so we already left Turkey and in this video
we're gonna share with you the positive sides and the negative sides and why we made the
final decision to leave and go traveling. we were actually thinking about it for about
a couple of months already and I even shared the community posts about our struggles
that we are thinking, should we stay, should we go? yeah and the final decision was
made somewhere at the end of September or maybe even like in the middle of September that we have
to go. we didn't share it right away because we had some videos from Turkey for you, but now
finally we are in another country already, a country that we wanted to revisit for a long
time. now we are ready to share our impressions about Turkey for the year that we lived there
and actually your supportive comments that you will follow us wherever we go, that you would
be interested to see other country's too that gave us a bit more courage to go out and explore.
we want to find our forever home and we are going to explore different countries to find the place
that we think is most suitable for us to live for long term for our forever home or forever homes,
who knows maybe there will be multiple homes preferably. so this season is going to be all
about South East Asia, we're going to visit quite some countries here. in the next video we
will share the first one, let's keep this as a as a surprise as a surprise yeah, of course
if you want to gamble put your gambles down about living in Turkey and then explain why
eventually we did make a decision to leave and it wasn't the easy choice to make, it was not
easy. well one of the things that we really liked about Turkey was the low cost of living, you get
a good quality life for an affordable amount of money. at some point I think it was is one of
the most affordable places to live like ever, maybe with the exception of very poor countries,
but out of developed countries it was really really low cost. yeah as long as you don't drink
alcohol or not not too much then it's really affordable and yeah indeed for our lifestyle it
was just perfect. the other thing we really loved in Turkey was how safe overall it was, especially
in Antalya in Liman where we lived. there was no crime, at least we didn't see anything there
were no pickpockets or anything like that, I mean I could walk the streets wherever I wanted
by myself and I was not scared to do it, and yeah overall people were friendly and nice. and another
thing that we really liked was the infrastructure, but also the restaurants, the shops, public
transport, it's actually similar to what I'm used to in Europe, a tram a lot of buses going
to the city center and from the city center to everywhere. there's no actual Metro no Underground
Metro, but there is a tram like we said which is quite convenient, it takes you from the airport to
the city. it didn't go to our area unfortunately, but we still had buses. so for for a big city
like that I think they have quite an efficient system. yeah I agree. it's also very clean, not
like I know in some European and American cities the Metro is seen as a very dirty Place very
crowded and yeah in Turkey it can be crowded, but it's modern and clean which is really good,
yeah for sure. and also the different shops there are local affordable shops like basic really
inexpensive, but there are also the the normal shops like the medium spending wise and also the
high-end shops where you can find all the products that you are used to in Europe or wherever
you're coming from. yeah basically for any budget there's a shop available. another thing I
think why every Foreigner comes to live in Turkey, in Antalya is the the close proximity to the beach
and there are further away areas, but most of the foreigners live in Konyaalti or in Lara which
is always something like 10 to 20 minutes from the beach and sometimes it's right on the beach.
or just like us we lived around 10 minutes from the beach, we could walk and quite often we walked
and we really enjoy it, even though it's the same walk every time. but quite often we would walk
and it's like yeah we are so lucky, so lucky, so privileged to just be able to walk to the beach
and to look at the mountains and yeah and all of that for like we said a very affordable price,
so that was one of the highlights I think for us. yeah it felt like going on a holiday, yeah a mini
holiday, a mini holiday every time you go there yeah so that was definitely a big plus. and also
the climate in Turkey, I mean in the Netherlands, people from the Netherlands shout out, we know the
weather in the Netherlands and just in general in northern Europe. yeah it's raining a lot and
like two or three weeks in the whole year it's like 30 to 35 degrees and then it's freakishly
hot and then the next day it's like 10 to 15 degrees lower, I mean who can handle that. and in
Turkey well it was in December and January a bit windy and rainy but overall manageable for two,
two and a half months and then you have a really nice mild weather and only in summer months it
gets a bit hot like Thailand hot. a bit hot okay, the good months were like April May June
March as well yeah March, March too, but July and August it was like freakishly hot
35 to 40 degrees and then September, October, November were really good months again, really
good yeah. but overall if you compare to southern Europe it has a similar climate. yeah so I know
a lot of expats and retired people are looking at those countries like Portugal, Spain and I
think Turkey is an affordable alternative to those countries. yeah yeah I agree and also Turkey
is quite developed in infrastructure overall so there is an airport in every major city on the
Mediterranean and it's very easy to get there from Europe on a direct flight, from America is
probably more complicated. and also Turkey is essentially in between of Europe and Asia so there
are flights to Europe and to Asia if you want to go there. yeah flights from Europe to Turkey are
also affordable and flying inside the country, yeah inside Turkey is really affordable and again
all the major touristy destinations in Turkey you can just book a direct flight to there. it was
really good for us, we went to Izmir, to Istanbul, to Marmaris, Trabzon, yeah Antalya, Alanya all
of those cities are just within a short flight. yeah so if you live in just one city in Turkey
you can also travel everywhere and you never get bored like us. so yeah I agree so that was
really fun to do within that year that we lived there. and also it's really expat friendly, there
is quite the expat Community I think. maybe less than in some other countries, but still there are
enough expats to come around and it feels like the community is growing yeah that to indeed.
there are more co-workings like International co-workings where International people "digital
Nomads" Meetup and in the city center there is now a co-working that is owned by another Dutch
guy. also Turkey is famous for its Healthcare that it's really good, we fortunately never had
serious health problems there but as residents we could get a covid vaccine for free for example
and dental care there was affordable and I know a lot of people even travel for medical reasons to
Turkey to take care of their teeth, to get a nose job or hair transplant surgery, we met people who
did it and yeah they also said that it was very affordable Turkey is known to be good for that
so I think for people who plan to retire there it's very important. and in Antalya it looks like
it's a very accessibility friendly City and people with disabilities we do see them on the beach and
on the Promenade people who use Wheelchairs and even on the beach there's uh there's a small
area of beach that's specifically for people with wheelchairs and things like that yeah so
they have ramps and everything, yeah extra life guards and everything yeah they are accommodating
to them. there are a lot of international schools that we could see in Antalya at least and they all
look good, so if you have children, we don't have children so we cannot Testify the quality of the
education, but we do see many schools around Even in our building we had an international
school a international daycare I think, yeah International kindergarten yeah they spoke
English but also Russian I think and also Turkish. overall the communication with locals it's easy to
do sometimes it's with hand and feeds, other times it's in small English, a little bit of Turkish,
things like that. but overall the the locals are really friendly they are trying everything they
can to help you, to talk to you, things like that. so overall the communication we felt very
welcome and we didn't feel any aggression towards us as foreigners or anything so I think that's
really important when you're living abroad to feel welcome. another thing is cheap shopping as you
saw on my channel I have some shopping mall videos and Turkey has their own brands of affordable
clothing. basically it's in every shopping mall and clothes there are quite affordable and sizing
wise for example in Asia it's hard to find clothes for European people because we are just different
shape and size than Asian people for example and Turkey is kind of in the Middle with that, so that
makes it easier to find clothes that will fit your height and your body type if you are from Europe
or Northern America. and quite a variety as well and affordable so that's definitely a plus when
you're living there long term. yeah and they still also have the European or American Brands if you
really want to, prices are I think comparable to Europe and America but maybe a bit more expensive
or cheaper in some circumstances so yeah. why did we decide to leave? and yeah we actually
were really hoping that we could stay, we wanted to renew our residency permit and we also really
wished we could stay in our apartment. that you can check out in the previous videos on our
channel, we made a room tour for you, an apartment tour. it's a really nice apartment and we were
hoping we could stay for another year at least, but yeah it didn't work out for us and actually
one of the main reasons that pushed us to leave is the situation with the apartment rentals at
the moment in Antalya and basically everywhere in the big city's in Turkey where there are a
lot of foreigners. essentially when we started to look for a new apartment because we couldn't
renew our previous one the conditions were unfortunately that we couldn't renew it and when
we started looking on Sahibinden essentially for the price quality we couldn't even find something
for like 10 000 Turkish Lira that was our budget that we set for ourselves it's 550 dollars I think
something like that and you must know that before a good price would be 300 USD or 350 USD maybe
like that so we already went higher in price because the current situation is that the demand
is very high so we were looking for 550 USD and we did find something that we liked and I called
the agent and the conditions are the deposi, the payments of the commission to the agent and the
payment for the whole year for the rent yeah and that is essentially from what I know I don't know
it very well I don't know Turkish laws perfectly but from what I'm reading that's against the
law to ask for the whole year yeah they want to protect themselves of course they want to be sure
that the foreigners will stay for the whole year and will not just leave and they want to get their
money for the whole year right away because it's in Turkish Lira and it devalues really quickly
so they want to get all the money for the year convert them to US Dollars and that will protect
the money but for us it's like it's too much to pay for the whole year and who knows what will
happen maybe we do have to leave for some personal reasons we don't want to lose that much money so
yeah that was our main issue inflation in Turkey I think it's all over the news even in the rest of
the world that in Turkey the inflation is high at the moment yeah and we could see it daily prices
kept rising and rising and rising that was one of the reasons why the apartments the rent for them
also went up that much but also for other things for salmon for example we noticed it even we first
world problem prices for someone first in the Netherlands I would pay so much more and in Turkey
I just refused to buy the salmon because the price went up too much yeah but it is hard mentally
to always adjust the price in your head in local currency mentally you get tired from it you just
you your brain can never settle on a certain thing your brain has to always always change the price
in your head and that can be a bit tiring after a year where the price is changing all the time
it becomes a bit hard and it's of course much harder for Turkish people who earn in Turkish
Lira for them it's like completely crazy your salary stays the same and the price changes every
other week it grows but it does make your life there a bit more unpredictable yeah yeah even we
started to say at some point to each other that uh things became more expensive where actually the
price in US Dollar was staying more or less the same yeah but we started to say to each other it's
getting so much more expensive where in the end it wasn't really even getting more expensive for
ourselves yeah and another thing that was always more expensive already in Turkey were the cars and
the electronics yeah the cars are more expensive because there's a high tax on cars in Turkey and
the more powerful the engine or the heavier the engine the more tax on it so if you have like
a more expensive car then the tax can be even 200 percent from Europe or another country I think
even when you come with your own car you can stay for two years two years so if you're staying like
long long term after two years I think you have to leave for yeah but watch out because your driving
license is only valid for six months if you go out with your car after those six months then you
are not allowed to return right away with that car so you you have to find another way to renew
your driving license than to go out with your car or you can get a local driver's license but we
didn't look into it how how is that going if you have to speak Turkish or do you have to have a
translator maybe probably there are ways to do it yeah and also Electronics detection Electronics
is high we looked into buying iPhone there and that was quite expensive only on the moment where
basically the Turkish Lira dropped a lot that was the moment because they did not change the price
right right away that was the only moment where it was cheaper basically than in Europe yeah but
otherwise Electronics in general are quite a bit more I think especially for people who come from
America essentially maybe what they don't know is that everywhere else the iPhones and even some
other brands of electronics they will be much more expensive than in America so watch out for that be
prepared for that even compared to Europe prices for quite some Brands will be higher than you're
used to if you're bringing your phone from abroad to Turkey you can only use it for so many months
it's three to six months and then it gets blocked and the solution is to pay a tax and the tax is
quite high for it so I recommend doing a research on that when you're bringing your phone or it
might be easier to just buy a new phone in Turkey even if it's more expensive and something that
can matter for you is that right now in Turkey the political situation can be a bit unstable
you know countries have their issues between themselves and the situation with Greece might
be a concern and of course we are not political experts but if that is something that is important
for you I recommend researching it before coming to Turkey so you are aware of what you will have
to be dealing with when you're living in a country and even though the food in Turkey is good and we
like it there are also some downsides especially for me because I am gluten intolerant or whatever
whatever I am but it doesn't matter so much but I don't eat bread at least not -what you go
to Turkey and you don't eat bread -well if it's gluten-free then I eat it but otherwise and yeah
there's a lot of bread yeah a lot of ekmek how they call it a lot of bread in Turkey heavy
on bread heavy on meat and it can be a very good thing if you like bread and you like meat
well actually the sad part is that I like both but yeah I mean sometimes it is what it is you
can't have everything in life I guess so yeah that actually compared to other countries for example
that makes it for me more difficult in Turkey not impossible but yeah more difficult to have a
good nice dinner yeah choices become limited to potatoes yeah and especially the streetfood the
local food especially that becomes limited and that's actually the yeah the cheap food which
becomes limited and because of that we have to go to more expensive restaurants although
the positive thing if you're yourself gluten intolerant or lactose intolerant in the big
supermarkets they have gluten-free bread and they have gluten-free pasta and lactose free
yogurt so you will not starve you will find something for yourself in shops I survived yeah
you can do it too if he can do it you can do it and even though we did really and still do really
like Turkey there was a need for a change we did feel that it was time for a change in environment
and things I think we really wanted to stay but secretly we also really wanted an adventure and
we just it was so difficult we had to arrange the apartments that this the that and we thought
maybe we should go maybe maybe can we can we and then like Yay let's go let's go party yeah so
I think secretly we wanted to and even with all the the difficulties and negative sides that we're
talking about now I think if we really wanted to of the factors and another major factor which is
probably one of the after the apartments issue the second one is getting the actual residency permit
you might have heard that starting this year and it became harder and harder and even some areas
in cities became closed for foreigners so before when we came we could just find an apartment and
with the rental contract we could go fix some other documents easily and apply and that was
that essentially so I have a video about that process on my channel and yeah it was fairly easy
it was straightforward we fixed the contract for the apartment for a year and we went to the notary
got it approved and then we went to apply for the Ikamet and that was basically it we paid for some
visa documents thingiesfor taxes and yeah and we were good for the year but now we keep reading
on Facebook especially that people get rejected and people only are given six months and they the
government asks like a travel plan for the whole year and all the traveling booked for the whole
year so all the hotels all the flights and for us we did fulfill the purpose of our residency
permit which was travel and you can see on our Channel we traveled quite a lot in this year
inside of Turkey but we didn't book at all like yeah no that's not the way we like to travel
yeah but it's just it takes a lot of money to actually book all the flights for the year and
all the accommodations also that but also a lot of preparation yeah and a lot of planning it's
a lot of work yeah so for us that requirement was unreasonable maybe some other people can do
it but for us we just want to live the good life the easy life but it is hard to book for the for
the whole year yeah especially not everyone can afford it yeah and especially with the agents now
asking money for the rental for the whole year and you also have to book all your traveling for the
whole year I think it becomes quite expensive yeah and if before foreigners chose Turkey because
of affordable cost of living but with all of those expenses it becomes not affordable at all
yeah yeah not many people will be able to afford it and once we heard all of that and that we
would have to pay for the whole year and face the possibility that we will get rejected so
all that money for the apartment for the whole year will be just lost I think yeah it's just
just uh just a tiny bit too bit of risk yeah so too much of a gamble I rather go to the
casino and put it on red then at least I can win something instead of only loose but this was
a only loose situation basically so yeah so we decided that we would rather go traveling for
the next year and see what the situation will be next year we actually did talk about it and we
do want to return to Turkey again maybe in May, June next year to again stay for two months
that's the tourist visa at the moment so yeah maybe at some point we will consider staying
in Turkey on a residency permit again if the conditions will be better but now they are not
unfortunately so yeah we decided to explore new locations to find out what other places can
offer to us and we both did some traveling even before we met but I only lived in
Thailand for like maybe total of a year and a half so I only know how it is to live in
Thailand but I don't know how it is to live in other countries or extended periods of time you
only lived like permanently in the Netherlands what did I not know about you tell me everything
yes I only lived permanently in the Netherlands and actually one of the reasons for me to quit
my job was to travel but that was before Covid I was thinking about it for quite some years
then before Covid I decided okay I will quit my job and I will go travel then Covid hit
I still went through with selling my house my apartment but I did get another job in
the Netherlands so for some time I still how it is living in other countries and checking
out the affordability the safety all the things that might concern us as foreigners in those
countries and also the passport situation of course I mean is it easy to go and live there
because in some countries it's almost impossible or you have to pay 500 000 US Dollar yeah to
get residency or something like that yeah so this next months maybe like six seven months
we're going to be exploring southeast Asia
