Trying my hand at being a 'digital nomad'

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

In six nights, I am flying from Australia to Vietnam to do a stint as a digital nomad. I’m 62, female, and whilst I’ve visited Vietnam for holidays five times, I’ve never lived there, nor anywhere else overseas for that matter.

I’m extremely lucky to have been working from home for the last 14 years, two with the company I’m currently working for. And it doesn’t matter where I live…provided I have a decent internet connection, my work can happen anywhere in the world. The boss-fella is fine with me working in Vietnam (and Thailand and anywhere else I end up) and will pay me in AUD every fortnight regardless.

I figured I’m nearing the end of my working life, and so while being relatively healthy and somewhat fit, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. I’ve chosen Da Nang as the first port of call, but with VN only offering 30 day evisas at the moment, I’ve booked a ‘visa run’ to Bangkok for a couple of days to get a new visa and come back.

Not really sure if I want to be doing visa-runs every month to be honest, so I’ll see how the first one goes, then decide whether to move on to Thailand which offers more flexibility with staying for longer.

But anyway, I’m excited. It’s a new chapter! Of course I don’t know how long I’ll be in SE Asia, barring any health issues or homesickness, I imagine 6 months to a year away might be the go. Maybe longer, it might indeed be fabulous and all that!

Ask any questions, offer any advice, I’m all ears.

2

I’m green with envy. Have a blast!

3

I fully intend to. As I mentioned, I’m too bloody lucky to have a job that is relocatable, and with the cost of living in SE Asia at least a quarter of that in Australia, what’s not to love?

And I adore Vietnam especially from the bottom of my heart. It’s beautiful, the people are welcoming, the food is sublime, and it’s affordable. #winning

4

Actually, I need advice about what to pack. Apart from clothes, computer, tablet and phone, and meds and some basic toiletries, I’m packing a couple of decent knives, a pair of scissors and WHAT ELSE SHOULD I PACK??

I’ve got adaptors, a power board, an extension cord, headphones, a spare mouse, is there anything I’ve missed??

5

It sounds like you are traveling alone. If that’s the case, do you have someone you check in with periodically who is not work-related in case you run into any problems along the way? You’re a long way from getting help should you need it for any reason.

6

Consider doubling up on the meds and stashing them in two different places when you travel in case of loss or theft. Maybe a power bar with several outlets in case you’re in a place that has just a single electrical outlet that is already stuffed with appliances and devices. I’ve been in a lot of major hotels in “first world” countries where the best outlet (that is, within reach of the desk, bed, or whatever) was behind a big, immovable piece of furniture and was already plugged with TV, microwave, whatever. Flashlight, if only to look for more #@$ outlets. First aid kit in case of injury with knives or scissors! Thread and needles in case that extra bowl of pho means you blow a button off pants or blouse. Shoelaces. This all is little stuff I keep in my ditty bag (aka Dopp kit, aka toiletry bag) and have used all of it at one time or another. Breaking a shoelace can be a real drag!

7

This sounds like a nice adventure! How about bringing a multi-tool? My favorite one is the Leatherman Free P2. It’s designed very well and can be operated with just one hand. I carry mine every day. The small scissors work very well and it’s what I use the most.

Leatherman Free P2, $130 at REI

8

I’ve just woken up from my 6th sleep here in hot and humid Da Nang. Arrived Monday lunchtime, booked into my hotel, and after a couple of nights here have now booked another month because a) it’s a lovely room, fully self-contained, b) it’s as cheap as chips, just 5m VND or app $210 USD per month.

I’m in a very local area, away from the expats and many other tourists which is lovely. The neighbourhood is mostly narrow streets, with food vendors and coffee shops/general stores every few metres. Too damned convenient to waddle out the front door, take 5 steps across the road, and when she sees me, the lady who runs the store scurries off to make my ca phe sua da at app 6am. Sort of like a liquid defibrillator. :slight_smile:

Wifi here is just amazing. So much faster than Australia, and it’s everywhere, even in the most humble of establishments. In terms of my work,I’ve had no issues at all technically, and everything works as it should.

I’m still not much chop at using transport apps like Grab. Managed to book a car to a local wet market, but coming back I somehow stuffed it up. I blame my poor eyesight at the moment, and unfortunately, because I’m only 4 weeks post cataract surgery, can’t get a new glasses script for at least another 4 weeks. Hahahaha

Thus far, I have had NO problems getting here, with immigration, with accommodation, with local food and drink, with upset digestion etc etc. The only drama was accidentally returning the ‘bum gun’ to it’s holder on the wall next to the toilet, and managing to shoot myself dead in the face one morning. Nice wake up call that was.

kam

9

Before leaving, I did get 6months worth of my prescription meds filled (took up more of my suitcase than my clothes!) and yes, a powerboard was packed too. So far, there’s nothing I seem to have overlooked, and when I DO find out I’ve forgotten something, there are malls and larger supermarkets all over the place.

Speaking of meds, the pharmacies here are happy to dispense (non opioid or dangerous) meds over the counter. My sleeping patterns had been up the shit, mostly waking at around 2 am and not being able to get back to sleep of course. So a visit to a small pharmacy for sleeping tablets has now extended my sleep time until 4.30 am. That’s almost respectable, I can live with that! And a sleeve of 10 tabs cost the grand total of 43c USD (or 60c AUD).

10

Nearly two weeks now and there has been a couple of dramas. Firstly, the young bloke who worked as the jack-of-all-trades here decided to steal money from my room! Quite a lot of money actually, between $4-$600 AUD. It’s a bit of a long story as I didn’t realise at first that the money was missing (thought I’d had a lapse of memory re how much I’d actually spent, wondered whether I’d hidden the money somewhere after one-too-many-vodkas one night! LOL)

But anyway, I’d sort of reconciled myself to the loss, until a couple of days ago, the young fella came to me asking to change a $50 AUD note. As it turned out, I didn’t have the VND to change it, but I was going to a money-changer later in the day and would do it for him then.

Back step a few days: same young boy came to my room to change a $50 AUD note. He didn’t speak English at all, and my Viet extends to Xin Chao and ca phe. Through a translating app though, he said that the manager had been given the $50 from a guest and needed to change it, which I did, happily.

Fast forward again. As soon as the kid left my room, a penny dropped (or a few $50 AUD bills dropped). His reason for wanting to change the second $50 was that his uncle had given it to him and he needed to buy a birthday pressie for his grandma. Bzzzzt. Bad excuse son.

Anyway, I contacted the manager, kid confessed, but only to taking the equivalent of $280 (in AUD and VND) from my room. I couldn’t prove otherwise, so that’s all that was reimbursed to me. All good, I’d not expected to see any of the money come back, and it was only because the dill came to ME to change the money that I twigged. Lesson learned yada yada.

The big thing is my stupid eyes. After an op about 5 weeks ago, my vision has deteriorated markedly. Glasses are useless, I can barely see my computer screen to work, so ended up buying a monitor yesterday to ‘magnify’ everything. Well, it does that, everything is bigger, including the blurring of script on the screen! I can JUST see enough to work, but fuck, it’s so tiring. My job is normally the easiest thing in the world, but the straining and the leaning in and out from the monitor is taking its toll. I am thoroughly pissed off that I chose to have the op in the first place, when drops to treat glaucoma would probably have worked just as well. Dammit.

So I’ve been a bit depressed the last few days. But this afternoon, after finishing work, I twaddled off to a new part of Son Tra where I hadn’t ventured before. And I sat on a little red chair at a roadside ca phe joint, I watched the kids coming home from school all excited about it being the weekend, I heard ducks quacking across the street, I felt the sea wind cooling me down, and I came to terms with my shitty week, and ready to take on a new one!

Nearly two weeks down, I’m not dead yet. :stuck_out_tongue:

11

My life as a digital nomad came to an end, not quite as quickly as I had anticipated! After being in Vietnam with my vision deteriorating, I attended the Da Nang Eye Hospital, where they diagnosed cystoid macular edema. After prescribing drops I was due to go back for a follow up appointment 2 weeks later, but…I stuffed up my visa pics to re-enter Vietnam without enough time to resubmit them. I ended up in Thailand.

I flew from Da Nang to Chaing Mai via Bangkok, stayed there a week, then headed down to Phuket with the intention of getting a return flight to Aus ASAP. But the gods were agin me…trying to book a flight online was bringing up extortionate prices, upwards of 2k for a one way flight! So I ended up at a travel agent in Phuket hoping to score a cheaper flight within days, only to be told the flights were closer to 4k FFS.

We eventually found a flight, 3 weeks out for 1.5km still an enormous price gouge, but by that stage I was at the end of my tether!

Three weeks in Phuket. Fuck. It rained, it poured, it is the shittiest place in the world if you don’t have the cash to splash to be a tourist. Because I was now on rations…not working, living off savings, and needing to have enough money for when I got back to Aus before my government benefits would kick in (yes, I know, I am lucky, I live in a socialist state, sue me). I spent most of my time in the hotel room watching Netflix and youtube vids, venturing out for food twice a day, sometimes even just to the 7/11 for toasties! MY GOD, they are GOOD!

So long story shortened, I am back in Aus, I saw the ophthalmologist nearly two weeks ago, was promised my sight would be back within the week, and lo, it ain’t. It’s still as shit as ever. Fuck.

My days as a digital nomad are over, I doubt I will ever travel overseas again alone in this state. It makes me feel very old and very decrepit…but damn, I tried!

12

what - in hindsight - would you do different if going D.N. today …

and would you start over?

(a thing I might have missed: why did you run out of money and need gov. benefits - you have/had? a job)?

thx!