NoFeeBoards.com!

The reference is simply to the fact that people usually love their native countries and prefer to live there. I think this is a characteristically human reaction. Evidently Scott did too. Most people prefer to live among people who share their cultural traditions, including language, and attitude toward law and democratic government. Does that strike you as deranged?

Only when it interferes with the highest and best use of their life energies.

sounded like he was saying those of us who preferre expat life to what the US offers had "dead souls," "un-burning hearts", that we don't experience "rapture," that we were "self-centered wretches," that we
"forfeit fair renown," "die doubly," and, finally, "shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung."

So, yes, he sounds 'deranged' to me. I simply offered an organic explanation for his bizarre diatribe.

for some reason, you dismiss really cheap, great quality housing and access to high quality, cheap health care. as a prospective oldster, those are real appealing to moi.

I definitely don't dismiss it but take it as a given - all I'm trying to say is that IMO you won't get all that plus the "good life" for US$10,000 a year as may be implied by some internet sites - $30,000 a year for total expenses is more like it. But I've got no problems with anyone disagreeing

wanderer
It's now called the "Malaysia My Second Home" programme but used to be called the Silverhair programme. You can check with Google but basics are at
http://www.expat.com.my/silverhair.htm . I haven't applied myself but know people who have - seems to have been slightly more complicated than it sounds on the websites but still seems to take only a month or so. You have to make the deposit onshore in Malaysia but as far as I'm aware it can be with the local branch of Citibank, etc, etc. But employment is not usually allowed.

two other malaysian links:

http://www.tourism.gov.my/my2ndhome/2ndhome.htm
http://www.imi.gov.my/

very interesting. i'm still amazed, with a place as poor as the RP, that these sorts of deposits (US$40k in Malaysia) and higher are required. I think they call it "a poverty of ideas"...

amazing like this:

http://www.pra-visa.com/services.htm#applicant

that's $90k for the privilege of having us help their population with some hard currency. Their population is growing by 1mm people per year with no jobs in sight ... :shock:

remember my travelling companion looking up from her club sandwich in a fancy Istanbul hotel and saying, in a surprised and disappointed tone, "This isn't particularly good."

We once ordered a "western style" breakfast of sausage and eggs at a small restaurant in Mae Hong Son.

They obviously had the general idea, and made a valiant attempt: We were served eggs with a side of two hot dogs.

We were served eggs with a side of two hot dogs.

That's what makes life interesting It took me a while to get used to it, but I look forward to curry for breakfast these days - try nasi lemak in Malaysia

I had curry once in Durban, Province of Natal, Republic of South Africa, on the Indian Ocean coast. The curry was so hot that I had to go to my room afterward and lie down to recover. We know from observation that it is humanly possible to learn to eat such spicy food and that it makes good sense to do that when refrigeration is lacking. I made the same mistake again, though, ordering rijstafel in Amsterdam. I prefer my meals to be much less interesting than that. My aging stomach concurs entirely.