A Look Around Chisinau

Chisinau is a beautiful city the site at the link below will give you a chance for a small preview

http://kishinev.info/news_en/

Some basic costs

This is for about an 1100sf 5th & top floor apartment.

Electricity  about  $30,  Natural gas for heat, cooking and hot water, February $92, Water and community costs $20

Normally in the states, the rule of thumb for rent is 1% per month of the sale value of the property to be rented.  Rents here run about  1/2% per month or less of the sale value.  There are times when renting is smart. Given current interest rates being paid by the local banks it is very smart.  Foreigners are allowed to buy apartments and stand alone homes on a standard lot. They cannot buy large pieces of land.  That is done by long term purchase lease-back.  Prime farm land is on the order of $800 an acre.  

Taxes on property are so small as to be inconsequential.

Corporate taxes are 0%

Personal income taxes are flat 18% 

THERE IS NO TAX ON ANY MONEY YOU BRING INTO MOLDOVA FROM ABROAD.  

Automobile gas is expensive by American standards as it is in the rest of Europe.

Chisinau Organ Hall

The Organ Hall in downtown Chisinau is just one of many places to go for an evening of cultural entertainment.
There is always a schedule of performances, and not all revolve around the organ, which is a magnificent instrument made by the Czech company Rieger-Kloss.  More information about the Hall in English can be found at the link below.

http://mdl.net/organhall/index.html

Gambling in Moldova

Moldova has Casinos, both large and small.  Gambling is not my cup of tea so I have yet to darken the door of one of them. 


I have not a clue how honest they are or if there is a prescribed maximum "house take" but if I were a big gambler and in this part of the world already, I would just fly off to Monaco and do it right.

Roads, What Roads?

There are just two things I really do not like about Moldova.  The roads are one of them. They would more be likened to "potholes with intermittent patches of road".  I have seen cow paths in my home state of Kentucky that were more solidly paved than most of the rural roads in Moldova. Come to think of it, that paving material is a really good description for what they must use to fill a few of the more serious potholes in the Spring, because it does not last much beyond a good rain.


I drive an old clunker here in Moldova because I cannot bring myself to put a new vehicle through the torture of the "streets" in Chisinau.  


That being said, I know of few places where you will see more high end vehicles, Mercedes, BMW's, Lexus, and even some Rolls Royce and Bentley.  That is one of the interesting things about Eastern Europe.  Americans have always heard about the "Great American Love Affair with the Automobile", fiddlesticks!  The Eastern European men and especially the Russians make Americans look like pikers when it comes to their car.  You almost have to see it to believe it, their automobile is like a baby, always spotless as possible and regular visits to legions of local car washes.  


Driving that car is another matter entirely.  The rule of driving here is that the most expensive car has the right of way, at least that is the way they seem to see it.  The other interesting thing is that when you see a wreck, it is usually two high end vehicles who apparently lost a game of "my car is more expensive than yours" chicken.  Some of the antics you will see on Moldovan roads are just hilarious and many could get you shot if you attempted them in Texas or a couple of other states in the U.S.  It is standard to see a new Mercedes get in the left lane and run to the front of 30 or 40 cars at a stoplight and wedge themselves in front of the first car. 

Where is the "Natural Foods" Section?

You live in Moldova and you LIVE in the natural foods section.  Every grocery is for all intents and purposes a natural food store.  You will not find anything that has any preservatives, nitrates, nitrites, or Heaven forbid High Fructose Corn Syrup.  None of that stuff is allowed.  You can actually make yourself a sandwich from the lunch meat you purchase at the store and really taste the meat instead of thinking you are eating a salt sandwich. 


Coca Cola, Pepsi, 7up, all the major soft drinks are here and all sweetened with normal sugar, no HFCS.  There are diet drinks available as they are everywhere and they have artificial sweeteners but I ignore them in favor of fruit juices cut with water.


Fruit juices, I am SO spoiled. A 2 liter container of PURE apricot juice or most any other juice for that matter will cost you just a few pennies over $2.


So if you enjoy eating healthy, you can do it in Moldova.  You don't have to carry your magnifying glass to inspect the labels because its all the pure natural stuff. 

Personal Safety in Moldova

I have been a lot of places in the world and I do not know any city anywhere that I have ever been where I would feel perfectly safe walking alone at 2am.  Chisinau with a population of nearly 1 million is it.. the one and only.  Its not only Chisinau, I have been all over Moldova and I have not seen any place where I have ever felt in even the slightest uneasy about my personal safety.


Moldovans are simply not aggressive people.  The only time I have ever seen or heard of any person on person violence is either drunks that probably know each other or family disputes. I have walked at night by myself in areas of old soviet era apartments that externally look like the worst tenements you might see in South Chicago, down narrow alleys and through narrow pathways between building that are just wide enough to walk through. 


Chisinau has huge bazaars, so big you can get lost,  so when you go there unless you are alert and take precautions, you might fall victim to a pickpocket.  

If You are Multilingual

If you are multilingual, you speak many languages.


If you are bi-lingual, you speak two languages.


If you speak one language, you are an American.


If you are an American its a not so funny statement about American culture.  If you live almost anywhere else in the world, especially Europe most everyone speaks two or more languages fluently.  There are two primary languages spoken in Moldova, Moldovan (a slight permutation of Romanian), and Russian.  I now speak "little boy" Russian, which is to say I could survive just fine if I were dumped into a Russian only speaking area.  Russian is a VERY difficult language to learn.  I would advise anyone who is considering Moldova to instead learn Moldovan which uses our alphabet and is probably not much more difficult to learn than Spanish.  I am hard headed and determined to learn Russian, have mastered the alphabet and am working on the six cases and vocabulary.  


My wife Irina speaks Moldovan, Russian, German, and English.  


You should not consider language a barrier to living in Moldova, many here speak English and it is becoming more widespread.  We can help you with tutoring and guidance in language and translation issues.

I was a free man when I got here

I went and messed it up though, got married again and am happier than I have ever been in my entire life.  The happiness really has nothing to do with what you might think when you see the photo, it has to do with the fact that Irina is just the kindest, sweetest, most loving woman I have ever had the pleasure to know.  We have been married almost 3 years now and words just cannot describe the relationship.  I have learned from being here that Moldova has a culture that is massively different from Romania, Ukraine, or Russia and that for the most part the women in Moldova are not only real women in the traditional sense of the word, they are just as beautiful inside as they are externally. Moldova has a reputation for having the most beautiful women in the world and it is true in more ways than one.

The Pharmacy

One of my very favorite subjects regarding Moldova.  If you know exactly what you need, and the dosage, you just go to the pharmacy, tell the pharmacist what you want and how many, pay the money and you are out the door.  Simple as that.  Most drugs are substantially less than in the U.S. and there are things available here which are very effective that you cannot get in the states. No prescription needed unless you need tranquilizers or things of that nature.


A good example is a blood pressure medication that I take which in the states is called Norvasc.
I get 30ea 10mg tablets for about $20.  Prices were a even a lot cheaper until about a year ago when Moldova instituted a new drug import system with strict quality control measures.

Where to live - Apartments

There are huge numbers of apartments and apartment buildings currently under construction in Moldova.  Prices for new European style apartments are similar to costs in the rest of the world simply due to the need to import most all construction materials.  Recently though due to the world financial situation there has been some slowdown in construction, and as I understand some price reductions.  Here are some examples of new apartment buildings in Chisinau so you get an idea of construction styles.

Restaurant Culture

When I first got to Eastern Europe, I was in Romania.  Were it not for McDonalds in Bucharest I would have starved.  Not so in Moldova, as a result of years of the Russian cultural influence here, there is an absolutely first class selection of restaurants.  Sidewalk cafes which rival Paris and beat it hands down where price is concerned.  Two can have dinner at a really nice restaurant and have a bottle of wine or two and get out the door for well under $50

Accessing Your Money

If you read some of the "current" information I have seen on the internet about Moldova, you might be worried about being able to get access to funds.  It is absolutely not a worry, there are ATMs everywhere in Chisinau and in all the major towns and villages.  You can get the Moldovan LEU (pronounced lei) from any of them at the best exchange rates.  Just for safety, I recommend having a card that only works in an ATM and try to use it at the same ATM all the time.  Its not anything that I do just because I am in Moldova, its a safety measure I always use when traveling.  Major credit cards are accepted at most large stores and if your card does not use a PIN code for transactions I would suggest you get that changed. Again something I do when traveling anywhere outside the U.S. 


The banks in Moldova are solid as a rock, ultraconservative and the Moldovan banking system is one of the highest rated in the world.  They offer interest rates on CDs that I will not even mention here because you would not believe me.  Just need to be here and see it for yourself. The Moldovan currency is also very highly rated and the exchange rate is reasonably stable. 
The banks offer a whole host of services and  naturally are connected to the rest of the world for wire transfers through the SWIFT system.

Hurricanes, Tornadoes and Earthquakes

Three things you won't have to worry about in Moldova.  No hurricanes, and for some reason there are never Tornadoes in Eastern Europe.  Even thunderstorms are very rare and when they do happen they go away fast.   There have been two very small earthquakes since I have been here but they were simply the vibrations of larger quakes that happen often in the mountains of neighboring Romania.


For me the climate in Moldova is just perfect.  Four seasons and very low humidity. So low that most people will not need air conditioning in the summer even when the temp occasionally reaches 95F.

A Doctor Knocking at YOUR door !

One big surprise for me was how medical services are dispensed in Moldova. I have a medical insurance policy that costs me less than $100 a year. For that $100 I have unlimited doctor visits to my home. The two times I have been sick enough that I decided I should call the doctor, there was one knocking on my door in under an hour. She had with her in addition to the standard doctor's bag, a fancy little German made EKG machine. They carry a variety of medicines with them and anything you need for the first 24 hours is included. Also included in the plan is ambulance service to the hospital should that be required. Hospital expenses are obviously extra.

I have found from being here for 6 years that if you are a foreigner and need medical care, just a little extra "green" in addition to the ridiculously low costs of medical care gets you to the front of the line and first class treatment. An example of ridiculously low would be an MRI, done with one of two new OPEN MRI machines in Moldova. About $75 add a bit to that and you are in and out in a hurry. From what I have seen here, the doctors are not only very well trained, they are in medicine for the love of the job, they certainly are not in in it for the money because the average doctor would make about $1000 a month if he is lucky. Other than a little antique medical infrastructure and lack of some of the jazzy equipment we have in the states, I put routine medical care here head and shoulders above that in the states.

A little about Moldova

Moldova is a small Eastern European country about the size of the state of Maryland. It is known as the poorest, most densely populated country in Eastern Europe. Until the breakup of the Soviet Union, it was one of the Soviet satellite republics. While it is still under some influence of the communists, the communists of today are not the communists of the cold war. They are in many ways the new Capitalists.

Moldova is a study in contrasts, the capital city, Chisinau has all the amenities anyone could want, and with the exception of the roads is as modern as most Western European cities. Internet access is super, with high speed wireless internet access through the mobile phone carriers available at about $13 per month. In the villages out in the country its almost a return to the 17th century. Probably 90% of stand alone homes in rural Moldova do not have inside running water or toilets and the economy is heavily agricultural.

Moldova was the wine and champagne supplier for the entire Soviet Union. Some of the best wine you ever taste will be found in Moldova and the very best is found in the "podval" (wine cellar) of almost every home in Moldova.

Escape the Insanity!

I left south Florida almost 6 years ago. After almost 17 years in Florida, I finally got tired of the summer heat and humidity. I like warm weather, but Florida in the summer is a life of moving from one air conditioned "box" to another. Not to mention the fact that all the stores always keep the A/C on "meat locker" setting, so you come in out of the heat to a sudden chill then back into the heat..hello pneumonia!

So I packed my bags and moved to Moldova in summer of 2004. I have not looked back. I have created this blog so that other retirees who may be now interested in escaping the general disaster that is now the U.S. economy and political scene might know about my secret little country called Moldova!