Expat Community > Thailand

daveindubai
Joined 2011
Posts: 17

Ecuador or Uraguay or Thailand?

13 years ago

Hi All

Firstly I feel fortunate to have found this site - lots of interesting information being passed around.

I am an Australia expat, late 40's, living in Dubai and now looking for a long term place to stretch out my savings as I head towards retirement.

I have been seriously investigating for about 3 weeks and of course have been a little ADD when it comes to narrowing down my search - every day a new country catches my eye and I get lost on the net for hours. Turkey was the latest one:)

I know that these countries maybe poles apart - figuratively and literally - all of these countries seem to have a good mix of climate, infrastructure, appealing culture and relatively reasonably priced for living.

In Ecuador I have been looking into Cuenca which seems to be winning the vote at the moment however a coastal location near the beach would be preferable.

In Thailand Hua Hin or Cha Am.

Uruguay is still early stages of investigation for me but possible PDE?

I would be interested in opinions from those that have lived in any or all 3 countries.

Safety, decent healthcare, political stability, ease of visa are all things I am interested in BUT not the reasons for the post as there are multitudes of blogs devoted to these.

i am more interested in things like friendliness of the local community, infrastructure esp. internet (I trader FX part time) and would actually prefer a beach location BUT as I said am not graced with an overflowing bank account nor do I have a clouded view of living costs - I would budget $1250 (own) to $1500 (rent) pm which I believe should give me a decent standard of living..?

Also I see differing views on purchase versus rent - ownerships worries aside - would go for a condo or apt anyways - what are your thoughts? Renting just seems to be a way to throw money away or perhaps I am missing something?

Finally - I am single gay man BUT I am not looking for a "gay" place to live - simply a place that is not anti-gay.

So - any thoughts or opinions would be very welcome.

Thanks in advance

Dave

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