I came to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) for the productivity gain. KL hits a sweet spot of safe, good amenities, affordable, and 'boring' (so as to avoid distractions). Good accommodation is affordable on a moderate budget inc. 3x/week housekeeping, reducing what I have to do outside of work/startup. Food, groceries, and transport are high-quality, cheapish and available via apps. Good co-working facilities are available. (internet speeds are horrendous but some places will have good speeds, just have to shop around a little).

On top of a full time remote job, I'm getting 4-6+ hours of quality time on my startup per day. I haven't quite hit this level of productivity anywhere else in the world, for a variety of reasons including distractions, transport friction, and even accommodation frictions like poor sleep due to noise or temperature or other reasons.

My days are literally: work dayjob, work on start up, exercise, sleep. Probably a 1.5-3x productivity improvement compared to my (large, Western) home city. I notice I'm improving much faster (productivity seems to have an exponential impact on mastery). It also feels pretty easy to do 12+ hour days, which, for me, underscores the value in fiercely reducing unnecessary distractions. Seemingly small distractions can add up.