New year, new direction

[haiqu]

Originally Posted by delatbabel

Couldn't die happier than a man with a stack of passports all full of stamps.

I've been to Belgium via Singapore and London, Bruxelles to Munich and back, Florida via LA and Dulles, and NZ four times. Do you know how many times my passport has been stamped? Go on, take a guess.

Never.

I hate that.

[Auzzee]

Originally Posted by Munchi Mike

"Whatcha doing on the east coast?.

Well, since retiring from formal work I have been travelling to some of the places I visited during my working life. In short I had been to far more places than I had actually seen. In answer to the question "What's China like?" I wanted to be able to say more than, "They have a nice hotel".

I came to the US to have a bit of a sticky about as I had only really visited as a journo. So, I bought a motorcycle and started doing what I had been doing in SE Asia for a few years...riding and sailing.

Have done a bit of the west coast, a bit of the middle and southwest and made my way to Nashville. Have now ridden the Blue ridge, Cherohala, Shenandoah and, decided I like the west coast more than the east coast. Quite like Florida and am now down in Abaco working to make a crappy sailboat into a less than crappy sailboat before sailing it around the Carib, then back to Lauderdale. Then I will head back to Mexico to sail my own boat..perhaps back across the Pacific to Oz.

So having said all that, I'm doing what I had always done in Oz, except for the working thing. Another year or so and I am heading across to Europe to do the canals. I was born in the UK and despite only having lived there as an ankle biter, I can get some benefits, as a traveler, which may not necessarily be available to the average Aussie.

That's about it Mike. I'm just a bit of a bum really who has decided that making appointments sucks.

Best wishes.

[Munchi Mike]

"Check? Geez dude, that's so 1970's. Social Security goes straight into your nominated bank account, has done for decades. Even Bul-freakin-garia has internet banking."

Uh Huh.
So add that to your expense list.
4G phone w'internet (and a stable perpetual flow of cash from gubbo)
Medical insurance,
boat insurance,
berth fees, boat expenses
proof of substantial capital flow
expenses to get your boat to where ever,
living expenses,
costs to get the licenses needed,

and your pension is $250 per week??!!
Asia, Micronesia
they have internet and banks and virtually no constraints I understand and a third world life standard; yes.

[haiqu]

No, it's AU$867 per fortnight if you pass both the assets and income tests.

Believe it or not, Ukraine is 40% cheaper to live than Cambodia. And I certainly prefer the women there.

Example: ADSL US$4.50 per month. You can't get prices like that anywhere in Asia.

[delatbabel]

Originally Posted by haiqu

Believe it or not, Ukraine is 40% cheaper to live than Cambodia. And I certainly prefer the women there.

However the weather in the Ukraine has knobs on it.

Example: ADSL US$4.50 per month. You can't get prices like that anywhere in Asia.

You can indeed. I was paying about that for 6mbit/sec fibre but upgraded to 12mbit/sec which cost double. Internet in most of Asia is pretty cheap. It's just Australia that's backwards in that regards.

[Munchi Mike]

Haiqu for Haiqu,

" You might be gettin' dizzy,
from speding too much time in Brizzie,
Anyhow, have a Winfield"

[Munchi Mike]

Well bloody good onya Auzzee!!!!
The US is different from one town to the next. When I got back up here, there were as many people in San Francisco Bay Area as the entire population in Oz. That was '76 mind you but the ratio can't be too different now. You watch yesef mate, remember Easy Rider?? There are a LOT of crazy MoFo's with guns all over but the east coast, on a bike; whew, you got big ones brah. Watch out for fat people.

[Munchi Mike]

"However the weather in the Ukraine has knobs on it."

and it's bloody -3C in Montenegro ATM

Say Haiqu, it just occurred to me'
you need to add beaucoup bucks for courting purposes, as if those babes are going to be interested in a 65 yo Aussie without money and even then, well, you are a dirty old man LOL who doesn't speak their language. Just what kind of relationship do you think that is?? So lets say you get one. How ya gonna keep 'er????

[haiqu]

Keep her? As my old Dad used to say, "Why buy a book when you can join a library?"

I don't speak any Asian languages either, so no difference there.

[haiqu]

Originally Posted by Munchi Mike

Haiqu for Haiqu,

" You might be gettin' dizzy,
from speding too much time in Brizzie,
Anyhow, have a Winfield"

Bloody galah. LOL

[haiqu]

Originally Posted by delatbabel

However the weather in the Ukraine has knobs on it.

I'm from Melbourne, and a redhead (or at least was, when I had hair). Cold weather is preferable to the tropics. Besides, it's a jumping-off point to see Europe. I'd only be there in the summer.

You can indeed. I was paying about that for 6mbit/sec fibre but upgraded to 12mbit/sec which cost double. Internet in most of Asia is pretty cheap. It's just Australia that's backwards in that regards.

Check Numbeo. The price I quoted was for 10Mbps. Here's Hanoi vs Kiev as an example:

Cost of Living Comparison Between Kiev, Ukraine And Hanoi, Vietnam

The interesting one for me is the cost of buying a mid-city apartment, which is half that of Asia in most cases.

In Phnom Penh the property is cheaper but a 10Mbps connection will cost you AU$55.00 a month.

Cost of Living Comparison Between Phnom Penh and Kiev

[haiqu]

Just met the newcomer in the Hartley. He's another live-aboard and seems intent to stay a while. Works in the building industry and seems like a genuine guy, if a bit rough around the edges.

The yacht is a Tahitian 47 which he bought about 6 months ago for $11,000 and is in really good shape, including a new Chinese diesel. She's Registered as Cockatoo I and on the Australian registry.

[Munchi Mike]

Okay so you're a bald 64 year old. What's your weight like??
Those girls who post on sites looking for foreign men are probably looking for rich white guys with hair to marry so they can go to their country and have a good life. Do you really think that you can scoop on one of those honey's have your way with her then get another in your sweaty little mitts??? LOLOLOL
Hey I'm just having a dig mate, but really, I believe there's a point there and I agree about wasting time on locals. I've been to Brisbane many times and frankly, I don't know WHAT a bloke could find there, maybe a pub. You can't really go loiter around Surfers Paradise as a broke bald 64 year old lecher LOL, so my guess is, a guy needs to go where there are more choices. There are so many babes in Sydney, and many who sail, why would you want to go to Bulgaria where it's cold to find one with only English as your tool.
I wouldn't fancy heading up the Suez these days anyway, but Panama is such a long trip. I sure am glad I'm me ahahahaha. (I'm 5'9" 160lbs, have all my hair and it's not white, but my knees, wrists and hip are on their way out)

[haiqu]

Geez, take it easy. I don't turn 63 for a few weeks, and the balding dome is a solar cell for a sex machine. Yeah, all right I could lose some weight.

Sydney? Have you checked out the cost of rent there lately? Freow. Anyone living there nowadays needs to be earning $80k to barely survive.

[Munchi Mike]

Oooops, sorry cobba'
,
you are stilla young fella then and I have thought this out a bit more.
I met a Canadian babe in Melbourne in 2001 and she tells me that she has residence and work permits cuzza that Brit connection. But more than that I have considered what I would do if I was in Brizzie with potential $1600 pm coming in and ants in me pants ichin' to turn into jumpin' beans. From what I know now; and what I can figger,
In Bulgaria you'd be another guy who ended up at the far end of the Med. From where didjasay?? That if you slipped up Suez nice and qwik like.
On t'other hand, if you chose the Pacific; I think you have hole up time in Canada for the 'Schengen' slip. Also Mexico.
So you'd just be another boat at the end of the Med, OR,
get a yacht club membership down there somewhere, sail over to Long Beach and park at the Yacht Club. (YC reciprocity) There you'd be a FARGIN" hero. A guy who actually sailed from Australia (one up?) and yes we know where it is. They would invite you to give a talk, maybe even do a dinner in your honour, and then comes the realistic part.
Widows and divorcees. So Cal women take real good care of themselves AND shave their legs regularly, (I can't vouch for those eastern block women lol but Euro's?!!!) Wondering what to do with ex hubbies money, (he got reamed steamed cleaned and pressed) and she's holding beacoup bucks and bored (sh) witless. There is so much money down there you'd bust a garboard AND lotsa babes. You may be the shaken and not stirred kinda bloke, but then again, your feat would be enough and yer boat would be right there. Time ran out I'd pop down top Mexico, slip the 'Schengen' again and head back up. I don't reckon you want to the whole trip solo all the way to Bulgaria to find really pretty broke women who have jealous boyfriends. attitudinal fathers and problem brothers (it could happen). Another thing I hate to remind you. This ploy won't work when you're 70 unless you're Francis Chichester ahahahaha.

[haiqu]

I fear you may have missed something. No way I'm considering this in a yacht, there's almost no easy way to get there from here. Suez is out of the question due to pirate activities off Somalia, so in effect I'd have to go round the cape and enter via Gibraltar. If I'm going that far I'd much prefer to end up in Brazil.

No, this new plan doesn't include sailing to the med at all. It's all about making a clean break to a new, cheaper environment and living the laissez-faire nomad capitalist existence. Now if only I could figure out a new means of income ... but I'm getting close on that score as well. I did a small "test" of a new idea today and made 20% in 24 hours which isn't a bad return at all.

Of course I still love the yachts, and if I can include them in the plans so much the better.

[Munchi Mike]

Okay,
you want to migrate there.
Whole different story

[haiqu]

I'm considering a number of options including Belize, Ukraine, Thailand and a couple of others. It won't be a migration in the formal sense since I don't intend to become a citizen of any other country. Australia only taxes expats on their earnings within Australia, unlike the rather unique US system where all income derived from anywhere is taxed no matter where you live.

Paraguay was also looking like a contender for a while, until the capital flooded due to El Niño weather conditions.

[haiqu]

Yeah, it's time to get out of here.

[haiqu]

Should have my new business up and running within a fortnight or so. It's good because it meets all my requirements including being a low maintenance, hands-off, automated money maker. The perfect income generator for the cruising yachtsman, in fact.

I'll drop a link in here when it's on line. You'll be surprised, I'm sure.