Written by Sam
Becoming digital nomads has consisted of a lot of trial and error in finding what works for us. After over eight months together on the road, we have learned many valuable lessons. Read below about 10 major things we have learned as a couple since starting our digital nomad journey.
1. One Month Is Not Enough in Each Place
First things first, let’s talk about time. One of the biggest lessons we have learned from our experience is that one month isn’t long enough (especially in a city). A month seems like a long time if you’re in the travel mindset. However, you need enough time to feel settled in a place. We found that it can take a few weeks to find your groove in each new place.
Plus, housing is more expensive for shorter stays! During our first experience as digital nomads in Chiang Mai, Thailand, we found it difficult to find an apartment for one month at a reasonable rate. We ended up spending a price comparable to back home in the UK/US with a spacious but dimly lit apartment in Green Hill, Chiang Mai. It cost 22,500 baht (September 2023) – approximately 600 dollars. This is pricey, particularly for the area. We had read online that you could turn up to places and ask but most apartment complexes weren’t interested in people for only a month; they wanted rent for 3 or 6 months. Naturally, we are overcharged for staying only one month as well.
You may be thinking “Well, just get somewhere cheaper!” but this is where the learning came for us. We needed good stable wifi with a separate bedroom in a convenient location so we wouldn’t need to rely on motorbikes or Grabs. A separate one-bedroom apartment that wasn’t a studio was harder to find than we expected, but since we both teach online at the same time, this was non-negotiable for us. We needed to invest more in an apartment that was suitable for working.
This is when we discovered that we were neither backpacking nor being true expats, we are slow traveling.
So what is slow traveling?
We found this out by accident when we realized it would have been cheaper to backpack in hostels than try to find a semi-stable place to work. Our honest advice:
If you want to become a digital nomad and money is a concern for you, you should look for a location for 3 months minimum. This would give you time to build the stability you need at less extortionate rates.
2. Sports are a Great Way to Connect with People
Now, onto community. Sports have been a great chance to meet like-minded people. It is honestly true! I have made most of my friends by being brave and turning up to a sports practice or event. Since being in Argentina (our current location as of April 2024), I have started playing Rugby every Saturday. I am pretty hopeless but that doesn’t matter! I make up the numbers and everyone is playing for fun – not to mention the ache and great fit feeling to have the next day.
Also, I’m a huge badminton fanatic. I was a founding member of CIBA (Chengdu International Badminton Association) which started with me and a few teachers from EF and grew into an active and vibrant club. I would play two to three times weekly with the club and this was a great way to burn off some stress after a busy day.
Getting into sports is one of the easiest ways to make friends, especially if you meet up with other players before and after practice!
3. Be Present
Ah mindfulness – yes, this is cliché, but it cannot be overstated! We sometimes find ourselves getting so focused on the future that we forget to cherish the present. It is easy to forget why you started the path you are on in any walk of life but it is even easier to forget while traveling. With the constant change of scenery, your perceptions of life and people will inevitably change. This will have an impact on you in some way forever. When you return home, you won’t be the same. How much you have changed depends on you, but also just how much you immerse yourself in a different world.
Money can be tight for us, like for anyone, anywhere. Like any major decision in life, there are upsides and downsides. We both decided long ago that we would rather use our money to travel and live each day. If that means sometimes snacking on instant noodles and eating pasta for dinner, then so be it. We are still blessed to be here. We wrote part of this blog while sitting in an apartment in Montevideo, Uruguay. What a journey!
4. Things Aren’t As Cheap as You Think
Viewing prices as cheap, especially when coming from somewhere with higher prices like the US or UK, is normal. We’ve realized that talking this way about prices can be culturally insensitive. “Oh wow, that’s only equal to one dollar” is something we have both certainly said in the supermarket without thinking. We both have struggled to determine a reasonable price for the local economy. While it may seem great that a cocktail at a bar is only four dollars, we are probably being overcharged. And four dollars may not be cheap for the locals.
Our perspectives give us the ability to think: “Oh yes, I’ll pay that, that’s fine” and because of that, local people are being completely outpriced. We can travel and live but also contribute to the societies we live in by having a better understanding of other people’s daily lives.
Prices are of course different in every country we’ve visited. In Thailand, imported products/food were priced very reasonably, you might even say cheap or at least, cheap by our standards at home. Across the border into Vietnam, it was a different story entirely. Foreign goods were practically priced the same as at home, meaning that things were not cheaper at all! For local people, these prices are ludicrous. It is hard to imagine, but think of it this way: imagine that a bag of local coffee beans is 7 dollars but now your favorite imported coffee is 25 dollars a bag.
All of this being said, it is worth reiterating that we are still incredibly blessed as our money still goes a lot further than it does for the local people. Even when things are on par price-wise with things back home, we can still largely afford it.
5. We Are Neither Traveling nor Settling … We’re Somewhere In-Between
The topic of liminality is a topic worthy of a whole blog, but we’ll try to sum it up for you.
Liminality is like being on the top of a rollercoaster right before the drop; you’re waiting in anticipation of what’s going to happen while you’re about to take the plunge. That thrilling feeling is exhilarating, but it can be exhausting. So, we’ve had to learn ways to make this liminal space feel more comfortable.
If you have never traveled longer term before, this liminality might be unfamiliar to you. When we started digital nomading, we had both traveled and lived abroad before. These experiences, however, were different. Sam’s first traveling experience was essentially backpacking in Thailand while living off savings and staying at various hostels – a pretty common experience.
We were fully settled abroad in China during our 5 years spent there. We both had full-time jobs and could buy decorations for the home (such as cushions and pictures etc.) which made life feel more comfortable. What we discovered with digital nomading, however, is that life lies somewhere in the middle of these two experiences.
This liminality isn’t always easy. Living out of a suitcase as we move around the world slowly while trying to maintain whatever work we have. There is always a lot to worry about Wifi, separate working spaces, and affordability. We pay more than we would for a place to stay if we were backpacking but don’t have the stable income of a full-time job. The lack of stability that comes with living somewhere long-term means we can’t be as carefree as full-time travelers.
We sit somewhere in-between and we are learning to embrace the discomfort of liminality.
6. Navigating Different Languages Can Be Fun!
Learning languages isn’t easy. You don’t have to tell us that! When we arrived in China, we both knew no Chinese. One of the hardest things about character-based languages (Mandarin, Thai, Japanese, etc.) is that you can’t simply try to sound out words. We both speak English, French, and Mandarin. Sam knows German and we can both get by with Spanish. As a couple, we are probably above average in our knowledge of other languages and we still struggle.
Don’t let that stop you.
We are currently in Argentina and living in a Spanish-speaking environment is considerably less daunting than living in China. Even with hideous pronunciation, we can at least sound out the words in our attempt to communicate. In China, if we didn’t have pictures on a menu, it was either use a phone translator (fiddly and still not altogether accurate) or go on an adventure and see what you get! In truth, it can be embarrassing to be so obviously foreign but at least we always try. While in Argentina, we were both able to order coffee or food fully in Spanish, even with broken pronunciation. Most of the time there was minimal embarrassment/awkwardness and we could get what we wanted, even when our Spanish wasn’t perfect.
Ultimately, the language barrier is the biggest daily issue you will face as a digital nomad or a traveler. We are lucky that we can use apps to help us translate. It’s always better to make an effort and try, even if you hopelessly butcher what you’re trying to say. People are much more willing to help you when they see you are struggling.
7. The Community Is What You Make of It
The community we’ve found while traveling has been amazing! People tend to be curious, open, and adventurous! Traveling is such an awesome experience for this reason. As digital nomads, we’ve had to be intentional about trying to meet people. It’s not as easy compared to traveling while staying in a hostel.
It would probably be possible to forgo making meaningful human contact regularly since we are working from home. We’ve connected to the digital nomad and expat community through groups on Meetup and Facebook. We’ve been able to meet lots of cool people in Chiang Mai and Buenos Aires through these groups.
Learn about building community as a digital nomad here.
Like anywhere on the planet, good and bad things happen and it is important to have a community to share these experiences with. Get out there and meet people from countries you probably haven’t met people from before! We have been lucky enough to meet people from countless countries at this point and in general, people just want to have a good time. The more we travel, the more we realize that people around the world share so much in common.
8. Stability Is a Necessity
While spontaneity is part of the attraction of travel, stability is equally important. Our first few weeks in Thailand certainly seemed a lot like a vacation. With an active expat community, we could easily find something to do every day. This is certainly one of the benefits of being part of an expat community.
If you are staying longer, it will probably be unsustainable for your wallet and health to be busy socializing too much. From our experience, you inevitably start to settle in some way eventually, even if you don’t intend to. Traveling can be a very active lifestyle and can take a physical and mental toll over time. If you are 18 and reading this, scroll on. Stability may not be as essential to you as for people in our later years. That being said, it is worth recognizing that being in a very active and multicultural environment can be draining, regardless of how social you may or may not be.
If you intend to live abroad, you might appreciate some stability initially. Once you adapt and feel more settled then your comfort zone should grow. Be aware that you may encounter situations that you’ve never encountered at home. We found that investing in a few comforts such as candles or good coffee can help us feel more at home. Making sure to prioritize self-care through healthy eating and working out has also helped us to feel more balanced.
9. There Isn’t Always Freedom in Freelancing
Freelancing offers flexibility, but it also comes with its challenges. When we began our digital nomad journey, Catherine came upon the freelancing platform known as Upwork. Upwork is a legitimate and widely-respected platform for online freelancing work that connects freelancers with clients around the world. This was an exciting way to begin our time as digital nomads, however, nothing in life is as easy as it seems.
Catherine and I have both had a few interesting experiences with freelancing. I took on a job to create a brief infomercial (just two to three minutes in length) demonstrating an online course-selling platform. 200 dollars was offered for the job after meeting the company owner. Sounds quite good right? Well, I had a steep learning curve.
Freelancing has been a great way to start building our skills and make some money on the side. We’d recommend giving it a go, but to save yourself some stress and pressure, do it as a side hustle before diving head-first into the deep end.
It takes time to make a living while freelancing.
10. You Don’t Always Have to Be in the Middle of Things
Being in the middle of things is fun, almost too fun!
When trying to focus on work and be frugal, being in the city center can also be a distraction and temptation. You can have a great experience within a city without staying in ‘Times Square’ or ‘Piccadilly’, for example. We have found that you can get nicer places for cheaper and only be 15 – 30 minutes away from the action. Do some research before you go. There is probably public transportation you can take, from buses to subways, that will save you money and probably give you a much quieter living space.
While in Chengdu, Catherine spent 2021 living in the very center of the city in a cramped and expensive apartment. It was convenient to walk to the major expat locations but it wasn’t necessary. The subway from our next newly-furnished apartment got us there in 12 minutes. The rent was even a little cheaper for a place twice the size. Lesson learned!
Before You Go…
Thank you again for reading this post! If you are enjoying the content, don’t hesitate to share any questions or experiences in the comments.
Leave a Reply