If you, as an expat, were to choose between ...

Cities are terrible places but tend to leak the most money into my pockets.
If I could still extract the cash, village life (Not too far from a larger town, would be ideal.

I chose a big city on an island (Singapore) connected to the mainland (Malaysia).
But in the end, none of these had a great influence on my life. Friends, family and a feeling of home count for more.

John C. wrote:

... a job in a big city on mainland or in an island, what will it be?

In an Island...atleast there must not be crowd

Island life is better!

anil kumar tiwari wrote:

John C. wrote:

... a job in a big city on mainland or in an island, what will it be?

atleast there must not be crowd

Hi Anil,
Wrong, wrong, wrong!     Never shy away from the crowd because the crowd is the secret to success.  Never run away from crowds. Confront them with your wisdom, elegant choice of words and personal example instead.
It is the crowds that put money in your pockets.
Look, you and I and everybody else bought computers and now Bill Gates is the world's richest man ... 

ANIL, NEVER LOSE SIGHT OF CROWDS BECAUSE THEY ARE THE SOURCE OF GREATNESS.

I didn't mean in that way and i agree if no crowd then no income because it is the crowd who is going to grow the business...

mal wrote:

Island life is better!

Can you be more specific? 

Island for sure

I done both. Lived in the Maldives and never again! Most people can stand up to 6 months. Then they go potty!

I love to stay in an island...

Maximum vote for island

anil kumar tiwari wrote:

Maximum vote for island

ha, ha,  , private island, small island, big island, which one? 

John C. wrote:

anil kumar tiwari wrote:

Maximum vote for island

ha, ha,  , private island, small island, big island, which one? 

Depends on the pocket 

My wife and I have lived on this Caribbean island (Grand Cayman) for 36 years to date. Before we came here, we had been expats on the island of Efate in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) and before that on New Providence in the Bahamas. And... can we count England? And when we weren't living and working on islands we were applying for jobs on islands. I missed out on jobs in the Falklands, Jersey and Turks & Caicos. I guess we like being big frogs in a small pool. (Well, big-ish, but you know what I mean.) I've blogged extensively about our experiences since we left our homes in Australia. And... no, I KNOW Australia isn't officially an island!

So, all in all we prefer islands, even though we don't do "island things".

For me on an island and no JOB!!!

Bob K

Gordon Barlow wrote:

My wife and I have lived on this Caribbean island (Grand Cayman) for 36 years to date. Before we came here, we had been expats on the island of Efate in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) and before that on New Providence in the Bahamas. And... can we count England? And when we weren't living and working on islands we were applying for jobs on islands. I missed out on jobs in the Falklands, Jersey and Turks & Caicos. I guess we like being big frogs in a small pool. (Well, big-ish, but you know what I mean.) I've blogged extensively about our experiences since we left our homes in Australia. And... no, I KNOW Australia isn't officially an island!

So, all in all we prefer islands, even though we don't do "island things".

Hi Gordon,

36 years in Caymans??? Lucky you.  Island of Efate before that???  Wow,  ... 
For the first 38 years of my life I did not even have a passport ... and even if I had one, it was good only for countries behind the Iron Curtain.  Upon return, passports had to be returned to the Police ...
Here in St. Lucia my ex-wife's nephew carried 3 passports (St. Lucian, Barbadian and Grenadian) at the age of 14 in 1993.
Now this is freedom ...   

All of us island lovers are called 'islomaniacs', which is no derogatory term ...

I am curious what other answers forummers will post at this thread. 

John C. wrote:

For the first 38 years of my life I did not even have a passport ... and even if I had one, it was good only for countries behind the Iron Curtain.  Upon return, passports had to be returned to the Police ...

Wow. We were in Romania in the car in 1965, and remember the people and the cities and beautiful countryside fondly - Transylvania and the Sachsens and all. I have blogged about our time behind the Curtain, but there are only two passing mentions of Romania, for no identifiable reason. One was an incidental mention, in "A Back road to Bulgaria" posted in March 2012, and the other reported the fixing of my VW Beetle in Bucharest in "The German Lesson" in May 2012. I feel I should be apologising for such sparse coverage, but in truth nothing exciting happened during the ten days we were in the country, besides the car breaking down. Sorry!

Gordon Barlow wrote:

John C. wrote:

For the first 38 years of my life I did not even have a passport ... and even if I had one, it was good only for countries behind the Iron Curtain.  Upon return, passports had to be returned to the Police ...

Wow. We were in Romania in the car in 1965, and remember the people and the cities and beautiful countryside fondly - Transylvania and the Sachsens and all. I have blogged about our time behind the Curtain, but there are only two passing mentions of Romania, for no identifiable reason. One was an incidental mention, in "A Back road to Bulgaria" posted in March 2012, and the other reported the fixing of my VW Beetle in Bucharest in "The German Lesson" in May 2012. I feel I should be apologising for such sparse coverage, but in truth nothing exciting happened during the ten days we were in the country, besides the car breaking down. Sorry!

  I am speechless.  You in Romania in 1965??? The first year of the dictator on the throne???
I cannot believe you from thousands of miles mention about Sachs.  Nobody knows about them and you are the first person in 24 years to talk about them.
We Romanians fought communism to extinction, 99% of us. If the Caribbean today is free is because I too fought to bring socialism / communism to its knees ...  Without the efforts of people who died fighting behind the Iron Curtain, today this region would have been socialist too, and YOU would not have been working in Caymans.
See the failed Cuban experiment, and Grenada coup in 1983.  If that one succeeded, you have no idea what would have happened next.
Do yourself a favor and go to YouTube.com and search for 'The end of communism in Romania'.  You will come across the Dictator's execution (4-5 minutes of summary trial by Extraordinary Court, and immediate execution by firing squad).  45 years of social madness (1945 - 1989) came to a screeching halt in 5 minutes ...

Anyway, as you see, I choose an island for my home ...

Hey, John. I'm not crazy about PMs on forums, and much prefer emails. Mine is barlow@candw.ky. Always happy to hear from you. 

Take it easy,

Gordon

John C. wrote:

We Romanians fought communism to extinction, 99% of us. If the Caribbean today is free is because I too fought to bring socialism / communism to its knees ...  Without the efforts of people who died fighting behind the Iron Curtain, today this region would have been socialist too, and YOU would not have been working in Caymans. See the failed Cuban experiment, and Grenada coup in 1983.  If that one succeeded, you have no idea what would have happened next.
Do yourself a favor and go to YouTube.com and search for 'The end of communism in Romania'.  You will come across the Dictator's execution (4-5 minutes of summary trial by Extraordinary Court, and immediate execution by firing squad).  45 years of social madness (1945 - 1989) came to a screeching halt in 5 minutes ...

Naturally, I followed the Romanian struggle against the dictator, but (in my ignorance, probably) I always thought that the efforts at revolution behind the Curtain were against the Soviet Union and its satrapies within its Empire, and that the fates of the satrapies were inter-dependent. I remember how each of the Empire's territories' ruling cliques ended. What I find sad, now, is that the Western World seems to have swapped one cruel and aggressive empire for another. I mean no disrespect to you or your countrymen when I say that I'm disappointed that the Romanian government supports NATO's activities in the Middle East, and never (to my knowledge) criticises the atrocities committed there by NATO forces and their allies.

If we disagree about that, let's not talk about it. I'm sure we agree on many other things!

John C. wrote:

Can you be more specific? 

Yes!
A small island with minimum facilities.  
I must be the only one living there.
No cannibals in it.
It shouldn't be haunted 
No animals, serpents, no dinosaurs, no anacondas but a lot of fruits
And my mobile phone needs signal always. 
I need net access, somehow
ships must be always go around the island for me to get help any time.
Helicopters must be landed on beach at least once a day bringing me foods and all other necessary stuff.

mal wrote:

John C. wrote:

Can you be more specific? 

Yes!
A small island with minimum facilities.  
I must be the only one living there.
No cannibals in it.
It shouldn't be haunted 
No animals, serpents, no dinosaurs, no anacondas but a lot of fruits
And my mobile phone needs signal always. 
I need net access, somehow
ships must be always go around the island for me to get help any time.
Helicopters must be landed on beach at least once a day bringing me foods and all other necessary stuff.

Hello Mal, 
Thank you for your (late) details.
Mayreau seems to your best bet.

Forever islands! .... 

John C. wrote:

mal wrote:

John C. wrote:

Can you be more specific? 

Yes!
A small island with minimum facilities.  
I must be the only one living there.
No cannibals in it.
It shouldn't be haunted 
No animals, serpents, no dinosaurs, no anacondas but a lot of fruits
And my mobile phone needs signal always. 
I need net access, somehow
ships must be always go around the island for me to get help any time.
Helicopters must be landed on beach at least once a day bringing me foods and all other necessary stuff.

Hello Mal, 
Thank you for your (late) details.
Mayreau seems to be your best bet.

Forever islands! ....