I spent last summer travelling in SEA, funded entirely by freelance. Well thats a lie I came back to the UK for one week inbetween (it was a good party, worth two 13 hour flights).
I had a very good client for whom it didn't matter where I was, I worked on the relationship with the travel in mind and noted from day one. This ment I was about £300 a day less than my normal London day rate for two months for them. However, even down by three hundread I was travelling like a king, well king of economy travellers.
It worked well, but I had one massive disadvantage, I had to ensure good wifi whereever I moved. SEA is mostly 6 hours ahead of London, so keeping London time isn't hard, 11pm is the latest your expected to be online.
The main problem I had was due to a staff change at the clients end. The people I had been dealing with before quit on mass over a pay dispute. The placements, they were a little bit bottom draw (think where is the defintion of this 'web service', I don't want a WSDL, this is a web service, this isn't good enough types).
That is where we come to the crunch. Would I do it again? No.
It was a bit of a pain really, my friends I'd met up with along the way were off having fun, but I was stuck still chained to a laptop. Given that I'd taken a substaintial rate cut, I would have been better off just working full time as normal for half a year, saving, and taking time of normally.
The digital nomad traveller isn't all its cracked up to be. However working remotely from a fairly fixed base is great. It's very easy to get a 6 month tourist VISA to say Thailand, which has great food, and a great countryside. Rent a place for duration, make sure it has reliable good internet, and working remotely isn't such an issue when your not moving around. Now I type this I realise it was the moving around that was the issue. If working say 40hours, you either move round at a snails pace, or miss really interesting things.
I am actually looking to buy a condo in the mountains of Thailand as a bolt hole, my girlfriend and I could just run and hide there for a month or two, still work if need be, but have a change of scenary, weather and society.
This is actually what I've been thinking. The whole "move every week or two" travel lifestyle doesn't really appeal to me, and I probably wouldn't get any work done.
Instead, I'd rather live in foreign cities for 1-3 months at a time. 1 month in Krakow here, 2 months in Chiang Mai there, etc.
I really like Chiang Mai, I'm currently trying to buy a flat near there, but the sales agent is giving my lawyer concerns so it is looking like it might fall through (it has taken 4 months to get this far, I will not be out of pocket any money bar lawyer fees).
However I much prefer the mountains outside Chiang Mai. Heading up to Pai, which sadly is overrun by hippies, is great. If you were able to get a place there with good internet, you'd have a wounderful time. Assuming you either can afford to rent a car or can ride a motorbike.
I think I was very nieve about the moving every week or two bit, but I was limited by travel companions.
A friend of mine ended up in Chiang Mai just before Songkram festival, ended up staying there for 5 months before moving on.
One of the reasons I'm giving up the super stable income of whoring myself out to large firms as a consultant (the more you charge, the more they believe you must be good) to do a start up, is partly so I can spend large parts of the year out there.
I also have some Vietnamese friends near Hoi An (my favourite place!) who I intend to rent a room from, that I can have set up nicely for working from, on the side I hope to help kick their business up a notch.
When I mentioned to a few friends if they would be willing to work on a project for a 3 month contract coming out to visit me in SEA, I was suprised, they all immediately said things along the line of "I'd discount my rate".
Ask me again in two years what happened to the dream :D
Can I ask what you do (both for consulting and for the friend in HoiAn)? I live in New York now but am thinking of setting up an offshore team in Saigon w/ US based clients so I can travel back and forth.
How do you get a 6 month tourist visa to Thailand?
I thought you could only get a 30-day visa that's valid for a 6 month period, and spend a maximum of 90 days in Thailand within than 6 month period if you count re-entry. Going for visa runs very four weeks can't be that fun.
Without knowing your nationality its hard to advise.
I'm British, so maybe its easier. You can get a 3 month tourist visa, with a 3 month pending extension from the London embassy.
Failing that you can do a 'border run'. I quite like being near Chiang Mai or Pai. From there its about a 3/4 hour drive up to Burhma. I did it with a mate of mine for a day out.
I would have thought that the worst case would be a 5 day gap between two of these, obviously, check with the lawyer.
If you want to spend 5 days in a nearby nation you are spoilt for choice. Myself I like Vietnam, the food is really good, friendly people, stunning, stunning scenary.
I'm Canadian, and it seems like we only get a 30 day tourist visa. I wonder if I can still make unlimited border runs? There seems to be very conflicting information on the web about whether the authorities care if you try to stay indefinitely through doing so...
For most of the world, you get a 30 day visa exemption if you fly in to Thailand. You get a 15 day exemption if you enter Thailand over land.
If you're outside of Thailand, you can get a 60 day visa for about $30, and that can be extended a further 30 days once inside Thailand for another fee (I never did this, but I think it's around another $30.) The consulates in countries around Thailand are aware of people entering, leaving and getting a new visa, then re-entering. Certain consulates will almost always give the visa, some will deny if they see repeat visits - it really depends on the guy looking at the paperwork at the time sometimes.
For example, when I was there last year, the consulate in Penang, Malaysia was known to give back to back 60 day visas as long as you never did the 30 day extension. But they wouldn't give the multiple entry visas that basically give you the 60 days + 30 days extension each time you enter the country for 2-3 entries.
I had a very good client for whom it didn't matter where I was, I worked on the relationship with the travel in mind and noted from day one. This ment I was about £300 a day less than my normal London day rate for two months for them. However, even down by three hundread I was travelling like a king, well king of economy travellers.
It worked well, but I had one massive disadvantage, I had to ensure good wifi whereever I moved. SEA is mostly 6 hours ahead of London, so keeping London time isn't hard, 11pm is the latest your expected to be online.
The main problem I had was due to a staff change at the clients end. The people I had been dealing with before quit on mass over a pay dispute. The placements, they were a little bit bottom draw (think where is the defintion of this 'web service', I don't want a WSDL, this is a web service, this isn't good enough types).
That is where we come to the crunch. Would I do it again? No.
It was a bit of a pain really, my friends I'd met up with along the way were off having fun, but I was stuck still chained to a laptop. Given that I'd taken a substaintial rate cut, I would have been better off just working full time as normal for half a year, saving, and taking time of normally.
The digital nomad traveller isn't all its cracked up to be. However working remotely from a fairly fixed base is great. It's very easy to get a 6 month tourist VISA to say Thailand, which has great food, and a great countryside. Rent a place for duration, make sure it has reliable good internet, and working remotely isn't such an issue when your not moving around. Now I type this I realise it was the moving around that was the issue. If working say 40hours, you either move round at a snails pace, or miss really interesting things.
I am actually looking to buy a condo in the mountains of Thailand as a bolt hole, my girlfriend and I could just run and hide there for a month or two, still work if need be, but have a change of scenary, weather and society.