I've heard good things about Madrid as well and I've liked Andalucia and Canaries myself, although parts of Andalucia have sleazy areas. What probably irks me the most in all of Southern Europe is the attitude that because the cultures are old, people develop this pride and settle in their ways. Being stagnant and proud does not seem like a good way to go about it. In the end, the comparisons to Southeast Asia are interesting and both regions have positives and negatives.
Thing is our focus is on different aspect of a society. You focus on the present & quality of life, I focus on future growth & technology advancements. Spain while good to enjoy the moment will be what it is today 20 years later, and for sg/hk ? In 30s, I wanna be part of something dynamic and growing
Here I am staying in a reasonably new condo in the city and I can clearly hear the neighbour, left and right. Noise insulation is non-existent
You conveniently jump to Bangkok than back to HK and S*pore in the same conversation... Singapore is already a huge success story, and supposed to stay around the top of the World in the near future. HK has bigger political trouble but everybody and their goat already know it is more dynamic than Spain. Again, with your budget in HK the issue is not only the noise of your neighbour's toilet, but also managing to live in a place that looks better than a run down toilet. You sound like you will happy with your kids going to a HK or S'pore public school. Thailand is very different, the population is largely uneducated and public education has a very poor reputation. Schools in Asia preparing for International Baccalaureate will usually adopt the same biases you noticed in Spain, although there are probably exceptions (there are exceptions where I live - we didn't go for those, but you might. Exceptions still often cost over 30kusd a year per mini Musk, increasing each year ) You might have needed months in Spain to figure out a bidet is not a European urinal but you definitely found out earlier Asia is expected to growth faster than Europe in the next decades, minting way more multimillionaires along the way. No idea how you ended up considering Spain in the first place, it's not like it is considered the technological hub of Europe or a particularly dynamic country in that continent. Besides Spain has developed exceptionally from Franco's death in 1975 to 2008, it was the miracle story of Europe for a while. Much of it probably came from joining the EU, and not many are expecting it grows that fast again anytime soon, just thought I'd mention it, older folks in Spain have often know very miserable conditions, much worse than now. Living conditions in Spain have improved greatly over the last few decades. Besides thanks for the feedback about the noise, I hate hearing the neighbors although again if the solution for a detached house is moving too far from the school, I'll probably still go for a semi detached or a atico. To put this in perspective again, I live in a semi detached house in a very posh residence (could buy a huge property in the poshest suburb of Madrid for the price of the house I live in here, although I rent and rental prices are actually decent), you can't hear the neighbors when they pee or talk or watch TV. Yet there are always major renovations in a house nearby, everybody now seem to want a cellar or underground parking apparently, which weren't dug initially) and the construction noise is often unbearable - that's perched on a hill, out of the public roads, people living nearer traffic also have to deal most of the time with public renovations and construction sites - developing Asia has been moving fast, too fast to get proper infrastructure, and much of it need to be updated/completely redone after a decade or 3. Very noisy.
you are extrapolating too much, i wanted a detached house because it is "just" spain which doesn't apply to hk/singapore. ademas i never said i plan to send a kid to public schools there nor will my budget put me in a doghouse in either city as you picture.
Meant nothing wrong with public schools in HK and Spore, from what I've heard they fit more the description of the education you are looking for than International Schools. I guess there are also private schools with a similar vision as the public schools there. Also you seem to have been doing OK in expensive parts of Asia in your first life, little reason apparently you can't follow up in a similar way. You might be seriously disappointed moving to developing Asia for a second life though, the difference is massive ime. HK without a big budget for accommodation sounds dreadful still, and only slightly better with a big budget. Only place atm i'd be happy to move in developing Asia would be Bonifacio Global City in Manila, it's nice but surrounded by a sprawling mess, also the real estate there is more expensive than in much of Madrid, curious to hear about well developed areas I might have missed. As of your impression of Spain and your previous expectations, I don't get it, it reads like : "I've spent months in Spain, it is almost exactly as advertised although a manual for toilets might be a nice plus. Such a disappointment."
Never been to manila and unlikely to visit. Not really a fan of dm Asia but just saying certain parts like KL should at least offer a young boy reasonably good education and experience in a growing country with aggressive classmates. Not that didn't know Spain isn't a top dog, but its education (as far as I can sense) and life convenience undershoot my expectations.
No interest in international schools as all top schools in every country I know are private schools. From Phillips Exeter and Harvard Westlake in US and Raffles and Anglo chinese in singpo to La salle in hk and nada and kaisei in japon. Did you send kid to something like colegio estudio or la salle. How does the primary school section admission work given they can't test a young kid, they instead test the parents?
Kids will join one of the (most ?) reputed IB schools in Madrid ( there are also schools following the british curriculum with very good reputation in Madrid). They're not that young, upper primary and middle school students, Madrid school used test (school reports + map testing) results from their current school , teacher recommendation, plus they had to take a Language and Math test under supervision at their current school, sent from the Madrid school to their current school. My kids are doing fine but are not elite students btw, but they come from an IB school in Asia following the same curriculum, which must give them some priority. I do no not know either Colegio Estudio nor La salle in Madrid btw, are you sure those come out among the top schools using english as a first language there ?
Fwiw i found the whole admission process way to heavy for my taste (it's easier where we live now as schools lack of western kids, so the process is much easier for them while the waiting list gets longer the closer to China the family comes from) As the process dragged in Madrid we'd applied to another school in Brussels where they were accepted faster. But quite happy they got in Madrid in the area we needed, there is little doubt the sports school daughter will attend there is world class, far from sure she will be able to travel with their A team, but at least she'll get a shot.