@gnefkow

Currently in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico and heading to Santa Teressa, Costa Rica next week.
Then Aruba in the Caribbean Sea for Christmas and New Year.

However I feel I want to head back to Central America to bring living costs down, rather than staying in the Caribbean Sea among the expensive Islands.

This means I have around 2 - 2,5 month of unplanned travelling.
Any digital nomads who have ideas about where to head in that timeframe?

Any long terms Project Fi users cancelled?

Planning on being outside of the US for a year or more and disappointed to just discover their “termination for excessive international roaming” fine print (similar to T-Mobile’s) as follows:

“The Services must be primarily used in the United States and are not intended for extended international use. Further, the Services are designed for use predominantly within our network. If your usage outside our network is excessive, abnormally high, or cause us to incur too much cost, we may, at our option and sole discretion, suspend your Project Fi account, terminate your service, or limit your use of roaming.”

I’m a professional psychotherapist who is starting out in this lifestyle and I’m curious to hear what specific psychological struggles people had to overcome while making the transition to life as a DM. Also, what do you do to stay mentally healthy while traveling to foreign lands. I’m interested in hearing any insights people may have, especially since I am working on a book on psychological resilience and I can’t think of a more stressful transition than moving from a static to a nomadic lifestyle. If you’re not comfortable putting your experiences on a public forum, feel free to PM me.

Hey gang, I’ve traveled pretty extensively through Central America and was recently in Colombia.

I love Latin America and want to continue to travel/work here, but internet connectivity is a constant issue. Hostel wifi is always hit or miss and when it does work, it’s often slow or there’s no convenient place to work.

Cafes are even worse most of the time.

I’ve tried local sim cards with data and sometimes that works well, but skype calls eat the data right up and in many locations, the speeds are slow.

I’m willing to pay more for more reliable internet, but I haven’t found anything…

Wondering what most of you fine folks do and if anyone has any suggestions.

Also, what are some alternatives to hostels?

I know you can use AirBnB, but the locals jack the prices up on there (if you’re in an area you can find anything on AirBnB). Apartment rentals can be found pretty inexpensively, but I like to stay moving and usually don’t want to stay somewhere for even a month.

On top of all this, I like to surf and the coastal towns tend to be the worst for wifi.

I’m a little frustrated and wondering if anyone has any suggestions I haven’t thought of?

Admin edit: Fixed title to lessen ambiguity & to adhere to community guidelines.

Hi all,

I have noticed that it is very common in coworking places to see computers which are not locked. The owner will get up and go for a walk, or even go out for lunch for a couple of hours and leave their computer unlocked.

I find this strange because it basic gives anyone access to your computer and all the information that is on it - mail accounts, social media accounts, your password manager etc, so it poses a potentially huge security risk.

For me personally I worked in corporates many times and there you can get into big trouble if you leave your workstation unlocked. It is part on my muscle memory now - when I get up I lock the computer. On Windows it is so easy because you can just press Win+L and the computer is locked.

So I am curious - do you lock your computer when you get up? Is it just something you have not thought about before, or do you think no-one will mess with your computer in a public place?

I’m recovering from a stomach bug so caffeine and sugar, the two staples of late night development, are off the menu. As a result I’m finding it quite hard to get motivated!

Does anyone have some alternative techniques to wake my brain up and plug me in?

Currently I’m indulging in music but it’s not having quite the same effect as the killer combo of coffee/music/chocolate

It seems that anytime I mention to someone that I don’t live in any one single location and that I travel frequently (a month here, several months there, etc), many people immediately think about some backpacker who lives in a tent/hostel, goes to sightseeing every single day of the year and is distracted all the time. Of course this is not true as many people, including me, live in normal apartments, planning takes very little time and this lifestyle doesn’t affect the ability to do full-time work in any way.

Questions:

1. In a job interview context, how do you best explain what digital nomad means and why it is an advantage? Think answers to questions like “So, where are you based?” or “Where are you right now?”, etc.

2. Have you ever been rejected based on the fact that you are a nomad (have no single fixed “home”)? If so, how common is that?

3. Did you consider just lying and saying that you are in some other city? After all, there is no way of knowing your real current location and if it makes the interviewer more comfortable in hiring you and paying you more (many people feel it’s ok to pay more to someone just because they live in more expensive city), why not take advantage of it? They’ll never know as long as the timezone is the same.

EDIT: I work as a software developer.

So far I have:
Buffer, Toptal, Maptia & Upworthy - fully nomadic, the employees & founders are always on the go

Basecamp, GitHub, Mozilla - known for their distributed teams and mobility but majority of workforce still in HQ

Can you help me find more? I am doing research for digital nomads infographic.

Is there anyone here that have been traveling through South East Asia with expensive cameras and gear?

If so, do you guys have any tips or recommendations to not get robbed or lose your valuable camera. I really would like to use my camera while visiting South East Asia, but I am afraid that it will get stolen or something like that.

I’m packing for Costa Rica (staying there end of September to end of October) and wonder what I should take along in my first-aid kit (if anything is necessary at all) … what do other DNs take along in terms of first-aid?

I will head on to Chiang Mai in late November for an extended stay in the triangle (CNX, BKK, SGN) — which may or may not require completely different stuff.

I’m from the UK, currently operate as a sole trader (not UK company). I’d like to claim travel as a business expense. If I’m choosing to hop around different countries, you could say that it’s partly adding to my experience (as a designer) and it’s also potentially opening up work opportunities (meeting people).

Does anybody else do this? Or is travel always taken as a personal expense?

As a second part to the question: I’d be travelling with my partner, so I’m presuming I’d just claim for half of the total expense.

Right now I’m on a Google Apps for Business account for my organization. It’s the free one from several years ago that’s grandfathered into free, but has some account restrictions. I’m about at the point of outgrowing it and am considering either full Google for Work or Office365. I’ve been over pros and cons and both seem very good at a similar price. So I’m wondering what experience others have had. Specifically around:

• Storage and backup, with versioning.
• Granular file access control and logging.
• Migration pathway. (Anyone who does IT with experience migrating from G to MS contact me offlist for a potential project.)
• Considerations for storing client-sensitive information there at some point.
• Other differentiators or considerations commonly missed.
• Other services to consider that are similar (email, storage, document collaboration, security, reliability, near-zero IT support requirement)