What do you suppose living in Hawaii is like?

[vash]

Retirement I suppose. My wife would work several years more I assume.

My friend is living the dream over there. Catching peacock bass, arrowing hogs, arrowing goats, catching marlin and wahoo damn near daily. He owns an old boat and sends me crazy fish pics all the time.

Think it would get boring living on an island?

[RWebb]

gotta wear a mask

the snowboarding sucks

it is expensive

locals doan like ya

lava comes for ya every few years & she mad, bro!

then, there are the upsides...

[look 171]

My friend's got the same idea, he just want to go fishing. I think island fever will set in for me pretty quickly? I have been thinking about retirement too. After my visit to Asia this past summer, I told me wife on our flight back about escaping for 2 -3 months to anyplace we like in the world after retirement. If we get sick of it, go to another place. Hawaii is $$$$ but doable if you are willing to drive and live in some remote areas away from the tourist traps. Three maybe four months is a long time away from home. That's a lot of fishing or arrowing . I like to give Indonesia, Taiwan (county side and I have seen videos of it. Beautiful places), or Vietnam a try. Ideally, this would be in the winter months with less humility. Live there for a couple months, work for free at a local cafe and hang out. What's not to like?

[look 171]

Originally Posted by RWebb

gotta wear a mask

the snowboarding sucks

it is expensive

locals doan like ya

lava comes for ya every few years & she mad, bro!

then, there are the upsides...

Nah, Vash will past as a local in a couple days of island tan.

[look 171]

Man, I can eat that local food all day long.

[sc_rufctr]

"locals doan like ya"

This might be worth a look.

[vash]

Originally Posted by look 171

My friend's got the same idea, he just want to go fishing. I think island fever will set in for me pretty quickly? I have been thinking about retirement too. After my visit to Asia this past summer, I told me wife on our flight back about escaping for 2 -3 months to anyplace we like in the world after retirement. If we get sick of it, go to another place. Hawaii is $$$$ but doable if you are willing to drive and live in some remote areas away from the tourist traps. Three maybe four months is a long time away from home. That's a lot of fishing or arrowing . I like to give Indonesia, Taiwan (county side and I have seen videos of it. Beautiful places), or Vietnam a try. Ideally, this would be in the winter months with less humility. Live there for a couple months, work for free at a local cafe and hang out. What's not to like?

Funny you mentioned Taiwan. That’s on my list as well. My wife is a citizen, and according to my FIL, he said it’s an easy transition. How bored could I be while trying to learn a new language and maybe even learn to read some? Expensive tho.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by vash

Funny you mentioned Taiwan. That’s on my list as well. My wife is a citizen, and according to my FIL, he said it’s an easy transition. How bored could I be while trying to learn a new language and maybe even learn to read some? Expensive tho.

That's one difficult language to learn. I love to learn me some Mandarin. I tried and took a class at my community college years ago. The instructor said, "You should drop the class. Your Pinyin is way, way off."

People in general are pretty nice I hear. Friend's wife is from there too and have parents back home. I like those smaller towns outside of the large cities. My wife and her friends are addicted to some Taiwanese and Korean soap operas. None of them speak a work of the language. These girls aint Asian, but they are hooked. She calls me to see the country side and now wants to visit. That's when I thought, why not live there for a couple months after kids goes off to college?

Hey, I don't think you can shoot guns there. I don't have a real gun, just a .22. It hasn't been fired in more then 25 years so that doesn't matter to me.

I hear it isn't that expensive to live there unless you like the high rise in Taipei or some large city. You are so lucky to have in-laws there so the transition is much easier.

[rockfan4]

Hawaii - My brother was married there in 2001, they vacationed there just about every year until finally moving there in 2015. They settled in a tiny condo in a high rise in Honolulu, moving from a 3000+ sq ft house in Florida. They stayed there a couple of years, and then moved to Maui.
Maui they found boring, they said there was Costco / Walmart to shop, or very high end stuff, nothing in between. So in 2018 they move back to Oahu, they found a slightly larger condo in the same building they were in before. He's told me that when he does retire (his wife is already retired) they will move back to the mainland, he's thinking southern California but they haven't made a firm decision yet.
The cost of living is one thing, but the other is his wife's daughter and the grandkids live near Chicago, and the plane ride to visit is just too long.

I need to get out to visit him before he does move, I haven't been there since his wedding and my wife has never been there. I haven't seen him in person in two years, and it was five years before that.

[KFC911]

Cliff Ho !

[nota]

Originally Posted by vash

Funny you mentioned Taiwan. That’s on my list as well. My wife is a citizen, and according to my FIL, he said it’s an easy transition. How bored could I be while trying to learn a new language and maybe even learn to read some? Expensive tho.

very very expensive is hawaii to the max

except the big island but very active volcano so vog/smog = just expensive
plus shipping on everything not local on a ship at high cost

[Cajundaddy]

We were married in HI and an uncle had a condo on Maui so we went back often. I am a water dog and could surf, scuba, fish, sail every day. Wife would get island fever pretty quickly. It is super expensive for food and housing but you don't really need much house to be comfortable. I like the weather for 3 seasons but summer humidity can be stifling. I think the Canadians have the right idea. 10 months in Vancouver and 2 months in Hawaii.

[MRM]

Originally Posted by vash

Funny you mentioned Taiwan. That’s on my list as well. My wife is a citizen, and according to my FIL, he said it’s an easy transition. How bored could I be while trying to learn a new language and maybe even learn to read some? Expensive tho.

Taiwan would be easy to live in as a retired expat. The dollar is strong and English is spoken pretty much everywhere. You could live as cheaply or expensively as you want. It's very clean and things work the way an American is used to. As anyone who's traveled in Asia knows, things don't work the same there. Taiwan feels much more familiar and doesn't have the hassle factor built into everything you get in a lot of the rest of Asia. They have a service-oriented culture that actually gets a little jarring because they're so friendly.

It's also a small island but beautiful and diverse. You can drive from downtown Taipei to a mountain village where they still speak their native language in less than an hour. They have mountains, beaches, lakes, hot springs and waterfalls all within an easy day trip from Taipei 101. You see Chinese, Japanese, British and American influences everywhere. Actually, it reminds me a lot of Hawaii.

[vash]

Originally Posted by MRM

Taiwan would be easy to live in as a retired expat. The dollar is strong and English is spoken pretty much everywhere. You could live as cheaply or expensively as you want. It's very clean and things work the way an American is used to. As anyone who's traveled in Asia knows, things don't work the same there. Taiwan feels much more familiar and doesn't have the hassle factor built into everything you get in a lot of the rest of Asia. They have a service-oriented culture that actually gets a little jarring because they're so friendly.

It's also a small island but beautiful and diverse. You can drive from downtown Taipei to a mountain village where they still speak their native language in less than an hour. They have mountains, beaches, lakes, hot springs and waterfalls all within an easy day trip from Taipei 101. You see Chinese, Japanese, British and American influences everywhere. Actually, it reminds me a lot of Hawaii.

I love the place. They do make a whiskey I do not like.

I think a small fishing village like Tainan would be great. They have a high speed rail so getting Taipei would be easy.

[john70t]

Social groups:
Are you a young wild tourist looking to party puke and leave all the trash behind?
An older very wealthy one with a sometimes cottage mansion?
A corporate food management guy?
A sometimes very poor barefoot native who very-much dislikes those outsider Haoles destroying their entire culture and island?
Or something in-between?

They are small but very beautiful places.
After five years of living there, seeing the same faces, experiencing the same thing, and knowing what you didn't really want to know about others, and the politics, would the magic still feel the same?

My suggestion would be to rent for a few months and see how it feels. If it is deep.

[WPOZZZ]

It is very expensive to live here, so if you want to retire, bring a few million bucks. The natives can be very friendly, or very hostile. During this pandemic, my sister's friend's brother was walking his dog and some locals yelled at him, "Haole go home!" and threw a bottle at him. It hit him on his head and he needed stitches. My sister's friend was a former asst police chief and she was born/raised here. Another story that occurred at the start of the pandemic was when some tourist got their tires slashed to cheers of, "Haole go home!"

For every bad story of locals hating on outsiders, there are good stories as well. My point is Hawaii is not a tropical paradise. It is beautiful here, but there is also the ugly side.

Now, if you brought your Porsche here, please understand that Honolulu has some of the crappiest roads in the nation, along with some of the worst drivers. To enjoy it, you need to go out late at night. There is only a couple mechanics I would trust with an air cooled car, and both are near retirement.

If you do decide to retire here, please come with your eyes wide open! We are a modern city with all the big city problems.

[Bill Douglas]

I think Hawaii is a fantastic place.

The weather is warm/hot. very warm clean clear water. Great diving and swimming. Never to late to learn to surf a mal'. Great bike riding. Sure beer costs more but brew your own. you feel like some city life - go to Honolulu.

[Crowbob]

No way, they don't get enough snow. Or salty roads. It's not even painful to go outside six months of every year. Or seriously dangerous for two. Bugs? None. Plus, too many flowers and houseplants growing outside.

It's all wrong.

[RWebb]

poki

[john70t]

er, there are huge salt mine caves and tunnels under Detroit (debtwaa:french) city. Enough for all.
Even the bats haven't found it yet.