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Post by pjmpjm on Apr 10, 2015 17:27:40 GMT 7
I was just mentioning to Banjo the other day that I did a bit of online research concerning Aussie expat locations.
The most unusual (but only because I never thought of it) was East Timor.
In fact, I was in East Timor briefly in 1973.
Now it occurs to me to ask if anyone using this forum lives there . . . or knows anyone living there.
We have an annual benefit for East Timor here in Leura . . . a large used book sale held in one of the churches near Leura Mall.
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Post by Banjo on Apr 10, 2015 18:22:19 GMT 7
Plenty of eucalyptus up here, one of the pale, smooth bark varieties. Maybe a Blue gum variety.
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Post by Banjo on Apr 10, 2015 18:28:30 GMT 7
I was just mentioning to Banjo the other day that I did a bit of online research concerning Aussie expat locations. The most unusual (but only because I never thought of it) was East Timor. In fact, I was in East Timor briefly in 1973. Now it occurs to me to ask if anyone using this forum lives there . . . or knows anyone living there. We have an annual benefit for East Timor here in Leura . . . a large used book sale held in one of the churches near Leura Mall. I met an Australian running a bar in Phnom Penh who had sold his bar in East Timor to follow his NGO working wife to her new job in Cambodia. The highlight on the bar food menu was sausages and mash in onion gravy and after enjoying a plate I had a drink with him and he took me to a quiz night at an English pub. Not exactly what most people would come to expect of a big night on the town in Phnom Penh.
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Post by immiadvice on Apr 10, 2015 19:37:23 GMT 7
Sounds like Randall, the former owner of the gym bar. Had the monkey bar in East Timor.
He did do some excellent pub grub. I believe now he has retired out to the Cambodian countryside with an organic farm.
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Post by Banjo on Apr 10, 2015 21:14:07 GMT 7
Rings a bell, it would have been early 2004 and he had recently arrived.
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Post by immiadvice on Apr 11, 2015 5:13:33 GMT 7
Rings a bell, it would have been early 2004 and he had recently arrived. Well that would have been the same person but at the K bar, before he had the gym bar.
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Post by mikey on Apr 11, 2015 6:38:23 GMT 7
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Post by Banjo on Apr 11, 2015 7:00:51 GMT 7
Reminds me of how small the Asian expat world is, probably even smaller since the internet forum boom.
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Post by pjmpjm on Apr 11, 2015 9:55:17 GMT 7
Following on from the theme of gum trees thriving in unusual places (or what we'd consider to be unusual places) I found this little upbeat story encouraging Americans to move to Ecuador. The son of an Australian friend of mine ran some kind of eco-tourism operation near here, but he's moved back to Oz now . . . Credit to 'International Living' . . .
The Secret of Ecuador's Guilds By Suzan Haskins
"This may be the cleanest town I've ever seen in Latin America," my husband said as we walked after dinner one night. I agree. The residents of Cotacachi keep their little town very tidy. There are no holes in the sidewalks to trip over, no vacant lots piled with litter.
Children ride bikes around town without adult supervision, teenagers congregate in the plaza at night to chat or sing songs or nibble on ears of corn or chicken kabobs seared on a kettle grill under a streetlamp on the corner.
This is Ecuador's famous "leather" town, high in the Andes mountains, where artisan shops line the main street and you can buy any type of leather item, from a saddle for your horse to booties for your baby. Prices for these items are 50% to 75% less than you would pay in the U.S. In Cotacachi, Ecuador, life is easy, simple, natural... and cheap.
At night the artisan shops close up and only a few restaurants and small mom-and-pop shops are open. That's all you need, really. After a day of sunshine in the 8,000-foot-altitude mountain climate, nighttime is for sleeping. The cool, crisp air smells faintly of wood smoke, roasting corn, and eucalyptus. Eucalyptus trees grow abundantly wild, as do palm trees. Think Breckenridge without the pretension or the snow, and you'll come close to imagining Cotacachi. It's what those of us who came of age in the 1970s hoped life would be: easy, simple, natural.
And incredibly affordable, too. As elsewhere in Ecuador, your dollars stretch to astonishing lengths.
In 2008, we bought our own condo in Cotacachi. We purchased it from the builder, pre-construction, for $52,000. It's a top-floor penthouse of a little more than 1,000 square feet with a fireplace, sunroom, outside terrace, and mountain views. If you need upscale creature comforts like a gourmet meal or (and I don't say this lightly) one of the world's best spa treatments, you'll find both at the five-star La Mirage Hotel and Spa on the edge of town.
The famous market town of Otavalo is just 15 minutes away should the shopping urge overcome you. Fresh produce can be bought there or at Cotacachi's open-air Sunday market. Or go to the nearby city of Ibarra to the modern supermarkets, or the mega malls of Quito, one of the largest and most sophisticated cities in South America, just two hours south.
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Post by Banjo on Apr 11, 2015 14:00:39 GMT 7
Sounds great, I knew an American here who was thinking of relocating to Ecuador but he ended up going to the Philippines instead. I'd like to add that people should take care buying apartments pre-construction (off the plan) in Asia. I know of a vacant block in Chiang Mai that has had three separate sets of plans drawn up in the last ten or so years.
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Post by Denis-NFA on Apr 12, 2015 3:11:22 GMT 7
The highlight on the bar food menu was sausages and mash in onion gravy Bangers and mash with onion gravy is proper food.
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Post by Denis-NFA on Apr 12, 2015 4:34:34 GMT 7
I'd like to add that people should take care buying apartments pre-construction (off the plan) in Asia. +100 BanjoThis is slightly off the topic but! The Philippines has 'nominally' adopted the South Australian originated Torrens Title system of property tenure. Which we do in Australia. And Australia is one of the few countries in the world that anyone can buy a chunk of it. As far as I know, there is not one ASEAN country that a foreigner can have absolute property rights.
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Post by Banjo on Apr 12, 2015 7:41:24 GMT 7
Is that so? I had a bit of a Google and came up with quite a few that allow foreign land ownership, the USA for one. South East Asian countries do seem to be the exception but I see the Lao PDR and Vietnam are considering legislating to allow it. internationalliving.com/global-property-ownershi/
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Post by ghostbuster on Apr 12, 2015 9:26:45 GMT 7
You can own a condo in the Philippines but the ground floor is off the buying list. If buying a house i think if you form a corporation that would suffice.
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Post by Banjo on Apr 12, 2015 10:14:21 GMT 7
I understand that property can be bought through law firms who handle the transaction, retain the deeds and sell if required, all for a fee of course.
I can hear the eyeballs rolling now but it wouldn't be any different to trust funds in Australia.
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