Translators holding novels for ransom, or rarely ever updates them unless you donate?

Put it this way, their food cost is about 1/3 of the west, even some of the decent hotels are cheaper than the monthly rents if you pay by the month (actually, there were quite a few old british ladies and gent that liked that for years.)

I took 3k british pound years ago when it was at a good exchange rate and lived like a king during a backpack vacation there, went from HK to SG then bike (as in bicycle, not motorbike) through most of malaysia, then made my way to sempura before hitting up indonesia and then tioman pulau before going back through malaysia -> SG -> HK -> UK.

Malaysia is slightly more expensive than indonesia since they have better quality control, their stuff are pretty clean (and bloody delicious) as required by their law. "Open kitchens" are pretty much a standard there even at dinky little shops. $7 dollar? I can easily keep myself fed for an entire day with that (not sure about now and the current exchange rate, probably still doable). Breakfast with roti + teh was less than $1 USD (around 68c iirc) when I was there. Just buying fruits (so, much, cheap, delicious, fruits as long as it is in season, mangosteen was my crack) and some banana leaf rice for lunch is ~$2-$3 depending. Dinner, slightly harder since it's MUCH better when you eat as a group (more dishes to share), but you can always just buy sets and stuff. I remember joining some random local SG and malaysians on some foodie forum along with other backpackers + expats and just eat out together, not sure if that's still a thing with the current travelling climate and lack of trust though. A big bill split 12 ways is damn cheap considering the amount of shit you get to try. There are also those indian style restaurants that's kinda buffet style where you pick your veggie, pay for it by the weight and then they cook it for you with some sauce.

Foreigners tend to do the whole "live like a king thing" in thailand as opposed to indonesia/malaysia though, not that it doesn't happen. There's an entire town that's devoted to local 'wives' of foreigners who 'marry' and then divorce the foreigner just so they can keep the house + business (foreigners can't own residential property in that jurisdiction, so a lot of marriage scams there).

 

minimum wage where i live is around 9-10 usd, and going to skyrocket to $15 soon, a 24 pack of ramyun spicy noodles(only pack noodles i eat if i want instant) is 20 ish. anyway, translating solely for donations is a easy way to make quick cash and when donations stop coming in, the tl will go mia and make up a new site, with a new novel asking for a small donation again per chapter. rinse and repeat.

I find it surprising that doctors only make $7 a day..jesus that's low, starting doctors here in the u.s make high 5 digits annually. There's this shit orthodontist my gf used to go to that does nothing but sit on his ass all day or brag to his investors(note this guy makes millions annually), while his interns from a prestigious overpriced school does all the work, and since they are interns...well they do a terrible job at it too, 5-15 minutes checkup cost $352 usd. go to u.s, work for a few years then go back home and live like a king for life.