Where Would You Live Based Solely on Geography and Climate?

[Diopolis]

Probably the Ozarks.

[State of Turelisa]

Japan. The rates of crime are among the lowest in the world, and its country is beautiful.

[Anatoliyanskiy]

probably Iceland. It has literally like no crime, it has a beautiful (if cold) climate and and some stunning natural formations.

[Nyoskova]

Somewhere in Spain or Hungary.

[Region of Dwipantara]

Japan. The rates of crime are among the lowest in the world, and its country is beautiful.

Yeah, but if you happened to be in the wrong side of the law enforcement you have a 98% chance of being screwed into a pulp. Then again, OP said that it doesn't count, so you're probably right. Southern Japan is probably the better place to live in, though. Southern and Western Japan – as far away from the tectonic line.

[New Bremerton]

Also note that here in Sarawak, a strong, cool breeze almost always indicates imminent rainfall. In HK, a strong, cool breeze indicates the coming/presence of winter. This is the same North Wind that originates in Siberia and the Arctic Circle and begins its journey in subzero temperatures from roughly October to April. En route to Borneo, this Northeast Monsoon picks up a shitton of moisture from the South China North Malaysian North Borneo Sea and dumps all of that moisture onto us.

Given how far south we are at this point, temperatures during the winter months remain largely unchanged except insofar as the lack of sunlight, higher degree of cloud cover and the rain's cooling effect are concerned. For this reason, and after having spent my entire childhood living farther north where winter is actually defined by lower temperatures, I refer to the wet season, which neatly coincides with the winter months, as winter, at least as far as Sarawak is concerned. Yet even as far north as HK, winters have been getting milder and milder and summers have been getting hotter and hotter in recent years.

Flora and fauna-wise, HK and Malaysia are pretty similar. We share many of the same birds and the same kind of tropical rainforest. One key difference is that in HK, the cicadas come out in full force during the height of summer, whereas cicadas in Sarawak are much more subdued but appear all year round. Another difference between Sarawak and HK is how hilly HK is and how many islands and harbors there are. I suspect HK's unusually warm and extremely humid summer nights (~28C on a typical night) may be down to the urban heat island effect. Diurnal variation typically ranges around four degrees (16-20C in winter, 29-33C in summer), whereas diurnal fluctuations across the increasingly meaningless and nonexistent "border" in the Chinese city of Shenzhen are typically higher (~7-8 degrees) and more similar to that of Kuching, Sarawak. Barring the political situation, A/C is the only thing that keeps HKers sane in summer.

Japan. The rates of crime are among the lowest in the world, and its country is beautiful.

Seconded. NHK World has plenty of amazing documentaries. I've also had the sheer fortune of visiting Japan, twice. The country really puts my own to shame. Simply mindblowing. Only real downside from a purely geographic perspective would be the earthquakes and tsunamis.

I forgot to mention Scotland. That place is amazing in its own right. NZ is still better though.

[Russian Grey-harbor]

eastern Washington, or southern Alberta

[Questarian New Yorkshire]

South China North Malaysian North Borneo Sea

SSKM

[Questarian New Yorkshire]

Japan gets much better weather than Britain - consistent and long and very hot summers and consistent and long and very cold winters. Although if you just glance at a map they look like a similar latitude, Japan is still chilling at 30 north whereas the cursed North Sea is like 55 north.

Tropical weather is the best because of its consistency. British weather is extremely inconsistent

[Geneviev]

Where I live now. It's sunny for most of the year, and there's only a few months of rain. It's perfect for me, especially as Germany is much colder.

[Region of Dwipantara]

South China North Malaysian North Borneo Sea

SSKM

*North Natuna Sea

Japan gets much better weather than Britain - consistent and long and very hot summers and consistent and long and very cold winters. Although if you just glance at a map they look like a similar latitude, Japan is still chilling at 30 north whereas the cursed North Sea is like 55 north.

Tropical weather is the best because of its consistency. British weather is extremely inconsistent

Eh, sometimes there is also the pancaroba season between wet and dry season, where the weather is uncertain. High frequency storms and increase in diseases like flu (excl. that one) are pretty common in these times.

[Trollzyn the Infinite]

Anywhere above the Ohio River and the Mason-Dixon Line.

Dixieland sucks. Florida especially.

[Bieva]

Malta! It was too quiet for my taste when I went there but the climate is absolutely perfect.

[Rojava Free State]

Anywhere above the Ohio River and the Mason-Dixon Line.

Dixieland sucks. Florida especially.

Oh no, you're in that place?

[New Bremerton]

Japan gets much better weather than Britain - consistent and long and very hot summers and consistent and long and very cold winters. Although if you just glance at a map they look like a similar latitude, Japan is still chilling at 30 north whereas the cursed North Sea is like 55 north.

Tropical weather is the best because of its consistency. British weather is extremely inconsistent

If only we could trade places. I really miss the British snow. Have summers been getting hotter and hotter where you are? Sky News' weather forecast has temperatures of 30+C for London and southern England. Even in May this year, afternoon highs for the south of England were well into the low-to-mid 20s. When I was studying in London in May, it was more like 17-18C.

Some places such as Bogota, Colombia, Baguio in the Philippines, and Cameron Highlands in Pahang, Malaysia are situated both on very high ground (1000m+ above sea level) and near the equator. Their subtropical highland climate is similar to London in summer, minus the heatwaves and cold winters. As with any equatorial climate, temperatures are consistent year-round. The one time I visited Cameron Highlands, the very cool, early morning breeze evoked memories of my time in England and Scotland, as well as Japan. A huge downside to living in the Cameron Highlands, as is the case in any developing country (plus Australia, apparently) are the presence of creepy stray dogs that routinely harass and tail visitors over long distances the moment they step outside a so-called "hotel".

Also, are you sure you want to deal with all the flies, mosquitoes, and other creepy crawlies on top of all the strays? During the several years I was in England, I did not encounter a single stray dog. Flies and mosquitoes were exceedingly rare and only ever appeared in summer. British mosquito bites are not nearly as itchy as Malaysian and HK mosquito bites. Mosquitoes never woke me up in the middle of the night. Flies in the UK and HK also move much more slowly and are far easier to shoo away or exterminate. It's the Malaysian flies that drive me batshit insane.

Only Australia may be worse, although my sources for this are purely second-hand.

The fields of England and the lochs and hills of Scotland really put Malaysia's landscape to shame. Only Singapore and parts of Penang and KL may be able to overcome this due to purely artificial reasons.

SSKM

*North Natuna Sea

The ASEAN Sea. The Anything But Chinese Sea. Ooh, I know! The Hong Kong Sea.

Japan gets much better weather than Britain - consistent and long and very hot summers and consistent and long and very cold winters. Although if you just glance at a map they look like a similar latitude, Japan is still chilling at 30 north whereas the cursed North Sea is like 55 north.

Tropical weather is the best because of its consistency. British weather is extremely inconsistent

Eh, sometimes there is also the pancaroba season between wet and dry season, where the weather is uncertain. High frequency storms and increase in diseases like flu (excl. that one) are pretty common in these times.

I call them spring and autumn depending on the time of year. Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei are situated entirely north of the equator, so spring and autumn in Sarawak coincide with spring and autumn throughout the northern hemisphere. In most of Indonesia, the reverse would apply. Seasons in Malaysia are somewhat difficult to discern given how little the temperature varies throughout the year. West Malaysia, particularly the west coast, is subject to an entirely different weather system revolving around the Indian Ocean. It and Singapore may be more in tune with the southern hemisphere. Seasons in Sarawak and Sabah actually align with the rest of the northern hemisphere. I don't know what the situation is like in Kalimantan though. How far south does the northeast monsoon actually reach? Jakarta? Darwin? It's not entirely unheard of for a winter front to cross the equator and bring unusually cold temperatures to the affected region. I believe this may have happened in Venezuela and Colombia when an Antarctic winter front struck the region in the middle of the year.

Pedantic nitpicking, but it's not a flu. It's a corona. Right now, in the midst of this pandemic, I'm content to remain right here in Malaysia and avoid getting sick. New coronavirus cases in Malaysia are now being recorded in single digits and the forecast is for all local transmission to cease by the middle of next month if Malaysians continue to comply with strict, social distancing guidelines. Malaysians are much more spread out than Hong Kongers are for a start, and Europe, the United States, India, Latin America, and other places are doing so much worse with new cases recorded in triple, quadruple, and even quintuple digits. But I think coronavirus counts as a danger the OP wants us to ignore.

[Minskiev]

Well, I’ll do one for each continent. Maybe two.

North America: NYC, and Vancouver. I love NYC, and Vancouver is like, the second best city in the world, besides Vienna.

South America: Maybe Rio or Lima. Yeah. Rio de Janeiro and Lima.

Africa: Cairo, Cape Town. No doubt.

Asia: Tokyo, Singapore. Easily.

Europe: Let’s see...Reykjavik, Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Munich, Berlin, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, London, somewhere in Scotland, Dublin, you get the point.

Australia: Sydney, Melbourne.

Antarctica: The lab, the other lab. Are there two labs?

[Bieva]

Malta! It was too quiet for my taste when I went there but the climate is absolutely perfect.

Oh actually Montevideo would be amazing too (and I think Uruguay's a really cool country in general )

[Rojava Free State]

I wanna go live in Buenos Aires ngl.

[Questarian New Yorkshire]

Also, are you sure you want to deal with all the flies, mosquitoes, and other creepy crawlies on top of all the strays? During the several years I was in England, I did not encounter a single stray dog. Flies and mosquitoes were exceedingly rare and only ever appeared in summer. British mosquito bites are not nearly as itchy as Malaysian and HK mosquito bites. Mosquitoes never woke me up in the middle of the night. Flies in the UK and HK also move much more slowly and are far easier to shoo away or exterminate. It's the Malaysian flies that drive me batshit insane.

I'm (half) Malaysian

I prefer the weather in Malaysia. GB summers have been hot recently, but I don't have a long track record because I was in Malaysia every summer as a child anyway. GB weather is always unpredictable and changes often, but I hope this string of really hot summers (its 29c as I write this) lasts. Unlike the tropics where the hottest part of the day is about 1pm (at your latitude anyway) and the sun is brightest then, in Britain the sun tends to get at its peak position at about 3pm, so we get high temps from 2pm all the way up to 8pm. Last years summer I was at a party and eveyone was outdoors at 10pm still dancing and it was light and hot. Mental. Certainly not the country I remember as a child.

Im (half) kadazan Im not bothered by bugs I literally just kill them. I'm not really bothered by stray dogs either.

edit: they're just different. The weather in GB can be very beautiful when set against landscape, but most of the time you're not dealing with landscape, you're actually just dealing with the weather. GB weather is extremely inconsiderate — too windy, wind chill too high, whereas the tropical weather is way more consistent and kind. You know exactly what you are gonna get and you can dress for it.

I don't think Malaysia is more or less beautiful than Britain. They're both extremely beautiful countries.

[Sarderia]

Also, are you sure you want to deal with all the flies, mosquitoes, and other creepy crawlies on top of all the strays? During the several years I was in England, I did not encounter a single stray dog. Flies and mosquitoes were exceedingly rare and only ever appeared in summer. British mosquito bites are not nearly as itchy as Malaysian and HK mosquito bites. Mosquitoes never woke me up in the middle of the night. Flies in the UK and HK also move much more slowly and are far easier to shoo away or exterminate. It's the Malaysian flies that drive me batshit insane.

*laughs maniacally* Come to Jakarta and you'll surely have a real insight on deadly mosquitoes. During my time there those things are able to withstand a 16 degree celcius AC (indoors! though only for a minute at best before dying lol). Nearly all of them are the dengue-type so you'll hear a lot of dengue fever cases in Indonesia.

[Questarian New Yorkshire]

I don't care about mosquitos at all they don't bother me lol

[Sarderia]

I don't care about mosquitos at all they don't bother me lol

Well at least you guys get snow there in Britain lol. The first time I moved to San Diego I hoped for at least cooler weather than in SE Asia. But nope it's actually frickin desert. Fortunately I'm back to enjoy the monsoon rains here at least.

[Nazis in Space]

Best biome.

[Pangurstan]

I'd live in the pacific northwest or northern Japan, because I like trees, water, and mountains. I also can't stand hot weather, or super cold temperatures.

[Purpelia]

Some place on the equator where the sea is always blue, the days all last the same year long and the weather is always nice. But I'd totally have a second residence somewhere in Japan or such as a holiday home.