Waaoo, Did you say chiang mai? I don't know about damn internet but Chiang mais are cool, pretty, reliable and affordable hold you breath Chiang mai has best food quality, climate, nature and girls among all popular destinations in thailand
Chiang mai is the most attractive city in Thailand for sure. I would have grave reservations about trusting the infrastructure in Thailand from a trading perspective though. Another attractive alternative in the far east might be malaysia with first world infrasturture, an English speaking populace and a cost of living that compares favourably with Thailand. Also they give you a 3 month toursit visa, no questions asked. In Singapore you get 2 weeks and Thailand just a month.
I've been living in Asia (Singapore and Hong Kong) for the past 8-9 years and travelled around quite extensively. The internet connection quality in Singapore is very poor. Although you get broadband, because the government screens everything, you get appalling latency. I experienced issues particularly with charting apps like QCharts, TradeStation and eSignal. Yes I tried quite a few IB TWS was OKish. Don't get me wrong, I really liked Singapore but internet-wise it sucks. You can expect similar or even poorer conditions in many of the other parts of Asia's with a few exceptions like Japan, Korea and Hong Kong - very good quality connection. Cost of living in HK is higher, especially accommodation, but it's also more vibrant and interesting. Bear in mind that if you scalp and time the ticks or do MM type trading (which I don't) then I believe Asia is out of the question. For timeframes such as 5min upwards ping results of 200-300ms aren't an issue in my opinion. I have a 3.5Mbps ADSL now in New Zealand and get about 280ms to IB's gw1.ibllc.com and I don't see any issues with that. Another option to consider is China. I haven't tried trading from there but there are no issues with Visa as you can get a 6 months multi-journey visa quite easily. Shanghai for example is a very interesting and vibrant place to spend several months in with a good mix of Chinese and Western facilities/communities etc. and it's still very cheap in western terms. Enjoy
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Hongkong and shanghai offer better internet, They are good if you like living fast and hi-tech enviroment (it's good to be hi-tech, but i prefer not to live in a high-tech place) even bangkok is too much for me in that sense and i'm not bothered much about speed of internet where i choose to go I'm not sure if your are asian, but HK or main land differs a lot from Thailand, malaysia, indonesia, ph.... and i think for me second group are way more exotic
Yep I know what you mean. I'm indeed more fond of the hi-tech, high-pace, big-city type of place. At least at this point of my life. I'm not quite Asian (well not in the way you mean Asian). I've been to most of the places you mentioned. There are indeed significant differences in lifestyle and costs. Another interesting place that hasn't been mentioned is India. Some people fall in love with the place and end up staying months and years and some can't stop thinking of leaving it 5 minutes after arriving. Internet-wise it's a bit like Thailand, some places have good facilities, some none at all. Power outages can be a problem as well. Can I ask which are your favourite places?
I brought up Chiang Mai because I dont like the big poluted hot cities.I believe there is a hidden health related cost to living in such places.I spent several months in Manila and could tell you about that place if anyone cares. Anyone stayed in San Jose Costa Rica lately?I havent been there for twenty years.They had the worlds sneakiest theives.