First, let’s see the checklist!

organizing a trip to Surat Thani,
buying a flight to Bali,
booking accommodation in Bangkok,
arranging an Indonesian visa,
choosing a place in Bali,
booking accommodation in Bali,
buying a flight to Thailand.

If you don’t want to read any further, you can see from the ticks that I have nothing further to do. If you’re interested in the exciting details: go ahead!

So, everything is ready on paper. But paper doesn’t always show the exciting details: I’m telling you those now.

1. Surat Thani

In the blog “I bought my flight ticket – next act” I wrote that I had my flight ticket and that – since it is cheaper – I am not flying from Koh Samui airport, but from Surat Thani.

I booked a trip from here to Surat Thani – relatively – easily using the 12GO website. I say relatively easy because I had to sweat before I could choose a transfer with the right details.

The information is not very detailed for the providers, so figuring out where the given transfer leaves from was not easy. This island is big enough that a 30-kilometer walk in the morning would be strenuous before departure… I had to exclude unsuitable companies from the search, because when I checked the options for the given day, I got about 10 600 results appeared on the site… Finally, I found the right ride, after having a hard time understanding (or thinking I understood) that the meeting point they named Fisherman’s Village Hotel is not a specific hotel (because I couldn’t find a hotel with that name), but that this expression means that they pick you up in front of the hotels on that street…

The trip consists of two parts: first I leave the island by boat, then I arrive in the next town by minibus. I am forced to do all this on November 20th, because even if I choose the earliest option of the daily flights, I wouldn’t be able to get to the airport by 5:45 on the 21st. So I will leave my current place of residence on the 20th. I will be in Surat Thani by three in the afternoon, so I will have a chance to wander around the town a bit.

I don’t want to spend any more money on accommodation there, so I’ll go to the airport in the evening and spend the night there so I can fly to Bangkok early in the morning.

2. Bangkok: accommodation and departure

In the aforementioned “I bought my plane ticket – next act article“, I told you how my second plane was delayed 2-3 hours after I bought it.

I will have accommodation during the 27 hours I spent there, which I had already booked.

The point is that I will have a great day to explore Bangkok. I am looking forward to that too.

3. Indonesian visa

Seriously, I got a few falls while applying for the visa, and for a few moments I thought I was cursed.

I didn’t want to make the same mistake I made on the way here, so I read the relevant information on the appropriate Hungarian website.

Here it is: Citizens of 97 countries, including Hungarian citizens, have the opportunity to enter the country with a Visa on Arrival (VoA) visa for 30 days for tourism, business or official purposes (which can be extended for another 30 days at the local immigration office) by meeting the following requirements:

• passport (diplomatic / official / regular) valid for at least 6 (six) months,
• return flight ticket,
• payment of visa fee of IDR 500,000 upon arrival.

Here is the short story: I first looked at this information a few weeks ago. I also saw that the price of the Visa was 500,000 IDR, i.e. Indonesian Rupiah. I quickly checked the exchange rate for this currency. I had a minor heart attack when I saw the multiplier of 4.3. 2,150,000 HUF seemed a bit excessive for a visa. After the systolic attack, I realized my mistake: 4.3 is the exchange rate for the Indian Rupee. An Indonesian Rupiah costs 2 fillér, i.e. 0.02 HUF. The visa, calculated in this way, costs 10,000 HUF.

My parents and I were talking about currencies back in the summer. Then I asked ChatGPT, “Is there a currency that is weaker than the forint?” AI listed six currencies in total, so Hungary is not particularly high on the list of currency strengths.

To begin with, I couldn’t access the Indonesian visa page. Based on the error message, I assumed it was my VPN connection. I turned it off, logged in, but I didn’t understand the situation.

A passport and a self-portrait photo are required for registration. I have both. The system didn’t accept my excellent quality scanned passport photo. Again, I didn’t understand what the problem was. The photos shown as samples were of much lower quality than the one I had. As a solution, I quickly took a photo with my phone. It turned out pretty crappy. The system accepted it.

Then came the choice of visa type. This is where I started to sweat. It’s not like you choose “I kiss you, I want a Visa on Arrival type visa”. That would be too easy.

You have to choose from the “The main purpose of my visit to Indonesia is” option. If you have that, another option will open called “The sub purpose of my visit to Indonesia is”. If you have also selected that, then the “I want to explore & choose a visa” option will appear. Maybe for the third time I managed to set the bits so that I could choose the type of document I needed.

This is what it says. It’s worth going through because you can see that I’m not just entering the country “doing what I feel like doing in Bali”.

B1 – Tourist (Visa on Arrival): A person who is a national of visa on arrival country/special entity who will be visiting Indonesia for: ✓ Visiting certain places for the purpose of recreation, personal development, or studying the uniqueness of tourist attractions including but not limited to traveling by yacht, or attending as a participant in meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions activities; ✓ Discussion, negotiation, and/or signing of business agreements including but not limited to offices, factories, or places of production of goods; ✓ Conduct field observations of offices, factories, places to produce goods, places to be invested, and or mining facilities; and ✓ Medical related activities.

I’m a little nervous about whether this visa allows you to take photos, for example. And if so, where…

The somewhat lengthy visa part is not over yet. Believe me, I really sweated!

In order to apply for this visa, I had to upload a picture of another official document. It couldn’t be easier, because I have everything! I took my ID card and casually pushed it in next to the upload button. Then I gasped when it said that this wouldn’t work, in .pdf format please…

Pfff.

After converting the file, I had to enter the address where I would be living. I was already scratching my head here. I hadn’t even decided where I wanted to go. At the same time, I also noticed that I had to fill in the flight number leaving the country and the relevant flight ticket.

After I had these (see next points), I wanted to finish the visa application, but I spent so much time buying the flight ticket and booking the accommodation that the page cut off when I continued.

No problem! The second time the process went smoothly and after paying the visa fee, after maybe two minutes of waiting, I finally received the desired document.

After all this struggle, when the e-visa finally arrived, I honestly felt like a small victory. Bali had officially given me the green light!

4. Choosing a location in Bali

I could have flipped a coin, but I wanted to look around a little more. I don’t know why, but I chose Denpasar. It’s the capital of Bali province. The name of the city means “northern city.” I’ll tell you the rest when I get there.

I’m going to live here. The marker shows my accommodation.

5. Accommodation in Bali

I booked my accommodation on Booking. I had to make a lot of choices because the city is big (650,000 people live there). I wanted accommodation that was close to the sea. Wifi was also important. So I chose this accommodation.

Booking was so smart that after my multiple purchases, I got a free taxi from the airport to the accommodation. The hotel is only 5 km from the airport, which I usually do on foot, getting to know the city. But this time I gladly accepted the taxi.

As a special request, I asked the taxi company to have the driver wait with a sign that says STEVE. Jesus! Well, we’ve made it to this point! I’ve only seen this in movies…

6. Buy a flight ticket to Thailand

Since there are two digital nomad events here in Asia that I want to attend, I had to pull myself together to plan ahead. Bring on the spontaneous digital nomad life!

This is the program I planned until March:

With this table, I was able to accurately define how long I can stay in Indonesia, when I need to be back in Thailand, and how I will be able to go to Vietnam. Plus, I don’t have to think about the settlement during my next visit to Thailand and Vietnam!

From Bali, I will be coming back to Thailand, Chiang Mai, Thailand, on the first Monday of next year, on three flights.

There is an interesting thing about the first flight. The flight leaves at 10:35 and arrives at 10:35. This is not because it travels at the speed of light, but because I will be traveling back one time zone.

By the way, since Hungary switched to winter time, and Thailand does not have such a thing, I am now +6 hours away in the far distance instead of +5 hours. In Indonesia, it will be +7 hours.

As I look at the schedule, I feel: this trip will not only take me to Bali, but also to a new chapter.

The post 159. | Bali, I’m coming! first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

Bali

Koh Samui airport is one of the most expensive airports in Thailand. There are a number of reasons for this, including the monopoly of Bangkok Airways, the short runway that limits the types of aircraft that can land and take off here, the high demand created by tourism, and finally the high airport fees and operating costs for the extra profit.

Therefore, I will not be leaving Koh Samui from the airport here, but from a port. I will be crossing to the mainland by boat, where I will take a bus to the city of Surat Thani. My flight will depart from there. I have not yet organized how I will get here, but I still have plenty of time.

The schedule is as follows:

7:45 ​​- 9:00 Surat Thani, Bangkok flight (1:15 flight)
9:00 – 1:25 PM waiting at Bangkok airport (4:25 waiting and check-in)
1:25 – 6:40 PM Bangkok – Bali flight (4:15 flight, because there is a time zone change here.)

I mean, this was the schedule. A few hours after I bought the tickets, I received a notification about the change. So this is what awaits me now:

7:45 ​​- 9:00 Surat Thani, Bangkok flight (1:15 flight)
9:00 – 12:10 waiting at Bangkok airport (27:10 waiting and check-in)
12:10 – 17:30 Bangkok – Bali flight (4:20 flight, because there is a time zone change here.)

The attentive observer may notice that the flight time of the second flight increased by 5 minutes. Oh, and by the way, the time spent in Bangkok also increased by about 23 hours.

I certainly could have canceled or changed the flight ticket, but after a short thought I decided to go with the flow here too. If for some reason I have more than one day in Hong Kong, so be it. As I got to this point in the writing, I booked a cheap room not far from the airport. I didn’t see anything else from Bangkok except the airport this way. At least now I’ll have time to look around this tiny town.

I don’t know where I’ll be living in Bali yet, but that will become clear soon.

The supplementary Thai visa

This part of the story is more like a horror story.

I have already used this procedure to enter Hungary once, and almost did so at the Bangkok airport.

This time I was more careful, so I read the information about Thailand on the official website of the Hungarian Consular Service. According to it, “in the case of a stay of up to 60 days: a Hungarian citizen (tourism, business purposes, occasional short-term employment) can stay in Thailand without a visa for 60 days after arriving by air, land or sea. It will no longer be necessary to extend the stay here for 30 days, but within 60 days, it will be necessary to extend the stay here once for 30 days at the Immigration Office. After leaving and re-entering the country (visa run), they can stay in Thailand for another 60 days.”

In addition, there was a sentence that made sense to me while writing this post: “Starting from October 8, 2024, Hungarian citizens will be able to submit their long-term visa applications electronically in the renewed Thai e-Visa system, they do not need to visit the competent Thai embassy in person.”

Mea culpa! The long-term visa application is very important here. I – naively – thought that I could arrange this 30-day extension online. This mistake ended up wasting almost two hours of my life. Along with my 35 EUR. I had a lot of difficulty filling out the visa application, uploading the appropriate(?) documents and paying the visa application fee. So I got much further than last time.

Very soon I received an email from Budapest, from which I learned that I had filled out the application incorrectly, the letter “á” was missing from István. Great. However, from the following email exchange I learned that I had to arrange the 30-day stay here at the immigration office. Bring on the digital life!

In the afternoon, at the evening of the Critical Thinkers Society, I told the Hungarian man and his partner how much I had suffered with the visa issue during the day and how I could not solve the problem. But I also told him that I would do everything and then I would stay here illegally for the rest of my time.

At that time, they asked me not to take this matter so lightly. The authorities have been acting with increased severity in the visa issue recently. So, I can expect that for every day I overstay, I will have to pay a fine of 500 BHT, and it is also quite possible that I will be banned from the country forever.

I looked into the reason for this strictness recently, because I hear and see that the authorities are working hard in the area in all kinds of organized actions, the results of which are bank account freezes, business closures and arrests.

The background to the strictness regarding visas is tourism and construction abuses, international pressure and security policy considerations, the expectation of compliance with the rules and finally tax and economic considerations. Many people come here with inappropriate intentions, as a result of which everything is checked more strictly.

With this information, my Thai lady friend organized a meeting for me at the immigration office for Friday.

She took me there on her motorbike and introduced me to a very good friend. I definitely needed this help with the paperwork. The office and its surroundings were bustling with people – apparently tourists – who were also standing in a long line to get close to the office.

I didn’t stand in line, I felt like a VIP again. True, this had a price. I quickly received information about my options. I could stand in line for 1,900 BHT, but for 3,000 they would process my application faster. In addition, after I had already handed over my passport, we were quickly confronted with the fact that I had already overstayed for three days, so I had to pay 1,500 BHT as a penalty in addition to the previous 3,000 BHT.

In return, I received 3 ID photos at the end of the procedure, I didn’t have to stand in line, I just had to sign a bunch of documents written in Thai. I could go back on Monday to get my passport and visa.

So, if you want to get a visa, buckle up, find a local you trust, and trust that everything will be fine. I can finally feel the experience of being here legally again. Theoretically, after this, I wouldn’t even have to leave the country on the 21st. Which became the 22nd because of the above flight ticket scam. But since I have the ticket, there’s no going back.

I’m really just hoping that my 3-day overstay will turn the extra 30 days into 24, and not 21. Because if I get a visa by the 21st, I suspect I’ll be fined again when I leave on the 22nd.

I’m trusting in the flow!

The post 152. | I bought my plane ticket – next act first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

What if the “What if…” tsunami starts?

“What if I run out of money?” “What if I get sick?” “What if I don’t get along with people?” These and similar questions often arose in my mind. Oh! No. Stop! Back!

These questions did not arise in my mind. In my article “Missing post: Who am I and who do I want to be?” I already touched on this topic with this thought: “Before my own – physical – departure, it was already a bit burdensome for me that quite a few people I spoke to tried to wrap their own chains around me.”

“The decision” came to me quite quickly with the new life, with the creation of a path to follow a dream. With that – and ever since – I believe that I placed it on a fairly solid foundation. Anyone who was with me during my last nine months in Hungary could see that there was not much doubt in my mind that I would, could and dare to do what I had decided. At least I see myself as not putting obstacles in my own path after my decision. I did not look for loopholes or temporary solutions. I simply did not bring up the questions “why not?”, but the topics “how?”, “when?”, “how much?”, etc.

I have no bad feelings towards those who tried to answer these questions for themselves through me. Therefore, if you know yourself, do not feel bad! I simply acknowledged that for those who do not get along with people, this is a legitimate fear. And they ask me the question: “What if you don’t get along with people?” The really difficult part was when I told them that I wasn’t at all afraid that I wouldn’t get along with people, and my conversation partner didn’t hear my answer, but answered based on his own fear. That’s not a problem, I think many of us are like that in many situations. Maybe I just didn’t want to carry other people’s burdens anymore in the end. Especially since my soul became lighter and lighter.

But, we all think differently.

And this article is not just about me, but about my traveling companion who is starting his journey. So, what if the rock comes rolling in and covers the path in front of you?

How do these questions start to appear? Either way, one thing is important: these questions are not enemies, but it is also important how we deal with them?

We are marching towards a new life. Inevitably, fears of the unknown begin to work. Somehow, those stones can start rolling in as obstacles on our own path. The goal, of course, is to have no obstacles on our own path. But if you ask yourself the question that starts with the words “What if…”, take them seriously. The question that arises from your own fear is important to you.

I will give you an example. When someone asked me if I was not afraid of loneliness, I said no. I justified it by saying that I was never afraid of this in a basic situation, but I dealt with it and wrote about it in connection with this trip. I am absolutely sure that I am not afraid of this. However, since this question arose in the other party, it is his duty to think about this question. This is what I meant when I said earlier that it is not unimportant how we deal with these questions. The questioner has several options available to him regarding this specific fear. For example, he can tell himself “yes, I am afraid of loneliness, but nevertheless I will go and do this and that so that there will be no problems.” Or, for example, he can say “I am afraid of this, but my fears are probably unfounded, since I can talk to my loved ones at any time on Messenger.” He probably cannot do anything but not deal with this question.

So I think about this question that every single “What if…” type question is worth examining. First, let’s see if this is our own question or someone else’s. Then give ourselves a reassuring answer. If we end up with too many questions that we don’t have a reassuring answer to, then let’s think about the timeliness of our departure.

Anxiety: when the future seems like a threat

I also had a period in my life when I was anxious. In both cases, I received external help to make this feeling work. And indeed, in both cases, the future seemed threatening.

In the case of a lifestyle change, I think it is completely natural for some anxiety to arise, since it is the future that is being transformed, and along with this, there are those who are more sensitive to uncertainty. Of course, this is just a theoretical approach, perhaps it is not even interesting how well-founded the anxiety is or is not.

If there is, it should definitely be addressed! What physical and mental symptoms does it cause? How do these questions color every decision? For example, in the form of procrastination or overplanning.

What solutions can there be?

Reframing the issues: opportunity instead of fear

Reframing is a cognitive-psychological technique that involves placing a situation or idea in a different frame of reference, thus changing its meaning and emotional impact. When we reframe, we do not deny the facts, but we modify the emphasis and perspective. For example, instead of “failure,” we view an event as a “learning opportunity.” This often reduces anxiety, increases resilience, and opens up new behavioral possibilities.

That is, which “what if…?” questions can I turn into useful ones?

Instead of “What if I get sick?”, “What insurance plan do I have?”
Instead of “What if I can’t find a community?”, “Where can I build relationships now?”

The difference between the two approaches is whether I run away from fear or prepare for likely scenarios?

Planning: the reassuring clarity of reason

It is worth looking at the advantages and disadvantages of the design in relation to the following issues:

• When does planning help, and when does it become overcontrol?
• Tools that help: list writing, emergency scenarios, advice from experienced nomads, etc.
• The goal of conscious planning is to create peace, not to control the uncontrollable.

My own experience shows that there are things that I have planned very well. There are also things that I have planned badly. And there are already things that I would never have thought of. And how many more such variations will there be?

So it is worth and necessary to plan. A lot. But in no case should you wait until every idea is ironed out. Overthinking also hinders your journey! If you plan to leave when you are prepared for everything, I have the reassuring thought that you will never leave.

All the more so because the sibling of “what if…” thoughts is “then if…”

Voltak -e nekem “Mi van, ha…” kérdéseim?

I had questions like that, but I don’t remember asking myself any. People around me helped me with this. I tried to collect a few and supplement them with my own answers.

• What if you get homesick? I won’t.
  What if you fail? There is no failure here. I won when I left.
  What if I have to come home? I will come home and I will be home.
  What if it doesn’t work out in any other country? Then it turned out that Hungary is for me. I want to live where it’s best for me. In this case, I will live here.
  What if I get a culture shock? I’m not afraid of that.
  What if I can’t find stable internet? I’ll be in trouble, I have to go somewhere else.
  What if I burn out? What if I burn out at home? It doesn’t matter, it can happen at home too.
  What if your favorite online services are blocked? Maybe a VPN will help.
  What if you don’t have proper insurance? I can’t imagine that.

Making peace with uncertainty

I think that by becoming aware of a few points, you can become quite good friends with uncertainty.

• There is no such thing as 100% preparation, and that’s fine!
• The “What if…?” questions remain, but they are no longer the driving force.
• Accepting that life is never a finished plan, but a story in motion can be the grand prize (not an easy task!).

The post 131. | What if…? – Anxiety vs. Planning first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

• I did
• it turned out completely differently
• was not in the plans at all.

It’s a bit like a list. A future digital nomad might like this format.

License and vaccinations

I have described these events in detail in my previous articles “Missing post: International driving license” and “Missing post: The vaccines.” Both of these are built around the idea of ​​“trying it safe.”

Insurance

In my posts “Who won the insurance competition?” and “Insurance survival package for digital nomads,” I described the search method and the steps for choosing an insurance company. So, I didn’t really have much to do other than conclude an agreement with the given company based on the preliminary information.

At the request of a friend, I visited a lady at a travel agency, with the intention of helping her solve her IT problem. You know, my friend’s friend is also my friend. I went to the office, even though I had already told my friend about the problem and that it was not my desk. Even though it was an IT problem.

Here I need to make a short digression, which has been an element of my professional credo that has been recurring for many years. It’s a strange duality of life that in the case of certain professions, almost everyone can draw clear boundaries around specialized areas. For example, people rarely go to their family doctor or cardiologist with a toothache. Or, say, you don’t order stew with noodles at McDonald’s. Well, there are people who make this joke, and a more experienced bartender will probably smile at it and say to himself that this was the twentieth guy today who found this funny.

So – I’ll tell you – there are areas of IT that I have no idea about. If I want to be really precise, I have to say that there are many times more areas of IT that I don’t understand or have never heard of than those that I do.
Nevertheless, conversations such as:

• Could you set this or that for me?
• I’m not familiar with it, it’s not my area.
• Well, you’re so clever, I’m sure you can do it.

Or:

• What kind of laptop should I buy, what do you recommend?
• I’m not good at it, unfortunately I can’t help you. I always ask one of my friends what to buy.
• You’re an IT guy, how come you don’t know anything about laptops?
• Let me ask you something? Do you drive a car?
• Yes.
• And can you fix its engine if it breaks down?
• No!
• Now, do you understand?

This long meditation is interesting from an insurance perspective because I went to a place for my friend’s sake, where I knew I wouldn’t know what to do, and the only thing I could do to help was to recommend someone instead of me. That’s something…

I even got mine there. The lady’s habit was, let’s say, quite dominant. We talked, and after a few topics I was a little afraid of whether there was anything I did right about the trip. Here are some examples of the exchange of thoughts:

• I’m moving to Thailand, I already have my plane ticket.
• Did you buy it from us? Why not?

• I was on a cruise?
• Why didn’t you pay for it from us? How much did you buy the ticket? That’s a lot…

• Do you have insurance yet?
• I haven’t taken it out yet, but I’ve already chosen it.
• What company?
• American. Made specifically for digital nomads.
• It won’t be good! It won’t pay!

Finally, we have reached the point. I can say, the solution. I did not refuse the lady to even start the conversation, because I had already made up my mind. I was also curious about what she could offer. I wrote in the posts that I was looking for Hungarian insurance, but I could not find it.

The lady told me a lot about the insurance structure, and also gave me offline information material. I finally reviewed these the day before departure. It is about the Atlasz Privileg annual pass insurance. I wanted to put a link here so that you would not have to search for it. But, as insurance and financial companies make sure that they publish the data in accordance with the legal obligation, but that it is not easy to find – I did not find a direct link in the first few search results, so I gave up.

This insurance offers a certain amount of money for every problem and costs a third of the SafetyWing I chose. This was a convincing enough argument to change my plan on my last day and take out this insurance.

I understood then why I had to go to the travel agency. The then unclear intention revealed itself by the end of the day…

Visa

About two weeks before departure, I applied for a Thai visa. Everything was prepared for this. Compared to the possibilities.

At that time, I had been waiting for a response to an email from the embassy for a few weeks. It still hasn’t arrived. So, before submitting the application, I called the lady at the embassy, ​​with whom I had already had a brief correspondence. On the third call, I was finally able to speak to her, but somehow I felt that she was not helpful, as if I had bothered her.

I had two questions that I ultimately did not receive an answer to, and the lady ended the conversation by saying that if I had written her an email, it would definitely tell me where to apply for the visa. It wasn’t there. I had a hard time finding the page and filling it out.

This is not an easy feat. Another thing is that when asked how you are coming, you choose to fly and then give the flight number. But at the same time, they ask when I am leaving and which plane. Fuck. Well, how could I know this three months in advance?

For the accommodation – which I hadn’t even booked yet – I specified that it was Airbnb. I didn’t know more about it at the time. After that, it was difficult to fill in the exact address field and the host’s Thai phone number.

Then there was the problem that the destination area didn’t have Koh Samui. I was going there, but it wasn’t possible to select it from the list.

I had to bother ChatGPT quite a bit before I found out that the administratively the place where I would be living looked like this:

• Country: Thailand
• Province: Surat Thani
• District: Ko Samui (Amphoe Ko Samui)

Now hold on tight, because after you select Surat Thani Province, the next option you’ll see is Ko Samui District, you’ll also need to select the sub-district:

Koh Samui’s 7 sub-districts (tambon):

• Ang Thong (อางทอง) – This is where Nathon, the island’s administrative center and main ferry port is located.
• Lipa Noi (ลิพานนี) – West coast, quiet beaches, mainly locals and long-term residents.
• Taling Ngam (ติงกานทอง) – Southwestern part, jungle, mountainous, less developed – there are also luxury villas here.
• Na Mueang (หนังมือง) – Central-southern area, here you can find the famous Na Muang waterfall, animal parks.
• Maret (มะร์็ต) – Here you can find Lamai Beach, the second largest resort area after Chaweng.
• Bo Phut (บุบผุด) Large sub-district, includes:
  • Chaweng (most popular tourist center)
  • Fisherman’s Village
  • Bangrak (Big Buddha)
• Mae Nam (มี่มี่มี) – North coast, long beach, family-friendly, quieter zone.

If you ask me where I live now, I can tell you that

In the large sub-district of Bo Phut, Ko Samui district, Surat Thani province, Thailand, near Fisherman’s Village.

After filling out my visa application, which I didn’t think was very complicated, I waited. I’ve been waiting for an answer ever since. Two weeks later, my application wasn’t even there on the website.

Well, I had to fill out this form at the airport, as mentioned in the post “My first long flight”. Luckily, I had an official help me, because I would have bled to death there with the public space. Especially since I didn’t have internet at the time. My statement that I didn’t have an outbound flight ticket also made him uneasy. When I said I’ll go and ask, I started to get a little nervous that I would be kicked out of the country before I even got in. We cut the Gordian knot by entering the flight number of the incoming flight in the appropriate field, based on his advice.

Now I’m here and I don’t have a visa. I don’t think this will bother anyone for three months. Especially not me. Then I’ll go to another country, and I’ll be more careful with the visa issue there. I know from ChatGPT what kind of punishment I can expect in terms of the visa issue, so I’m curious to see what happens to me when I leave here. I’m hoping that this won’t be my first prison experience.

Cash

I didn’t bring any Thai baht with me. I don’t think I’ll change any more. A bank card is fine until the airport. I’ll exchange the cash in the country.

I came here with a few dollars that my younger brother gave me. I’ll keep this habit. Dollars are probably good everywhere for a few small things. Taxi, a meal, etc.

Here I solve the cash issue by transferring dollars from my Hungarian forint account to my Wise account and using this card to withdraw Thai money from the ATM. As an interesting idea, I’m going to try withdrawing cash from my Hungarian card. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Internet

Because of the first unpleasant experiences, I say that I will not do this again, as I did now. It is not good to roam without internet.

I found out on board the Nomad Cruise that my phone was already eSIM capable, it cannot operate an eSIM and a physical SIM at the same time. The free eSIM solution I received on the ship also did not work.

When I got here, I bought a small package for a dollar, but it did not work either. With this problem, things became worrying, because it became questionable whether my phone would be able to serve me in the future.

Fortunately, I found a solution. In the case of eSIM, you also have to (!) set the roaming option, otherwise it will never work. And as a second piece of luck, I found an eSIM provider whose packages are very well priced and their service covers almost all countries. I recommend the Jetpac International Travel eSIM provider.

Medicines

During my last visit to the vaccination center, I received my so-called travel pharmacy list. Based on these, I bought a few medicines on my last day. I know there is a pharmacy here too, and as I already wrote, I was in one. The doctor’s argument was that by the time I get to know the active ingredients and names here, I might have a problem.

I don’t regret this preparation, even though AI could certainly help effectively. If something were to happen, I wouldn’t have to go to the pharmacy.

The things I’m taking

Back in mid-January, I created an Excel spreadsheet called “What I’m taking with me.” Well, I didn’t open it when I started packing. I think the planning was in vain, because by the time I got to the point where I started packing in the last few hours, I already had exactly what I was taking with me in my head. I wrote about this in my post “I set off and arrived.”

Car sales

I still don’t have a solution to this question. Because no one wanted to buy my car. I went to a car dealer about a month before departure. He was honest with me, and for that I am grateful to him. He told me to sell it online, not to bring it to them, they sell everything there too.

He also said that summer is disastrous for car sales. The market starts after August 20, and the grass doesn’t grow until then. On his advice, I removed the ad from all pages. I wanted to upload it before departure, but it didn’t fit in the last few days.

However, we did the paperwork on the last evening with my younger brother. I signed quite a few contracts, plus a power of attorney so that he could act on my behalf.

I made the new ad here, in Koh Samui, after my brother once again transformed the vehicle into a beautiful new car. Thank you, once again!

Making a car ad to a high standard is quite a time-consuming process. I ran into him twice before we got to the point where I posted the ad and paid for the appropriate advertising package. Then 15 minutes later I received a message from the system that I had been deleted from the system because I had violated the rules. They pointed out that an advertiser can only have one free ad at a time. I asked them what the problem was then, since my ad is not free and I am not selling multiple cars. Hats off to the customer service, because they responded very quickly. We clarified that the problem was that I had given my brother’s phone number as contact information. And he happened to be selling one of his cars at the time. The kind help then solved the problem: I gave another phone number and they quickly restored the ad.

Since then, there have been two interested parties, in the usual Marketplace format. I show the dialogues:

• Kilometer????
• 280503

There are a lot of answers that come to mind, starting with the fact that the kilometer is an SI unit of measurement (no, I didn’t make it up), or that it’s in the description, read it.

The other dialogue was similarly brief, but a bit more civilized:

• Hi. Km?
• Good morning! 280503 km

Many of the literary paraphernalia are missing, but for years I have been smiling at these simple forms.

Let me quote here the short dialogues of two of my sales for the sake of nostalgia.

We sold a family house. This short was born:

• How is the condition of the product?
• Very good.

In another case, the creature inquired about a phone number (marked as available). The number spoken in the conversation was approximately half the selling price.

• Do you still have this?
• Yes.
• 40,000?
• No.

Despite previous adventures, I am excitedly awaiting the honorable appearance of the car’s next owner.

Farewell party

I didn’t plan this. My younger brother did.

The day before last, we had beer and made ourselves into corpses with a very delicious nail stew in cauldron.

Shortly before that, I made deer stew with two friends. One of my friends was my boss at my last job and the other friend was my colleague. The pot roast was made memorable by a portable guitar amplifier and some strumming, along with delicious whiskeys and good company.

In the last few days, a friend of mine slept over at my place so that we could spend one of our last evenings together and, as is our custom, talk a lot about the world.

During the last few days, my phone rang. Many of you wished me luck, success, and health. Some even jumped over on the last day to hug me and talk for half an hour.

My daughters and I arrived home from our joint vacation as a trio two days before I left. It was no coincidence that it turned out this way. In fact, the two of them set the date for my departure. When we talked about our joint vacation, it quickly turned out that they would only be able to go in August. If we had been able to go on vacation in June, I would have been living in Thailand for almost three months now.

I am proud of my daughters for many things. All I can say for this post is that it feels great that after so many trips together, they both organized a European trip for themselves for the first time this year, from flights, hotels, programs, which the two of them did every step of the way with their friends. Meanwhile, I remembered that I was wrong: this was not my older daughter’s first year of independent travel.

We also said goodbye to my parents with a few sentences, as we talked a lot about what this trip means. Obviously, there were difficult moments. But I am here, I am alive and we know about each other.

Back in May, I wrote in my post “The art of saying goodbye” that I believe there is no need to say goodbye to anyone.

Nevertheless, I am very grateful that my passing was commemorated in this way.

Soma as Aragorn

Before the trip, I created the Soma as Aragorn Messenger group. It’s a bold undertaking, because it brought together friends and family members with different habits. The purpose of the group is to be able to give a sign of life about myself in a relaxed setting. Since I’m lazy in this area, I thought this was the forum where I could post everything that was interesting and exciting. Or deep and quiet. Or whatever. And if I post something here, I don’t have to send anything to other places. The group seems like a good idea anyway. I’m grateful to you for being here with me!

The name of the group was born based on the following.

First of all, on August 2nd, I uploaded a video from years ago to my Youtube channel so that I could show it to someone. I don’t even understand why I didn’t upload it earlier.

This emblematic Hungarian rock song also contains some references to my life in its lyrics. Fortunately, the similarity is not nearly 100 percent.

I am not afraid as long as I live
Distances await
Cities, highway dust!
In sunlight, in harsh winter
Every day, every night
I wander, I never stop!

When I uploaded it, I recognized the similarity of a few lines to my own fate.

But who was Aragorn? He is one of the most important figures in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the heir of Isildur and the rightful heir to the throne of Gondor. For a long time, he was known by his pseudonym, the Wanderer, because he secretly traveled the paths of Middle-earth, was always on the road, and his task remained to protect the peoples of the world. The hobbits first encountered him as a mysterious stranger who appeared in the drinking holes and forests, but later it turned out that he was their wise and brave leader. Aragorn played a key role in the War of the Ring, where he proved his courage and the virtues worthy of his heritage. After the war, he was crowned king, and his rule brought a new era for Gondor and Arnor.

Even before the Lord of the Rings movies exploded, in 1999, I registered the email address aragorn@ with one of the free email providers that still operates today. If I’m feeling very sentimental, I can see in this registration that, well, I knew back then that I would be a wanderer. Of course, this wouldn’t be true, but let me imagine this version as an example of long-term “Synchronicity, coincidences, flow“.

I certainly won’t be a king on my journey. But I can still be brave. This week, two of my friends told me that they were extremely proud of me, one of them also added that it was because not many people do what I started. If I have the ability, I will show the way…

The post 126. | Missing post: The final practical steps first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

I already wrote about the schedule in previous posts, but here’s a reminder: I was at the vaccination center four times. The first time I got two shots, and the next three times I got four each time. I got everything in my shoulders, half and half.

After the first time, I didn’t feel anything. The doctor prepared me for the possibility of side effects, but fortunately there weren’t any.

A few days after the second time, I felt strange for a few hours, like someone who was just recovering from an illness. A few days after the third time, I was completely out of it for three-quarters of a day. I slept a lot.

I didn’t have the opportunity to do that after the fourth time, because my friend and I went straight from the vaccination center to the Tatra Mountains.

Mom asked me one time if the shots hurt. Of the 14 injections, there were two that I felt at all, not the prick, but the movement of the vaccine into my body. However, I said even then that the money I had to shell out for those 4 sessions and the 14 vaccines hurt much more than the pricking sensation. The total price of the little yellow book was 550 thousand HUF. I can say that I have never had such an expensive book.

In addition to the vaccinations I received for Asia, I requested one vaccination that would be exciting because of my other plans. I should add, because of my other plans that are not planned yet. The yellow fever vaccination is only interesting because of South America and Africa, but since I want to get there, I gave it to myself now. I can only afford that much luxury, right?

When I opened the booklet at home. I was disappointed. Yellow fever was not listed among the vaccinations. Even though I was sure that we had talked about it and asked for it to be administered. Then, when I digitized the booklet, fortunately it turned out that yellow fever was listed on a separate page.

The preliminary fears

The doctor prepared me for everything, especially diarrhea. I arrived prepared that I would definitely spend the first few weeks sitting on the toilet, because even a drop of water would kill me. I’m approaching my third week here and the curse hasn’t set in yet… Mosquitoes have certainly feasted on me, but so far there’s no sign of any infection. Maybe just the tiny skin infection mentioned in one of the posts, which disappeared almost immediately with the help of the ointment.

Despite this, I don’t regret having these vaccines in me. Consider this question carefully if you intend to live in a new environment.

Finally – as a deterrent – here is a list of the active ingredients.

The post 124. | Missing post: The vaccines first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

The problem was that I didn’t have an ID photo. The traditional one that a photographer takes, with four little Soma heads on it. When I first learned that such traditional, printed photos were needed, I didn’t understand the matter. Every office has a digital photo booth. This is where photos are taken for student ID cards, driving licenses, and passports, and I was curious as to why this camera couldn’t take a photo for an international driving permit.

After two and a half months, I got an answer to this question. I mean, I didn’t ask anyone the question, so no one could answer it, but while I was doing the paperwork, I figured out the solution. The international driving permit – contrary to my expectations – is not a regular plastic card the size of a bank card, but a paper booklet that you can hold in your hand, is unwieldy, cannot fit in your palm, cannot be put in your pocket – and is not practical at all in Hungarian. Based on the official-sounding formula, the international driving permit is an official translation of your Hungarian driving license, which allows you to drive in countries where the Hungarian driving license is not recognized or valid, especially in places that are not members of the European Economic Area (EEA) or have not joined the Vienna Convention on Road Transport.

Based on my preliminary research, I had an idea of ​​what this international driving permit was, but of course there were surprises at the office.

What did I know in advance?

Where do you not need an international driving permit? The Hungarian driving license is recognized as proof of driving rights in:

• EEA member states
• Countries that have joined the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic
• Based on a bilateral agreement in Japan and the Republic of Korea
• Great Britain

Just for the sake of order, I’m putting the countries here, next to each other, to take up less space. So, if you find the country you’re going to in the three lists below, don’t bother with the international document.

• EEA: EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland
• EU: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Netherlands, Croatia, Ireland, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Slovakia, Slovenia
• Countries that have joined the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic: Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Kingdom of Bahrain, Republic of Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Republic of Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Central African Republic, Republic of Cuba, Croatia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Republic of Iran, Israel, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic of Macedonia, Kingdom of Morocco, Moldova, Principality of Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Niger, Norway, Italy, Armenia, Pakistan, Republic of Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Seychelles, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Ivory Coast, Republic of Estonia, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Slovenia, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkey, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zimbabwe

Where do I need an international driving permit?

If you want to drive in a country that is not on the above lists, i.e. not a member of the EEA or the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, it is recommended to obtain an international driving permit. In most cases, it is not required, but it can be useful if it is, or it can be important for car rental, or in the event of a traffic offense or accident. Therefore, if the given country is not on the above lists, we definitely recommend that you check with the relevant country’s embassy before traveling abroad whether an international driving permit is required or not.

Validity of an international driving license

• The international driving license is only valid together with the Hungarian driving license.
• The driving license is suitable for proving driving rights abroad in those countries where the Hungarian driving license is recognized, and for proving identity domestically, according to our national rules.
• The validity period of the international driving license is the same as the health validity period indicated in the Hungarian driving license on which it was issued, but no more than three years from the date of issue of the international driving license.

What didn’t I know in advance?

I felt very prepared when I arrived at the office at the end of July. I had my ID photos (4 instead of 2), I had the money for the document and I knew what I wanted.

Until the lady in charge asked me what kind of international driving license I wanted?

I am never prepared for this question. What could I have said? That I would need such an official one. I asked her timidly, what would I be able to choose from if I had to choose!?

While the lady was talking and looking at something else, I asked AI: what kind of international driving licenses can be made in Hungary?

In Hungary, an international driving license is not a separate new license, but an International Driving Permit (IDP) issued to an existing, valid Hungarian driving license. This is an official translation that allows the international use of the Hungarian driving license in countries where it is requested.

Two types of international driving permits can be issued in Hungary:

• International driving permit according to Geneva Convention 949
  • The 1949 version is valid for 1 year.
  • It is used in countries that have signed the 1949 Convention (e.g. USA, Thailand).
• International driving permit according to Vienna Convention 1968
  • The 1968 version is valid until the expiry of the Hungarian driving permit, but for a maximum of 3 years.
  • Most European countries have signed this convention, as well as other countries, such as Ukraine and Russia.

Important: Not all countries accept one or the other version, so before traveling, it is worth checking which type the given destination country requires.

How interesting, isn’t it? It was not by chance that I was led into the forest in advance! The last part of the What I knew in advance paragraph deals with validity. I quote: “The validity period of an international driving permit … is a maximum of three years from the date of issue of the international driving permit.”

In other words, the results of the preliminary research all refer to driving permits issued under the Vienna Convention, and no one even mentions that there was a Geneva Convention.

For the sake of completeness, here is a list of countries that accept driving licenses issued under the Geneva Convention: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Taiwan, Colombia, Comoros, Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Ivory Coast, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, South Korea, Réunion, Rwanda, San Marino, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland (Eswatini), Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zimbabwe.

Seeing that one license is valid for 1 year and the other for 3 years, I was a little unsure whether I needed it at all. Then I thought that even if I don’t drive a car, I might drive a motorbike, so an official document wouldn’t hurt. After I decided to have one, I told the lady to please check which one is required for Thailand, because I’m going to live there.

Here came the second interesting thing. The lady asked if I wouldn’t take her in my suitcase too? She also has a great desire to live in a place like this. Then she started listing her “genders”, that is, why she doesn’t leave yet, despite the fact that it is her great desire.

I thought to myself that it would be easier if we did it officially, because this suitcase trip seems steep. While writing, I was looking for a picture for this, and to my shock, I found that in 2017 an English woman tried to enter Turkey in a suitcase. Let the picture of her and my nice and crisp international driving license issued under the Geneva Convention be the end of this article.

The post 122. | Missing post: International driving license first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

What’s so interesting about this post is that when I started writing, there were 59 days left. Today, there are only 43. A lot has happened in the time that has passed.

Last things – what else do I want to do at home!?

I have thought about saying goodbye in several of my articles, the most memorable for me are the posts titled “Butterfly or phoenix – a look back I.” and “The art of saying goodbye” I have a strong feeling that no one died, and that it is just a spatial displacement in the life of an ordinary person. So, there is no need to make a big deal out of the fact that I will fly away on August 22.

Still, I am receiving more and more messages like this one yesterday, which a friend of mine, who is also my teacher, sent me: “I really hope your life goes well!” My boss asked me last week whether I should or would have a goodbye at work. No, there won’t be. These messages show that goodbye is a two-fold thing. Maybe I won’t, I don’t want to say goodbye, but others want to say goodbye to me. We’ll see what tomorrow brings…

Ceremonial release – letters, farewells, photos, favorite places

Why is it important that I not only organize my trip and pack, but also live out my last weeks at home? Is it important at all? For me, I think it’s not important. I wrote these lines in a post titled “About my fears – Simon Sinek”:

Not so long ago, I said in a group that if I knew that I had 3 months left from today, I would not want to do anything differently in those 3 months than I have been doing so far. I would not immediately set off on a trip around the world, I would not pay for space travel (well, maybe). I would live the same as I have been doing so far. Then – since my boss was there – I added a sentence to this, turning to him: Well, I would not go to work in those three months.

I think – if I’m lucky – this part of my thinking will not change. I say this because I constantly have the feeling that I have a good life, that I don’t have to regret anything. If I don’t regret anything that happened or didn’t happen, then I don’t have to be afraid that something was left out. In other words, I know how to live my life according to the sentences above: when the end comes, there is no need to change anything. This is the reason why I hope that nothing will change this thinking. Because then the pain of loss would already be present, the series of things that were left out and suddenly have to be replaced.

The end of many thoughts is that if there is nothing to change in my life, then there is no need to ceremonially leave the stage. At least that is how it is written in me. Now. Maybe I wanted to at another time, and maybe I will need to say goodbye somewhere else.

I hope I have it in me to live my moments here, or anywhere else. I have improved in this in recent months, but I actually recognized this years ago and I am constantly working on myself. So there are no last weeks for me, no special moments to experience. I live and move forward. My mother has asked me many times on my birthday, “How does it feel?” I always told her that it was nothing special, it was like yesterday. How interesting that the description of these lines made me realize that my mother always asked me this way, literally “How does it feel?” But, the sentence never had a subject? If I transform the sentence to “How do you feel on your birthday?” then I can determine that I answered this question with “Nothing special.” On the other hand, if I transform the question to “How does it feel to exist on your birthday?” then I answered that it was like yesterday.

How does it feel to be home now, knowing that this will be “the last time” for a while? For the reasons above, this is not an exciting question for me. Its significance is almost nothing to me. Home is a special topic for me, as I wrote in my posts “My Roots” and “Home, Sweet Home”. Leaving my relationships at home is much more exciting. But with the help of digital communication, this leaving here is much less painful than if I really had to leave everyone here without being able to nurture and keep the relationship alive. The fact that I will not be here for a while also means that I will be somewhere else. Hopefully in different, exciting, beautiful places.

The goal is not closure, but a dignified farewell. Today, for example, “My friend, Pista” was here with me. When he left home, he said that he was a little disappointed that “I bought my plane ticket.” He hoped that there would be something that would still last here. Before he got into his car, he said he wouldn’t say goodbye. Because he doesn’t know if we’ll see each other again before I leave, but he’s sure we’ll see each other again. I think that’s the point… He thinks similarly to me: there’s no need for a big goodbye, we’ll see each other again.

List of recent things

I thought about what last things could happen, even to me. I also asked for the help of AI – Several things came up, so I tried to group the possible actions. And then answer the questions raised in a bit of an interview style.

Connection

• One last long conversation with your best friend – in person, not on chat
• A family dinner at your usual place
• A last walk down your favorite street in your hometown

I talk to someone every day. Today, for example, five people only called me in the afternoon and evening. My friend was here to give me an experience report. Or to have a good conversation. For each other’s company. I went to another friend’s. For the reasons above. When I got home, a new friend called me, whom I knew before the Nomad Cruise, back in Marseille. We chatted for half an hour. As soon as we finished, an old colleague of mine called me. Then another friend, very late. Almost every day is like this for me, especially lately. I don’t have a best friend. I have best friends, and very good friends. I will never know which of them will be the last conversation I have while I’m still living in this country. And I don’t need to know that.

The same is true with family dinners and lunches. One of them will be the last in my life at home. Maybe it’s different in one respect that if I know which one it will be, I will give it my full attention – because I know it’s the last time it happens. But a much simpler solution would be to give each of them my full attention.

I certainly won’t force the last walk. It seems too sentimental to me. I’m a sentimental person, but I’ve been paying attention to other areas of life for a long time.

Places

• A visit to your favorite café, bench, bookstore
• A night walk in the city – just for yourself
• Going up to the place where you decided to leave

These questions are not important to me. I feel like I don’t have any favorite places. There are nice places in my life, but they are nice because they are connected to someone’s memory, so I usually remember not the place, but the moment I spent there with someone. Of course, that someone could be me! Obviously, there are quite a few places where I was alone, and I connect to myself in those places.

I usually walk, without any intention, just for the joy of walking. I won’t walk because of saying goodbye.

I made my decision at the table where I am still sitting. At least in terms of appearances. If I want to be more honest with myself, the decision was made inside, and I am usually present there.

So I won’t be spending my last hours in a place. What would you do in this situation?

Ceremonies

• Planting a plant (or giving it to someone)
• Writing a letter to your “old self”
• Making a photo album – not for the internet, but for yourself

I have had rituals in my life. I mentioned this on this blog in my post “The decision” that “There were a few trees on my property, I planted them all. I said goodbye to each one with a word and a touch.” It was an instinctive ritual back then. I’ve been to funerals. Birthdays. Churches. Weddings. I’ve been to school graduations. I usually loved these rituals.

Now I feel like I don’t need anything like that. I haven’t been to my own apartment in months. If I’m going to go again, it will be for a reason other than saying goodbye.

Writing a letter to your old self is an interesting idea. In the post “On the way to my subconscious,” I wrote about “Rapid Transformational Therapy.” There I met my child self. I will think about writing a letter to my former self. However, since I think about my former actions and stories in a self-identical and peaceful way, and have already forgiven myself for being angry with my former self, I do not feel that this message is important on my own path. However, I will really think about it, and if I find even one reason why it could be interesting to me, I will do it.

What is not spectacular, but still important

• Packing up old diaries, objects – and deciding what you take “in your soul”
• Shared silence with someone you don’t even need to talk to

In my apartment – ​​which I don’t consider my own apartment anymore – everything is as it was when I left it last summer. My daughter is waiting to unpack my things. Obviously, it will happen at the right moment. Where I live now, I don’t have many objects. I don’t really have anything to pack. I think this is one of the cornerstones of this new life, by the way.

Shared silence, and silence in general…

I find it quite difficult, and anyone who knows me knows this for sure. There are situations when this is necessary, so of course I try harder. Anyway, I can speak for hours.

We have already been silent with the person we had to be silent with. There are moments in my life – especially in the last few weeks – when I can’t find the words at a given moment. But then it’s exactly right!

What I don’t want to regret missing

• Expressing love – even if it’s just in the form of a hug
• Thanking those who helped me get this far
• Say: “You matter to me” – where you’ve been putting it off

I don’t associate these thoughts with the fact that I’m going on a trip now. On the hike I described in my article “More important feedback,” my boyfriend and I talked tangentially and in very few words about the fact that this was our last hike together for who knows how long. We both knew and felt it, and when the feeling of this fact appeared between us, we both knew that it was there now. Yet we didn’t have to talk about it, precisely because the feeling was there.

I hope I’m like that with others. What needed to be said and when it needed to be said, has already been said – even several times. I am not a stranger to expressing gratitude, and – perhaps we all feel it, I avoid this topic so often – I don’t need to dress it up in pathos (anymore). I haven’t been a procrastinator in this area for a while now.

So these points are not important to me. But if I have missed something, so be it:

Dear everyone in my circle! I love you and you are important to me and I know that you love me and I am important to you! I am grateful to you for being a part of my life!

An interesting closing thought

I keep a quote from somewhere. I don’t know who said it, or whether it’s a real quote or someone just wrote it. For me, it becomes a quote, by an unknown author.

Farewell doesn’t mean that it won’t be there anymore. It means that I’m giving it my full attention now – because I know it’s happening for the last time.

I can agree with that. I’ve been avoiding this question all along. Everything that surrounds you is there. There’s no danger that it won’t be there anymore. Distances, shapes, frequencies, amplitudes, etc. change, but everything will be, or can still be.

I’ll keep my attention on things from now on.

The post 110. | Last hours first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

So I suggest that if you want to live abroad and haven’t done so yet, you should also think about whether to go for it or try it out first!

A week that is not a vacation, but a test run

I have written several times, and I have mentioned several times in the past that I am aware that I am not going on vacation to the other side of the world. I am simply moving my living space and my work area to a place where people prefer to go on vacation. In my opinion, this is very important to clarify. First of all, for myself, but also for my environment.

Several people asked me if I had been to Thailand before, and if I thought it would be a good idea to go there for a week or two first to try out what life is like there.

I do not feel it is important to move my life to another place as a test, because I know myself very well. I know exactly that whatever I will encounter in Thailand, I will enjoy my stay there. I know that it will be hot, the air is humid, basically a tropical climate that I have never experienced before, but despite this, I cannot really imagine giving up my stay there because of the heat. I was prepared for the loneliness, I was prepared for the isolation caused by foreign languages, etc. Since I want to be there, I will feel good there. And if it turns out that I was wrong, I’ll not afraid to admit it.

However, this is not the case with everyone. Everyone is flexible, resilient, and everyone sticks to what they want to achieve in different ways.

With different perspectives and different carrying capacities, it is worth thinking about the following questions:

• Will you try out the nomadic life or not before the “real departure”?
• Are you aware that the goal is not to relax, but to live a normal life in a different environment, with work and daily routine?
• Where would you go, under what circumstances (country, city, accommodation, timing)?

However, there are also factors of the trial trip that need to be looked at with a different eye.

Key components of nomadic living

I’m thinking of things that aren’t just a matter of whether I can tolerate it, like it, or if I don’t care about it. There are factors that have to be there, otherwise the nomadic lifestyle doesn’t work. Of course, there are things here where I can be flexible.

What am I thinking of?

1) Questions about working on the go

• How stable is the internet?
• How much can you focus in a given environment?
• What can work well, what will bother you?
• Coworking or working in a café or accommodation

A stable internet is essential in this working environment. I can’t be a digital nomad without a digital network! I started collecting experiences related to this during the Nomad Cruise.

I think the issue of focus and distracting circumstances is a multifaceted issue. On the one hand, there is the experience that the home office, which has become more and more common and experienced in recent years, will provide for all of us. Those who have not yet experienced what it means to work from home may need a test trip abroad to get some practice in this. Start!

What bothers you, what doesn’t? A good pair of headphones works wonders in blocking out distracting sounds from the outside world. Especially if your favorite relaxing music is also recorded on one of the surfaces. But if there are shootings and explosions in the street, for example, then this will not be enough. That is why, if possible, I will not go to work in a war environment. And in general, for any reason…

For those who may not have heard of it:

Coworking is a work environment where professionals from different backgrounds, often independent, entrepreneurs or small companies, work together in a shared office. These spaces offer flexible rental options and promote community relations and collaboration. The goal of coworking is to provide an inspiring, professional environment while supporting networking and knowledge sharing. It is especially popular among digital nomads and freelancers.

You should imagine working in a cafe as sitting down somewhere, buying something to give, not just receive, and working there for a few hours. There are places that really like it when you sit there as a digital nomad, but I’ve also met a place where they looked at me in a bad way after I’ve been sitting at a desk for an hour. There’s nothing more annoying than when they start letting me know it’s time to go. There are apps that give you information about places in a given city that love you. One such database is nomads.com.

Working from home also has its beauty. I really like working from home, in solitude. I think it’s likely that I’ll work from home at first. Especially if the diarrhea promised at the vaccination center comes true. Then I’ll move my desk in front of the toilet. After the initial period, I’ll look for a cafe, which could even be a bar. And, once I’m over that, I’ll look into the possibility of coworking, but that’s definitely not what I’m looking for at first.

2) Daily routine and schedule

• When do you get up, when do you work, how does your day go?
• What is missing from your usual environment?
• What is better here than at home?

If you don’t have a routine in these matters, then this lifestyle will certainly pose more challenges for you. If you have only worked as an employee, then you are used to when you have to get up, when you get home, you have a schedule. In the first period of entrepreneurial life – in my opinion – everyone struggles with having to get up due to different schedules, but they have to get up in the morning. Or they don’t get up, but then they know that they will continue working in the afternoon.

The question of the schedule is a bit similar to the question of whether during the Covid period, a person dressed “properly” for working from home, or spent their days at home in pajamas. A schedule is always needed!

For example, I work at home in underwear because I like it. I assume that it will be similar in Thailand, especially because of the temperature. I will change clothes on the way to the coffee shop. I will check out the coworking office to see how others use it. Maybe it also functions as a communal sauna.

For my part, I imagine that I will not miss anything from my home environment, based on what I wrote in my post “I live a minimalist life”. I have also thought a lot about the question “what is better anywhere else”. Since one of the bases of my decision falls precisely into this question, I do not expect to be disappointed wherever I am. There will be better and worse things everywhere. I do not even want to talk about the fact that finding a place is not my primary goal.

3) Testing your technical equipment

This is also an important question. But, you don’t necessarily have to go to the place where you’re going to live – especially not for a week. I was already able to test out my Vasco translator. The free eSim I got during the Nomad Cruise didn’t work. I didn’t have an internet solution on the ship, I was dependent on the official internet. I didn’t have the opportunity to plug my laptop into the outlet in Marseille. I did buy a converter, but I realized at home that it was the wrong one.

There are a lot of questions that may arise regarding technology.

For example, yesterday I saw a video in which I was warned – among other things – not to take a power bank to Thailand because I would get in trouble at the airport.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Personally, I – due to my flexibility, which I have already detailed many times – don’t think it’s important to have everything prepared in advance and then solve it on the spot. If this is not comfortable for you, it’s worth thinking about a trial trip.

Life in a new place – beyond comfort

The following questions arose in my mind regarding comfort:

• How will you cope with the language, culture, transportation?
• Food, shopping, cooking – will it be Menton or rather chaotic?
• Connecting with people – or will it be a lonely experience?

Anyone who likes to think ahead, take care of things, or perhaps worry in advance will certainly appreciate the above questions. All question marks, with uncertain, intuition-based answers.

For my part, these questions did not justify taking a test trip either.

Regarding language, I have the expectation that I will not be able to use my only foreign language without problems, English, unconditionally, but I trust Vasco. I am not worried about the food, especially since “The gastronomic revolution eluded me”. Connectivity is a current movement in my world, see my post “Nomad Cruise Summary”.

Surprises – good and bad

When I think about the new life, sometimes it occurs to me that it is worth developing a strategy for dealing with “surprises”. I am not writing about avoidance directly! Rather, I am writing about preparing for the fact that something bad, but otherwise common, will happen.

What do I mean?

• What is it that you did not expect? Can it teach you something?
• “Crash moment”? How will you handle it? What and who will you turn to?
• And success? Will you cope with it?

Once again! Here, the essence of thinking ahead is not avoidance, but damage mitigation. It could be environmental overload, disrupted sleep rhythm, diarrhea, sudden weight loss, weight gain. Depression, burnout. They get robbed. They lose something. Something gets ruined. An accident happens.

I am not sure that I am the best person at mapping out negative things in advance, because I usually look to the future with excessive optimism. You might need to find a really negative, pessimistic person and brainstorm possible problems with them. Once you have the problems, all you have to do is think of possible solutions and you’re done.

Or, read my previous posts and you’ll find some of the answers already ready.

Am I prepared?

Even without a trial trip, I have the thoughts in my head that I know I’m not ready – but I don’t have to be perfect, just be present. I’ve thought about what might happen, I’m prepared for what I’ve thought of so far. Not all of these things are perfectly worked out, but that doesn’t make me anxious. Finally, I’m aware that there will be things along the way that I didn’t think of. I’m friends with these thoughts! What do you think about your own journey?

As a final thought, I remember an interesting memory from when I was around 16. At the time, I told my grandfather that I wanted to have children when I knew all the answers to the questions about raising children. Then, as time went on, I realized that not only would I not know all the answers before my children were born, but I also couldn’t formulate most of the questions. By the time I actually had children, I knew that I wasn’t looking for questions and answers, I just had to be present. The right questions would arise along the way. And if I had the talent and luck, I would know the right answers at the right time.

The post 106. | Trial trip – should I or shouldn’t I? first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

It’s not (just) about a plane ticket

I’ve talked to many people about this lifestyle in the past six months. Many of my conversation partners are aware that living is cheaper in some countries, such as Thailand. That is, if I choose the country where I want to live properly, this lifestyle can be much cheaper than living in Hungary. However, switching to a digital nomad lifestyle comes with some costs, I can say that it is not free. Whether life is really cheaper elsewhere is still a question for me to discover. I have expectations in this regard, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Here and now I am considering the costs of preparation and not how much life costs elsewhere.

I find it important to explore this topic because I myself would like to know whether I am in a unique position to be able to prepare for this lifestyle change at all, or if anyone has the opportunity to do so.

How much is that?

I have an Excel spreadsheet. It lists all my income and expenses itemized. Since 1994.08.30. That is, the spreadsheet turned 30 last year. The data occupies 114,693 rows in the spreadsheet as of yesterday. In order to determine exactly how much money my preparation has cost me, I only had to do a relatively short analysis. The spreadsheet contains 1,445 rows since 2024.12.01, when I started preparing for the digital nomad lifestyle. It took me about 5 minutes to look through these few rows, and I was already able to select the 26 rows that contain the costs of my preparation so far – for my new life.

What do the numbers show?

I can show you what I have spent so far with a very simple spreadsheet.

It is immediately obvious that the largest portion of my expenses is the Nomad Cruise. We could argue whether this is absolutely necessary for the transition to a digital nomad lifestyle, but I do not consider this debate necessary. As I have written before – for example, in my post “The 14th Nomad Cruise is approaching” – the Nomad Cruise is an investment for me. But I am sure that someone can be a digital nomad even without this event. So I created a table that shows my expenses so far, excluding the Nomad Cruise costs.

In order to clearly see how much the preparation will cost, I still need to create a budget, where I supplement the actual costs so far with the expected costs. Here I calculated by taking into account the costs of the first month there, thinking that by the end of the first month I will already be living my new life. This is how Table 3 was prepared, which I think answers the question. What is the cost of transitioning to a new life?

Based on this, I can say that preparing for the digital nomad lifestyle costs me approximately 4.800 USD. Based on this, I think that not everyone can easily make this switch, but I can also add that it is certainly not an insurmountable obstacle for someone who is really serious about making the switch.

This statement can certainly be confirmed by the fact that, for example, if someone starts within Europe, they can save on the price of vaccinations. Also in this case, they do not need to take out insurance, which can also reduce their expenses. If they do not buy a translation machine or create a website, they can already significantly reduce their expenses. Table 4 shows a more pleasant, EU-based spending plan.

One thing that should not be forgotten is the issue of reserves. As I already wrote, for me this will be the income from the sale of my car.

If the first month or months of departure and stay are financially covered and I have a little bit of money in my pocket, plus I have a job or the prospect of working, I think I don’t have to worry about my near future.

Finally, it’s also worth taking stock of how many devices we have that we’ve had for a while, are still functional and will need on the road. In my case, these include, for example, the power bank, the laptop, the newly replaced phone, the software we’re already using, etc.

Since I – due to my own situation – don’t have to spend on everything, I’ve made a summary list of what expenses are worth thinking about when switching.

Cost ranges for creating a digital nomad lifestyle – major categories

• Administration, papers
  • Passport, visa, e-Residency, vaccinations
  • Insurance, TB settlement (exit, travel insurance)
• Technical equipment
  • Laptop, backup storage, VPN, headset, new mobile, adapters, eSIM, power bank
  • Cloud storage, password manager subscription
• Work and training
  • Online courses, courses, portfolio creation
  • Website, domain, hosting
• Travel, contingency costs
  • Airfare, first accommodation booking, living expenses 1–2 months in advance
  • Reserve: minimum 3 months of living expenses
• Closing costs
  • Termination of lease, sale or storage of furniture
  • Unexpected closing costs: car sale, contract termination

Tracking expenses

I have read in more than one book – whether it is about travel or general lifestyle – how important it is (would be) to store our expenses (and income) in an analytically detailed manner in order to protect our financial resources. I implemented this with my Excel spreadsheet mentioned above. Analytical detail means that I do not enter “Lidl purchase for HUF 25,346”, but I record every item in the block in the table. For example, I can say that I have spent HUF 681,249 on bread in the past 30 years, or that I have bought ear buds a total of 98 times during this period, for a total of HUF 22,695. These examples alone may induce the question “what is the point of this?”, but deeper analyses show much more interesting and usable information. For example, how the costs of operating a car change over the years, or what the specific costs of preparing for a digital nomad lifestyle are.

My own Excel spreadsheet has become what it is today as a result of 30 years of experience and development. This winter, on one of my hikes, I met a lady by chance, with whom we hung out for half a day. When this Excel spreadsheet came up by chance, she wasn’t that surprised that such a spreadsheet existed. She’s the only one I’ve ever met who reacted this way. Not by chance. As it turns out, she also has a similar spreadsheet, which is almost as long-lived as my spreadsheet.

So, even if you don’t have any plans to change your lifestyle, it’s still worth analyzing your expenses, because sometimes the numbers show surprising differences between your idea and reality.

I don’t know of any such applications, because I’ve never tried any. But after a little research, I recommend two English and two Hungarian language applications to get you started. They’re worth a try:

• YNAB
• Notion budget tracker
• BudgetBakers
• FastBudget

It is worth finding the most suitable application and starting to use it to track your expenses (and income), and sometimes analyze them!

What I don’t pay for in money

Spending money is a relatively simple thing: if I have it, I can spend it, if I don’t, I can’t. If I spend it, I can do it with or without reason. I can measure it or not. Despite all this, spending money is not a very complicated thing, and it is also easily measurable.

However, there are expenses that do not necessarily have to be paid for in money. What do I mean here?

• Lost job benefits, ceasing status (e.g. fixed salary, cafeteria items, company health insurance)
• Time that you could spend on other things: studying, searching, organizing
• Mental energy

For example, I left a well-paying middle management job so that I could start. I also had the cafeteria, company insurance, a stable, long-term predictable background. As you can read in the posts “The decision”, “Point of no return” and “I quit”, I had to think about this issue carefully, but from the first minute there was no doubt in my mind that I would pay this price.

The other price is the sale of my car (“I am selling my car”). No matter how you look at it, this is a ceasing status. Even though I really loved this car, it was not difficult at all to say that this step was also one of the prices to be paid for the sake of the goal.

The time

I can say that I have been busy preparing for the switch quite a lot in the past six months. But this time included my natural interest and the extra laps that came with it. And, to a large extent, writing this blog. If I try to estimate the absolutely necessary time, I think that it would take a few days of work – distributed over time – to prepare for the switch. I don’t just mean defining the tasks, along with spending time on their implementation.

This definitely includes – regardless of whether I write it down or not – carefully considering the framework. Lest I find out on the other side of the world that I am neither a minimalist nor do I like fried insects. I am thinking here of the posts “The decision”, “Preparing my environment”, “Setting the target date”, the most recent “The art of saying goodbye” and “Staying in touch”, and countless others.

I believe that before making such a major change – due to the nature of the weight of the change – you need to think a lot. After careful consideration, you can make a decision with a calm heart. I think I am good at this – in some areas of life. And in other areas I am trying to improve.

The energy

I have always tried to live in a way that I have free time in addition to my current work. I think I can proudly say that I have succeeded in most cases. I have a low need for sleep, I have quite a lot of internal energy and, as I wrote at the beginning, I have entered a state of “Synchronicity, coincidences, flow”.

So – although I have often felt exhausted during the past months – I have no reason to complain. But the fact is that I used more energy than usual to get through this preparation period. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to rest more. As I explained in my article “Freedom, selfish freedom”, as a single person I can make decisions with relatively more freedom.

Freedom has a price, but it’s worth it

A change of this magnitude costs money, but often not as much as we think. In my opinion, the real difficulty is not the money, but the decision. The price of leaving is not only a number that can be expressed in money, but also a change in perspective.  The question is not how much it costs to leave – but how much will it be worth if I finally leave!?

The post 92. | How much does it cost to switch to nomadic life? first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.

I won’t say goodbye, I’ll just be there differently.

I think I have emphasized countless times on this blog that I have very valuable relationships that are of fundamental importance in my life. I could also say that they are part of my world. Or, which sounds much more professional, they are the defining elements of my self-image.

I think this is no coincidence. The basic characteristics of my personality are friendly coexistence with others, empathy and strong extroversion. I strengthen this very strong foundation by devoting serious energy throughout my life to nurturing my relationships. I seek out, visit, call my friends, I am available to them almost at any time, and perhaps most importantly, I am generally attentive. I have long since come to terms with the fact that I get much less in return from some people than I put into a given relationship. This does not really matter to me, because we are not talking about a business opportunity. However, if someone tips the scales in an extreme way, I will not keep them in my relationships!

The essential element of my thoughts above was the expression “to be attentively present”. I think this means using the heart and mind in a family or friendship relationship. Visuality is also important – as a communication element – so it is good to see, and in some cases feel, the other person. But – in my opinion – distance is not important. If I want to pay attention to the other, I do not think that it is absolutely necessary to stand half a meter apart. How many relationships can be observed where the given parties are next to each other, yet far from each other…

I now dare to think that by being present in my relationships differently, no qualitative change will occur. I will pay attention to the other in the same way that they will have the opportunity to pay attention to me. I will give them the opportunity to pay attention to each other in the same way. I expect the other party to seek me out in the same way, and that is why I will let go of the relationship in the same way as before, if the scales tip.

The importance of time

Here I will allow myself a small insight into an important aspect of relationships, time. My sad experience is that many people voluntarily put themselves behind bars. For some reason, in the past few weeks, I have thought about the phenomenon that is causing me to look out now several times, and I have talked about it quite a few times in the past few days.

It is about the “right time” phenomenon. I have a friend who I recently called at the beginning of a given week after a two-year hiatus. His answer was something like this: “We can talk next week, I have a pretty busy week!” There is another who knew on Monday that he would not have time to talk that week. There are also those who use the “we can talk tomorrow” option regularly.

We all have a lot of programs and things to do. Those who know me better know that I am usually scheduled for weeks in advance. I run a household, go shopping, work, I have a thousand other things to do. Sometimes I am not available at that particular moment. I attend meetings, go to the gym, go hiking, relax, etc. But I can hardly imagine not being able to call someone back for 5 minutes on a given day. And especially not being in a “I can’t do it today, I’ll call you the day after tomorrow” situation.

People! What’s happening to us? Has everyone really become so busy that we can’t talk to each other for a few minutes? One of my friends and I have been spending an afternoon together every week for years. We usually walk and talk, but we often go archery, work out together, go to the sauna or do something completely different. We are talking about two extremely busy people, but we still found a way to make time for each other. I have a friend who has been calling me for years with regular 30-60 minute phone calls. Often at unexpected times. Yet I still have time for this form of communication. If someone calls me at a bad moment, I can offer them to continue the conversation that same day – even late at night. Or maybe we can start together the next day. I don’t want to judge other people’s busy schedules. I just thought that we are headed in the wrong direction if we don’t spend enough time nurturing our relationships.

For my part, I am sure that my good relationships are also due to the fact that I spend a lot of time and energy nurturing them.

Forms of contact

I currently keep in touch with others in several ways. There are some people I rarely talk to, but for longer periods. There are some people I meet regularly. I have many contacts with whom we run into each other from time to time and continue our conversations where we left off the previous time. There are some people I communicate with almost exclusively in writing. There are some people I call more often with a short call. I visit my parents regularly. When I lived in Győr, I also went to the hairdresser in Bábolna. Just so that I could go to them during my biweekly hairdresser visit. There are some people I keep in touch with via Messenger messages.

I currently use many forms of contact, and not everyone has physical contact. My conclusion for the future is that for some people, the form of communication will really not change even if I move further away in the world.

It makes sense that there will be quite a few relationships on the other side, the nature of which will fundamentally change. But based on the summary so far, I think that the current workable form of relationship will transform into a relationship state that has been proven to work elsewhere. The key to the solution – in my opinion – is adaptation.

Communication tools – technical side

A brief reflection on what they are for in practice:

• WhatsApp, Messenger: daily “good morning” messages, or sending quick pictures
• Zoom, Google Meet, Teams: deeper, planned conversations
• Email or voice message: longer thoughts, less often
• Blog, photo sharing: something like what you are reading now.

All of these forms are familiar to me, I can now say that I do not have a favorite form of them, I use all of them, based on the goals that suit me. In the future, there will probably be combined forms that I have not used before.

My friend mentioned earlier and I have been talking from the very first moment about continuing our usual weekly walk together by speaking with the help of a microphone and headphones during the conversation. Ko Samui is in a 5-hour time zone, which means that if we want to continue our walks together around 4 pm (Budapest time), then I will walk at 9 pm, say until 11 pm, while my friend will walk until 6 pm. I think it’s not impossible. But he will be able to adapt too.

Moreover, this very friend and I have experienced a few times in recent years that one of us is sick, or the weather is bad and we couldn’t meet. That’s why we have done it quite a few times, sitting in front of the computer – Sometimes we just talked. Sometimes we played cards and talked while we were there, and each of us had a beer in our hands. And it has also happened that we played board games on these semi-virtual occasions.

When?

I have no plans for this. And I feel like there is no need to plan. I will continue to nurture my relationships, as I have been doing so far. I expect the other side to nurture them as well. Let’s find each other. Any of my friends will be able to learn that if they call me at 7 pm, I may not answer, because it’s midnight and I’m sleeping. Just as I will learn that if I call my friend at 8 am, he won’t answer, because at 3 am he is still sleeping.

Months ago, my parents and I looked at how to schedule a Google Meet appointment in the calendar for a joint chat and how to use the microphone during the conversation. We will repeat it again.

New forms of connection – creative ideas

I did a little research on the topic and got quite a few ideas on what else can be invented in search of new forms of communication:

• Joint online games, watching movies (Netflix Party), cooking together via video
• Sending a postcard or surprise package (by mail or digitally)
• Sharing a “nomadic newsletter” only to your loved ones (1 email per month)

I’ve seen the first one with my daughters several times. It doesn’t seem bad, I haven’t tried it yet, but it could be exciting. You take a pack of chips with you, and I do the same, and we press the Netflix play button at the same time while we are online. A nomadic newsletter for the family is not a bad idea, we’ll see if I have the time, energy, and need for it besides the blog. It would be nice to avoid the situation in life where I post a blog post saying “I’m drinking coconut juice under a palm tree, everything is great” and then call someone sobbing and saying “this whole thing sucks.” So, if all goes well, everyone – who wants to – can know where and how I am.

Without further ado, I’ll share the forms suggested by my AI friend. If you feel like trying one of them with me, just let me know. If I have time today – and not next week – we’ll discuss the details.

• More personal digital connections
  • Send an audio diary: Sometimes you can tell about your experiences in the form of an audio message, which the other party can listen to at any time. (Like a mini-podcast just for
  • them.)
  • Shared digital diary (e.g. Google Docs): A shared diary where you both can write thoughts, feelings, experiences – sometimes even drawings or photos.
  • Shared online map with experiences: You share a map on which you place photos, experiences, small stories with the locations. They can also add their own memories or
  • questions.
• Creative or playful ideas
  • Online co-creation: Drawing together (e.g. Aggie.io), writing music together (Soundtrap), or even writing poetry taking turns.
  • Shared book club, just the two of you: You read something together and share your thoughts about it from time to time.
  • Digital treasure hunt: You create an online “treasure hunt” (e.g. based on Google Slides/Docs, with QR codes, links) that the other person has to solve.
• Caring gestures from a distance
  • Timed future messages: You can write emails or letters in advance that you will receive at a specific time (e.g. FutureMe.org).
  • “Nomad recipe exchange”: Every month you send each other a recipe that you will try, perhaps on a “taste of the country” theme.
  • Virtual hug package: You put together a “digital hug” – images, quotes, music, which you send in a link (e.g. Canva, Notion, Padlet).
• Easier, spontaneous connections
  • Send 1 photo a day: Of anything – your breakfast that day, a view, your face, an interesting street sign. Small things, but with a powerful impact.
  • “Today reminded me of you…” series: You send something (photo, sound, thought) that reminded you of someone that day.
  • Shared playlist: A Spotify playlist that you create together. It can also be by mood: “when I miss you”, “travel”, “Sunday morning”.

With the help of AI, I was able to present these ideas in a table format:

When will we meet?

An important question is when will we meet my family and friends.

First of all, there is the possibility that I will return to Hungary from time to time. I can say that I will return home, although this is a slightly euphemistic expression, because home, as I wrote earlier, is inside me. Although, when I come, I will bring what is inside me with me. I do not know yet how often and from where I will come home, this must be left to fate. I will come, I will be here for a while and then I will move on. Obviously, this is when I will have time to meet friends.

Many of my friends have already said that they will come and visit anywhere. I am happy to see everyone! Wherever I have a place to stay, any of my friends will have a place to stay there. Wherever I am, I will be happy to share what I have with you!

There are two exceptional people. I hope that I will have the opportunity to buy a plane ticket for my daughters so that we can spend some time together in some beautiful place in the world.

We’ll see about the rest!

What changes?

• Distance (incraseing)
• Time zone (initially +5 hours)
• Physical contact (ceases)

Okay, the third one is the real pain point. There will be no hugs. No kisses. No handshakes and fist bumps. We won’t smell each other’s hair and great perfumes. That’s a real pain point.

But, we can look each other in the eye. We can hear each other’s voice. We can laugh and cry together, just like we used to. We can argue, hurt each other, make up. We can eat together. Maybe we’ll even be able to go fishing with a camera and a monitor.

I didn’t feel like looking for a generic image for the post, so I asked ChatGPT: “I wrote a blog post on the topic. I attached this. Could you generate a 16:9 aspect ratio image for the post?” I decided that whatever the AI ​​generated, I would use it.

The post 91. | Staying in touch first appeared on Digital Nomad Blog.