Any city over about 150K people - Too many people, too close. I’ll stop and see the sights, but I’ll be moving on, thank you!
Penang, Malaysia. Fascinating, lush, green, decrepit, and crumbling. At least when I was there. Glad I visited, would never live there, for many reasons, including the sheer numbers of people.
Bali, Indonesia. Again, a fascinating place, and much cleaner than many Asian-Pacific cities I’ve visted. But despite being clean, the rich/poor divide is… disconcerting. So MUCH poverty in the shadows of wealth. Again, as of the last time I was there - Some 20+ years ago.
UAE - Impressive folks and the very souls of hospitality, but there’s this details-not-quite-handled air to so many of the cities - raw edges, where work just… Stopped. No finishing, just raw, jagged ends. That lack of attention to the details disturbs me.
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India. I did live there, sort of, if you count spending two and a half months somewhere living there, and it made me fucking CRAZY. After the first couple weeks of “omg I’m in India! this is awesome! look, monkeys!” it quickly became extremely exhausting and just totally overwhelming to be somewhere so loud and crowded.
Coming back to the US was an incredible relief. I remember walking to the market on my first day back and just feeling like there was a huge weight off my shoulders, not having to worry about psychotic traffic that didn’t seem to follow any rules at all, being stared at by children, people invading my space constantly, etc., etc., etc.
OTOH, I’d really like to go back, because I didn’t see a lot of the stuff I wanted to. I didn’t hit any of the traditional tourist destinations because I was there for work and not for fun. Also, one of my best friends is living in India and I’d love to visit her as well.
Much would depend on where you are on Bali. Denpasar, the island’s capital city, is a hole. So is Kuta, and largely Sanur. But Ubud has a very rich cultural history, and the gap between rich and poor is not as apparent. I could see myself living in Ubud. It’s sort of the Santa Fe of Southeast Asia. I’ve even known of some people who have homes in New York City, Santa Fe and Ubud.