Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is the city that taught the rest of the world what a nomad hub looks like — cheap furnished condos, more coworking per square km than anywhere reasonable, an outstanding café culture, and a low-friction social scene where you'll know a dozen people within a week. Nimmanhaemin is where most nomads cluster; the old town inside the moat is the other walkable zone (rare for SE Asia). World-class food at street prices, hour-long massages for the price of a Zurich coffee, and the cost-to-value ratio is hard to beat anywhere on this list. Useful base for trips around northern Thailand — Pai, Chiang Rai, the hills. Two trade-offs that are non-negotiable: burning season (roughly mid-February to April) when air quality collapses and most nomads leave, and the +6h timezone gap to Zurich — your 09:00 standup lands at 15:00 local. Works fine if your role is async-tolerant.