walk everywhere, food was better, air quality was fine, the ocean was at my door, (rent prices were super low cuz Covid)
TIRANA ALBANIA š¦š± Where I live now, and itās a place I moved to because I was forced out of Danang by weird visa stuff; I moved here in a panic, given only a couple months to pack up my life and find somewhere new to live. So my relationship w it has been complicated, butā¦
This is my overall Tirana thread, Itās quite walkable, not crowded at allāduring Covid āspikesā Iām pretty much always able to stay 6 feet away from people on the street without much effort, https://t.co/tthMbUpgmc
Trees everywhere, a huge park on the south end of town, Even when the bar across the street is playing music too loud, itās maybe one night per week and it quiets down after ten, https://t.co/RroqhEzFRg
After living in asia for years, the food and coffee in Albania are definitely downsides. Theyāre both *fine*, but we end up cooking a lot of our meals at home, cuz we make much better and a greater variety of food than is available And black coffee here is awful, not sure why
I rent a 2-bedroom apartment with a balcony and a view of the mountains in the heart of downtown, and it costs like half of a 1 bedroom in the Midwest as far as I can tell. You people in US cities talking about rent sound actively insane to me. Get out of there
Plus, Iām Tirana youāre never more than a couple hours from spots like these: https://t.co/hMOyKtXA2v
Just skimming photos of the place is great https://t.co/pE7AnWu9rD
