The last great expat destinations
  • What do we think?

But tbhi if La Famille Lazillon have another non-UK stint in us (I think we do) it’ll likely be some absolute frontier market place like Cambodia or Mongolia, or Australia / NZ.

A mate of mine did that. London, then Dubai, then Hong Kong, then Australia where still is now as chief operating officer at one of the big firms there.

It wouldn't suit me. I did a couple of offshore stints, but it was always going be back here.

I have long been an expat... I have never... and will never care about what watch any person wears. 
 

my wrists are a watch free zone. 
 

I do realise this makes me a RoF Outcast. 

I like being an expat because every day feels like something new. We did briefly move back to London. Massive mistake. Living in the U.K., every day feels like another day in the samey rest of your samey life that will be exactly the same. When you live abroad, it feels like there’ll always be a next step. And for us there will be: my wife can work anywhere, and I’m a professional expat and professional expats can work more or less anywhere. I seriously could see us doing Mongolia or Indochina. Love it where we are now too. Yes it makes financial sense but anyone thinking that’s the only dimension (especially here, which is far from zero tax) is deluded and wants to believe what they want to believe 

  • Most pats think of going home but only once they’ve done a global jolly and wrapped massive financial uplifts into the deal. 
  • When I’m out and about and it’s 48C and the call to prayer starts, the exotic exerts its grip. 
  • ​​​​​​​The people side is 10 times better as well.
  • London again? Only for take off and landing chz.

I have long been an expat... I have never... and will never care about what watch any person wears. 
 

my wrists are a watch free zone. 
 

I do realise this makes me a RoF Outcast. 

 

*Raises unwatched wrist in solidarity*

 

I live the idea that the life of the bustling commuters in London is endowed with some intellectual and cultural substance that anyone who happens to choose to work outside their home country for any length of time lacks.

“oh, I consume one trip to the opera a year to get in my quota of value signalling, rather than consuming junk trips” whoopity the fuck doo for the fuck yoo

Hanoi is amazing tbh. I spent a month there....I love Hong Kong but it seems it’s not going to be a nice place to live, increasingly....and I lived 3 years in the mainland....2 in Taiwan...

I reckon Indonesia would be great....and apparently the language is easy to learn.

Hanoi is lovely to visit but unpleasant to live in.  Cold, drizzly in winter (sometimes colder than London at the same time, but without central heating).  Very hot and humid btw april-october; deadly air quality.  Also, Hanoians.  They aren't called 'Hanoi-ing' for nothing.

I've been an expat in Bermuda and Cayman.

Both are (or were anyway) quite magical in their own way. Cayman is much more American, Bermuda much more British (obviously both somewhat isolated island nations with their own unique cultures).

Coming from NA, Cayman was much more livable and just felt like Florida to me. Helped I went to Miami regularly. Bermuda was very, very different...the ants everywhere! Ugh. But it did feel like you were living in an exotic place separate from the world.

Benefits - tax free (mostly), making new friends with similar minded professionals, interesting work, beaches, jealousy of friends and family, and great money if you can resist temptation to spend it all.

Cons - can be quite boring in off seasons outside of work, hurricanes (I was in Bermuda for Fabian and Cayman for Ivan aftermath...yikes), way too much alcohol than is good, a lot of people escape to get away from their shit lives back home and find they can't get away from themselves, lots of high level management that is batshit crazy and on an island for a reason, locals hostile to you, not so great internet/modcons/shopping...

 

Anyway - I quite fancy Singapore. If I had to be an expat again I'd do that. I am not a fan of Dubai or Hong Kong (esp now).

Singapore, Mumbai (for a short stint), Buenos Aires, Bangkok, KL. Manila and Jakarta would be fun save for the traffic. 

Agree with Laz above re life slipping away doing the same thing in the same place. An expat move sets back the dial and breaks time down into more defined chunks. 

Went back to my old house in KL a few months ago.  Reawakened the desire to live and work somewhere interesting.  KL is a very different place now to when I lived there (although our local supermarket down the road is identical and the Lao Embassy hasn't moved...).

I'd jump at the chance for Port Moresby, Mongolia or anywhere ex-Soviet.

I do think I would miss the shopping if I lived in Cayman for any extended period, it really is very limited and a lot of it (especially in George Town) is heavily geared towards the cruise ship tourists: there are only so many tax-free watches and bottles of rum you can buy.

Also when you go there on holiday you (briefly) live the luxury life in a Seven Mile Beach hotel with a serviced room and a balcony facing the setting sun, whereas if you lived and worked there you would likely be in some condo away from the beach in West Bay or Bodden Town, mixing with the locals down on the not-as-immaculate-as-the-Ritz public beach.

I lived on South Sound, condo on the beach. Very nice. Agree there are hardly any shops in George Town, or very much cultural to a European.

Seven mile beach is actually only five miles.

SMB is 5.5 miles long.  You pay at least double for a seafront condo than for an identical property 100 yards inland. We lived in one for the first year we were here (right next to Grand Old House in South Church Street).  Was lovely watching the sunset most evenings.  

Shopping is not so bad since Camana Bay opened.  You can buy pretty much anything you might need, you just won't have a great deal of choice about where to get it from.  

Yes, Cayman is a bit like a suburb of Miami has somehow came detached and drifted off past Cuba.  

a lot of people escape to get away from their shit lives back home and find they can't get away from themselves, lots of high level management that is batshit crazy and on an island for a reason, locals hostile to you, not so great internet/modcons/shopping..

this is exactly why Bermuda is utterly shite

I’ve spent extended periods in all the reinsurance/insurance centres: Connecticut, Bermuda, Zurich, Singapore, Honkers, Gib

Would rank:

HK

CT

Zurich

Singers

Bermuda

Gib

Camana Bay is quite boutique-y, basically one of each type of shop: swim/beachwear, jewellery, homeware, bookshop. Again, fine for an afternoon stroll on your holiday but as your primary source of stuff?

Would love to move to Cayman/BVI, but the evident absence of things to do there generally/cultural things in particular, concerns me. I'm not that into sailing/scuba. 

Would not mind Dubai, but you can't cycle to work there like you can in London, plus, apart from drinking in bars and/or going to an air-conditioned gym/cinema/mall, what is there to do?

Would quite like Singapore/HK, but the reported working/beasting culture there worries me. Maybe a decent place for a partner-level type person, but not a drone like me. 

Guess I am a chicken who will stay in London. 

  • I'm the kind of person who likes to go for a walk or a cycle outside to unwind, ideally in a park or at least in a nice urban setting
  • Doesn't look possible in the ME due to traffic/weather/general feel of places. 
  • But no income tax is tempting ofc. 
  • Also what about the social scene? Isn't it full of khunts? 

My primary source of stuff is AL Thompsons, the largest of 3 home stores.  Food, we have 6 big supermarkets, 3 cash'n'carry type shops and many smaller shops, there are a couple of fairly big clothes stores outside Camana Bay as well. It's not as bad as people think for shopping here.   

When I arrived in Cayman I went to the supermarket to buy food and stuff. All good, but where's the beer and wine?

They didn't sell alcohol, youu'll have to go over there, said the cashier. Ok, the Canadian model then. I lived there for a bit too.

Irony was, they were all owned by the same company.

BZ I am married with a toddler so my social life is, shall we say, pretty thin. However, you will meet many other expats at your work and condo, they will introduce you to others, there are always lots of leaving/arriving parties going on.  

You can check out this guy on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL54jadu9qqk4IbA3_BJ-us2pivZmbiC8v

Of course, my own typical workday looks something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSF0jiKodDU