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3 months in into a SE Asia digital nomad adventure here. Please provide: Predictably priced universal 4G plan that bills to my bank account. Biometric border

3 months in into a SE Asia digital nomad adventure here. Please provide: Predictably priced universal 4G plan that bills to my bank account. Biometric border control (leave passport at home) Clean, high quality scooter helmets rental (I'd pay premium for this) Bitcoin ATM to avoid local banks high fees (i.e. Thailand and Philippines ATMs charge foreign cards a lot) Plane-UberPool for small charter flights

stephenr 10y ago
If you can get a Thai postpaid sim, TrueMove H have decent price-capped roaming data charges for unlimited data. I've even used it to provide colleagues with wifi in LA & Melbourne on work trips. For the helmet surely you could take your own if you rent scooters that much?
- cuckcuckspruce 10y ago
  > For the helmet surely you could take your own if you rent scooters that much? If your normally traveling baggage is a backpack with laptop and a change of clothes then the scooter helmet quickly becomes a pain in the ass to lug around.
  - stephenr 10y ago
    Maybe the real key then is to make a more portable helmet. I just bought a stroller that folds up small enough to fit into my laptop bag.
    - cuckcuckspruce 10y ago
      That stroller isn't attempting to prevent traumatic brain injury, however. I have a feeling an effective, safe helmet, even one for a scooter, is going to require a certain level of bulk.
atmosx 10y ago
The problems mentioned can not be solved by means of software. They require extensive investment in infrastructure, management and willingness among states to cooperate. None of it is trivial.
lamby 10y ago
> Biometric border control (leave passport at home) What's the value here? You can't lose the passport?
webmaven 10y ago
> Predictably priced universal 4G plan that bills to my bank account. Check out Google's Project Fi: https://fi.google.com https://fi.google.com Here are their international rates: https://fi.google.com/about/rates/ https://fi.google.com/about/rates/
oliv__ 10y ago
I don't get why everyone who goes the "digital nomad" route ends up in SE Asia. God it's becoming painful at this point. Is the world not big enough? Can people not go their own ways?
- BjoernKW 10y ago
  SE Asia is a rather big place but I suppose it's a combination of: - low cost of living - pleasant climate - decent infrastructure - interesting, diverse culture - being generally welcoming to foreigners (to those with somewhat big pockets at least) You get some of those traits in many other non-South-East-Asian countries as well but all of them combined is a pretty rare occurrence.
  - victorhn 10y ago
    Pretty much most of Latin America satisfies all of this. I wonder why it is not more popular among nomads, maybe because fame of high rates of crime?
    - BjoernKW 10y ago
      That could be a reason. Linguistically at least Latin America should be much more accessible to most people.
    - wprapido 10y ago
      latin america has terrible crime rates. yet, there are decent digital nomad communities in mexico, colombia and argentina
      - mod 10y ago
        The digital community was lacking, but I spent time in Costa Rica and found it very safe, inviting, and beautiful. I was in a very small surf town on the Pacific coast with a strong ex-pat presence.
        10y ago
dayvough 10y ago
Check out coins.co.th or coins.ph. Create a local bank account and trade your BTC there.
sdtsui 10y ago
The BTC idea is actually something close to my heart. In a past life I played a lot of online poker, and was able to travel without any cash just by meeting fellow poker players and exchanging USD for cash at whatever the local rate was. There are definitely more developers than online poker players, so the liquidity of a peer-to-peer BTC (or other coin) forex marketplace would be high. Does something like this exist for remote workers?

stephenr 10y ago

If you can get a Thai postpaid sim, TrueMove H have decent price-capped roaming data charges for unlimited data. I've even used it to provide colleagues with wifi in LA & Melbourne on work trips. For the helmet surely you could take your own if you rent scooters that much?

cuckcuckspruce 10y ago
> For the helmet surely you could take your own if you rent scooters that much? If your normally traveling baggage is a backpack with laptop and a change of clothes then the scooter helmet quickly becomes a pain in the ass to lug around.
- stephenr 10y ago
  Maybe the real key then is to make a more portable helmet. I just bought a stroller that folds up small enough to fit into my laptop bag.
  - cuckcuckspruce 10y ago
    That stroller isn't attempting to prevent traumatic brain injury, however. I have a feeling an effective, safe helmet, even one for a scooter, is going to require a certain level of bulk.

atmosx 10y ago

The problems mentioned can not be solved by means of software. They require extensive investment in infrastructure, management and willingness among states to cooperate. None of it is trivial.

lamby 10y ago

> Biometric border control (leave passport at home) What's the value here? You can't lose the passport?

webmaven 10y ago

> Predictably priced universal 4G plan that bills to my bank account. Check out Google's Project Fi: https://fi.google.com https://fi.google.com Here are their international rates: https://fi.google.com/about/rates/ https://fi.google.com/about/rates/

oliv__ 10y ago

I don't get why everyone who goes the "digital nomad" route ends up in SE Asia. God it's becoming painful at this point. Is the world not big enough? Can people not go their own ways?

BjoernKW 10y ago
SE Asia is a rather big place but I suppose it's a combination of: - low cost of living - pleasant climate - decent infrastructure - interesting, diverse culture - being generally welcoming to foreigners (to those with somewhat big pockets at least) You get some of those traits in many other non-South-East-Asian countries as well but all of them combined is a pretty rare occurrence.
- victorhn 10y ago
  Pretty much most of Latin America satisfies all of this. I wonder why it is not more popular among nomads, maybe because fame of high rates of crime?
  - BjoernKW 10y ago
    That could be a reason. Linguistically at least Latin America should be much more accessible to most people.
  - wprapido 10y ago
    latin america has terrible crime rates. yet, there are decent digital nomad communities in mexico, colombia and argentina
    - mod 10y ago
      The digital community was lacking, but I spent time in Costa Rica and found it very safe, inviting, and beautiful. I was in a very small surf town on the Pacific coast with a strong ex-pat presence.
      - 10y ago

dayvough 10y ago

Check out coins.co.th or coins.ph. Create a local bank account and trade your BTC there.

sdtsui 10y ago

The BTC idea is actually something close to my heart. In a past life I played a lot of online poker, and was able to travel without any cash just by meeting fellow poker players and exchanging USD for cash at whatever the local rate was. There are definitely more developers than online poker players, so the liquidity of a peer-to-peer BTC (or other coin) forex marketplace would be high. Does something like this exist for remote workers?