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.

@Tod ********

Hopefully you don't have to show a copy of the data page of the old passport for each entry, just the first one?

I don't think it matters whether one is a natural born or naturalized citizen of a country. It end result is the same.

@Tim **********

Roaming is better. I've stopped purchasing sim cards when I go to Laos. Coverage is not great outside of urban areas, some network providers have zero coverage in the north for example. Roaming is a much better deal. Unlimited mobile data and you are automatically re-routed to whatever provider has a cell tower in a particular area, offering maximum coverage everywhere but the most remote areas.

Not worth buying lots of Beer Lao just to save 20+ Baht a bottle. Buy something to bring back that you can't find in Thailand, such as Somersby Ciders (incidentally, also brewed under license by Beer Lao).

@Wannikea ********

You're getting ripped off. Where do you live? Tops sells it for a standard price all over the country. Sounds like you live in Nakorn nowhere.

@Amir ********

It's 59 Baht at Tops for the normal Beer Lao and 68-70 for the other varieties. Naturally it will be more expensive than in Laos as it has to be transported here and distributed.

Yes correct. Reporting is only if you spend at least 90 days in the country on any one trip.

Flight from Bangkok should be more like 2h45m, not 3h30.