When poker players choose to move abroad, it isn't always to classic destinations like London, Paris, or Las Vegas. Sometimes, it's a more exotic location that excites us. So, when we talk about "unusual" places in this article, the word isn't used negatively. Each of these places is unusual, but only because we hear about people living there less often.
This article helped inspire us to follow up with the one you see below:
Hopefully, you enjoy the insights from other poker players into far-flung areas around the globe.
Uruguay
All major poker rooms are available except partypoker
– SoClose // EVER TRY. EVER LOSE. NO MATTER. TRY AGAIN. LOSE AGAIN. LOSE BETTER
At the moment my wife Sasha and I live in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. We plan to stay here unless new circumstances arise. We moved in September, so we won't be in the new place for long :)
We spent a long time choosing a country to live in from all possible options. In Uruguay, all major languages are available, and it is relatively easy to obtain permanent residence. Plus, the standard of living here is one of the highest in Latin America.
Expectations and reality more or less coincided. The weather was just a little cooler, very windy. Well, we were going to live by the ocean, but it turned out that the coast in the capital is a river) In general, all the information that we could find in the public domain was confirmed in reality.
It's hard to estimate the budget yet, at first there were a lot of additional expenses. But in general it's expensive here. There are a lot of imported goods, so the prices are high. The apartment costs $800 (living room-kitchen + bedroom). Utilities are another $100 + $80 separately for electricity + $40 for the Internet. We live in a safe area near the coast, in a new building in a fully furnished apartment. You can find housing cheaper.
The average "soup set" costs about 2,000-3,000 pesos, which is about $75 (the exchange rate is about 40-42 to the dollar). This includes milk, eggs, cereals, fruits, vegetables, and sweets for two for two or three days.
Pros:
– Very polite and responsive people. There has not been a single situation where they did not help us, even without understanding what exactly we want.
– Comfortable climate. We were expecting a little more warmth, but here everything depends on the wind. You can walk in a T-shirt and suffer from the heat, and a couple of minutes later freeze because of a sudden gust. But mostly it is by the ocean.
– Delicious food. The meat here is delicious, the dairy products (cheeses, etc.) are very tasty.
– Lots of greenery. All the streets are covered with bushes, palms and trees. You walk down the street and just enjoy the air. And it's funnier to look at parrots instead of sparrows, but that's more of a surprise :)
– There are almost no homeless animals. They love dogs here, almost every resident has one. Moreover, we have not seen any homeless dogs at all, but they say that they are still found in poorer areas.
– There is not such a rich cultural and historical heritage here as in Russia, but everything is free. Museums, parks, a planetarium – just come in and look.
– Well, the main advantage is freedom. No one cares who you are, what you are, what your gender is, what you do and what you think about. Don't violate the freedom of others and you will be happy :)
Minuses:
– The biggest problem we have encountered so far is heating. They don’t bother with thermal insulation in houses here at all. The windows are plastic, but only from one glass. There is a lot of condensation after rain. Locals who have lived here for a long time say that it can be very cold in houses in winter. They heat here mainly with air conditioners and heaters, some have heated floors. In old houses they easily heat with stoves, firewood is sold right in supermarkets.
– There are many homeless people. This is not so much a minus as a fact :) Everyone here is free, so they are not bothered, and in most cases they are even helped. But you can calmly walk down the street, and in front of you on a piece of cardboard in the city center there is a person sleeping.
– Marijuana is legal here, but only for locals. You can buy it right at the pharmacy. For us, this is more of a minus, since we don’t even smoke cigarettes, so the smell sometimes interferes with comfort. But maybe someone will consider this point as a plus :)
– Mañana. In Spanish, it's "tomorrow". We haven't encountered it yet, maybe we'll have to do it at the stage of submitting documents. Since people here are free and independent, no one is in a hurry. If there are things to do, I'll do them tomorrow. And so on every day :) It's hard to adjust, we're used to doing everything quickly and on the run. But this is also a point that everyone will write down for themselves, wherever convenient.
Overall, it's incredibly cool here. New country, new people, new atmosphere. Maybe we're a bit euphoric right now, so we don't notice anything. But there are a lot of impressions, so we hope that we'll be able to enjoy life again :)
Costa Rica
All major rooms are available except partypoker
– Ilya KARACHEVSKII // Ego is a minor
We live five minutes from Jaco, in a condominium (a small hotel with security) in the mountains. I came here a month and a half ago, and I plan to stay for at least six months. We chose the place based on the principle that it should be by the ocean and not far from the capital, of all the housing options we took the one with the best view, expectations were met. Many people – both tourists and locals – do not like Jaco at all because a lot of locals come here on weekends to drink. It's like a Black Sea resort, a lot of prostitutes. But I go out into the city a couple of times a week for a short time, clubbing and nightlife do not interest me, so these disadvantages do not affect me at all. It seems like there is a casino here, and in general poker and similar activities are legalized.
I chose Costa Rica because I was looking for something in this time zone, it seemed more interesting here than in Mexico. I considered Canada as an alternative, but I think I will go there later. About 30% of the country's territory is protected natural reserves. Everything here is green. However, I turned out to be a mediocre tourist, so I did not explore anything myself, but every time you go somewhere, the eye is still pleased. My expectations from the country were justified, perhaps it is even better here than I thought.
I rent a place for $1,000 a month + utilities ($100-300), food costs about $70 a day, but I order everything from restaurants, the products here seem to be quite cheap, so it is more profitable to cook yourself than to order (in Bali, for example, it was the opposite). Buying monitors/UPS + renting a car and everything else in the first month can be disappointing. I didn't count, but the $10k I brought in quickly ended. Shipping goods via America doesn't seem to be difficult, but I haven't done it.
The main advantage for me is the absence of a headache with a visa. In two hours I received a refugio card – you become an applicant for refugee status, and this is a visa for 10 years, every two years it needs to be confirmed. In theory, you cannot return to your home country, but there are options for how you can do this. With this card, opening bank accounts and other things is very easy. Plus, I really like the love and respect for nature. Here, Bali is at a minimum in terms of the average level of human happiness. Life by the ocean makes people relaxed, welcoming and friendly. "Pura vida!" – from Spanish this translates as "pure life" – the motto of Costa Rica. An analogue of Hakuna Matata.
On the downside, I can note the feeling of anxiety for my safety, especially in the capital. They didn't bring the ocean there, but there are a lot of homeless people and marginalized people. Costa Rica seems to be one of the leaders in Latin America in terms of GDP per capita, but "better than Venezuela" does not mean that it is safe here. There are 300-500 Russian people in the whole country, so for me, as a person who misses communication in my native language, it is very unusual after Bali. The locals mainly speak Spanish. It is clear that Google partially solves the problem, but communication is very difficult, and in a hypothetical hospital, there will obviously be many problems. Also, food prices are higher here than in Bali, and the quality is worse. I also did not find a normal gym for myself in Jaco – no locker rooms, no shower, no water, and the exercise machines are worn out.
Argentina
All major rooms are available
– ghoastim // Ecological excursions on limits
I have been living in Argentina permanently for five years now and am expecting a new addition in a month – my parents are coming to visit me from Moscow. I like it here and would like to stay here for the next few years. The country is large and very diverse, you can simply not get out of domestic tourism and still be interested in discovering a new place every time – from colorful mountains, deserts with cacti and waterfalls to volcanoes, glaciers and wineries.
We ended up here because of a wedding invitation and used the opportunity to visit South America. We traveled around the country and somehow it all worked out that we tried to stay. Perhaps, the people here suited me best in terms of temperament – everyone is very open, including towards newcomers (probably because everyone's parents or grandmothers themselves came from Europe relatively recently), with a sense of humor. There was no feeling that you had just dropped in "to visit" and it was time for you to go. The language, in my subjective opinion, is beautiful and cheerful, with a large number of various curses and jokes.
I live in the third largest city – Rosario, the population here is about 1 million people. Lots of greenery on the streets, parks and a river nearby. We live in the very center, so everything is within a 15-minute walk. For a two-room apartment with furniture, we spend $250/month + electricity/Internet about $75. Just this week I'm going to look at an apartment for my parents for three months, also in the center in a great area, with all the furniture, it should be about $320/month. I think that in Buenos Aires the price tag will be about x2.5-3. Prices for food are lower than in Russia, and for electronics +/- similar.
Many people choose Argentina for moving "blindly", based on the ease of legalization and obtaining permanent residence. For me, there are enough advantages here without this. The disadvantage is the high crime rate in large cities. Therefore, the choice of a city/district for living here is important and will give a completely different experience of staying.
Brazil
All major rooms are available
– Tima Fedorovina // In pursuit of happiness
Moved at the end of September. I really want to go back, so it's hard to talk about the exact time frame of staying here. In Brazil, you can play in all rooms, it's inexpensive and the time zone is ideal for MTT. Expectations from the country +- coincided with reality.
I think that $3,000 is more than enough for a comfortable life here:
$1k – housing
$1k – food if you eat only in restaurants
$1k – entertainment, clothes, etc.
The main advantages of Brazil are the time zone, climate and ocean, and the main disadvantage is the lack of English.
Nepal
– Egor RADIOHEADED_19 // Make “PokerStars” Great Again!
I have been living in Kathmandu in the Boudhha area since the beginning of September 2022 :). I have a Nepalese visa issued for three months with the possibility of extending it for two more for an additional fee. At the moment, the visa is expiring and on November 19 I have already planned a flight from Kathmandu to Delhi, from Delhi by train to Varanasi, and there I plan to continue working and playing poker. It is more interesting for me to live in India now, since I have close friends there, plus it is not so cold in winter. The whole idea of moving to Nepal was based on the fact that you can play on PokerStars from here, but not in India.
I managed to play on PokerStars only in October, I started the 40% rakeback challenge for $1,800 in zoom50, as I usually did before in Belarus, but I quickly realized that I can’t play in such volumes. An attempt to move to zoom100 to recoup the rake faster ended in failure, so for now I’ve finished playing on PokerStars :) In the coming months, all hopes are connected with the WPN network, you can play there from India without any problems.
I have long wanted to visit Asia, plus it so happened that close friends from Russia now live in India and periodically visit Nepal, this is a common thing among travelers here. It is clear that moving closer to them, to a settled place is much easier than going somewhere unknown. First, I had a flight Moscow-Delhi, from there by train to Varanasi, spent a week there with friends, and on August 30 crossed the land border with Nepal. In Nepal itself, you can travel by bus, car or motorcycle, there are no railways here, of course, only mountain serpentines :)
The main concerns when moving were related to the speed of the Internet, in practice they turned out to be groundless, for the poker client almost any signal is enough, the easiest way is to connect to the local operator Ncell, buy traffic, and distribute it from the phone to the laptop, no connection breaks were noticed. Nepal seemed to be a more than comfortable place to live, including in terms of cost of living and quality of service/products. It is very important to find a good guesthouse, I was lucky to rent a room in one for 600 Nepalese rupees/day (130 NPR = $ 1), in addition to it a huge living room on the floor, in which virtually no one except me grazes, so a decent number of square meters included, there is a boiler with hot water, plus a kitchen on the third and fourth floors (I live on the second), plus an exit to the roof :)
Nothing works here at night, so it is important to have time to go to the supermarket from 6 am to 8 pm, otherwise in the midst of the night skating you can find yourself without food and go on tilt! By the way, food has become one of the main joys of this trip, they cook much better and more interestingly here than we do. You can find a lot of spicy dishes, this is the norm here and it is better to put up with it. People who do not tolerate spicy food will have a very hard time here :) Food prices are clearly lower than in Belarus or Russia, I usually spend no more than 300 rupees on lunch. Another big advantage of the country is the de facto legalization, in the sense that grass is decriminalized for the consumer, and sellers are not particularly afraid, in a tourist area it is enough to stand near a store with bongs for a person to come to you and offer you some :)
Another important argument for living in Nepal is Hinduism and Buddhism, and the philosophy and culture associated with them. The entire city is permeated with them through visual images, monks and monasteries are more associated with Buddhism, and cremation grounds with Hinduism :) As they say, memento mori, I have already written a will so that if anything happens, the body is cremated here, and not sent in a box to be buried in the native Belarusian soil. Otherwise, for such a beautiful plot, this would be a completely lousy ending :))
The main expectation that did not match reality was that I could not continue playing here on PokerStars, since when recalculated into hours to complete the 40% rakeback challenge, I had to spend 10-11 hours a day on the rink with a couple of days off per month. I just felt sorry to waste my nerves and energy. Otherwise, there was no dissonance, I was afraid that I could get sick with something, but in practice, I did not have to deal with anything except diarrhea and a cold, knock on wood :))
Budget (let me remind you, $1= 133 NPR). Renting a room in a guesthouse is 15,000-18,000 NPR per month. The best way to get around the city is by motorbike, using the inDriver or Potao app, the average price per ride is 150-250 rupees. You just sit behind the driver and hold on to him, by car the price is three times more :) The main expenses, as usual, are on food: shops with restaurants eat up about 50,000 rupees per month, but the gastronomic experience is strictly 10 out of 10, I think it's definitely worth it :)
I think $500 is the minimum monthly budget. If you have more than $600, then it's even better. In Russia, you can't afford much with that kind of money, but in Nepal you'll be the king of life. Of course, most local people's salaries are incomparably lower – a common story for Asia. In my opinion, the most horrible jobs here are sorting through garbage or cleaning out sewage, and I wouldn't want to end up behind the counter of a butcher shop. So poker work (intellectual and emotional) seems to me a rare privilege for which one should be very grateful to fate.
The whole experience of living here is one big plus, starting from the mountain climate and unique nature, ending with the cultural color and the quality of city food. I was very impressed by the architecture, large three- and four-story buildings are found everywhere here, they look chic :) Along with dogs, you can see monkeys in the city, this is also a big plus :)) Usually they move in packs and live in parks, near Hindu temples. Other fauna in the city are geckos and chipmunks, and outside the city – tigers, elephants and rhinoceroses :) Nepal has a cool design of banknotes, they are all multi-colored and each denomination corresponds to a local animal.
I like Asian culture. People here are much less rich and at the same time much happier. The connections between people are much stronger. By the way, another important plus for me: the local language is completely incomprehensible, so the consciousness does not have to process gigabytes of unnecessary information. You can spend hours next to loudly talking people and at the same time calmly do whatever you want, other people's speech does not interfere or distract you in the least.
One of the downsides is the large amount of garbage on the streets. Containers are not in favor here, garbage bags are often thrown out by the road, and spontaneous dumps are formed. Fortunately, from time to time a car with a trailer passes by, collects waste and takes it to the dump, but the sediment, as they say, remains, with a rotten smell :)) However, for Asia, this is absolutely typical, smart people can only understand and forgive :) In India, the situation with garbage is several times worse, and nothing, people live and are happy :)
Vietnam
All major rooms are available except partypoker and GGPoker
– Anton SeeMyAcez
I have been living here for years, I flew to Russia for a year and a half, but returned four months ago. I fell in love with Vietnam with all my heart back in 2017 – low prices, great climate, responsive people, a large Russian-speaking community.
My monthly budget is about $1,000. For that money, you can rent a nice two-room apartment ($300), rent a bike ($100), cook at home or eat at local establishments, the cost is about the same.
On the downside, I can note that the Vietnamese are very peculiar people and do everything carelessly, sometimes it is impossible to get an elementary thing from them, you have to pester them until they do it. It is also quite noisy here, as in all of Asia.
– Vitaly PercoFF
I have been living in the north of Nha Trang, Vietnam, for a little over a month. I will definitely stay here until March, and then I will think based on the current situation in the Russian Federation. It is too early to predict now.
At first I planned to fly to Phuket. But I accidentally saw a correspondence in telegram about Nha Trang. According to the stories, Nha Trang is cheaper and in general the city is more suitable for living with a small child.
Plus, the guys in Bishkek were also planning to fly here. That's how they chose their final destination.
Expectations completely matched reality. The only thing is that I forgot what real heat is.
There is no budget as such. We spend as much as we need. It is hard to judge by the first month, there are a lot of one-time expenses and purchases. If we estimate very roughly, then probably $1,500-2,000 per month should be enough for a family. At home we spent no less)
Pros – cheap to live in. Good time zone for poker. Great people around – both local and local. Good food if you know what to get.
Cons – it can be too hot. You have to sit under the air conditioner with the corresponding consequences. Also, there is no respect for pedestrians here, it is difficult to move around with a stroller. But overall, it is great here. I think the first month was the hardest. It should only get better from here.
Serbia
PokerStars, partypoker, 888poker are not available here.
– Feminist
I live in the Serbian city of Kragujevac. I moved in early August, settled in, and tested life here, after which the whole family arrived. We plan to stay here seriously and for a long time, but how it will turn out in reality, no one knows :)
I chose Serbia based on a combination of factors. Technically, it's very similar to assessing an opponent's range in poker. The main factors are:
1. Attitude towards Russian speakers. The near-politics are crap, but it is impossible not to touch on them. Today, this is the only European country where the attitude towards Russian citizens is better than neutral.
2. Intersects with the first point – there are no disagreements on political or religious grounds. Normal people do not think much about politics or religion, because they have no time for it.
3. High-quality and affordable education, which is valued everywhere. Kragujevac is practically a student city. There are no big problems getting children into the educational system, even without a residence permit. A large selection of trainers and sections in most areas.
4. Ideal climate.
5. Relatively low prices with good quality.
6. There are many wonderful people here, the mentality is similar.
7. Developed culture and national color, many different events.
8. There is virtually no crime.
Surprisingly, in practice, reality even exceeded expectations :)) I guess I'm used to being disappointed.
The budget, by rough estimates, is €1,200. This is enough for a relatively good life for two adults and two children. It includes renting a two-room apartment near the center for €200, about €70 utilities + Internet, food €500, clubs-books-toys for children €180, €150 for clothing depreciation, €100 for cafes and entertainment. You can also fit into €1,000 just right without entertainment. Everything above that goes into savings.
Among the advantages, first of all, it is necessary to note the people. They are wonderful and very good-natured. It is almost impossible to meet aggressive or drunk people. Very nice girls with gorgeous figures, but I am married, so consider this factor without me :) Lots of flowers on the street and on the balconies of houses. Private business is very developed, the climate is wonderful, educated people are at the helm of the country.
Of the minuses. This is relative, but for me the minus is the extreme "polako". The Serbs are too slow and lazy, absolutely not punctual. Also high taxes, bureaucracy, but for a poker brother it is good here, since income should not be taxed. Not enough playgrounds compared to the Russian Federation. The territorial dispute with Kosovo is actually a big unresolved problem.
Well, overall, I am more than satisfied, all the problems are completely solvable.
