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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?

#231

Post by blocked_again »

quantummkv wrote: post #201

Have you considered Pune in India? The area has an excellent tech scene with both established companies and startups. It has excellent universities and the area has a lot of students and institutions. Everyone knows English in here. The area itself is has lots of beautiful places around for trekking and exploring if you are into that sort of thing, especially in the monsoon season. And it's cheap. Really cheap. For 2…

What do you mean by Pune has excellent tech scene? There are lot of consulting companies in Pune but I dont think that qualifies as excellent tech scene. What are the excellenet Universities in Pune? The only thing I agree with you is its cheap. So is the rest of Asia and the world compared to San Francisco. Lol. Moving from SFO to Pune would be one of the worst things you can do if you are a foreigner.

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

#232

Post by rhn_mk1 »

whitef0x wrote: post #124
msadowski wrote: post #22

If you feel adventurous you can consider moving to Poland. I would recommend Krakow. Most young people will speak English, there are couple of top Universities there (PK and AGH for technical schools, UJ for humanities, medicine and some tech too and UE for economics). The tech scene seems to be constantly growing, with lots of international companies having their offices there. As a senior dev in Poland you can earn…

How bad is it there for sexual/gender minorities (aka gay/trans people). Is it livable if you are visibly transgender?

If you know what areas/times of the day/people to avoid, absolutely liveable. Just like anywhere else, people in big cities do not care in general. Still, expect mildly unpleasant situations - gender is embedded in the Polish language and it will make people think and get confused all the time.

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

#233

Post by the_clarence »

david927 wrote: post #133

Nice, France There's a technical hub in the area and multiple universities, along with a lot of English-speaking expats. The weather is amazing and the food is fantastic. I'm from the SF Bay Area and I live here now. Best decision ever.

Nice is probably the last place I would go to in France. Bordeaux and Montpellier are much nicer places.

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

#234

Post by the_clarence »

maxkwallace wrote: post #134

I am doing this in Taipei right now. The living costs are low and there is a thriving intellectual community, but there is definitely a language barrier. Most Taiwanese can speak enough English to be friendly and helpful (which they are), but not enough to have intellectual conversations. If you are willing to tolerate the language barrier and put in the time to find the people who can converse intellectually in Engl…

I have friends doing the expat life in Taipei, I +1 this. Everything is super cheap and you pretty much have everything a developed city has.

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

#235

Post by stock_toaster »

halayli wrote: post #109

I live in SF as well, I find Portland a very good alternative.

I love Portland, but I wouldn't consider it especially cheap. Bend may be an option for people who really enjoy the outdoors and/or are looking for a smaller town.

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

#237

Post by the_clarence »

szopa wrote: post #209
maxkwallace wrote: post #134

I am doing this in Taipei right now. The living costs are low and there is a thriving intellectual community, but there is definitely a language barrier. Most Taiwanese can speak enough English to be friendly and helpful (which they are), but not enough to have intellectual conversations. If you are willing to tolerate the language barrier and put in the time to find the people who can converse intellectually in Engl…

I've been to Taipei, and the language barrier was quite horrible. People speaking English seemed to be the exception, not the norm – I'd never appreciated Google Translate as much as I did in Taiwan. And a lot of things work quite a bit differently than in the West – so a few times I had to be borderline rude to trigger someone enough to attempt to explain stuff to me in English instead of just shooing me away.

It’s better than a lot of places though. If you want an english friendly country in Asia it’s going to be expensive (hk, singapore, tokyo, etc.)

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

#238

Post by mapcars »

Kovah wrote: post #168

There are some smaller German cities like Göttingen which have - in my opinion - a high intellectual atmosphere because they are so called university-cities: lot's of students and academics in a rather small city. And, in comparison with big cities like Berlin or Munich, the rents are much cheaper: from what I know you pay 2/3 to half of the price for the same amount of space. Example: a flat with 55-60 qm is about 6…

Not sure about English, during my 4-day stay I met many people who struggled with English.

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

#239

Post by rolleiflex »

nelsonic wrote: post #229

Depending on your ability to work remotely, I would make the "case" that you should consider Portugal . Lisbon and Porto are super popular with ["digital nomad"] remote workers who work for international companies so earn in USD but spend [much less] in Euros for a superb lifestyle. There's a reason @paddycosgrave moved Web Summit to Lisbon. It's one of the cheapest cities in Europe and [unlike Barcelona] everyone sp…

This is awesome. I live in SF, and have a base in Istanbul, which is from what I heard, similar to Lisbon in many aspects — but I would be hesitant to recommend it without at least a willingness to learn Turkish. There are some digital nomads here in HN based in Istanbul, though.

Nevertheless - my point was, you’re living my dream and I’ll definitely give a visit when my life allows for a Portugal trip. Never been yet.

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

#240

Post by askmike »

maxkwallace wrote: post #170
askmike wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about Singapore, Hong Kong or Kuala Lumpur? The first two are definitely more expensive (KL maybe even being cheaper) but in SG and KL English is the primary language and in HK you'll be fine with it as well.

Singapore and Hong Kong are options but they're not inexpensive. Haven't been to KL personally, but from what I understand it's relatively polluted and doesn't have the same quality of life as the other three.

I'm in KL right now and I am actually very surprised by the high quality of living here. You're right it's not on par with SG or HK but closer to those than any other big city in SEA (Bangkok, HCMC, Jakarta, Manila, etc) - while still being quite cheap.

(That said most people I speak to don't share my opinion here)

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