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Dec. 23, 2010 I’ve been in dozens and dozens of cities in 56 countries on 5 continents, and lately I’ve been asking myself which city I like best. For the last few months, I’ve been thinking that my favorite city, if I could live wherever I wanted to live, is Belem, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon River, very close to the equator. In 2005, I lived for 5 months on a street called Travessa Timbo, within a few blocks of the bus terminal, on a broad avenue called Avenida Almirante Barroso, which is flanked by broad sidewalks as peaceful as you can imagine. Every day of the year, morning, noon and night, the temperature ranges between 70 and 90, though rainfall is heavy, with 110 inches a year, twice as much as Miami. It rains every day in Belem, but always in the afternoon, at 3 PM or later. The mornings are invariably warm and sunny. Belem has great supermarkets and malls. Brazil has a fairly high crime rate, but not as bad as Central America, Venezuela and Colombia. There were some other candidates for best city in my mind, including Manaus, Brazil; Singapore; and Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, with similar weather, but all things considered, I found Belem best. Manaus is too slummy, Singapore has a draconian legal system, and Denpasar is too primitive. I don’t think I would be eligible for Brazilian residency however, because of the income minimum for foreign residents. Furthermore, the possibility of the Amazon’s flooding is frightening, with water rising and falling 30 feet or more per year. The only part of Rio de Janeiro that I like is the Copacabana, but I could never afford to live there. Moreover, it can get cold in Rio, which is 25 degrees south. Buenos Aires is too cold. Forget about the USA and Europe. They’re too cold and too expensive, with too many rude people. Northern South America and Central America are too criminal. India, China and North Africa are too poor. Hawaii and Hong Kong are too cool. Why settle for 50’s and 60’s in the winter, when you can have 70’s and 80’s? Now I may have found the best place of all, which is Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Temperature 70 to 90 morning, noon and night, all year long. Prices are fairly high, but not impossible. There’s a metro. The streets are well-paved and clean. Shopping would just bowl you over. I think Sungei Wang Mall has over 2000 stores, not that I’m a mally, but I do need to shop now and then. I may explore the possibility of staying here indefinitely one day. I’ll be here till March anyway. For now, my next port of call is Thailand. I’ve been in Thailand before. The sickening poverty of the slums of Bangkok, with thousands of people living in shacks would prevent me from considering it as a place to live. I haven’t seen any slums in Kuala Lumpur so far, but who knows? There may be some here too. Is Kuala Lumpur the best of all? ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written five books: ELEMENTS OF GRAMMAR and A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction); A TALE OF UNG, THE ENNUNMENT and GVAGMA (fiction). I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Visit my website here. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com
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