@John ******

I think for most of us, we found a woman here. It's the human connections that we've made here that means we want to stay. Thailand is great, but it isn't the same thing for a young or even slightly older digital nomad who doesn't know anyone here or doesn't know the language or culture.

@Jonathan ********

Malaysia is cheaper actually, but doesn't mean it's better.

@Kenny ****

Malaysia is definitely cheaper than Thailand.

@Uwe ***

It would. There are plenty of dodgy happenings in Pattaya, Phuket, Phangan etc though the perpetrators are often foreigners.

@Brad ********

It's the same with Thailand - all foreign arrivals are counted as "tourists" to make the numbers look good, but are they actually tourists, or just Burmese day trippers? Or Lao/Cambodian ones? I think you know the answer...

Malaysia is not as dependent upon tourism as Thailand is, though it is an important industry.

Yes, malls do great in Thailand. In Malaysia, KLCC does well, Sunway Park is fine too but the rest not as much. I think they've embraced the stay at home, order online culture more, whereas mall going is still considered an acceptable day to day pastime in Thailand, especially for teenagers, 20 and 30 somethings and even young families among Thais, particularly on Friday evenings and weekends, when malls are absolutely packed.

Even if Malaysians appear to be boycotting western brands, they seem to be boycotting only the big ones such as KFC and McDonald's which they see as supporting Israel. A&W, Carl's Jr, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Texas Chicken, Santa's etc were "boycotted" by Thais in the sense that they didn't appeal to Thais and thus these chains failed, but they are still doing very well in Malaysia. Tons of fat Malaysians, particularly women, gulp down A&W root beers, waffles and burgers like there's no tomorrow; unlike Thais, who just didn't like them.

Thais don't like western food or western things as much as other Asians do, but they don't boycott them for political reasons like Malaysians do, they'll simply not go to these places. These chains almost have to rely on western expats / tourists to survive in Thailand!

@Luke ***

Yes and no. Malaysia is quite international and perhaps more so than Thailand, in the sense that you can find a lot more imported food, a greater variety of foreign chains and so forth. A LOT of foreign retailers, restaurants, fast food outlets etc. fail in Thailand, whereas the same ones do well in Malaysia.

English is widely spoken in Malaysia, but not so widely spoken in Thailand.

However, the nightlife aspect of Thai culture and the "sabai sabai" attitude simply can't be found in Malaysia, so I think that's what it comes down to.

In other words, I'd say that if anything, Thailand is more traditional than Malaysia but perhaps a little more welcoming too, especially towards different faiths.

@Warren ********

Malaysia is cheaper than Thailand for sure, for most things. For food, it's similar, but foreign chains are definitely cheaper in Malaysia. Prices in Thailand are becoming ridiculous - 185 Baht stuffed bagels or 250 Baht stuffed croissants are becoming the norm at coffee shops in Bangkok. In Kuala Lumpur, you'll pay maybe of that for the same thing.

Anonymous participant That's nothing and an easy requirement to meet. Having an ongoing income of a certain amount can be a challenge and weeds out all but the best, most consistently earning digital nomads.

Secondly, I do think a lot of people are interested in Malaysia.

There are, as you'd expect, a fair few differences between Thailand including advantages and disadvantages, as far as living there goes for a foreigner.

Some of the advantages include:

1. A more educated population with a higher level of English proficiency; most educated people speak English well, unlike in Thailand

2. Better infrastructure (OK, not by that much...Thailand's infrastructure is decent, but Malaysian roads are still in better shape, better designed and there are fewer accidents as a result. There are also far more expressways).

3. Foreigners can own land and houses, in most states, at least in the cities, which contrasts with Thailand

4. Immigration is much easier than Thailand

5. Foreigners, especially westerners, stand out less as Malaysia is quite multicultural, unlike homogeneous Thailand - you have Indian, Malay and Chinese groups as well as a large community of Eurasians making up 1% of the population; in Thailand, Eurasians (luk-khreung) are still strangely considered "exotic", "somewhat foreign" making them feel alienated in their own country...this is starting to change somewhat, but not fast enough

6. A lot more imported food stuffs and other items from abroad and imported goods are much cheaper than in Thailand, which applies hefty taxes

7. More foreign brands / chain restaurants / fast food stores (if that is your thing) - Thailand is very business unfriendly towards smaller or medium sized foreign chains (and/or Thais don't like trying new things, don't like foreign food / foreign chains they aren't familiar with) hence why A&W, Carl's Jr, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (and others including Santa's) have all failed in recent years, but are thriving in Malaysia

8. Easier to do business in

9. Somewhat cheaper (except for things like alcohol)

10. More family friendly, with lots of family seating areas, few seedy/nightlife areas

Disadvantages:

1. No real dry season; it rains all year-round in Malaysia (though southern Thailand is largely the same) with maybe 1-2 months of "dry" weather, usually around March-April, with minimal rainfall

2. Alcohol not as widely available (though it's easy to find in the supermarkets, convenience stores and Chinatowns in the main cities such as Kuala Lumpur and Penang) - there are however no afternoon sales bans, which is good (despite being a Muslim country)

3. Strict Muslim culture (in the eastern parts of the country especially), although parts of southern Thailand aren't too different (Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani)

4. Locals are friendly, but I get the feeling that especially among the ethnic Chinese middle and upper classes, there is a level of jealousy / resentment towards westerners, especially amongst the older generation, who see one or two incidents of foreigners behaving badly and thus stereotype all foreigners this way (Thais are starting to become this way too, though) - don't get me wrong; I don't think this means that ethnic Chinese Malays in general have an anti-western attitude any more than Thais might have (especially in light of tons of recent news of badly behaved foreigners)

5. Not as much nightlife...basically very little nightlife except for drinking beer with your meal at Chinese restaurants in east coast cities, but OKish nightlife in Penang and Kuala Lumpur, which do have bars and clubs

6. Strict rules pertaining to relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims, particularly along the East Coast but even in general - this presents no issue among non-Muslim couples or friends though

7. Somewhat less corruption, which also means that certain laws are stricter and/or more strictly applied than in Thailand, which means you can't get away with flouting traffic laws as easily as in Thailand for example

8. Water fluoridation - Malaysian tap water is fluoridated. It's unfluoridated in Thailand, so health conscious residents would need to install a filter that removes fluoride when living in Malaysia, whereas in Thailand, there's no need because tap water is unfluoridated (however, it might still make sense to install some filters as there's a lot of chlorine and other nasties in the tap water here, just that its not as bad as Malaysia)

That's a great question.

First of all, this is the Thailand DTV group and thus no one is really talking about other countries' digital nomad visas in here.

Secondly, I think the criteria for being granted a digital nomad visa for Malaysia is stricter than for the DTV.

The DTV is a surprise though - prior to it being offered, you only had the extremely restrictive LTR, which is made for rich expats with requirements not too dissimilar to qualifying for an investor visa for the USA (and other western countries)!

Thailand normally goes overboard with unrealistic requirements.

So I think the first reason is because Malaysia's requirements are more stringent.