Read the WIKI before posting

Posting this so other nomads/expats in Thailand know what to expect before they need it.

I'm on Genki Traveler (underwritten by Squarelife, emergency assistance by MCI Assist). Last weekend I had a real medical emergency in Bangkok — repeated vomiting and passing out.

What happened:

1. I contacted MCI Assist. To their credit, they replied fast and said they'd coordinate a Guarantee of Payment (GOP) with the hospital.

2. I went to the nearest ER (a mid-size private hospital in north Bangkok). They refused to treat or admit me without a 15,000 THB upfront payment. Their billing desk said they couldn't make international calls and didn't know how to deal with MCI.

3. MCI then asked ME to get the hospital to send a medical report, a cost estimate, and written confirmation of inpatient admission before they could even consider a GOP. The problem: the hospital wouldn't admit me without payment. So no admission → no documents → no GOP → no admission. A perfect loop.

4. I called Bangkok Hospital, which lists MCI Assist as a partner on its website. They wanted a 50,000–100,000 THB deposit before any GOP would be issued.

The policy says that for inpatient stays you don't pay the hospital yourself and the assistance company handles payment directly. On a Sunday night in Bangkok, that meant nothing.

My takeaways:

- A GOP is only as good as the hospital's willingness to accept it. Many Thai private hospitals simply won't wait for one from an overseas assistance company, especially on weekends.

- If you rely on Genki (or similar budget nomad insurance) in Thailand, carry a card that can cover a 15k–100k THB deposit. Otherwise you may be turned away.

- Know where your nearest government hospital ER is. They treat first and charge a fraction of private prices.

- If you live here long term, consider a Thai or international plan with real cashless/direct billing at Thai hospitals.

I've formally complained and asked MCI for a list of Bangkok hospitals that actually accept their GOP without a deposit. I'll update if they answer.

Has anyone had a GOP from MCI Assist actually work at a Thai hospital? Which one?

I don’t know if you’ve noticed over the past half year, in connection with the rise of AI, that big tech companies, especially those in Europe and the US, are trying to kill off fully remote work in order to target and eliminate the digital nomad lifestyle. This is very true for those of us in the tech field; I can’t speak for other fields. Just check all the remote jobs that exist, you’ll barely find a location-independent one anymore, the way I used to a couple of years ago. For example, tech jobs that used to be fully remote and even offered on independent contractor terms have now shifted to W-2 employment, and you must be within the US and even a US citizen, same for Europe job postings.

According to Noon, Overall US job postings are now dominated by on-site (~74–78%) or hybrid, the rest is remote but within US only.

A month ago I asked if I was crazy to start a digital nomad lifestyle for the first time at 39, and I lot of you showed a lot of support. So I decided to give you an update on my situation.

Since the original post I took the decision to leave my rented apartment in Spain at the end of the year, and basically booked my life for the next 12 months. When I was a backpacker one of the most exciting things was to keep my plan flexible and to book accommodations on the fly. But I am no longer a backpacker, will stay way longer in a few locations, and the mental effort to not have a place to stay when the day to leave the previous one approaches, is too much nowadays. I had my excitement in the past, now I want a bit more stability, so I booked everything, some of them with a free cancellation in case anything changes. Airbnb free cancellation will be utilized a lot from now on.

Being the good renter that I am, the first step was to tell my landlord that I am leaving, which I did 2 and a half months before the end of the year, even though I am required to do so only 1 month before I leave. He was very sad, told me that with the new laws in Spain people may not want to rent anymore, told me that Spain may go in a very very bad direction after the upcoming elections, and so on. I'm not really informed about this topic but I'm sure he will be fine, he has a few properties in a top spot location.

Anyway, this is what I booked:
- Dec 27: Flight Spain - Sofia
- Jan 9-10: Flights Sofia - Kuala Lumpur - Surabaya
- Jan 10 - Feb 2: airbnb in Surabaya, €534.34
- Feb 2 - Mar 6 - one bedroom villa with a private pool in Umalas, Bali, €1039.86
- Mar 6 - Apr 5 - one bedroom villa with a private pool in Ubud, Bali, €709.89, free cancellation
- Apr 5 is unbooked haha, I will stay close to Denpassar airport for one night, ~€22.4
- Apr 6 - Apr 16 - nice airbnb in Jakarta, €401.9, free cancellation
- Apr 16-17: Flight Jakarta - Madrid - [my current location]
- From Apr 17 - I talked with a friend who I met here a few years ago to stay in her one-bedroom exterior apartment for 6 months. She bought it years ago, but doesn't live in Spain anymore and lends it only to friends. She offered me a price of €600/month, which is super low for the location, and I feel extremely lucky.
- Also from Apr 17 - June 17: I booked a 2-month airbnb studio just in case my friend bails out of our arrangement, free cancellation, €1151/month.

Then if everything goes as planned, around the beginning of October next year I can spend another 6-7 months in Southeast Asia, potentially starting with 1 month in Bangkok (hopefully the flooding will not be an annual event), then 5-6 more months in Indonesia, calculated in such a way so to avoid the rolling 183 days per year. But this is not booked, just an idea at the moment.

As I mentioned in the original post, my rent+bills is currently €1150. Calculating all accommodations in Indonesia from Jan 10 to Apr 16, it comes at €27.92 per night on average, or €837.64 per month. These are super good private places. It's crazy that I would be saving money of rent by living at short term places. Of course, adding the two transcontinental flights + the two domestic ones in Indonesia will make the new life more expensive per night, but I rather count the flights towards the lifestyle budget.

I was looking really hard at booking a more social place in Bali - a coliving or a private room in a hostel. However, prices of such places are really high for the facilities you get. You basically pay for the community. So I will stick with my private villas and I hope I will still meet some people.

At least I play beach volleyball a lot and I will be going to the Bali Volleyball Academy, which I already discovered earlier this year, so I will be meeting some people there. If someone plays on intermediate high/advanced level and is in Bali between Feb 2 and Apr 5, send me a message and we can do some passes with my Mikasa on the beach. Gathering 4 people and playing with a real net on the beach is a dream that I don't know if is realistic.

When I posted initially the original post I felt a bit down mentally, because I am living in a dream location but feeling unhappy and wanting a change, without knowing how to achieve it. But as soon I took the mental decision to leave, and got confidence in the plan, life became super easy. I feel the original post was 3-4 months ago, but have only been 28 days.

PS: the original post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad/comments/1wiy6fw/am_i_crazy_to_start_this_lifestyle_at_39/

I came across this blog as I just found out about onward tickets. I'm planning to go to Europe (arriving at Madrid) in January, and I'll stay about 88 days or so, but I don't want to commit to a round flight because if I'm already in that side of the world I'd like to go an discover other places, maybe Eastern Europe, Asia, UK, I don't know really, but I don't want to buy a round flight and just toss the return flight.

I've read people just buy refundable tickets, which sounds good, but for some reason I just looked up the same return flight I'd be taking from Madrid to Mexico City in April and it's almost 3 times more expensive.

TLDR: I know I can buy refundable tickets, but has someone used onward tickets to enter Europe in the last year, and have you had any problems?

EDIT: How do you even organize yourselves? I guess that since it's the first time I'm doing this I'm a little scared that things go south, but if you plan to be constantly moving, you always need an exit/return flight so that the custom doesn't raise suspicion right? How do you plan in advance?

Hey! Earlier this year, I spent 3 months travelling around Asia, and coming back to my corporate IT job in a big European city made me question what I'm doing with my life. I realised I'd much rather spend my time surfing, doing yoga and being outdoors.

Luckily, I can work remotely from abroad for 20 days a year, so I'm planning to spend them in Sri Lanka this December! I need around 4/5 hours of focused work a day, so I'd love to hear from people who've done something similar.

Where did you stay? Surf camp, coworking space or your own apartment? How did you organise your day around work, surfing and socialising? Where did you actually get work done, and what would you recommend or do differently?

Also, would you arrive earlier to explore a bit before settling down somewhere to work?

I'd love to hear your tips and, especially, what a typical day looks like for you!

Dear all,
Should we expect any questions upon arriving at our home country after being more than one year abroad? Could they ask whether we have been traveling for leisure or working for example, and would this be an issue at all? Income is received normally in the home country, everything declared correctly.
Many thanks

I've been taking more short trips lately, usually 2 or 3 days at a time, and I got tired of carrying a backpack and a small suitcase everywhere. I recently switched to a rolling backpack. I can keep my laptop and other work stuff separate from my clothes, roll it around most of the time, and carry it when I have to deal with stairs. It's been pretty convenient for shorter trips.

Do you guys usually travel with one bag, or do you prefer keeping your laptop and clothes separate? I'm still trying to find a setup that works without carrying too much.

i am not a digital nomad or maybe i am but i work remotly from my office in my hometown, but i still struggle on daily deliveries like sometimes same video would take me three to 4 hours with heavy aftere effect the whole package and sometimes it takes 12 hours and i find myself exausted doing nothing .... how do you do it ? and i am asking myself this because i want to travek soon with the family but i wanna keep working this way i can afford my stay in those countries and this is digital nomad thing lol but im really affraid i will not be able to deliver or i would be loosing days at work and not be able to enjoy it with my family and that really sucks i dont wanna do that at all

Hi everyone,

I’m flying with China Eastern from Amsterdam to Shanghai (MU210) on 21 October 2026. I’d like to get some coding done on my laptop during the flight.

I regularly use Codex, ChatGPT and Claude, so I’m mainly interested in whether these tools actually work on the in-flight Wi-Fi. I don’t need to stream videos or make calls — just send prompts, receive responses and work with code.

Has anyone tried this on a China Eastern flight recently, ideally in 2026? Did the tools work reliably, or did you run into blocked services, regional restrictions or frequent disconnections?

I’d also like to know whether a paid Wi-Fi upgrade made a noticeable difference compared with the free connection. I don’t mind paying if it genuinely makes working possible, but I’d rather not buy an upgrade only to find that the services I need are inaccessible.

Please mention your route, roughly when you flew and which Wi-Fi package you used. Amsterdam–Shanghai experiences would be especially helpful, but experiences on other China Eastern long-haul flights are welcome too.

I’m trying to work out whether online coding is realistic or whether I should prepare to work entirely offline. Thanks!

Hello everyone, I'm going this weekend two months to Japan, I will be in Tokyo mainly (my apartment is there), working remotely.

What would you do for 2 months in Tokyo/Japan?

Places to visit, cities to explore, plans to do in Tokyo, routines, things that happen in autumn in Tokyo and/or other cities...

• Cutoff of Allowance,
• AI Slop,
• Passport Control and Immigration Enforcement Against Me*, but Not Ye,
• Américon Militarism,
• Ricardo Montalbán,
• Vivisectionalism,
• No One Paying Attention to Me,
• The Shuttering of Selina,

?

*

Hey Guys,

Does anyone here have any knowledge or advice regarding using the starlink roam for traveling?

I currently WFH and I am planning a 43 day trip to the phillipines and all the little islands, I will be reducing my hours to 10 hours a week.

The reason I need the starlink is that it is a mandatory requirement that I am connected via ethernet and not wirelessly.

Has anyone had any experience regarding this?

Understanding a language on paper and following a fast conversation are two completely different things.

I’ve noticed this especially when working remotely with international clients or coworkers while traveling. Someone speaks quickly, uses industry-specific terms, and by the time you’ve processed one sentence they’re already three sentences ahead.

Live captions help, but translated captions seem like a different problem altogether because even a small delay can make them difficult to follow.

For digital nomads working across different countries and languages, what actually works for you?

Do you use regular captions, live translation, a transcript afterward, or just ask people to slow down?

Hello,

Does anyone have experience renewing their CBP Trusted Traveler's Program / Global Entry Card online? I submitted my renewal application, but I noted it says after the application is conditionally approved they may require an interview:

• Do I have to return to the U.S. to do an interview? Can this be done remotely? Or is it only in special cases they need to an additional interview for renewal.
• I haven't been back to the U.S. in about 2-3 years, would that in of itself raise any flags?
• I think the only potential hiccup is the renewed card will be sent to my parent's address in the states. Do I need the physical card or since the membership is attached to my passport, do I need to show anything at all upon returning to the US?

Thanks!

Hi all, can anyone recommend a trusted immigration lawyer/consultant to immigrate to Germany or Italy on “freelance” or “digital nomad” visa categories respectively. If you have had personal experience with them, that would be preferable. Thanks!

has anyone managed to apply for the Spanish digital nomad visa without an agency?

i need assistance with some services that i don’t mind outsourcing, rather than get the full package of agencies.

For those of you working remotely while travelling, I'm curious how you approach career opportunities and professional visibility.

Do you find LinkedIn and traditional job boards effective, or is most of your work found through networking and personal recommendations?

I'm particularly interested in whether employers actively seek out digital nomads or whether you generally have to approach them.

What's worked best for you?

TL;DR: If you have a pre-existing condition, don't fill in the health questionnaire alone. Read your full medical file, attach it to the application, and ideally go through a broker. I learned this the hard way this year.

I have a slow-growing brain tumour (oligodendroglioma, grade 2), found in 2019 after a seizure. I live in Thailand. In February I declared it on an international health policy and was accepted with a surcharge. This year my doctors recommended treatment, and when I claimed, the insurer compared my questionnaire answers with my medical file and withdrew from the contract. The treatment isn't covered.

I asked about this in r/expats earlier this week and got really good replies from people who've been through it. Putting the useful bits together here, because I think a lot of us fill these forms in the way I did: alone, from memory, in a language that isn't our first.

• Read your whole medical file before you apply, doctors' notes included. There can be notes nobody discussed with you, and an underwriter reads them differently from your doctor.
• Send copies of all your records with the application, unedited. It's much harder for an insurer to say later that something wasn't disclosed.
• Use a broker who works with pre-existing conditions. One person there sent a stack of records and a letter from their specialist, got the condition excluded in writing in the schedule of benefits, and the policy later paid for an unrelated emergency surgery.
• Exclusions can reach further than the condition itself ("related" conditions), so ask for the exact wording before you sign.
• If full cover isn't realistic, some people keep accident-only insurance plus an emergency fund.

I'm uninsured now and planning treatment. For nomads with a chronic condition: what are you on, and did the exclusion wording ever matter when you claimed?

Currently in Germany, going through a breakup and thinking of spending a month or two in Tirana for a change of environment.

I have a pretty chill remote job, so I want to use the extra time to hit the gym, study, build some career skills and get into a good routine. Not much of a sightseeing person.

Curious about the social life there. Is it easy to meet people, especially other nomads or expats? Can you get by with just English?

Also, how are the gyms, cafes and general cost of living?

Basically looking for somewhere affordable to focus on myself while still having a decent social life. Would love to hear your experiences!

Hi everyone! I'm planning my first longer trip to South America and would really appreciate advice from people who've been there.

The plan:
About 2 months between March and May 2027
For now I'm thinking one month in Buenos Aires (tango!) and the second in a coastal city in Brazil, but am open to exploring other options.
I work remotely, so I need reliable Wi-Fi and a good café or coworking space
Each month I'd like to learn something local or practice what I already know: tango, beach volleyball, kitesurfing, etc.
I speak Spanish fluently, know basics of Portuguese.

The beach month: I'd love to play volleyball and/or learn to kitesurf. Rio is the dream, but a full month there seems pretty expensive. I'm currently considering Florianópolis. Has anyone spent time there? Are there other Brazilian coastal cities with good wind in spring and a friendly volleyball scene that I should look at?

My questions:
Which places have an active nomad community? I'm traveling solo and would love to meet people.
Are there places to avoid in March–May because of rainy season or weather?
Any safety tips for a woman traveling solo?
If you've done a similar "learn one thing per city" trip, I'd love to hear how it went. Thanks in advance! 🙏

Hey gang, I just want to share a current setup Im using and some of the pros/cons. It might also work for some of you.

Basically what I'm doing is leaving my laptop at my airbnb/hotel, connected to the wifi and I bring my iPad and remote in to control my laptop.

To set this up, you need a stable internet connection on both hotel and cafe (or wherever youre at), an HDMI dummy plug to prevent the macbook from going sleep and Tailscale. You install tailscale on both devices, then use a VNC app to communicate with MacOS native screen sharing feature - personally Im using Screens off the appstore, but there are others as well, and does somewhat work with android tablets as well.

It's a pretty simple setup, and offers some great benefits, but not without compromises,

Bad stuff first:

• If you wifi is unstable, it's unusable of course.

• if your hotel shuts off power when you leave, your laptop cannot charge

• Youre working on a smaller screen

• there is a small input delay.

Good stuff last:

• You can leave your expensive work equipment in a safe, locked location. If worry about theft or damage, this is a nice benefit.

• If your computer is heavy, like a 16" macbook pro or require GPU, a tablet is considerably lighter. I even bring mine on weekend trips in the weekend just in case I need to check something.

• If your work requires long running processes - rendering, compilation, etc - you can easily start these and close your tablet.

• Your tablet draws a lot less power than a laptop. You can work for longer on a power bank, or even bring a smaller charger.

• Albeit a niche benefit, you dont actually need a laptop. If you want to upgrade to a mac mini or similar, you can

Remember before you knock it, Im not presenting this as superior work setup, because it certainly isnt, but it might work for some of you. Maybe even circumstancially!

I started using this setup personally after I was caught in a flash rain without a proper rainproof backpack, and I had to rush it to the local Macbook ER for a hefty fee. It survived, luckily!

I hope this helps someone!

I'm thinking of moving to Bangkok for 2-3 months in november, what are the best sites to look for rental (budget is around 700-1200 euros a month) and do you guys have any tips what to look for when renting ? Thanks

I went to Vietnam in June/July this year and came back to Australia feeling like I’ve lost myself. Has anyone else experienced this?

I don’t really know where to start with this, but I feel like I’ve lost myself over the last couple of years, and going to Vietnam in June/July made me realise just how much.

A couple of years ago, I felt like a completely different person. I was confident, charismatic, mentally strong and had a certain stoicism about me. I felt like I knew who I was and where I was going in life.

Now, I feel like a shell of that person.
My motivation is weak, I struggle to find that same drive I used to have, and some days I honestly feel like I’m just a vessel going through the motions. I wake up, go to work, earn money, come home and repeat the same routine. I don’t feel like I’m really living; I feel like I’m just existing.

Then I went to Vietnam in June/July, and something about that trip changed the way I look at life.
Being there made me realise that life is supposed to be about more than working your life away, paying bills and waiting for your next annual leave. There’s a whole world out there to explore, different cultures to experience, people to meet and ways to live that I’d never seriously considered before.

Seeing people living in Da Nang and Saigon, especially digital nomads and remote workers, genuinely made me question what the hell I’m doing with my life.

Here I am, working a job in pest control that I don’t particularly enjoy, trading most of my time for money, while seeing people overseas working remotely, enjoying their surroundings and seemingly having more freedom over how they live.

I know social media doesn’t show the full picture, and I’m not naive enough to think those people have perfect lives. But seeing that lifestyle made me realise that there are alternatives, and now I can’t stop thinking about them.

Coming back to Australia has been difficult. Everything feels repetitive, expensive and increasingly disconnected from the kind of life I want to live. I look around and feel frustrated with the direction the country is heading, the cost of living, the pressure to work constantly and the feeling that so much of my future is outside my control.

I’ve also found myself becoming increasingly consumed by online political content and discussions about immigration, demographics and the changing character of Australia. I sometimes wonder whether I’ve gone too far down the rabbit hole and become too cynical about everything. I don’t like the direction I feel things are heading, but I also recognise that constantly consuming this stuff probably isn’t helping my mindset.

The worst part is feeling powerless. I don’t want to spend my life angry at the state of the country or resentful of the life I’ve ended up living. I want to actually do something about it.

I want to get that old version of myself back. I want my confidence, charisma, discipline and motivation back. But part of me also wonders whether I’m supposed to get that old version of myself back at all, or whether this is a sign that I need to build a completely different life.

Vietnam opened my eyes to possibilities, but it also made returning to my normal routine feel incredibly difficult. It’s like I’ve seen a glimpse of the life I might want, but I’m stuck in a situation that feels completely different from it.

I keep thinking about moving to Da Nang, finding remote work, getting involved in social media or content creation and building a life where I have more freedom to travel and experience the world.
The problem is that wanting something and actually making it happen are two very different things. I have financial responsibilities, I need to earn money, and I can’t just pack up and disappear tomorrow.

I guess I’m writing this because I want to know if anyone else has experienced something similar.

**Have you ever travelled somewhere, come home and suddenly felt like your old life doesn’t fit you anymore?**

Have you ever felt like you’ve lost your personality, confidence and motivation, and struggled to figure out how to get them back?

And for anyone who has actually made the jump from a conventional life in Australia to working remotely overseas, was it worth it? How did you go about making it happen?

I don’t want to spend the next 10 or 20 years feeling like I’m just going through the motions. I want to feel alive again, have something to work towards and feel like I’m actually in control of my own future.

Right now, I just feel lost, and I’m trying to figure out what to do about it.