Top 3 Cities To Live & Work In Southeast Asia According To Nomads
If you’re ever wondering what cities to live in according to a pool of reviews from people who have actually lived there (and not just one blogger’s opinion), here is a list of top 3 cities to live & work in Southeast Asia from the most recent data from nomadlist.com.
I have been living and working in Southeast Asia for the past 4 months, without a date on my return to the United States. I travel to countries every 30–60 days as I experience and work remotely with various online ventures. I have traveled and lived in each of the cities on the top 3 below.
Previously I worked in Hong Kong for many years but had a professional job as an architect going to an office every day, so it’s an entirely different experience working for yourself, from a laptop, and country hopping.
I’ll also mention that I’m a solo female traveler in her 30’s. I’m sharing this as my viewpoint is bound to be a bit different than a 20-year-old backpacker’s life living out of hostels or from families traveling on vacation — Just want you to have the entire perspective.
When I seek out a city, my main thoughts go into safety, can I be productive with the WiFi, how easy is it to get around for the basics, how affordable is it, and does the city have fun stuff to do and good communities to engage with.
The Categories
- Cost Of Living: This includes everything from housing, food, entertainment, transportation, and incidentals on average.
- Temperature: The average temperature; Asia gets hot if you didn’t know!
- WiFi Speed: The average WiFi speeds at cafes and accommodations. Just make sure to ask your accommodations about this beforehand — there’s nothing worse than assuming it will be around the average and it’s not.
In fact, just today I was asking an Airbnb their WiFi to an accommodation in Canggu, Bali and was told it was 2 Mbps. I found this often, especially in Canggu, so do a double check in any place you are thinking about renting. - Fun: How fun is the city? Is there a nightlife, an expat community? Depending on what you’re looking for, this is either something that is going to totally draw you into a city, it’s not, or you’re neutral on it.
- Safety: Safety factors in is it safe to walk, for females, construction issues, etc.
I’m going to present the data and also dive into them from my personal perspective as living there.
#1 | Chiang Mai
Cost of Living: $1127
Avg Temp: 90 degrees F
Wifi: 23 MBPS
Fun: 4/5
Safe: 4/5
Chiang Mai, Thailand usually ranks in the higher ranking of top 10 places to live as a digital nomad across all websites. For good reason, too. I loved it here. Although it doesn’t have your beach, it offers super affordable accommodations, fast wifi, amazing locals, great food, a large nomad community, nice temperatures, and can be a lot of fun. It’s a no brainer on why it’s awesome to live here.
Although scorching hot during the day (I visited in October), it cools off in the evening and early mornings to the point where a sweater is comfortable. When it rains it’s a wonderful temperature for at least a day or two all day long.
There’s a huge nomad community here as well. You can always find people to meet up with at events, coworking centers, and even a digital girl nomad lunch every Wednesday. Nimman has free yoga twice a week. Get into some of the Chiang Mai Expat groups on Facebook and you’ll always know what’s going on, or meet up with others living there on the nomadlist.com
Chiang Mai is truly a city that is easy to live for nomads, and when you’ve ever lived in a city that is more challenging, you are beyond grateful and develop strong feelings.
I found all of my three accommodations here had at least 15 Mbps of wifi speeds, which I found to work fine for nearly all of my work including video. You’re just missing the beach here — but then, well, it probably would change things a lot and wouldn’t rank so high when you bring that in.
#2 | Bangkok, Thailand
Cost of Living: $1523
Avg Temp: 96 Degrees F
Wifi: 24 MBPS
Fun: 4/5
Safe: 4/5
I loved Bangkok. After living in Hong Kong, I found I love a good city life with good infrastructure/public transportation. I traveled to Bangkok from Canggu beach life, and the first thing I was excited about was buying some heels to go hit the city. I met up with a good friend, and hopped on the metro and met up with her at one of the stops and went out from there. I love that.
I found Bangkok easy to get around, plenty of great food, fun markets to go to, and the downtown life is a blast. Plenty of shopping malls to get whatever you need, Grab a motor scooter to take you wherever if you wanted, and a large community of expats and tourists.
Oh, and I must mention the healthcare. Bangkok is a place I feel confident with their healthcare — it’s at a North American level in quality and a fraction of the price.
#3 | Canggu
Cost of Living: $1388
Avg Temp: 92 degrees F
Wifi: 20 MBPS
Fun: 4/5
Safe: 4/5
Bali is a lot of fun, and can you offer you exactly what you need — but you do have to seek it out and decide what that is. You can have the super luxury living it up experience, the backpacker surfer trip, the hippie spiritual yoga awakening, the bootstrapping startup life, the tourist holiday, and whatever else your heart desires.
It’s a place where you can make your experience whatever you want, because it can offer everything. You can literally change your entire persona and lifestyle within a week in Bali if you want. It’s completely possible without having to try hard.
Bali has seen a crazy amount of growth within the past 5 years and it becomes evident through the exploding traffic and lack of infrastructure. It’s still a great place to live, it’s just going through growing pains and it’s a country that has a few “things” I like to call them. You need to be careful in eating any street foods, the large number of stray dogs, walking on the narrow roads, drinking mixed drinks, and a few others. Just do your research, and you’ll be able to keep safe yet have a great time.
Quick tip for booking in Bali — follow my 7 Things To Ask Your Next Airbnb. Or get into the Canggu Housing Community or Expats Canggu community.
Summary
I wasn’t surprised that these three cities ranked the highest for living in Southeast Asia. Each have their own characteristics, and not everyone feels the same about a city compared to another.
But what’s cool about traveling and working the remote life is that we can always move to exactly where we want to be. Maybe we want to be by a beach for a season, or in the mountains for the winter. It’s literally a $50 flight away, which is the beauty of living in Asia. There’s something for everyone out here, so come on over.
