C40's Journal

[Frugalchicos]

@seppia

Agree, C40's journal was one of the first journals I read along with Animal's. Ver inspirational and cool.

Very interested to see what you have to say in regards to: "hopefully a shift to share some more specific information and ideas on efforts to live well (post retirement)"

[guitarplayer]

Yeah, in South America DW had flu like symptoms for bulk of the time and had to take antihistamines.

1 - Living in the parts of SEA with cleaner air. It varies quite a lot.

Do you have any spots / regions to point to? I am always on the lookout for places to go to and teach English or Maths sometime before I kick the bucket. Or maybe student visa like picked up by others.

[ertyu]

What I've noticed is that we in the west often think urban==polluted while rural==clean. In many cases, this holds for SEA as well, where large cities see a lot of vehicle exhaust etc. But rural places aren't necessarily clean either because many of the rural communities would burn their garbage for sanitation, burn all sorts of things for heating and cooking heat, etc. I'm also curious about C40's experience with how to identify comparatively cleaner areas.

[C40]

Actually I don't have much advice on finding which places have less pollution. There are some obvious things you can do like look at pollution maps (and not just a one-day snapshot - check seasonality, particularly farm/forest area burnings. As an example, I heard lately there have been large scale forest clearings happening in Laos by controlled fires, and it has caused a ton of pollution over the last month or so).

On this subject I would have as many questions as answers

And yeah, a portion of people in Asia (and I guess many/most developing nations) will burn anything and EVERYTHING. Nothing is safe. Plastics. Painted things. Whatever you're not supposed to burn, people are doing it.

[guitarplayer]

Thanks C40.

Wow, your journal is like a book by now, many people say nice words about it, I might read it!

[RoamingFrancis]

Apologies if you've addressed this question on earlier pages, but what advice would you give to others interested in living in Asia?

Do you have roots, home bases, or connection to community in any specific areas, or are you fully nomadic?

Are you fully FI now, or do you still work for income?

[2Birds1Stone]

D̶i̶d̶ y̶o̶u̶ b̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ r̶e̶a̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ a̶n̶y̶ o̶f̶ t̶h̶e̶ j̶o̶u̶r̶n̶a̶l̶? Al̶l̶ y̶o̶u̶r̶ q̶u̶e̶s̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ a̶n̶d̶ t̶h̶e̶n̶ s̶o̶m̶e̶ h̶a̶v̶e̶ b̶e̶e̶n̶ a̶n̶s̶w̶e̶r̶e̶d̶ a̶d̶ n̶a̶u̶s̶e̶u̶m̶.

All off these answers are in the journal.

[CS]

A nicer way to say it would be “those answers are in the journal.” No need for unpleasantness.

Also, C40, it’s been a while. How is the language school going?

[C40]

Things are still going well. Earlier this year I got a bicycle. I thought I'd ride 2-3 times per week for basic exercise. But I enjoyed riding a lot, and I've been riding a lot, and getting more and more into it. I had been bicycling a lot in my life, starting over 20 years ago, including a little bit of touring, and a yew years of racing. Over the last ten years I had been doing other stuff more and less bicyling. Then for some recent years, because of moving around, I'd do no bicycling at all for 1-2 years at a time.

Now I've been enjoying it as much as I ever have, and it's becoming a significant priority. Where I live is ok for it. Great in some ways, not in others. One way it's not great is the weather. There's a rainy season of a 2-4 months (really, REALLY rainy), and during summer it's extremely hot (and really humid, keeping the daily low temperatures really high so on a sunny day it feels really hot already by 8am)..

So I've started thinking about bouncing around a bit - going to different areas/countries at certain times when the climate there is good for riding. I'm back to doing research on countries and cities - this time with more details including looking closer at air quality, road quality, things like that.

- - - - - - - - -

The language learning is going ok. Definitely not great. For the first 4-5 months of class, my motivation was high and I was learning quickly. Then, my motivation dropped a lot and I stopped studying outside of class. I also started staying home more and more (because I bought a coffee machine I love using, so I don't go out to coffee shops as much, and because I started riding a lot - so if I go out riding 1-4 hours in the morning, after that I feel like I've already 'went out' and don't feel much need to go out. So then I'm at home not learning or practicing). But even though I haven't studied, my hearing and speaking have improved. At my current rate of learning it would take me at least 2 more years to reach what I'd consider a good level. It's not a high priority, so I don't think about that being either good or bad.

[biaggio]

Nice to hear you're back to cycling C40. Is it road biking that you're into? What kind of bike do you have? I recently took a remote role and moved closer home, and I too started cycling a lot more (for my standards anyway) on a road bike.

[guitarplayer]

Thanks C40.

Wow, your journal is like a book by now, many people say nice words about it, I might read it!

Okay so I took the time, read the first maybe 6 pages of the journal and then skimmed with increasing speed through the remainder. Good stuff, grateful this is still on the forum, much thanks!

I feel inspired so I am going to go write something in my journal.

[2Birds1Stone]

Hey C40, DW and I plan on being in your area for 2-3 weeks starting around March 10th. Any chance you'll be around for a coffee and maybe a bike ride?

I also think a few others from the Forum plan on making the pilgrimage (@WRC?) at some point this winter.

[Western Red Cedar]

DW and I are planning on vagabonding in SE Asia in 2024, with at least a couple months in Vietnam. Our dates are flexible and I'll try to overlap with 2B1S in March. We'll have a better idea about specific dates in the next month or so. Would love to meet up with some other forum members to do some hiking, biking, or other excursions.