Why is South East Asia preferred by nomads over Latin America?

Visa wise too.
In LATAM you have 1-3-6 months visa per calendar year so you can only rent with furniture(higher cost) and move to another country after (more cost), stay in Airbnb/hotel (more more cost).
How is SEA visa wise? Can you just go out, get in?

I’ve lived around South America (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador) and presently live in Vietnam.

Personally, I prefer Southeast Asia due to the climate, lifestyle optimizations (getting things made, household management, etc.) transport options (Singapore in and hour and a half, easy flight to HK, fly straight to Dubai in 7.5 hours) - beach options, work ethic and entrepreneur expat scene.

Culturally, I prefer South America, but then again, if I fully embraced the culture, I would never get anything done…

I know Colombia is demonstrating positive economic growth, but if you have any aspirations of actually doing business where you live, Southeast Asia is a better bet in my opinion and on a stronger growth trajectory.

El poblado is an upscale neighborhood where mostly expats and rich people from medellin live. Its like a bubble. Venture outside the bubble and you will see the reality for most of the people living there. I commend you to take the metro, which is quite good but you will see the city in a whole different perspective. And of course do it during the day

I’m in Medellin. Think it’s pretty cheap when talking about fruits (pineapple 0,6-1 euro), eggs (3,5 euro/30eggs), dinners out, taxi’s/Uber… Comparing to Europe that is.

Rent in this area is expensive, especially when using Airbnb. But, the quality of our place is just perfect.

I also feel safe here. But, I’m staying in El Poblado en only venture out to the center (using Uber) during day times. No reason for me to go there at night. There’s enough to do in the area.

Safety in Latin America mainly depends on where you stay, where you go (time) and own behaviour.

LatAm airlines are notoriously inefficient but flying around domestically even just in Australia can often be even more expensive. SE Asia has airlines like AirAsia that have everyone else including first world countries completely beat on value. It’s generally quite cheap to go from SE Asia to other Asian countries and maybe even Europe, that’s probably why.

Ha, maybe one of the reasons Latin America is less popular is because people don’t understand the difference between the Southern and Northern hemispheres

As someone who is wrapping up 3 months of living and traveling in Mexico…I have to say, I have never felt safer. Granted, I didn’t spend any time anywhere near the northern border but I have walked around in the middle of the night in some places and never had any issues. I’ve haven’t been to SEA yet but will be there in January through March. I like the general randomness of Mexico: the broken sidewalks with cats lazily laying upon them, my housekeeper spending more time gossiping about her neighbors with me than actually cleaning and the door to door bread vendors. Ironically, before going to SEA, I’ll be spending a month in Washington, DC, my old stomping grounds and the only place where I have ever had a pistol pressed up against my head while being relieved of my wallet and cell phone (3 blocks from the US Capital complex no less, the most heavily policed piece of real estate in North America).

@levelsio

Some thoughts:

• If you want to eat well in south america, go to Lima, Peru. Peruvian cuisine is considered as one of the finest in the world. I was surprised in London to see many upscale peruvian restaurants there.
• Colombia being dangerous, i totally agree. I dont understand why people flock there, i also felt unsafe, and this coming from someone that has been born in south america! If you want safety go to Chile or Uruguay, the rest is a mess…
• Transportation is expensive as f**k but you have to keep mind that south america is huge and lacks budget airlines + infrastructure…
  -Inefficiency, yeah i hate it, thank god i’m a nomad, so anytime i’m going back to the first world!
• Brazil is part of Latin America. They were colonized by the portuguese, and they speak a latin language. They are not hispanic americans, but they are latin americans.

cheers!

I’m in Latin America right now, and as much as I like it here I can give a few reasons:

• It’s not cheap, it’s actually really expensive to live here. Grocery food prices (vegetables, fruits especially) are high relative to even Western Europe. Meat is pretty cheap, that’s good.

• Transportation is ridiculously expensive. A ONE-WAY flight from Colombia to Bolivia is $600. You know for less than that I can fly from Europe to Thailand sometimes? A similar distance in South East Asia would be $50 to $100.

• Food isn’t amazing or healthy, it’s mostly fried, everything is meat, and some potatoes. I’ve never gained weight in my life and I can see the fat grow on my body here, haha

• Latin America is still dominated by a sexist machissimo culture where it’s impossible to walk with my girlfriend on the street in many places (like Colombia) without her being constantly catcalled and harassed. It’s ridiculous.

• Safety is a giant concern here, even for guys. I’m in Panama now where for the first time I feel relatively safe again. Colombia was hell due to constant risk of robbery at gun point. Many people trivialize the safety issues in Latin America (especially Latin people themselves), but that’s ridiculous. There’s stories every month of a local of foreigner being shot (through the head) by a robber because they didn’t want to give up their iPhone. Sure that’s stupid of them, but that’s not okay either. Time to fix that shit. This situation is all over South America though.

• Inefficiency is part of the culture. Ordering food will usually take 30 to 45 minutes. Half the time you’ll get the wrong order. People will forget your orders. You go for laundry, you ask “when is it done?”, they say “in one day”, then three days later you pick it up and it’s not done, and everybody smiles. That’s great, but it’s also really annoying.

P.S. Brazil is not considered Latin America

I’d like to close off with that Latin American people are some of the most friendly, caring and sweet people I’ve ever met. And most of these complaints come from first world entitlement. I’m used to everything being in order and structured. So it’s kind of love/hate for me. There’s something romantic about everything being full of serendipity, that’s the Latin spirit. It seems it’s not so much about the end goal here, more about enjoying the journey (every day is a celebration). I appreciate that.

In general I think people prefer SEA because they see it as more exotic, more different. Others I think are drawn to the reputation it has garnered as a cheaper destination or to the beaches or to Asian women.

Personally I prefer LATAM over SEA because I speak Spanish and can blend in more. I can surround myself with other expats if I choose to, but I don’t have to. I like taking classes with locals.

I don’t care for the cost. I personally love Latin/central America. I enjoy spending some weeks in Thailand, Singapore,… food is much better to start with, but… I can easily live long term in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica,… while I could never live long term in Asia. Love the music & vibe in Latin America, easier for me to blend in and as a European it was pretty easy to learn Portuguese and some Spanish. I’ll always be a foreigner in Azia. No chance for me to blend in .

I’d consider language actually an argument for LA since you’d only need one (well two) to get conversational access to the entire continent…

My main reasons for SEA is the fact that it is cheaper, safer and has better infrastructure when it comes to the Internet. Even though many cities/countries in Asia have bad Internet, you can jump on a plane for as little at $30 sometimes and jet off to a large city if I need to get back to reality.

Flying around Latin America is ridiculously expensive due to lack of budget airlines, and trains aren’t generally an option which leaves crazy long bus rides. Not the most comfortable or convenient. Plus some of the recent history in LA isn’t the most welcoming. I would have liked to have seen more when I was living in Colombia but it was cheaper to fly to Europe than to most countries in LA.

I’m Australian so SEA makes more sense in terms of distance and cost for travel.

Still, even though I’m spending a bit of time in SEA at the beginning of 2016, I’d much prefer Europe and other parts of Asia (Japan, Korea, etc).