Ask HN: A good overseas place for a resting hacker/technomad
10 comments
You may want to consider Japan. Last year, I spent two months traveling and working out of co-working spaces in Sapporo, Sendai, Yokohama, and Tokyo. It was the most productive, most relaxing, and fun time I had.
Safe all around, very organized, you can focus on what you want to do without worrying about your safety, corruption, and fear of getting robbed or taken advantage of like in developing countries like India. While traveling from Tokyo to Sapporo, I forgot a bag on train in Tokyo and didn't realize until got to Sapporo. Called the lost and found, someone had turned it in, it was still there when I arrived in Tokyo at the end of my trip with all my stuff in it.
Sapporo - Very nice city, good infrastructure, transportation and facilities, nice people, great food (Ramen, Beer, Jingiskan, seafood), beautiful women (if you into that), places to party and hangout after a hard day of work. If you like cold weather, lots of world-class ski places nearby. If you are warm weather person, go in summer as winters are brutal. There is a great co-working place in downtown core area. Inexpensive places to live on Airbnb.
Sendai - Smaller city, academic oriented (lots of universities and colleges) so opportunities to hang out with students if you are young, lot of nice places for weekend trips (onsens, hiking), check out museum and a few areas impacted by tsunami and earthquake and how they have recovered/recovering. There is a really good small co-working space for 100 Yen ($1) a day, a really great deal with 50+ Mbps internet connection. Very inexpensive places on Airbnb. Without Japanese, it may be a little challenging to navigate.
Yokohama - Nice city with a ship port and great china town, baseball stadium, lot of touristy things (Kamakura) to do nearby. Not far from Tokyo if you want to go there time to time. I spent time at two co-working places, both are great with different vibe. Lots of after-hour events at these facilities. Finding inexpensive places on Airbnb is a challenge and get booked quickly.
Tokyo - Not much to say, a major city. Can be expensive unless you go outside the core. Lots of fun things to do. Quite a few coworking spaces, lots of after hour and weekend events. The co-working space I used, regularly had poker nights and parties on weekend and tech meetups on weekday evening.
Safe all around, very organized, you can focus on what you want to do without worrying about your safety, corruption, and fear of getting robbed or taken advantage of like in developing countries like India. While traveling from Tokyo to Sapporo, I forgot a bag on train in Tokyo and didn't realize until got to Sapporo. Called the lost and found, someone had turned it in, it was still there when I arrived in Tokyo at the end of my trip with all my stuff in it.
Sapporo - Very nice city, good infrastructure, transportation and facilities, nice people, great food (Ramen, Beer, Jingiskan, seafood), beautiful women (if you into that), places to party and hangout after a hard day of work. If you like cold weather, lots of world-class ski places nearby. If you are warm weather person, go in summer as winters are brutal. There is a great co-working place in downtown core area. Inexpensive places to live on Airbnb.
Sendai - Smaller city, academic oriented (lots of universities and colleges) so opportunities to hang out with students if you are young, lot of nice places for weekend trips (onsens, hiking), check out museum and a few areas impacted by tsunami and earthquake and how they have recovered/recovering. There is a really good small co-working space for 100 Yen ($1) a day, a really great deal with 50+ Mbps internet connection. Very inexpensive places on Airbnb. Without Japanese, it may be a little challenging to navigate.
Yokohama - Nice city with a ship port and great china town, baseball stadium, lot of touristy things (Kamakura) to do nearby. Not far from Tokyo if you want to go there time to time. I spent time at two co-working places, both are great with different vibe. Lots of after-hour events at these facilities. Finding inexpensive places on Airbnb is a challenge and get booked quickly.
Tokyo - Not much to say, a major city. Can be expensive unless you go outside the core. Lots of fun things to do. Quite a few coworking spaces, lots of after hour and weekend events. The co-working space I used, regularly had poker nights and parties on weekend and tech meetups on weekday evening.
Nepal. Lax visa, inexpensive, mostly safe, okay Internet (not the fastest), nice weather for sure, and a very beautiful country.
Ping me if you are interested. I can hook you up with hackers/entrepreneurs there.
Ping me if you are interested. I can hook you up with hackers/entrepreneurs there.
Thank you, I've bookmarked your profile :)
India is a good option.
Lax visa. Cheap rent, cheap internet, cheap food, weather depends on which state, lot of places to explore and cheap travel too
Morocco. Ticks all the boxes, plus it's something new and different. Wifi is available in most cafe and hotels.
Let me know if you need more info.
I'm biased, but Malaysia (the country just south of Thailand) is not a bad place to stay for a while.
Might be worth checking out NomadList:
https://nomadlist.io/
https://nomadlist.io/
uh... Russia
They don't have lax visa requirements.
Russia was an interesting country until recently, but it fails on every one of my points. That's the thing.
What are good countries/locales for a resting hacker? My priorities are:
- Lax visa requirements / allows to stay for prolonged periods of time without much hassle.
- Places for rent are inexpensive and aplenty.
- Physical safety, lack of surprises from local laws and authorities.
- Internet access is reasonably fast, unharrassed by censors and copyright activists.
- Nice weather, good food.
- Some things to see, some options to travel.
My current ideas are Thailand (obvious while already lacking some points) and surprisingly Serbia (an amazing country as I have learned).