@gigigriffis

I was thinking about packing today and I’m curious: what’s the weirdest thing you guys have in your bags? Nomads are, by nature, minimalists, but I’m sure we all do it differently. I have a friend who travels with BASE jumping gear, another a sequin dress. So, what’s the most unusual thing in your bag?

Mine is probably that I travel with a dog.

Hi all!

So, I’m in Colombia at the moment and have experienced some really intense harassment and even violence here. I was shocked because it’s been recommended to me by so many people, and so I thought perhaps it would be useful to start a thread here where we (we being women and other minorities) can talk about places where we recommend either not traveling or being particularly on guard.

So, are there any places you’ve been where you’ve experienced more violence, harassment, or maltreatment? Are there any places that you recommend other women/LGBT/ethnic minorities be particularly careful or not travel to?

I don’t want this to become a super negative thing or a personal preference thing, but I am hoping to get some insight into areas that might be more concerning and/or unsafe for certain groups so that we can all make informed decisions about where we want to spend our time. I really wish someone would have been frank with me about the issues here in Colombia, so I’m hoping we can be frank with each other about places where we haven’t felt 100% safe.

So, I’ll start:

I’ve had little to no problems in other parts of South and Central America, but here in Colombia I have witnessed not only street harassment, but also actual violence and malice and, worse, have seen people who could do something to stop it shrugging it off and saying “it’s normal here.” I would not recommend it for women and particularly women traveling alone.

Similarly, in Morocco I felt very uncomfortable as a female traveler. There wasn’t as much yelling or in-your-face harassment, but there was a ton of staring, men invading my space (standing over me in a bus and staring down at me from less than a foot away, for example), and men treating me like a second-class citizen (refusing to let me pass them on the sidewalk and instead forcing me to go around them into a busy street). I was traveling with a friend and we were both pretty exhausted by the end of the trip.

Hey guys,

I’m doing a series of nomad interviews to demonstrate how different we all do this nomad thing. I’ve just published one on How Fast Do Nomads Travel? (http://gigigriffis.com/how-fast-do-digital-nomads-travel/) and I’ve got a few coming up on Do Digital Nomads Have Home Bases?, What Are Digital Nomad Work Schedules Like?, How Do Nomads Choose Where to Go Next? Etc.

I’m looking for people who would be interested in answering some questions and sharing their personal nomadic perspectives. So if that’s you, let me know.

Also, it’s really important to me to show some diversity, so I’m particularly interested in interviewing POC and nomads who are from unusual backgrounds (for example: 40+ nomads, retired nomads, nomads with kids, LGBT nomads, etc.).

tl;dr: introduce yourself in this thread.

We must all get sick of the same backpacker travel questions when we meet new friends, I know I do.

You know the ones - where are you from, where’ve you been, where are you going, what do you do, how long have you been doing it - etc.

The novelty of answering these questions wears off after maybe a week, but they’re nonetheless insightful and no matter how much we hate them, we find ourselves asking others.

So let’s bring the dreaded backpacker questionnaire to NomadForum and introduce ourselves shall we?

**

• what’s your name?
• where are you from?
• how long have you been away from home?
• what do you do?
• where are you currently?
• where are you going?
• what has been memorable for you so far?
• will you go home anytime soon?
• what have you learnt during your time as a nomad?
• [insert your own question here]

**

No need to answer them all if you don’t want to
But the more you share… The merrier!

Hey Nomads!

I’m looking for an international health insurance (no travel insurance) for my nomadic life. It should cover the basic services and at least be accepted in the EU (it’s ok if it’s not accepted in the US as I’m aware they rarely are). Nice to have: enter into a contract online. Anyone got a good experience or a recommendation?

Thanks in advance!

There’s been a lot of discussion on this recently.

Nomads usually stay in hostels, hotels and short-term apartments. But it’s all not very optimal.

I’ve heard people suggest getting funding and building a network of houses you can stay at for a subscription price (e.g. Bruno Haid is working on that).

I don’t want do physical stuff, so I’m thinking of building a platform around making housing better for nomads.

What are the housing problems nomads face? And how can we solve them with products/services?

Hey everyone!

I’m getting ready for my first trip abroad alone (this Oct). I decided on Chiang Mai because I feel like it might be the best place to get my feet wet. Plus I’ve been planning on going to Thailand now for about 3 years. Dream started 3 years ago, started my business 2 years ago, finished college/moved out of my parents 1 year ago, left my part-time crutch job a few months ago and now I make enough online to be location independent.

But now that my dream is becoming a reality, I’m actually kinda scared. Just thinking about boarding a plane with only a backpack in my possession is liberating but also frightening. Probably the craziest thing I’ve done in my life and I’ve worked so hard to get to this point.

I’m sure that most people here had to deal with the fear of leaving for the first time, the uncertainty of what will happen, and maybe even some resistance from your family. I’m just wondering how you dealt with it? Maybe I just need to re-read some of the books (4 hour workweek, vagabonding, The $100 startup, etc…) that gave me the motivation and courage to start in the first place. What motivates you to keep going?

Thanks!

The last few years I’ve spent mostly in Asia (Thailand/Indonesia) and Europe (Spain/Italy), but I run a company in the US and need to coordinate with 10 US based employees and business partners. The time zone issues between EU/US and SEA/US are exhausting even if I love the locales.

I’d really like to try romping around the Americas for a while, but I’ve never been south of Baja California and really can’t find much positive having been said about remotely working from CA/SA as a DN.

I know some hippy, surfer, artist, musician, yoga teacher types calling various locals home, but no one making a living online… more than a few people have told me it’s fabulous down there until you go to Thailand/Bali and then you wonder why all those ExPats are suffering in CA/SA. Of course you only really know when you go yourself.

I’d love to see nomadlist.io get filled out with more details on Central and South American cities. It seems really sparse coverage at the moment, but maybe that’s simply because it’s not good and no one stays there for long.