We’ve recently hit the road again with an open-ended itinerary.
First stop: Chiang Mai, Thailand.
In our wild and care free days without a child, we would just arrive at a new destination and hunt for housing. We’ve found some incredible apartments in multiple countries this way. This time around Google did the heavy lifting, finding us a new studio service apartment 5 minutes from the Chiang Mai Gate.
For $375/month, we get everything on our list: roof top pool, well equipped gym, outdoor space, regular cleaning service, kitchen, great shower, and central location.
On to the tour…
The winter climate in Chiang Mai is perfect for afternoons by the pool. If that happens to be a near-infinity salt water pool on a roof top, even better.
The cool mornings are a great time for a workout. The gym is nicely equipped with cardio machines and free weights.
The outdoor space is great for lounging in the shade, with an abundance of grass and flowers.
At 5 meters x 8 meters, the room is comfortably sized. It is not too big, such that we must overcome a great deal of momentum to go out and explore, and yet it is not too small where we feel cramped. The lighting and storage spaces are superb, and make the space feel even larger.
A small kitchen area makes it easy to prepare home made baby food and to have breakfasts at home.
The bathroom has a great shower, with unlimited hot water and great water pressure.
The staff has been incredibly warm and inviting. You would think GCCjr is a famous rock star by how they treat him every day. We are also treated very well, as you would expect for a couple of groupies. :)
Room cleaning service is twice per week, and the entire building is immaculately cleaned and maintained. The building is only ~1 year old and everything is new, clean, and comfortable.
When we do venture out, we are only a 5 minute walk to the Chiang Mai Gate market. We can eat Phad Thai and Tom Yum soup for ~$1, and get fresh fruit smoothies or Thai iced tea for $0.50. Tuk tuks to anywhere in the city center are just a few bucks.
Our plan
is was to stay here at least 30 days. We might have to extend that :)
If you are looking for accommodations in Chiang Mai, any of the following links will get you started:
$:
Rent: 13,000 THB/month (~$362/month)
Internet: included
Electricity: 7 THB/kWH (~$0.20… total bill, TBD)
Water: ~30 THB/m^3 (~$0.80… total bill, TBD)
Amazingly affordable! We’ll have to put Chiang Mai toward the top of our travel list.
Definitely looks awesome and there’s no way you can beat that price. Definitely something to consider for an extended travel if we make it to Thailand.
Sweeeeeet! I wanna stay in a place like that when we get to Chiang Mai…
Hm. Already fully booked for a long future. How did you get your room?
This is the high season, and people stay for months at a time.
We reserved our room back at the beginning of September
And now I want Pad Thai for breakfast. Thailand has definitely been on my list of places to visit, Chiang Mai sounds like a great area to stop at.
I’ve been known to eat Phad Thai for breakfast.
Well sawadee-ka stranger!
Pretty amazing how nice that place is for $375 per month. I could definitely live there (and get a second studio for the 3 kids!). Hey, stick around there till summer of 2016 and we’ll stop by for a month (only partially kidding).
We have some studio apartments a block down the street from us that share our lakefront view. They are about the same size at 500 sf, but 30 years old and showing their age. Rent’s only $400-450 per month but they don’t come with a pool and they really aren’t that nice inside. Moving to the studios is our plan C or D if the whole “live frugally on a million+ bucks” doesn’t work out well for us. Ha ha.
Summer in CM is hot, so we’ll probably move on to a friendlier climate by then. But we’ll leave the light on for ya
Longer term stays in the area are much cheaper. We’ve seen 2 bedroom houses advertised for ~$500/month, and that seems to be the high end. A lot of Western people seem to have used Thailand as their plan C, as you can live pretty well here on a SS check with no other savings
We learned the kids don’t do well with heat and humidity (nor do us adults, honestly), so scratch that Chiang Mai summer idea for me. :)
A week in the Yucatan in late July taught us that. Lots of hanging out at the pool and staying inside the villa enjoying the A/C (which isn’t an entirely horrible way to spend a week in the Yucatan).
Looks fantastic! Our super white baby was a rockstar in Cambodia. My three kids would love to stay in a place like that!
We have a routine now, where we play on the lawn in the morning and swim in the late afternoon. This is a great place for kids
We’ll get there. I swear it. And hopefully before my kids are too old and snarky.
That’s crazy cheap, and it looks clean too! Would you say this is more the norm or more the exception?
The full spectrum is available… from old backpacker hostels to 5 star hotels, e.g. Le Meridian and Four Seasons. I can’t say what the norm is, but there seem to be many properties available at similar price/quality levels
For longer term stays, the prices get even lower. See for example this housing development we’ve seen advertisements for, with purchase prices starting at ~$40k USD.
Is this a suite? On the website suites go for 18000+ thb and other rooms < 10000 thb per month. If a suite, how did you find the better rate?
This is in the Smith Suites building. They quoted me 16k when I contacted them via email
GCCjr s getting bigger! Seems like a fabulous place to stay for $375 a month. Can’t beat that kind of price.
I have a question or would love to see a blog post about this (if you haven’t done one already). I am seriously considering this lifestyle in a few years when my child goes off to college. I envision myself moving every few days, weeks, or months just as you do. However, I have a household full of “things”. Some of them I can easily part with. Others mean a great deal to me, especially some furniture from my grandparents. There are handmade quilts, baby items, photographs, etc. If you are moving so often and living in somewhat small areas, how to you decide what you will travel with and what goes? What have you done with possessions that are family heirlooms?
We have very little in the way of possessions. There are a few photos in a small box in a friend’s basement in Seattle, but given time I would just digitize those and put them in the recycle bin.
The same goes for furniture and larger possessions. Very few of our memories are attached to physical items. If you want to keep certain items, you can always keep a home base or use a storage locker. That just has a recurring expense like any other.
The Minimalists have what I consider to be the definitive word on the subject of “sentimental” items:
http://www.theminimalists.com/sentimental/
In your case, if all that is standing between you and living the life of your dreams is this collection of physical goods, then that is a strong case for doing some deep introspection about the reasons you feel you need to keep possession of these items. I agree that it is difficult, but with time I have come to understand, like they say in the article, that the item is not the person, nor is it the memory. There are some things that I have taken pictures of, but the truth is I do not miss them.
My recommendation? Do it in stages. That’s what worked for me. Start with those items that you said would be easy to get rid of. Go through one complete cycle with this low- hanging fruit. Give it time, see how it feels. See that life goes on, and is even better for owning less. Then start again. And again.
I really like The Minimalists post. There is a lot of wisdom in it.
When I first downsized from a 2,000 sq. ft. 3 bedroom house with an office, I put everything in the living room. Everything. Then I sorted all of the items into 3 piles: Discard/Donate, Keep, Don’t Know.
The Don’t Know pile was large. Then once I discarded a small number of possessions, I sorted everything into 3 piles again. At this point, some of the “Don’t Know” items found their way into the Discard pile. As momentum built it became easier to let go and move on.
Now with our new way of thinking, you couldn’t pay me to hold onto physical items.
I am very jealous! I love thai food! Looking forward for more updates…
Nice! I’m stoked that you wrote this. My hubby and I will be in Chiang Mai mid December and haven’t arranged accommodations. We’re going to highly consider this recommendation. :)
Nice low COL, but it is interesting to see electricity at $0.20/kWh. Also timely as I just today renewed my 2016 pricing here in Chicago (even the fancy 100% renewables plan) at $0.068/kWh.
I suspect electricity is a profit margin boost for the hotels.
$.068 is an incredible rate. The lowest average price by state is WA at $.0715
http://www.neo.ne.gov/statshtml/204.htm
Hi Jeremy. This is so interesting to me. I have been thinking of retiring in Thailand. Most westerners are limited to a 30 day at a time visit visa. And recently, I have heard that the Thai government frowns upon the “visa-runners” (as in leaving the country for a day and r turning for the sole purpose of getting a new visa).since you say you initial plan was to stay only the 30 days but you may consider staying longer, how do you plan to solve the visa issue? Cheers.
Kalergie: Just went through this last year. Showed up for an expected trip of about 25 days and loved Thailand too much to leave. Talked to the US embassy and googled our butts off to find where to get an extended visa (extra 30 days). When we arrived at the address we were told that was the old location and sent to another building. When we arrived there we were told that was also wrong, but a police officer packed my wife and I on his tiny moped and sped us about a mile to the right spot! (3 on a moped actually seems to be an embarassingly small # in Thailand). The staff was at lunch but a long line was already forming to pounce on them upon their return. It took us basically all day but we got it done. This was in Bangkok, so not sure of the procedure if you happen to be in another city. My tip: arrive early and have all your documents in order/printed/photocopied etc. there were people who were there after us who were processed before us and even the two of our passports were processed about 35 minutes apart. Long day, haha.
Rob, thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds dreadful but most probably worth it. :) so my understanding is that you can stay at the most 60 days (2×30 days). thats not much if one wants to spend their retirement there. Remember, people in their 60s and up wouldn’t probably want to do the visa run or spend a day at a government office every 30 days. I’m still young so I’d probably do Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos and stay at each place 1-2 months. But that’s not a long term retirement solution in my opinion.
Recent visa policy changes mean you can get a 6 month multiple entry visa. This is the new visa run as far as I can tell.
Older people (50+?) can get a retirement visa and stay as long as they want.
We applied for a tourist visa in Taipei, so we have 60 days that can be extended once for a total of 90 days.
Since I know you guys have been in Taipei for a while now do you then do a visa run to another country every 90 days? Does this make it hard to get cheap housing or are you paying rent in 2 places at once? My family will be moving to Kaohsiung, TW in June so Im trying to plan. Thanks!
I did visa runs when we thought we would only be in Taiwan for IVF related reasons.
When we needed to stay longer, I got an ARC (residency) card via marriage to a Taiwan citizen.
Thanks for your quick reply! I think our situation may be a bit more complicated since we have a family of four and none of us are Taiwanese citizens. So I would assume we would need to bring the entire family on the round trip. :(
Or get residency in another way. For example by enrolling in an accredited Chinese language program, a job with a local company, etc…
Nice! I lived in their older building (Smith Residence) for 6 weeks back in 2010. Great place, location, and city. Enjoy!
Place looks incredible!
Wonderful article as always. I am curious about your typical process for vetting a place prior to arriving. What sites do you use ? What contingency plans do you have if the place isn’t what you are expecting ? Unexpected costs etc ?
There is a whole city full of housing, so we have near infinite options. Worst case, we pay a little more. No big deal.
I talk to my wife about living for six months at a time in places like Thailand. She’s seemed disinterested most of the time but I could see her gears turning and possibly her coming around to the idea after seeing your beautiful pictures. We’re still years away from early retirement, but posts like these get me wondering about the possibilities.
It isn’t for everybody. But then again, neither is the US.
Aww man is this awesome! Congrats on living this lifestyle, especially with a little guy in tow. If I could just convince my wife to do this with me!
That looks great!! I really enjoy this site–even the Obamacare articles where smoke was rolling out my ears! Thank you for all the time you spend on the site.
I was recently in the Phillipines for a week and was amazed by how nice the people were. Is that the feeling you get throughout Asia or does it depend on the location?
We are heading to San Miguel in march based on one of your early articles. Can’t wait to try all the different foods. We ate food from street vendors in the philipines and plan on doing the same there! (that probably doesn’t seem that exciting to you but was a big step for me)
Thanks Tim! The ACA articles hurt my head too…
The taco carts in San Miguel are fantastic, you will eat very well!
Wow! We were just in the city for a week (currently headed to Hanoi) and looks like you guys got a great rate, we paid $185 for 9 days in a similar apartment. Enjoy the lantern festival!
Which apartment did you rent?
We may end up in Hanoi for some time as well
bitchin’! :)
Well said
Jeremy,
Awesome!!
I’ve done some extensive research on CM. Amazing how cheaply one can live in a place that offers such a high quality of life.
Baby GCC is growing up so fast. But what a way to grow up. :)
Enjoy your time over there!
Cheers.
It is really crazy how well one can live all over Thailand at very low cost. I think it will be our lowest cost location yet, even cheaper than Guatemala.
Will you be heading this way soon?
Talk about bang for your buck. I’d definitely spend some time in that rooftop pool!
You’ll find us there everyday around 4:00 pm
Enjoyed reading all the comments and responses…now for a question.
You said you did or usually do a google search when looking for housing for your locations. Do you have a specific strategy (search terms, websites, etc) that have been most helpful?
I’m finishing my teaching contract in South Korea next month and may take the next year off to do more traveling. I’ll be in Vietnam first to see my (informally adopted Hmong) daugther and friends in Sapa and then off to who knows where. I’m liking the idea of finding a nice little suite like you have and spending about a month at each location, instead of jumping from guesthouse to guesthouse.
How long will you be in Vietnam when you go? I’m guessing you’ve been to Vietnam before. I’ve been visiting Vietnam, primarily the north, regularly since 2006. Maybe our paths will cross.
This would be the first visit to Vietnam for both of us. We aren’t sure about when or for how long, but are thinking we will go to Hanoi first via Luang Prabang, Laos.
I don’t do anything complicated when searching for housing. Mostly I look at prices on a site like booking.com and airbnb.com as a guide. Then I look at bloggers who have written about their housing search or shared posts like this one. If you can find something via Google that is written in English, the rents will definitely be above market / targeted at foreigners. In the past we would book something for a day or two and then walk around and ask locals in the market, taxi drivers, etc…
Love it… cheaper than the monthly rate for my property taxes!!
Wow, just when I was thinking about how tired I am of the USA and ready for another culture I see your post.. Sadly my Wife doesn’t do hot and humid to well, but hopefully we can find somewhere new to call home. Thanks for showing us your apartment..:)
I don’t do hot and humid well either.
You guys are truly living the life! Great job travelling economically. Awesome! My wife and I will soon follow your lead :)
BSR
Looks so nice! What a great price too :)
a silly question: where do you pay income tax? :) If I would travel around the globe spending a month in each country, where would I pay my tax? Would I pay any?
If you are a US citizen, you would pay income tax in the US.
There are some exceptions for earned income if you live abroad mostly full time, but if you are living off investments those would be taxed in the US.
See our 2014 tax return for some examples.
hi, what airline did you fly to chiang mai from Taipei with? We’re considering Vair given it’s a low-cost carrier but it probably doesn’t allow you to bring a stroller…
We flew with V-air. The stroller was no problem
Absolutely love your blog. You (and MMM and Financial Samurai) have inspired my early retirement plan. I’m planning to retire hopefully mid 2016 and settle down in India. I am planning to get about 20-30k USD (couple months of gigs in US and/or roth distributions) to India every year. What are the best ways to transfer it (IRS FBAR & FATCA rules / wire transfer / US credit cards).
Can you point me to articles on how you do it and are there any best paths to follow?
Thank you!
We keep all of our funds in the US and just do ATM withdrawals as necessary, or pay with zero foreign transaction fee credit cards.
Looks like the website for the Smith Suites doesn’t allow children anymore. :(
That is strange. There were at least 2 other children in the building when we checked out.
Ok Thailand is on our list and partly because of your post we are now planning to arrive in Thailand in mid June 2016 and make our way by train from Bankok up to Chaing Mai stopping and overnighting at the stops along the way.. There are some fascinating places to visit and the train looks very covenient and cheap. We also want to do the Death railway and the Bridge.. made famous in the movie “Bridge over the river Kwai”. We are then planning on travelling by train up to China, taking a total of about 5 weeks to do it all. Of course if we happen to come across THE retirement destination along the way.. Oh well..:)
Really enjoying your posts detailing your different apartments! Been traveling with my boyfriend for about a year now (about 2-3 months in each location) and one of our biggest pain points is finding housing! We usually end up using Airbnb but are always a bit annoyed knowing how much we’re overpaying. We also usually end up having problems with slow internet despite the Airbnb host promising us that their internet works great (though to be fair we’re digital nomads so we probably have different internet needs than their vacationing guests).
We’ve been to Chiangmai but stayed in hotels since it was a shorter stay. We’ve been toying with the idea of going back for awhile so it’s cool to see what type of apartment you can actually get.
We’re actually in Taipei now so I couldn’t help but wonder – what did you guys do with your last Taipei apartment?
I believe the owner rented it to someone else.
Going to Chiang Mai in November, and this place is apparently already all booked up, 4+ months in advance. Bummer!
Bummer :(
There were already people booking this place a year in advance while we were there.
Take a look at Nimmanhaemin west of town. It is the hipster neighborhood, with a ton of condos, great cafes, and restaurants. If we return we’ll probably end up there.
Thanks for the tip; I’ll check it out!
I followed the ‘Smith Suites’ link above, which leads to booking.com, entered in 30 days (the month of September), and they want $1,500 for a studio. ($50/night. or roughly 52,500 baht for the month).
It would appear things have changed. :/
(And I think both Smith places are too well-known by the farang to be reasonably priced.)
We’ve been spending most of our time in Santitham (NW of the Old City) but South of the Old City is also a great location. Also, it’s very close to the big park in the Old City which is a plus when travelling with children or just to experience some green space. Parks are hard to find in Chiang Mai.
Did you book through Booking.com?? I tried for a month-long rental and it quoted me $1479 O_O
I booked with them directly, but I think they no longer have their own website. Based on other comments, they may have found operating as a hotel rather than an apartment building to be more profitable. But there are many places like this all over CM.
It’d be great to see some new links here! The place you linked is now giving quotes of $1,000USD/mo. Yikes! Definitely not the nice place for $300-400 we are all looking for anymore….
New links sound great. Feel free to share some
IMHO, the $1000+ rooms don’t match the photos in this post. Seems to me the GCCs stayed in a “Studio Room 2nd, 3rd Floor”. Those are 13,500 THB / $416. http://smithsuites-chiangmai.com/roomrates/
I rediscovered your site while searching for serviced apartments in Chiang Mai. I see a lot of useful posts to catch up on. Anyway, thought some might find useful my observations after 3 times spending 3 months in Chiang Mai for the high season, and living in Thailand for 7 years.
– Got lungs? Google ‘burning season’ and Chiang Mai if you’re thinking Feb. or later would be a good time to come. I’m sensitive to smoke, so I bail in early Jan.
– Rental contracts specify cost per unit for electricity. It may be much higher than what the owner pays. It’s useful when comparing places to stay.
– Best park is Lanna Rama 9 Park, 1km N of the North Gate on the road that ends across the moat from the North Gate.
– The latest visa / embassy information is the forums at thaivisa dot com.
Wow!! This is really a good deal. I checked them in website and sent them email. Even called them but the front desk replied in thai. Neither did I get response from them via email. How did you book it?
I connected with them via email. Google translate can help, although we communicated primarily in English.
Prices on the room you stayed in have more than doubled.
No. Look at a room like “Studio Room 2nd, 3rd floor”
Current price on their website:
13,500 ฿ per month