Top 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Moving to Southeast Asia

Top 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Moving to Southeast Asia

Hey guys, in today’s video I thought I would talk about the top five things I wish I knew before moving out to Southeast Asia. You know, I’ve been here over 9 plus years. I’ve now lived in Vietnam, the Philippines, and currently in Thailand. And there’s things I wish I would have known that uh I want to share with you in today’s video. Stick around. By the way, guys, I’m just hanging out at uh the mall here. This mall is actually Echi Gateway, and you can see that uh there’s all these great sofas and tables all set up for people just to hang out at. It’s not even at a coffee shop or anything. It’s just places for people to sit down and relax or even get on their laptops and work. Uh Thailand is very like digital nomad uh oriented. Like they have everything just set up, you know, so there’s Wi-Fi here and everything. And I like to get out of the house and then, you know, I’ll work for a little bit. I’ll do some editing, make a video, and then I’ll go down and grab some lunch and then maybe go back home and then go out later or something. But here’s a quick little uh view of it. [Music] mind and I’m currently sitting at a table in the sofa just like this one right here. So anyway guys, I want to talk about some of the lessons that I’ve learned that could have saved me a lot of heartache and a lot of headaches uh throughout the years and hopefully it’ll help you out on your move or even your trip out to Southeast Asia. So whether you’re thinking about Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, wherever, hopefully these tips will help make the transition smoother and more enjoyable. So, a little backstory, most of you know, but uh if you don’t know, I moved out to the Philippines for a job 9 plus years ago now, back in 2016. I’d made a first trip in 2015 and then a following trip to Thailand before I had decided on moving. But I landed a job in the Philippines and that’s how I got to the Philippines. So I have now lived in the Philippines. I’ve lived in Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam. And also I’ve lived now here in Bangkok. And by the way, I will be coming out with a review of all the cities that I’ve lived in in the Philippines, kind of rating them and letting you know which city I enjoyed the most. But you know, in my time, I’ve rented condos. I’ve lived in small cities. I’ve explored small towns, dealt with local bureaucracy, and learned the hard way how different daily life can be out here in Southeast Asia. So, all of these lessons come from real experiences that I’ve went through here in Southeast Asia, and hopefully you can avoid some of these mistakes I’ve made throughout the years. First of all, the cost of living is not as cheap as you would think. It can be cheap, but the majority of people, no matter what people comment down below, say, “Hey, I live on less than a,000. I live on 700.” The majority of people don’t come out here and live a totally Thai lifestyle, uh, Vietnamese lifestyle, Philippines lifestyle. No, they usually want some of their creature comforts that they had back home. And that’s pretty normal, you know. And so it’s not as cheap as some of these videos that I, you know, it just kills me. Some of these videos I live perfectly fine on a,000 a month. Most of the time I call BS unless somebody owns a house or they’re living way out in the province and maybe they’re married to a Filipina and she goes out and does the shopping and does most of the cooking at home. But for the majority of guys, they want to live in at least half western style, you know, and maybe they want to live in a condo in BGC. Well, automatically, if you’re wanting to live in a condo, you’re not living a local lifestyle. I mean, most locals aren’t living in condos, let’s be honest. So, you know, for example, like here in Bangkok, you may spend 400 to 600 on a small apartment or condo, but you know, the internet and groceries and eating out, that all adds up. nightly entertainment and Dumaguetti where the rent used to be cheaper now to for me the rent has gone up quite a bit but the imported goods like electronics and foods are far more expensive than like here in Bangkok and it can be surprisingly expensive and add up um I you know you would think that I would have been spending more money in Bangkok here than I wasn’t doing but actually the opposite is true when and when I lived in Ho Chi Min City eating like a local super inexpensive but living like a westerner that can again cost more as well. So always research out the cities not just the countries in particular and budget for unexpected expenses. And the second thing is bureaucracy and visas. You know in Thailand here visa runs used to be just common place. People would just do visa runs back and forth back and forth. But those days have gone and new rules change frequently. In the Philippines, uh it used to be easy to open a bank account and just stay. And now visa costs have gone up. Uh opening a bank account and getting a driver’s license much harder than it used to be. And sometimes opening a bank account can take weeks. And uh that’s if you’re on a permanent visa. Vietnam paperwork moves a little bit slower uh but more efficient in several areas. But now Vietnam has really no long-term type of uh visa unless you’re married to a Viet Vietnamese girl or you’re working in Vietnam. Otherwise, you’re doing 90-day visa runs and who knows when that goes away. Just personal story, once I went in to get a copy of a document in the Philippines, and I ended up spending the entire afternoon at an office in Sibu just to make to get a certified like notorized copy. And so by the end of the afternoon, what I thought would have been some kind of simple process turned out to be an all day event. And I ended up leaving with like three more forms that I didn’t even know that I needed. And apparently I didn’t really need them, but all day and ended up with uh paperwork that I didn’t even need or wasn’t even necessary. In Bangkok here, uh I spent literally I arrived at 9:00 a.m. at immigration. Now, this is Bangkok. In the other cities, it might be much better. And I ended up leaving around 4 in the afternoon by the time I did my visa extension. Uh that’s where uh the Philippines wins. I used to go and ballet. I’d be in and out of the office in 30 minutes. Now it was cheaper here in Bangkok, but still I was there literally all day. So, you know, join expat forums, ask guidance from like locals or agencies, but beware of the expat forums. They sometimes can be kind of vicious or sour in that in those groups. and you can’t find anything helpful, you just they seem like they just want to attack you for not knowing something. And also remember, always keep digital copies of everything, especially all your important documents. So the third thing is transportation. It can be very different depending on where you live and scooters are everywhere. Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines. Now, it doesn’t mean you have to drive one, but it certainly helps. And uh I ended up learning while I was in the Philippines. It certainly would have been easier if I had learned how to drive a motorbike and got my license outside of the Philippines, but I ended up learning in the Philippines. And a few scrapes and uh minor uh crashes later, I ended up becoming quite a a pretty good driver. I drove in Vietnam. I’ve drove in uh the Philippines for years. And eventually I’ll drive here in Thailand. probably not in Bangkok, but maybe in the smaller cities. Now, public transit does exist in some cities, but in some cities, it really doesn’t. Uh, for example, like Dumagedi, they don’t even have grabbed taxis. They just have the tricycles, which aren’t real comfortable. They’re not built for big foreigners, and uh there’s price gouging. They see your uh your foreigner face, and automatically the prices are going up. And uh it can be extremely hot and dirty and dusty out. Now in Bangkok, they got great transportation, but you can if you want to take a grab somewhere, you might be stuck in traffic for an hour, but the BTS can be crowded at times. And other days, if you know when to travel, it can be really good. Now, Sibu, they have Grab and things, but and you can drive a motorbike, but traffic can be pretty horrendous in Sibu and Manila and Davao, places like that as well. So, learn local rules, plan for longer travel times, and if you’re in rural areas, consider renting or buying a vehicle. It can save you a lot of headaches, trust me. And number four would be cultural norms and social differences. It can take a lot of getting used to out here in Bangkok, in Philippines, Vietnam, anywhere in Southeast Asia. To be honest, in Thailand, a simple Y greeting can go a long ways. In Vietnam, polite, indirect communication is kind of standard. In the Philippines, small gestures and friendliness go a long ways. So, when I first got to the Philippines, I used to get so frustrated with slow service. Now, here in Thailand, it is much better. Um, in Vietnam it was a little slow at some places, but the Philippines extremely slow. And as anybody knows, if they’ve been in the Philippines and ate out at a restaurant, people get their meals at various times. Maybe you get your drink after the appetizer and the meal’s already come. Uh, maybe you get your appetizer after your main course. And, you know, later I just realized I was like, I’m not going to fix things. No matter how many times I tell them, hey, bring out the drinks first. I mean, sometimes it works. um or you say, “Hey, can you bring out the food all at the same time?” They’re just going to look at you with a confused look or even the appetizer just doesn’t. So, you just kind of adjust and uh have some patience. Don’t let it get to you cuz it’s not really rudeness. It’s just kind of how the way how things are. And adapting is going to save you a lot of stress. So, you know, just observe, kind of see the way things are done and ask politely and be patient. Remember, saving face is a thing out here in Asia, too. Getting upset or mad in public is a big no no. But I’ve learned that small gestures like a smile, a greeting, or learning a few local phrases definitely goes a long ways. I did that in the Philippines with Bosian here in Thailand. I’ve now learned uh I go into the coffee shop in the morning. Uh most places I find usually speak pretty decent English. But this new coffee shop that I’ve been going to that’s just near here, they don’t speak any English. And so I learned how to order my cappuccino and say hot. I learned how to say um big size. I learned how to say for here, you know, and it goes a long ways and they appreciate it because, you know, I could tell they were struggling too. we were trying to understand each other and I realized, you know, I’m here in your country. It’s really more up to me to be learning some phrases, not them learning uh English. So, I learned and uh now I have no problems. And in fact, now they know exactly what drink I want, so I don’t even have to communicate it anymore. But hey, if I go into another coffee shop, uh I know how to order it. So, number five is going to be health care and safety. The healthcare quality varies for sure. I’ve learned that a lot from the Philippines, Vietnam, and now Thailand. Thailand being superior over the Philippines, even over Vietnam. Vietnam being over the Philippines, but Thailand has excellent private hospitals, just excellent. And Vietnam has pretty decent urban options as well. And in the Philippines, you can find some pretty decent uh private hospitals, you know, like in Makatti, St. Lukes, but for the most part, uh, they are not the best in the world. Uh, I think most people who’ve been in hospitals, uh, probably can vouch. Public hospitals, forget about it. I had a pretty decent experience in Balled at, uh, the hospital there. And so, I had no complaints there. But, um, certainly in different areas, there’s not a lot of great choices. But, the Philippines has very limited rural services. In safety, it isn’t just about crime. Traffic accidents are quite common. In the Philippines, I would see it all the time. And of course, they weren’t wearing helmets. No different here in Thailand. I see accidents happen. Not as much. I know they happen. Um, but you still got the the same things. People not wearing helmets, uh, driving carelessly, you know, especially on scooters. They just think they own the road and they can zip in and out of of anywhere, not merge, not yield in natural disasters. I want to pause at this one and talk a little bit about it. Uh, typhoons, earthquakes, flooding that’s been hitting the Philippines lately. It’s just going to be a reality in some areas. So, be aware and be prepared. Now, when I was living in Mocktown, New Town in Sibu, I can’t remember exactly. I want to say it was around December 2020, I believe. Um, we were hit with Typhoon Odette and the damage was so bad that everything was shut down. There was no electric, there was no water. Uh, the grocery stores were all shut down. There was no gas at the gas pumps, no electricity to run them. Even the, uh, Wi-Fi towers had went down and no internet. And so after about a week of seeing that this is not going to get fixed, I ended up leaving catching a ferry and driving my motorbike all the way to Dvau. And uh on a 6-hour motorbike drive after a ferry ride on Christmas Eve on Christmas Day, I drove 6 hours to Dvau with uh a big backpack and all my uh everything else I could fit on my motorbike and ended up moving to Dvau. Now, what I want to mention is that foreigners who didn’t have cash on them were out of luck. They were stuck in Muktown, New Town. And uh people who didn’t have any food, canned goods, they were scrambling around trying to find places to buy food. Uh and again, you had to have cash. People who didn’t have power banks, they had no way to charge anything. uh people didn’t have fuel. Like luckily I had filled up my motorbike. I had went to the ATM. I had bought canned goods and got water all the night before Typhoon Odet happened. So I was prepared. And luckily I was. So me and a couple of buddies uh we didn’t have any way to communicate. We would just say, “Hey, let’s meet at this place at 1:00 every day.” and we would just talk about what’s going on, improvements, where can you get gas, have you learned, have you found a place that has a Wi-Fi signal, have you discovered a place that you can uh buy groceries or whatever. And then we finally after a week decided, okay, let’s, you know, we like mapped out where we could go. We ended up going to Deva. So, in the Philippines especially, it can be very, very slow to get uh things taken care of. So, if there’s bad flooding, a typhoon, um, earthquake, whatever, be prepared. Have your non-p perishable items to eat, have extra water, have power banks, generator, whatever you got, and have cash on hand so you could get out if you have to. So, just a few extra tips here, guys. Internet speeds vary. Don’t expect fiber in every city. Climate can take getting used to. Hot, humid, rainy seasons. That’s why I wear this type of clothing, which you can find on my website, geoonthego.com. Click on my geo travel essentials. You’ll find all the gear I recommend for living out in this type of weather and just being prepared and and having all the tools that you really need to live out here. Make sure you have local apps for payments, uh, Moretta Pay, GCash, multiple bank accounts. Navigation and deliveries will make life much easier. And again, just to recap, cost of living is going to vary. Bureaucracy and visas take patience. Transportation and infrastructure differ quite a bit. You know, you can go from BGC to Dumagedi, it’s going to be quite different in cost. Cultural norms, it’s going to require some adjustment on your part. And healthcare and safety are important. So guys, if you’re thinking about moving out to Southeast Asia, I hope these tips help give you a head start. Comment down below on which country you are considering or at least maybe visiting to test out the waters and see if you like it. And I’d love to hear your thoughts and share more tips uh if you have them. And if you want more information about living out here in Southeast Asia, you may find these next few videos interesting and helpful as well. Check them out. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you guys in the next one. Keep living like this. Away from us. Away from us. G. Let’s go. Oh. Oh. Oh.

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