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Comment by virtualwhys | Hacker News Reader

> It's basically like paying SF rent, but in countries with a third the cost of living.

Come to Chiang Mai and pay 1/20th :)

Asia is incredibly inexpensive, can't believe how much money I've blown on rent in the western hemisphere over the last 15 years.

> Being a digital nomad is definitely stressful. You have to constantly look for a good place to work.

Indeed, finding the next spot is typically time consuming and hit or miss, particularly when trying to do so via the internet.

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Is there good internet throughout Chiang Mai? I had a friend stayed there for a week as a guess in a house with a 50/50 up and down internet connection. He couldn't tell me details because such a brief stay and the house owner not being there. I'm surprised there's such speed there. Would love to relocate to Thailand if I could have such stable fast speeds.

Internet in Chiang Mai is solid. Very solid uptime, and really cheap 4G data as a fallback.

http://www.ais.co.th/fibre/en/

You can see some of the services available there.

I get 50mbs/20mbs here in my apartment for $20/month; connection is solid. If you need a really fast connection you can get 500mbs/200mbs, residential no less.

Also have unlimited mobile data plan with AIS for $20/month, which is really surprisingly fast given what you're paying.

Thailand's been an eye opener on many levels, will definitely be heading back here next winter if I'm able to.

As someone who is prone to seasonal unproductivity, I wish to travel somewhere warm and sunny during winter months. What's the weather like during winter months (I'm on the east coast of North America)? Also, what's the living cost in addition to uitilities such as internet? Thanks.

Thailands winter is Dec/Jan/Feb which is basically the high season for tourism (it's hot but not stupidly hot). So it's more expensive than other times of the year but still cheap by rest of the world standards.

This channel has some pretty decent vids on the subject

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmnpMr4Md5CgZ5MdlghTYqA/vid...

Bear in mind though that Chiang Mai is more of a rural town than major city, you might find yourself preferring Bangkok.

Awesome, thank you!

I've been in Chiang Mai for about 3 months now; it's rained literally once. "Winter" lasted for maybe 10 days, which meant evening temps in the high 50s I'd guess.

The only real gotcha is now, when the "burning season" begins. Farmers across the north of India and SE Asia start torching previous season's fields, which leads to poor air quality. Up until February you're basically good, it's after that that you start seeing people (myself included) donning the wearable breathing masks.

Here's how things are now, just look at all that fresh air[1], you'd think the earth was a tail pipe.

[1] http://berkeleyearth.org/air-quality-real-time-map/?z=4&x=10...

Wow, I didn't know it was that bad! Thanks for the tips.

We're in Saigon right now! Bangkok next but thinking about Chiang Mai.

> but thinking about Chiang Mai.

Don't, now is the worst time (especially March/April), air quality gets really bad during this time (see my other comment on this issue).

I'm planning on heading south, maybe to one of the Thai islands, and then at some point over to Bali before surf high season kicks in.

I found Chiang Mai in April amusing. While it is insanely hot. There is Songkran which is literally a three day water fight. Really fun. And because it was so hot I stayed inside most days that month and worked.

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