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Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

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Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#81

Post by batbomb »

fijal wrote: post #41

So the good news is that after SV/SF, everything is cheap! Well, mostly.... I would personally suggest Cape Town, South Africa, if you're a bit adventurous. Lovely weather, good people, cheap, excellent food. It's a bit out of the way (10h flying to Europe, more to US), but same timezone as Europe. English is the main language. Moved here 8 years ago and no regrets

I’ve been to Cape Town and I really enjoyed it. It’s got some shorty aspects, but it’s not a huge shock if you are coming from SF. Stellenbosch was also nice. Weather was unbeatable. Food was amazing.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#84

Post by ernsheong »

tixocloud wrote: post #60
sitepodmatt wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of co-working and reasonable hotels around Cyberjaya, good food, fast internet, it is a bit boring though for SE Asia.

I visit family in KL and am interested in tech hotspots. However, the city seems quite normal - is Cyberjaya where most of the action is?

Honestly, not really IMO. Most of the action is in KL/PJ.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#85

Post by mahasvin »

larodi wrote: post #69

Check Bulgaria's Sofia capital - is top notch. Lots of concerts, events, bars, meetups, conferences, sports facilities. Is still growing lot in terms of IT, hundreds of job postings, major companies such as VMWare, HPs, Codix, SAP all have big offices here - check Linkedin. senior positions after taxes pay 1000-2000EU. Rents are 400-600EU for a very decent central place 80m^2 + furniture. 4 mountains around the city,…

Not much English speakers there, very mediocre roads in the city. However, the food is great, life is cheaper then in England, but not as cheap, as it may be at Chiangmai. Or in Scotland.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#86

Post by sitepodmatt »

jpatokal wrote: post #40
sitepodmatt wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of co-working and reasonable hotels around Cyberjaya, good food, fast internet, it is a bit boring though for SE Asia.

The nice thing about KL is that it's the home base for Air Asia, so there are dirt-cheap flights to anywhere in Asia, most of which (Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, southern China) can be reached in under 4 hours by plane.

This is very true, although KLIA2 is often a disgrace for queues, I suffer the hit to wallet to fly out of KLIA/KLIA1 usually.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#88

Post by smueller1234 »

fipple wrote: post #68

The answer here is places that are COLD. For any type of city, the one in a colder place is cheaper. Minneapolis might be a good choice, or Chicago if you want a bigger atmosphere. You’ll have to put in elbow grease to create an intellectual milieu but it is there.

That cold-cheap bit is decidedly not applicable to Europe, by the way. Scandinavia is overall among the most expensive places in Europe. I'd imagine Switzerland is more expensive by a bit, but Oslo and Stockholm are brutal as well.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#90

Post by siquick »

Barcelona - one of the best all-around cities in the world (climate/culture/architecture/world proximity/quality of living/beach/mountains) and a growing tech scene.

Very easy to pick up development work here for a local company, you won't be required to know Spanish/Catalan for a job. The only downsides are that the pay is relatively low (€43k average for SE) and it can be quite difficult to find a place to live without local contacts.

Edit - on the intellectual front, I am the least qualified person in my friend group with a lowly Bachelors in Computer Science. Most people have a minimum of Masters with PHDs being pretty prevalent.

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