Our summer travel to the Eastern side of the planet.

We have been travelling for a while now to Latin America in search of our new future home, and me and my wife so far visited in chronological order Nicaragua, Panama, Argentina, Colombia (twice), Chile. We tried almost all places there that we could potentially call home. All of the trips where informative and most were also encouraging, but we felt that without visiting Asia out quest would be somewhat limited. So we decided to do an overview trip to Asia, and the best and easiest way we thought would be to go back to Russia for a vacation (where we where born) and drop our kids with grandparents, so we could go anywhere and not have to worry about how kids will take the trip. And therefore we traveled to Moscow together and after spending just a few days there, me and my wife headed to Asia.
Along the way i tried to contact as much SMC subscribers as i could to pick up their brains and i have to say that strategy worked very well for me. For those who doesn't know, SMC - sovereign man confidential, a subscription based service I am a member of.


While Russia is our homeland and not really interesting for us from future homeland perspective, considering that some of you might be actually interested what Russia is really like, let me start my story with Russia and particularly Moscow. I believe Russia has a lot to offer to an expat.


Moscow, Russia

Tverskaya st. One of the prettiest Moscow streets with Kremlin view. Properties cost a fortune here.

Well, my relationship with Moscow can definitely be describes as love and hate one. Being raised in a small Siberian town, it was a real shock for me to come to such a monstrous city like Moscow, with its only official 10 million people and I believe with 5 more being there additionally all the time. I came to study in college and had really good time (most of a time). That's where the love part comes from. From other side Moscow strikes a newcomer with a harsh reality of the big city, with bad weather (most of the year), rude people (all year long), unbelievable traffic and absence of the most nice amenities of big European or American cities (like clean water, developed public transportation, nice promenades and so on). Russians say that Moscow is the Darwin’s theory of natural selectivity at work – only the strong individuals survives here with weaker dropping out back from where they came from (and almost everybody in Moscow came from somewhere looking for better life). If you want to understand what Moscow is for Russia than imagine America with New York but no other developed industrial or financial centers like LA, Houston, Chicago, Miami, Washington. Every role imaginable Moscow is. It is Political, financial, industrial, touristic center of Russia.  That’s why almost anybody who really wants to achieve something comes to Moscow "to conquer it". And looking at the amount of luxurious cars and even more luxurious apartment buildings i think many succeed in that. And I guess many fail as well.

Arbat st. – a most famous pedestrian only st in Moscow. If you need any Russian souvenir –  welcome to Arbat.




Don’t get me wrong – I think Moscow is getting better. Streets are cleaner than 10 years ago, newly build houses are nicer than 10 years ago, stores are more convenient and service there is better a bit. But Soviet influence is still so strong – soviet era grumpy, unhappy people are everywhere. Rudeness is a norm between people. In a span of a single week I have heard number of times strangers in a street screaming at each other over some silly everyday situations. Just try to come to Moscow and simply smile at someone on a street you don’t know. I will be giving you 100$ for every “smileback” you will get. By the end of the day I will probably have all my money still on me. One day i was watching a beautiful sunset from my friend's balcony at 10 pm (at summer its getting dark very late) and witnessed following situation: on a small paved road right by the house, 2 cars were going towards each other. Road was narrow and could fit only one car, so the other had to go to the dirt on the side. I wasn't surprised at all to see both cars standing for a minute or so in front of each other and not willing to give way first. Of course after couple of minutes one of drivers finally gave up and went to the "dirt", and that dirt wasn't dirty at all after all due to lack of rain, so the whole situation was incredibly stupid. As I've heard from one of Americans, who did business here  - in Russia business is being done from position of strength and force. You need to show you are strong to prosper. Otherwise you will get no respect.


But... believe it or not... free market forces are doing their business. In many private companies competing for customers (restaurants, cafes, stores) customer service is on “acceptable” level or better. That’s  in big cities. Second tier cities still have long ways to go. In government enterprises everywhere forget about good treatment. You are still an under human to them. Progress in that area is much less obvious.


But of course like in every other place there are always good moments in Russia:
- Once you get to know a person and once the first ice is broken – that’s where the real friendship may start and warm relationship between you forms. But that ice at the beginning was always something I hated.
- Girls are beautiful. Some are absolutely gorgeous. Taking a ride in Moscow subway is like going to the Christmas party in US where everybody puts on her best dress and spends hours getting ready (may be Christmas party is bad example but you get an idea). It is like that EVERY DAY in Moscow and other cities. Why did I have to leave Russia to start seeing that??? Russia could be an absolute paradise for a single man. As well as Ukraine, which is visa free as well as I know for westerners, and as well substantially cheaper. And girls' looks are similar.

Taganskaya square.

Prices in Moscow are relatively high compare to the rest of the country (except few not easily reachable areas of Russia). To give you an example:
You can expect an average bill in the restaurant with drinks for 2 to be about 80-100$
3 star hotel of European quality (not a crapy leftover from soviet era) would start from 150-200$ minimum
But some other prices are quite reasonable compare to US (and i consider US pretty cheap now):
- The aeroexpress – train to the city from Interational Domodedovo airport cost about 13$ and it is 45 mins ride


- 1 ride in Moscow subway – is 1$ no matter how far you go.
- To take taxi from one side of a city to the other (40-50 mins with no traffic) will cost about 25-30$ max
- To go to the cheap but private clinic in Moscow will cost you 20$. Appointment with specialist – 20$, X-ray – 20$, blood work – 20$. You get the idea. Of course prices vary greatly from clinic to clinic, but that was the clinic one of my friend goes to and and quite happy with service. At least you avoid long lines and terrible service quality of soviet era clinics.  And you don’t want to check what is the level of service of Russian free medicine – it is horrible. I absolutely hated going there when I was a kid and will never go to free hospital again unless I will absolutely have to.

Beggars are still a common thing to see in the cities, but nothing like Philippines.

Rent of the small studio apartment will go for 1000$ minimum in OK neighborhood. 2-3 bedroom apartment would set you for 3000-5000$ and more in the city center. Biggest expense for a foreigner in Moscow would be undoubtfully rent. But normally working in Russia expats are getting their housing allowance and all other prices are tolerable.
According to globalpropertyguide.com a sq.m. of prime property in Moscow cost 10,302 euro/sq.m. Sounds about right to me. Cheapest you can get within city limits will be about 4000 euro/sq.m.

“Good” salary in Moscow is considered to be something around 2000$ a month (all salaries are measured by month in Russia and not by year like in Western countries). But to be able to enjoy it you have to own you flat free and clear, which most people do, due to rudimentary mortgage market and strong relationship between wealth and ownership of property in Russian mind. An average wealthy Russian (still far away from Abramovich level of course) does not own any stocks or bonds, may be heard of mutual funds once or twice but not invested, haven’t seen a gold coin in his life. But he owns real estate - in Moscow for sure, and than may be in Europe – Spain and Portugal are very popular, as well as Check, Bulgaria, France and UK among many others.

In one of the evenings I have met an old friend of mine and we spent few hours in German restaurant over very popular Russian habit of drinking, and what stroke me is how fast people in Russia can climb career stairs. He is just over 30 and is finance director of a not very big oil company in Russia and is doing very well financially. And his younger brother is similar case – after getting his MBA in Barcelona last year he jumped into management position of big international farma company with office here in Moscow (though he initially wanted to stay away from Moscow but couldn’t find a job outside of Russia) and is doing very well. MBA still worth something in developing world I guess.

Arbatskaya subway station. Moscow subway’s central stations are beautiful. Many of them were made of castles and houses of pre soviet nobles which were “expropriated” by soviet government after revolution.

Generally I am very interested in obtaining a full time in house maid in my near future so in every place we went I enquired how much that may cost.

In house maid is something really unheard of in Russia. Most of the cases it would be somebody visiting an apartment or house 2-3 times a week to clean it. And would be asking about 800$/month. Not an ideal situation for me.

As a rule English proficiency is very bad among Russians, though younger educated generation in bigger cities generally has at least basic level of proficiency.

Ufa, Russia. Second tier city and the capital of autonomous region of Russia

Home of 1 million people and capital of the Bashkortostan ( an autonomous region in Russia). Big industrial center. Bashkortostan is predominantly Muslim though almost nobody practices religion here any more since the Soviet era and really you won’t be able to tell the difference between Bashkortostan and any other Christian region of Russia. Ethnical Tatars, Bashkirs and Russians coexist peacefully here. I do not recall any religion or race based tensions here. Everybody speaks Russian in Ufa. Bashkir and Tatar (practically the same things) languages are spoken only by elder people.

You can meet Mosques everywhere around the region, built mostly after perestroika, but they do not carry much functionality and almost always empty. Also, unfortunately, heavy drinking is as big problem here as anywhere else in Russia (Muslims are not supposed to drink as we all know). And generally if somebody wants to meet real Muslims in Russia one needs to go to Caucasus region towards the area where famous Chechnya is located. But I definitely do not recommend going there just for experience sake. Things get wild there way too often. 

View from my grandmother’s balcony. Typical Ufa.

Ufa is the city I was born in. It is less developed and much cheaper than Moscow. It has all the amenities of a big city but no traffic jams. Most of my relatives still live here so there is no way I can escape coming to Bashkortostan whenever I visit Russia. And I actually enjoy coming here. Bashkortostan (and Ufa particularly) is reasonably developed by Russian standards, very green and cheap. If not a terrible soviet style customer service (even comparing to Moscow) across all enterprises, private or not, I could even consider it for a living. Long winter doesn’t score high either any more for me – but that’s true for all of Russia except for may be Krasnodar region with main city of Sochi there, where winter Olympics will be held in 2014. Doesn’t it sound humoristic – we are doing our winter Olympics in the southern most part of the country?

Ufa’s one of the freshly built office buildings. Located on the prospect Oktyabrya - main street of the city.

Interesting fact - there is only 3 McDonalds in the million big city.

Good salary in Ufa is considered to be 700$/month and above. You can rent a nice 1 bedroom apartment in city center for 500$ easily.

Kirgiz-Miaki. Big village 200 km to the south of Ufa and with population of about 8000 people. 

Home of my father’s parents. I am supposed to visit it every time as well whenever I come to Bashkortostan. This place is stuck in a time wrap. Very little has changed in the last 20 years.

Everybody here grow everything they can. For example my grandparents are growing potatoes, cabbage, beetroots, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, strawberries, cherries, apples, plums and a lot more. They also have their own ducks, chickens and even rabbits. They always used to have a cow or two, but now they are getting older and that’s a lot of hassle for them. Simple unprocessed food, lots of physical activity and clean air and water made them live long lives – now they both are 82 – way above average Russian age of 68 or so. 

Kirgiz-Miaki. Nothing has changed here in the last 20 years as far as I remember.

Villagers like my grandparents were least affected in 90-th during perestroika, since they raised almost everything they needed and almost nothing has changed in their day to day routine after Soviet union collapsed. People who lived in the cities were affected much more severely. But even there an absolute majority of people back in the 90-th used to have their “dachas” or in other words small gardens outside of cities people lived in. I suppose exactly that fact helped a lot of people to basically survive and not die from famine.  Even now most people (even in Moscow) have their own dachas and that’s why on Friday night and entire Saturday no attempts should be made to exit Moscow by road. You will be stuck in traffic for many hours among all the people rushing for a fresh air towards their dachas.  Obviously on Sunday night and Monday early morning don’t try to get back to Moscow by road for the same reason. Dachas I have heard are unique Russian phenomena.  In fact I am writing it from my grandmother's dacha close to Ufa.

UAE. Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Land of wonders.

1 USD = 3.7 Dirham.

I will cover UAE briefly as it was not our planned destination, but rather a stop over on our way to Sri- Lanka. My friend Serge moved there little more than a year ago and is working for international oil service company on a temporary contract. It was a good chance to see Abu Dhabi. I visited Dubai many moons ago as it is a very popular touristic destination among Russians, but been to Abu Dhabi very briefly.

Serge. A very rare in Russia offspring of Russian mother and Congolese father. Speaks tons of languages. Good friend and father. Really enjoys his life in AD.

Things are not cheap in Abu Dhabi. I would even say they are expensive. Serge rents a very nice 3 bedroom apartment there and pays 182,000 Dirhams (~50,000$) a year. His company reimburses him up to 220,000 Dirhams a year. And he said that prices are down significantly due to 2008 crash. While Abu Dhabi was not affected as much as it's neighbor Dubai property prices went dow somewhat there as well. British International school he takes his kids to costs him (well.. to his company) 46,000 Dirhams (~12,000$) a year.

Ferrari world's most interesting attraction. You are seated in real Ferrari. I got sea sick after a minute of driving and tried not to speed up more than 40 m/h. I even got messages on a screen - "don't be afraid !" and "Speed up !"

                                                                      

Dancing fountains in Dubai. Just next to the tallest building in the world. Perform once an hour to a different music. Absolutely free.

It felt that Abu Dhabi picked up a lot of business and activity from Dubai in 2008-2009. Dubai is a clear example of a debt driven explosive growth, and it got absolutely smashed during crises. Abu Dhabi's national oil fund accumulated during good years allowed the state to withstand bad years much better. No question that Dubai would have defaulted on its many debts if not bailed by its brother state of Abu Dhabi.

Weather in summer in UAE is absolutely terrible. Extremely hot around 40 C (>100 degF) and with some sort of smog in the year due to small sand particles constantly floating in the air. All the multiple world class events like F1 racing in UAE are all is happening in winter as weather becomes much more comfortable at around 25 degC (75DegF) and air is crystal clear.

Everything, and I mean everything in Dubai and AD was created and being created to amaze. Dancing fountains, tallest building - Burj Khalifa, Burj al Arab - most beautiful hotel I have ever seen – all in Dubai. Abu Dhabi is a home to a Ferrari world with the fastest roller-coaster in the world (up to 240 km/h) and a newly built Sheick Zayed Grand Mosque. I have been to many mosques, churches and temples around the world but that particular building really stands out. Emiratis took real pride in building it and spent many billions of dollars on it, I imagine. Nope, just checked - cost "only" 545 million USD.

                                                     Abu Dhabi's newly built mosque. 

                                         Most luxurious religious building I have been to.

Most women in UAE cover their entire bodies and leave only eyes open. Sometimes they cover even eyes. That's their norm of life and once you are there you need to respect that. Tourists generally feel very comfortable in UAE as nobody forces to wear you anything special. You can drink alcohol in the hotels and restaurants and I have heard that a night life can be very exciting as well there due to large number of non emiratis present in a country. If I am not mistaken there is 5 times more foreigners than Emirati Arabs at any time in a country.

Islam got a lot of negative attention in the last few years and only after coming to countries like UAE I started to understand what Islam is really about for absolute majority of people – about peace and love. And it is a shame that percentage wise a tiny fraction of brainwashed youngsters lead by charismatic despots with their own agenda, managed to change the way West sees it.

Immigration details.

Know nothing here as would not consider moving here without getting a job first. Once you got a job process should be clear as hordes of expats live and work that way attracted by total absense of any taxes in a country.

Sri Lanka. Tourist’s paradise.

Was our first stop in our trip to Asia and a country we hoped we would like a lot. It was scored as a number 1 tourist destination of 2010 in some respected travel magazine I once have read. Long and exhausting civil war is over 3 years ago, infrastructure projects, roads and buildings are being built. So I expected to see hoards of tourists looking for elephants in national parks inside of SL and remaining of them enjoying the night life of Colombo. What I have seen was a bit different though. Not a lot of tourists. I guess there are a lot of them, but they are not visible very much relative to number of locals. 

Kids were very excited to see foreigners.  Even more excited they were to see theirs own photos on my i-phone.


Night life in Colombo is “bad but getting better”- as one local told me. Probably not a bachelor’s dream.

View of Colombo from the top of Global Towers hotel. 

Sri Lanka is right below India and of course influence of India is seen everywhere – tuk-tuks (motorcycle taxis) are the same, Colombo reminded me of Mumbai a lot, even people’s look is similar. At the same time it is obvious that SL is more prosperous, I don’t recall seeing a single beggar on the streets, and all people are very friendly. VERY. Such a drastic change from Russia ! On our last day we have hired a minibus for a full day to drive us around the country and to take us to the airport the next day. Besides doing the driving, the guy literally took care of us. He walked inside of every temple with us and made sure we didn’t give too much tips to the guide, he went with us to the beach and was looking after our stuff when we decided to have a walk. His care was seen everywhere and in everything. It was unbelievable. He charged 65$ us for 2 days of his services.

Our super nice driver in his mini-bus.

Approval rate for the gvnmt is extremely high at the moment in the country. They can do almost anything and be able to get away with it. After all they won the war. Seems like they are doing the right thing like building roads across the country and developing tourism. And hopefully they will not slip to the economics’ dark side of socialism, and they could do it easily. 

Prices are very reasonable in SL. While good quality hotels will cost you no less than 100$, we stayed in pretty nice motel in our own “luxury” room for only 35$. 

While in SL i contacted Aven - an SMC subscriber and did not regret it for a moment. After a drink o two in a bar we agreed on going with him the next day to the touristic parts of SL. He and his friends were going there to pursue some business opportunities in that area, and we just joined them in their trip. 

Driving in SL is crazy. They drive on the left side. But its possible to get used to it. The way they drive is almost insane. Most of the roads are only one lane across the country and there is tons of slow moving traffic so our driver had to pass in such a manner so I sometimes preferred to have my eyes closed. Don’t attempt to rent a car while in SL. 

Interesting thing that I haven’t seen any accidents while I was there probably due to generally slow traffic. By the end of day 4, which was our last day I got used a great deal to the way they drive.

On the way there we stopped in a very decent all you can eat buffet and payed less than 5$ a person. Less fancy curry buffets abundant in a country would charge about 2$.

According to Aven and his friends you can reasonably expect to rent for about 400$ a nice house in Colombo, but to tell you the truth I was not impressed by Colombo at all. Beauty of SL is not in Colombo for sure. And property market was so strong in recent years after the war, and prices, which were strong before, became even stronger. I was told a decent quality house would cost 500k$ easily there. At the same time I was told it is very real to buy a lot just outside of Colombo for 50k$ and build a house there for another 50k$.  Construction costs I was quoted to be very cheap around 22$/sq ft. Not sure about a quality though. 

House is located in the lagoon of Bentota – beautiful area about 2-3 hours away from Colombo and only about 100 km away. Asking price is ~ 250k$. Has 2 structures on the lot.

Immigrations details. 
While I was in SL I tried to meet someone form Chambers of Colombo law firm mentioned by Simon in one of his missives. Unfortunately it was a long weekend due to Buddhist’s full moon celebration, so all info I have is based on the emails they sent me earlier.


To obtain residency in SL there are 2 main options:
1) Economical. 250k$ should be remitted by main applicatnt +35k$ for each dependant. According to my calculations it will be 355k$ for a family of 4. Money will have to go for an approved government program. I am not sure what that means since I couldn’t meet with lawers to find out details.
2) My dream home program. That is similar to Malaysia’s MM2H. Need to be 55 y.o. or older. 15k$ to be remitted and then prove of income of 1500$ for main applicant and 750$ for each dependant.  No details here as well, sorry. 


Also one of the Brits I met through Aven sheared that he had an arrangement with a local woman and fake married her to obtain a residency. He did not tell the price he paid but said that on average one will need to pay about 10k$ for that. Once a year his new “wife” needs to submit a confirmation letter to gvnmt agency that they are still together. He expects to get his citizenship shortly. 
If you are ok to stay there as a tourist – there is another way to do it. Once you enter SL you get 30 days stay. After 30 days you can pay 100$ and stay for another 2 months, after that you can pay ~200$ and stay for another 3 months. After that you need to leave a country for 24 hours and (can hop to the flight to neighboring Maldives), after which cycle resets itself.
Sri Lanka allows dual citizenship.




Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur). Best value for your money.


1USD= 3 ringgit.


After we spent 4 days in Sri Lanka we took a 3 hours long flight to Kulala Lumpur (KL) – Malaysia’s capital. From the first sight KL airport strikes as reasonably modern and very organized. After a short but informative conversation with the girl from tourist information booth we took a taxi to the hotel named Frenz – brand new, and reasonably priced (75$). Taxi station was very well organized and we paid 75 ringgit or 25$ according to a meter. Roads are excellent anywhere in the city and I have heard in the entire country. And at the same time public transportation is well developed and inexpensive - we paid about 70 cents a person on metro to go more than half of the city.
Here in Malaysia I expected English proficiency to be bad, but to my surprise almost everybody spoke at least basic English due to great amount of foreigners in KL. According to my observation English language is not only still a major international language of choice, but also it’s position is getting stronger each year. Even in Asia, where Mandarin has its strongest positions, English is still the language of choice. 

Our first lunch in cheap Malay place close our hotel. We payed 12$ for both of us.

On the next day we have met with Philip. He is also an SMC subscriber and sheared great deal of info with us. I probably asked not less than 200 questions and to my delight he was very patient and answered them all. Here some of the prices he gave us:
International school will cost 2300$ a year for a kid.
Maid will cost 10 ringgit an hour (1$=3 ringgit) or 600 (from Indonesia) to 1000 (Phillippina) ringgit a month for full time live-in maid. Phillippina is more expensive because she also speaks English, so kid gets introduction to English from early age.
University graduate is expected to start with about 1000$/month salary. And middle class salary is 1200-4000$ /month  

 Kuala Lumpur. View from one of the subway stations (KL subway goes above ground actually). 

Cars are very expensive in Malaysia due to enormous government taxes. New Honda Civic would cost about 30,000 USD new. Same applies to alcohol, drinking isn't cheap in Malaysia.


Weather was notably hotter than in Sri Lanka but still tolerable. Philip said he uses AC only for couple of hours a day before going to sleep and uses ceiling fans rest of the time. At rainy season they don't use AC at all there. Energy tends to be cheap and and an average monthly bill comes at around 40$. 

World famous Petronas towers. Remain a tallest twin towers in the world. Absolutely beautiful.


Gas is also inexpensive and costs about 2$ per gallon. Obviously price is supported by government (probably using profits they make from ridiculously high car sales taxes).
Good thing is that under a MM2H program (Malaysia - my second home) each participant is entitled to tax free local assembled car. 
Competition is good. And Malaysia always and constantly competes with its neighbors. I believe KL would have been a worse place to be in, if there wasn't a rich neighbor living next door. His name is Singapore. No major policy or law is being introduced in Malaysia, we were told, without looking what Sing is doing regarding that matter. Same applies to Singapore. And while Singapore is definitely a prodigy kid in a block, Malaysia benefits as well watching it's neighbor' s behavior. Incredible, but Singapore has same size of economy as Malaysia, but has nothing else but strategic location and smart rulers.


It almost felt that Malaysia comes in a package with Singapore, which is only 5 hours away on a comfortable bus or 45 mins away on plane. It makes lots of sense to plant at least banking flag there if you live in Malaysia.
Generally KL strikes as inexpensive and very livable place with cheap properties, straight forward immigration program and friendly people. Level of development is very good and you can find everything imaginable there. 
To get a better picture about a country we also wanted to visit Penang - a resort town 5 h north of KL by road, but there was no way we could squeeze it in our itinerary due to time constrains. Penang is located on an island, and is a choice of many expats coming to Malaysia. Penang airport offers number of international flights to various Asian cities and was named as airport of the year in Asia in 2009 with less than 15 million passengers. 


Immigration details.
MM2H. Seems to be the most straight forward program to get into Malaysia and I consider using that program if we decide to move here.  I have met with one of the MM2H licensed agents with exellent reputation and here are the details of the program:
Upon application:
i.< 50 years are required to show proof of liquid assets worth a minimum of RM 500,000 (~170,000 $) and offshore income of RM10,000 (~3285 $) per month. For certified copy(s) of Current Account submitted as financial proof, applicants must provide the latest 3 months’ statement with each month’s credit balance of RM 500,000.
ii. > 50 yo may comply with the financial proof of RM350,000 (~83,000 $) in liquid assets and off shore income of RM10,000 per month.  For certified copy(s) of Current Account submitted as financial proof, applicants must provide the latest 3 months’ statement with each month’s credit balance of RM 350,000. For those who have retired, they are required to show proof of receiving pension from government approved funds of RM 10,000 per month.
iii. New applicants who have purchased properties worth at least RM 1 million (~330,000$) qualify to place a lower fixed deposit amount upon approval.
After approval.
Open a fixed deposit account of RM300,000.00 ($91,000).
* After a period of one year, the participant can withdraw up to RM150,000.00 ($45,500) for approved expenses relating to house purchase (min of 500000RM in most states), education for children in Malaysia and medical purposes.
* Must maintain a minimum balance of RM150,000.00 from second year onwards and throughout stay in Malaysia under this programme.


After appliation is approved, applicat is getting long term visa, renewable every 10 years.


Please note that some of the data including exchange rates can be outdates here. For official latest info go to www.mm2h.gov.my/

Singapore. Land of the rich.

Exchange rate is 1.2 SGD for 1 USD.

We took a bus from KL to Sing and did not regret it even for a minute. We departed from sparkling new bus station and paid only 15$. When exiting Malaysia we went through exit passport control and than again through Singapore's entry passport control. Malaysia's was very quick with agent taking our immigration form that was given us when we entered the country. Singapore's immigration took longer. Russians do need a visa to enter Singapore, but we are allowed to stay in Sing as long as 96 hours only when transiting to a third country (in our case Philippines). At first we were told by immigration officer that it only true when arriving and departing by air, but I remembered reading the law myself and it said that one can enter at any port of entry, including land. Need to live by air only, with ticket already booked and confirmed.

But I didnt have to prove my point as officer contacted someone else and they resolved the issue 15 minutes later. That incident was pretty informative though as I saw their immigration at work and they left very good impression on me. Most I was impressed by one of the agents who approached us and asked if we want to go to our bus and ask the driver to wait for a few minutes while we are resolving an issue, which i did followed by her. I can not imagine that level of care in US, and that would be absolutely impossible situation in Russia.

                   Singapore's city center. Sparkling. Fascinating. Expensive. I felt poor there.

On the front right you can see a Merlion – is a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish, used as a mascot of Singapore. Weird, flower like looking building is their art museum and 3 towers in the center is a newly built luxury hotel with a overview area on top of them. Access there costs 20 SGD and art museum is 30 SGD.

Violent crime in Singapore Is literally non existent. I was told that you have to be extremely unlucky to get into trouble. Another person told me that he lived in a city for 20 years and never locked the door of his house. While he lived in a gated community, I was still impressed. Me and my wife walked in the streets in the middle of the night and felt absolutely safe.

I though Singapore would be great place to send my kid to college and not to worry about his well being, like I would worry, say, in Moscow.

Skyline is the most futuristic I have ever seen. But I have never been to Japan or Hong Kong to compare.

Traffic jams are very rare in a city as population of cars is fully controlled and before obtaining a car every person needs to get piece of paper permitting ownership of it first. Price is being formed by the free market participants and is at all time high at the moment at about 70,000 SGD ! Valid for 10 years. And after that you still have to buy a car. No surprise why there is no much traffic in a city. Public transportation is very developed and convenient.

Immigration details.

Impossible to reflect all ther programs in this short missive so I would recommend to go to the website www.rikvin.com. That company is highly recommended by Simon and I believe SMC itself is incorporated in Sing through that copmany.

All I can say that financial sector professionals are welcome in Singapore and also I enquired about my younger sister who has good Italian education (clothes designer) but not much work experience yet. In Rikvin I was told that she has realistical chances as well. So if you think abount going to Sing – hurry up as their immigration is getting tougher, not easier.

In general I think that Singapore is a great city to move to if you have a decent plan of what you will be doing and how you are going to start making money quick using Singapore's strong consumer base. If you don't have any specific plans or want to make money in Internet – better move on. For example to Philippines.

Philippines. Place you can feel like a king.

1usd = 42 pesos

Philippines was a place I was putting a lot of hopes on. And for the most part I was not dissapointed. Good things first - country is ultra cheap. Cheaper than Thailand if it tells you something.

From airport we went to hotel (30 mins drive) and spent 17$. You may think that is cheap ! But as I found out later we paid a gringo price (I am not sure if that expression apllies to Russians). Our trip back from hotel to airport few days later cost us about 5.5 $ and we never paid in Manila more than 5$ for a decent taxi with AC.

Experience in the airport was OK when we arrived and not so good when we departed. All the cheap labor they have results exactly in what Simon was mentioning number of times – work was created there where it was not needed. Most positions in the airport were not needed and counterproductive. Our boarding pass was checked at least 6 times by the time we got to the plane including once in the middle of the terminal when we passed all controls and were walking towards the gates, once when we entered our gate's waiting area and twice! just before boarding a plane! I could not believe what it was happening.

In the city we checked in to City Garden Suits where I booked a 2 room suite and payed 85$. Hotel was very nice but located in historical but run down area. That night my wife called the reception and ordered a 14$ (600 pesos) full body massage for a whole hour. I assume that was relatively expensive, considering that was a hotel service.

Outside of the hotel you start to understand why their services are SO cheap. Poverty is everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. Streets near the hotel were not pleasant to walk on. Dirt is everywhere. Naked kids are sleeping right on the sidewalk right next to their mothers. Terrible view if you are not used to. After 25 minutes walk on the streets and seeing all those kids my wife had a nervous breakdown and cried.

                           Manila's promenade by the water. An absolutely awful place to walk.

Like eveywhere else, I contacted SMC subscribers in Manila and was surprised to find out that there is a lot of them living here (as well as in Cebu – second biggest city). Philippines is definitely very popular among expats due to it's low prices, beautiful beaches, and absolutely amazing Thailand style night life. I was once told by one of the CEOs of one exploration company i met in New Orleans conference that when a male gringo enters a bar scene in Manila it creates an effect similar to a buxom blond entering a bar in US. I personally didn't have a chance to check for obvious reasons.

We agreed to meet in Rockwell area in Italian cafe for a dinner. Rockwell area was incredible. Transformation was absolutely unbelievable.

Rockwell area of Manila. This place was as luxurious and fancy as downtown of Singapore. Except that this fully privately owned area is very small and located only on 4 or5 blocks. Once you get outside those blocks you get into Makati business area, which is still much nicer than the area where our hotel was, but can not compete with Rockwell.

There were 6 or 7 of us including Tim Staermorse and other very active in SMC subscribers I will not be mentioning in desire not to leave anyone out. We had a great dinner and everyone present there were very interesting characters with their own story to tell.

On average, locals in Manila where not nearly as friendly as Sri Lankans or Malayans. Bigger the city – less friendly people, I noticed. And Manila is enormous with about 11.5 million people in metro area.

I checked prices in Starbucks and found a medium latte to cost 3$ (125 pesos). I have been checking latte prices in every country we went and every time price was coming at about 3-4$. So by the end I came to conclusion that Starbucks unifies prices across the world and that my just invented Starbucks latte index is not working. Until I checked the price in Moscow's cafe. Latte there costs 220 rubles which was … 8$. And place was packed ! Either Russians have money or they are silly. Likely both. In cafe right next to it (not Starbucks) you can get the same latte for a world average 3.5$.

                                                  Business Manila style. Mobile store.

I was told that apartment in Rockwell area costs around 3000$ per sq.m. I thought it is even more than that based on what I saw in ads. Global property guide advises that Manila's prime property costs 2407$ per sq.m. on average. Compare that with only 1,546$ in Malaysia's KL (which I consider is a bargain for such a developed place) or 10,302 Euros (not dollars!) in Moscow for prime property and you will get an idea that Manila is reasonably priced. But to tell you the truth Manila is definitely not my style. I wouldnt want to live in some enclave like Rockwell which is only 5 blocks large. And that brought us to idea of visiting Cebu – the second biggest city in Philippines with 2 million people in metro area and a major economical and touristic center of the country.

Again I have to repeat that cities are not Philippine's strong points. They are quite pathetic I need to say. Disorganized,  dirty, and overcrowded. But don't be discouraged just by it, because I believe that country's strong points are over-weighting it's weaknesses. In Cebu as well, no doubts, one can find very nice residential areas pleasant to an eye and soul. After googling “Cebu real estate” I found handful of condo developments on Mactam island (resort area just 10 mins away from airport) where I wouldn't mind to buy a condo. Prices were reasonable as well.

Also everything in Cebu was about 30% cheaper than in Manlila if you believe it. Full time maid costs 100$ a month max in Cebu.

In our single day there we have met with Allen Hamilton, who visited us in our hotel and occurred to be a very nice and helpful person. Allen was one of the speakers in Panama's conference and knows a great deal about immigration to Phils. And that's exactly what I was interested in. Details to follow below.

After being briefed by Allen we have visited Tops – area with probably nicest houses in a city, went to IT park – area in a city where all Cebu's call centers are located and visited Shangri-La – a resort hotel on a beach with prices starting at 200$. Water was crystal clear and while we didn't have much time to check it out I know that Philippines has A LOT to offer to a nature lover. World's one of the best beaches are located here.

So my choice would definitely be Cebu compare to Manila, because Cebu has less of what I don't like - disorganized overcrowded city, and more what I like - nature and ocean, along with all the amenities of a big city like 3D cinemas, bowling, etc... We watched Harry Potter in 3D for about 7$ there. 

Cebu is a home to International airport with direct regular flights to Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul among some other not so prominent destinations. So with only 1 stop you can get pretty much anywhere in the world.

                                      Cebu's strong point – ocean is clean and beautiful.

Weather in Cebu was very comfortable and similar to Colombo's. KL was a bit hotter, and Singapore was even hotter. Abu Dhabi was an absolute nightmare. Moscow's was the coolest ) It was July. Other months could be different.

Immigration details.

Here I will mention only a retirement option because it fits almost everyone, believe it or not. Their retirement age magically starts at 35. For all the details please refer to

http://www.pra.gov.ph/main/srrv_program

So far it is the cheapest straight forward way to get into Asia I know about. In Phils you can get a citizenship after 10 years of residence which can be brought down to 5 years if you fullfil one of the following conditions: work for Gov't, have established a useful invention or new industry, married to Phillippino woman (not sure about vice versa), or be school teacher for 2 years (does not say if has to be full time). During those 10 (or 5) years you may choose not to live in Phils, just need to have active residency. The only caveat is that you will need to renounce your current citizenship when getting Phil's.

If somebody knows any other relatively “easy” and straight forward ways to get into other Asian countries, please let me know.

Government's web page I referred to above is straight forward and contains all latest information. Generally I found that there is much less restrictions in Phil's program compare to Malaysia's. You can do pretty much anything in Phils on your retirement visa (option without pension). Invest, work, buy properties. And if you can not do something – there is always seem to exist an easy workaround.

In conclusion, I want to mention that land ownership is not allowed by foreigners but there is again a workaround and land is being bought through dummy corporations. Allen said he have never heard of any problems with such a schemes during his 15 years of presence in Philippines. No such workarounds are needed for condos, as ownership is not restricted.

Now, few weeks later after the trip, I let the travel dust settle in my head and impressions to be formed. At the moment my top 3 choices in the world with clear immigration procedures are following (in no particular order):

1) Colombia (Medellin) 
2) Malaysia (KL or Penang) 
3) Phillippines (Cebu)
Every one of them has its very strong points and some disadvantages as well.
I wish i had only one pick right now. Sometimes availability of choices is a torture ))

Let me know what is YOUR most favorite place on our small planet called Earth ???


Best regards,
Marat K (The Firestarter)