Newcomer Living Long-Term in CABA vs Southeast Asia: Insights from an Expat Perspective

[Chambers]

For those who have lived long-term in CABA/Argentina and Southeast Asia, how do the two compare from an expat’s perspective? I’m about to move to LATAM/CABA and want to go in with my eyes wide open, aware of what to expect when living there long-term. I’ve been in Indonesia for a while, and while there’s a lot to love (beaches, nature), there are also plenty of challenges. The longer you stay, the more you realize the undercurrent of "we don’t want outsiders... unless they’re tourists with money." Tough and expensive visas, limited property rights (leases, not full ownership), and even government task forces targeting "misbehaving foreigners." It’s good to know these things before committing long-term.

Also, in Indonesia, the Instagram-perfect pictures of preserved nature and cultural sites don’t match the reality of plastic-filled beaches, greenspaces being destroyed for more construction, and cultural sites being sold out for quick tourist money.

My experience in Argentina has mostly been positive, with a warm welcome and respect for those who respect the country and its people. Nature is generally preserved, and people take ownership of their neighborhoods and environment. Public services are a mess like anywhere else, but Argentinians and South Americans, in general, have a strong connection to their country and community. People are generally welcoming, and beyond touristy areas, you’re not seen as a walking ATM.

That said, I’d love to hear how accurate or inaccurate this impression is when actually living long-term in Buenos Aires and Argentina. Also, any "ugly" sides that only show up after years of living there would be helpful to know. I know the economy is a mess, and inflation is crazy, but I’d love to hear other perspectives. Thanks, guys!

 

[Ron]

The costs are definitely much higher than in Southeast Asia, but the language is easier with its Latin roots, and you don’t stick out like a sore thumb as you do in many parts of Asia. Plus, scamming tourists isn’t as widespread as in Southeast Asia (not that it doesn’t happen, but for example, I can get a taxi in Argentina without worrying about paying 5 times the normal price). Also, the people here are really friendly and there’s no issue with foreigners. Those are just a few of the reasons I chose Buenos Aires over Asia 😊.

 

[LongIslander]

The costs are definitely much higher than in Southeast Asia, but the language is easier with its Latin roots, and you don’t stick out like a sore thumb as you do in many parts of Asia. Plus, scamming tourists isn’t as widespread as in Southeast Asia (not that it doesn’t happen, but for example, I can get a taxi in Argentina without worrying about paying 5 times the normal price). Also, the people here are really friendly and there’s no issue with foreigners. Those are just a few of the reasons I chose Buenos Aires over Asia 😊.

I have never got scammed in Southeast Asia. They have Grab rideshare in most countries and it is very easy.

 

[Hero]

I've been traveling to Southeast Asia on and off for the past 20 years, and the cost of living here is definitely much higher. On top of that, there's never any real stability when it comes to the economy. As for beaches, even with the plastic problem, nothing here really compares.
Argentines are generally very welcoming, but recently, some new foreign groups have been causing issues. If you spend time with locals and they open up to you, they'll tell you about people who come just to get a passport and then look down on Argentines, it was really disappointing to hear.
At some point, the same thing will happen to you here. When the foreigner bubble bursts, you'll start noticing more of the downsides, and you might feel like moving on. Personally, I’d rather enjoy my time here for a while and then go.

 

[StatusNomadicus]

@StatusNomadicus saw you moved around Argentina a bit. How is your impression so far? Anything that you don't like about Argentina? What do you like the most and what do you dread? I am thinking about a move and like hearing that people moved there.

I know you aren't in BA but I would move to BA as I like big cities. Would love a list of positives and negatives so far based on your time living there.

@Uncle Wong i have been in Argentina without leaving for almost exactly 18 months now, and i was in CABA for 4 months, Cordoba for 5 months, and now 9 months in Mendoza (bought a small house in the city after seeing Mendoza for 4 months).

i like it enough to have used 35% of my crypto life savings to buy a house 🙂 Mendoza is much more my style. CABA is New York City, Cordoba is sort of like a Chicago or Detroit or something like that, and the street dogs were fucking horrible to run or walk my dog anywhere. like, anywhere...Mendoza in the nice neighborhoods i have 1% of the issues i had, and there is half the dog poop that CABA has.

i roll my eyes about a lot in Argentina, but i also have noticed a lack of professionalism and work ethic in the USA since the COVID plandemic. why not visit Cordoba and Mendoza and Bariloche/etc. before deciding that CABA is better? most Expats admit they haven't really seen much of 90% of the country. i have no desire to live in a metro area of 13 million people, when a city of 100,000 people has 95% of what i need, anyway. Cordoba is pretty big. Patagonia has an entire world down there. Salta and Jujuy are small but i hear they are affordable (and hot and mosquitoes worse than CABA).

Negatives: rude noisy cars, no Sound Ordinances, cops are prepared to basically nothing and wouldn't respond in an emergency anyway, still DEI hires and government parasites in charge of 90% of the remaining bureaucracy, have to lie to buy a house, have to jump through hoops and play the game to get Residency, have to deal with Seed Oils and absolute dogshit diet/health standards as the norm, have to endure people telling you mate isn't just harsh nasty green tea that tastes even worse, have to eat low-quality food and listen to Argies claim their barbecue is good, have access to sh*t electronics/clothing/goods that Amazon would put 95% of them out of business, and overall businesses just don't care about responding or working, and people are very flaky and live like they are hippies in freshman year of college where not sleeping and not making constructive plans is "cool" still

Positives: ideally far enough away from the nuclear war that psychos in the EU/UK/USA want. peaceful. safe. very non-conflict culture. cheaper here than CABA. i made a few friends and see people around every week. i have the best park in the world, 3 blocks away. you can walk forever in a forest...puts the tiny "parks" of Buenos Aires to shame (see GoogleMaps screenshot). Mendoza is amazing! i plan to rent my house out at times and drive the entire country once i buy a car

 

[Uncle Wong]

@Uncle Wong i have been in Argentina without leaving for almost exactly 18 months now, and i was in CABA for 4 months, Cordoba for 5 months, and now 9 months in Mendoza (bought a small house in the city after seeing Mendoza for 4 months).

i like it enough to have used 35% of my crypto life savings to buy a house 🙂 Mendoza is much more my style. CABA is New York City, Cordoba is sort of like a Chicago or Detroit or something like that, and the street dogs were fucking horrible to run or walk my dog anywhere. like, anywhere...Mendoza in the nice neighborhoods i have 1% of the issues i had, and there is half the dog poop that CABA has.

i roll my eyes about a lot in Argentina, but i also have noticed a lack of professionalism and work ethic in the USA since the COVID plandemic. why not visit Cordoba and Mendoza and Bariloche/etc. before deciding that CABA is better? most Expats admit they haven't really seen much of 90% of the country. i have no desire to live in a metro area of 13 million people, when a city of 100,000 people has 95% of what i need, anyway. Cordoba is pretty big. Patagonia has an entire world down there. Salta and Jujuy are small but i hear they are affordable (and hot and mosquitoes worse than CABA).

Negatives: rude noisy cars, no Sound Ordinances, cops are prepared to basically nothing and wouldn't respond in an emergency anyway, still DEI hires and government parasites in charge of 90% of the remaining bureaucracy, have to lie to buy a house, have to jump through hoops and play the game to get Residency, have to deal with Seed Oils and absolute dogshit diet/health standards as the norm, have to endure people telling you mate isn't just harsh nasty green tea that tastes even worse, have to eat low-quality food and listen to Argies claim their barbecue is good, have access to sh*t electronics/clothing/goods that Amazon would put 95% of them out of business, and overall businesses just don't care about responding or working, and people are very flaky and live like they are hippies in freshman year of college where not sleeping and not making constructive plans is "cool" still

Positives: ideally far enough away from the nuclear war that psychos in the EU/UK/USA want. peaceful. safe. very non-conflict culture. cheaper here than CABA. i made a few friends and see people around every week. i have the best park in the world, 3 blocks away. you can walk forever in a forest...puts the tiny "parks" of Buenos Aires to shame (see GoogleMaps screenshot). Mendoza is amazing! i plan to rent my house out at times and drive the entire country once i buy a carView attachment 8869

Thanks! Great lists. I think it is ok to use crypto to have a place over your head. It sounds like you are in Argentina for the long haul and prices there seem reasonable. I have been watching the market for years and it fell quite a bit from highs. Lots of people complaining in Argentina but it seems like they always are.

I like big cities. I live in Dallas now and even that feels small to me and NOT walkable at all. I like NYC. I will have to make it to Mendoza and Cordoba but know it will be too small for me. I like all the pulse of BA and always having things to go to. I like the Opera and going to events. I have been to BA a few times now and each time I like it more. Hate the dogshit everywhere and a few other things. But probably hassles no matter where in Latin America you go.

I ran into the lazy locals in BA. I am sure that is the same everywhere. I'm floored half the time people don't even respond. Oh well. Manana time.

 

[FuturoBA]

@Uncle Wong i have been in Argentina without leaving for almost exactly 18 months now, and i was in CABA for 4 months, Cordoba for 5 months, and now 9 months in Mendoza (bought a small house in the city after seeing Mendoza for 4 months).

i like it enough to have used 35% of my crypto life savings to buy a house 🙂 Mendoza is much more my style. CABA is New York City, Cordoba is sort of like a Chicago or Detroit or something like that, and the street dogs were fucking horrible to run or walk my dog anywhere. like, anywhere...Mendoza in the nice neighborhoods i have 1% of the issues i had, and there is half the dog poop that CABA has.

i roll my eyes about a lot in Argentina, but i also have noticed a lack of professionalism and work ethic in the USA since the COVID plandemic. why not visit Cordoba and Mendoza and Bariloche/etc. before deciding that CABA is better? most Expats admit they haven't really seen much of 90% of the country. i have no desire to live in a metro area of 13 million people, when a city of 100,000 people has 95% of what i need, anyway. Cordoba is pretty big. Patagonia has an entire world down there. Salta and Jujuy are small but i hear they are affordable (and hot and mosquitoes worse than CABA).

Negatives: rude noisy cars, no Sound Ordinances, cops are prepared to basically nothing and wouldn't respond in an emergency anyway, still DEI hires and government parasites in charge of 90% of the remaining bureaucracy, have to lie to buy a house, have to jump through hoops and play the game to get Residency, have to deal with Seed Oils and absolute dogshit diet/health standards as the norm, have to endure people telling you mate isn't just harsh nasty green tea that tastes even worse, have to eat low-quality food and listen to Argies claim their barbecue is good, have access to sh*t electronics/clothing/goods that Amazon would put 95% of them out of business, and overall businesses just don't care about responding or working, and people are very flaky and live like they are hippies in freshman year of college where not sleeping and not making constructive plans is "cool" still

Positives: ideally far enough away from the nuclear war that psychos in the EU/UK/USA want. peaceful. safe. very non-conflict culture. cheaper here than CABA. i made a few friends and see people around every week. i have the best park in the world, 3 blocks away. you can walk forever in a forest...puts the tiny "parks" of Buenos Aires to shame (see GoogleMaps screenshot). Mendoza is amazing! i plan to rent my house out at times and drive the entire country once i buy a carView attachment 8869

Mendoza sounds like such a great place, I have a friend of friend who I believe retired there. How's the expat community there? Most expats and esp first time expats probably prefer to be close to or surrounded by other expats with a more robust support system. Not too many forums or groups that focus on living there long term, and especially not nearly to the level of BA. For many that might be part of the draw. Eventually I would like to make my way down there to check it out as it does sound pretty amazing.

Thanks! Great lists. I think it is ok to use crypto to have a place over your head. It sounds like you are in Argentina for the long haul and prices there seem reasonable. I have been watching the market for years and it fell quite a bit from highs. Lots of people complaining in Argentina but it seems like they always are.

I like big cities. I live in Dallas now and even that feels small to me and NOT walkable at all. I like NYC. I will have to make it to Mendoza and Cordoba but know it will be too small for me. I like all the pulse of BA and always having things to go to. I like the Opera and going to events. I have been to BA a few times now and each time I like it more. Hate the dogshit everywhere and a few other things. But probably hassles no matter where in Latin America you go.

I ran into the lazy locals in BA. I am sure that is the same everywhere. I'm floored half the time people don't even respond. Oh well. Manana time.

Seems like Argentina attracts lots of Dallas folks. Kinda surprising to see the concentration here with ties to it. That makes four of us that I know of with ties to it - and another not too far down in Austin. Forget BA we can just meet up here haha.

 

[Blockchain]

Mendoza sounds like such a great place, I have a friend of friend who I believe retired there. How's the expat community there? Most expats and esp first time expats probably prefer to be close to or surrounded by other expats with a more robust support system. Not too many forums or groups that focus on living there long term, and especially not nearly to the level of BA. For many that might be part of the draw. Eventually I would like to make my way down there to check it out as it does sound pretty amazing.

Seems like Argentina attracts lots of Dallas folks. Kinda surprising to see the concentration here with ties to it. That makes four of us that I know of with ties to it - and another not too far down in Austin. Forget BA we can just meet up here haha.

Probably having DFW right in town makes it easier for many in the area to get to EZE. Nothing for nothing but I wouldn't have any desire to hang out with a lot of Americans. My goal would be to spend as much time with some Señoritas that speak very little English! 🤣

 

[StatusNomadicus]

Dallas now and even that feels small to me

i just don't understand in the Internet era the need for a huge metropolis with dirty air quality, noise, bums, and higher cost of living, where all the rich people spend their weekends and holidays OUTSIDE of the city - i'll just skip that part, and live in a smaller city with nature much closer. if Mendoza gets too big, i'll try to get to a suburb. i know you go to operas and stuff, but like 99% of the time a sports game or performance is MUCH better with a giant TV and surround sound. why watch an NBA game from faraway for $100 USD to be crowded on hard seats, when i can smoke a joint at home with a beer and see way more details than i ever could in-person? perhaps it's just an age thing, where when we are younger and want to be around people and feel important, but i just don't see any advantages with Internet access...it's changed everything. and now with Starlink, it's even more changed. how often are you going to operas?? for instance, there are weekly events in Mendoza by the government agriculture folks, concerts, beer festivals, Vendimia wine harvest parade and theater, there's an air show by the military tomorrow where they are going to fly over the park's lake and demonstrate capabilities...what more do you need? i strongly believe that a city of 50k has everything most people need, and anything else can be saved for special roadtrips of international vacations. much like a lot in Argentina, it's just a matter of opinion i suppose 🙂

expat community

there's a weekly Wednesday meetup at an Irish Pub downtown but i haven't been yet (i went to one of those in CABA and it ended up being dog-friendly and the guy planning it had no idea what he was doing, so i have skipped them ever since). there's a big facebook group from what i see (i don't have an account), and overall there just aren't many USA folks here, and speaking English is very uncommon. most seem to have married an Argentine and are living in Chacras De Coria, a more expensive private area outside of the city 30 minutes. i don't have a car and i don't want to live in a gated community with other Expats, so i didn't even look at houses there (I think HOAs are the stupidest thing ever, so just another difference of opinion, i suppose). there's a gated community called Dalvian that is about 20 mins away from the city center of Mendoza, and i read that some people pay hundreds of dollars in HOA fees...crazy! i just paid my property tax for 2025 and it was 110,000 Pesos, or about $95 USD right now. i'll get 35% off of that next year now that i have an account with them. for comparison on a similarly-sized house, my girlfriend's house in a Midwest city of 70k people pays $2,800 USD yearly for her property taxes, and it's only a 300k normal suburb house :O this house in Mendoza only cost 150,000 USD after everything, and it's earthquake-proof (built in the 1950s and renovated).

you're welcome in Mendoza any time, and i'll help you find a cheap apartment if you want research help, and we can meet-up for a Lomito or whatever. i had the chance to meet @Coffee Enjoyer in CABA before he went back to the US, and it was cool to meet someone from this forum

hang out with a lot of Americans

unless you wanted a wingman to introduce you to some local single friends 😛

Mendoza is quiet and conservative and fantastic for me. many would hate it, but i would also probably find most of them uninteresting and superficial tiktok-obsessed folks with very strange priorities in a global recession and near-WW3 age that we live in *shrug*