Finding Remote Work and Living Abroad

Man made lake. Penol, Colombia

People are always asking about how to find remote work and what does it take to live abroad? There are tons of online resources, which I’ll list in the blog post.

Why work remotely?

• Location independence

• Set your own hours

• Work from where works best for you

  • Home

  • Coffee Shop

  • Co-working space

• The ability to be more flexible with salary

• Easier to travel

• Work without distraction

To succeed in working remotely, you have to have discipline. You know what I'm talking about if you have successfully run your own business. This is why working remotely is not a good fit for some folks. They get distracted or just don’t have the intrinsic motivation to push themselves.

You’ll need a good internet connection, which limits where in the world you can live. You need to know what hours you can work. If you live in Mexico, having a remote job in China may mean getting up at 4 am. You’ll need to be a great communicator, written and verbal. And, of course, you have to have to be competent with technology.

Where to look for remote work?

Your favorite online jobs platform has them, LinkedIn, etc. But this is the best source I know of for where to look for online work. It’s a google doc maintained by its users. In addition, look for Facebook groups in Digital Nomad Hubs, like Medellin and Chiang Mai, or your desired destination.

Your reasons for wanting remote work might be different than mine. I almost always choose to live someplace with a low cost of living. Doing so gives me more freedom to take a wider variety of jobs, and I have a long history of going from being the low man on the totem pole to being the guy running things. But that is not my only criterion. A new home has to have good internet, at least 15 megs, have a great quality of life, friendly people and preferably be near the beach. This year, I live 200 meters from the Pacific Ocean in Puerto Vallarta, MX. Six months before I got here, I was in Medellin, CO.

If you are a native English speaker with a 2 or 4 year degree, the easiest and best-paying job to get started is teaching English to Chinese kids online. It pays around $20 an hour and would be a great way to move to Asia. Countries like Vietnam and Cambodia have very liberal visa policies, good quality of life, and a very low cost of living. The other option is to go to Korea or China and get a full-time job teaching English. These two countries pay about the best and have the best benefits. I did this in Thailand, and it was a great experience. But I’d not recommend teaching in Thailand. Their education system is horrible, and the pay is meh. If you want a job like this, you’ll need to be a native English speaker, have a 4-year degree, and have a TEFL certificate.

Money

I don’t have any debts. If you are going to move overseas, in most cases, you’ll want some savings to fall back on. For me, that’s about $15,000. I use Mint to manage my finances because I want know where I am at any time. Depending on your job situation, you won’t need that much money. For instance, some schools in Asia will send you a plane ticket and give you one to get home, and in the countries I mentioned, if you live frugally, you can save $1000 a month. But If you plan to move somewhere and then look for work or just start teaching English online, you’re going to want some savings to fall back on.

I figure out my savings goals and my monthly living expenses and use that as the lowest salary I can take. I can’t take a job if it doesn’t pay the minimum.

Sure, most Americans seem to live paycheck to paycheck. But that could be a disaster overseas. When I was teaching in Bangkok, nearly all the guys I worked with were living paycheck to paycheck. What happens if they get fired? If you lose your job in Thailand, you lose your visa and have about ten days to leave the country. Not good if you don’t have savings to fall back on.

Inle Lake, Myanmar

This was the best place I visited in Myanmar. It had the smallest feel, was easy to navigate, and had everything I needed. I stayed in a great little guest house, less than a 10-minute walk from the middle of town, Blissful Inn. It was quite clean, and the staff was accommodating. The price was right too!  They took care of all my needs, got me on a bus to Bagan, and arranged a boat. The price includes a free breakfast with eggs made to order—$ 20.00 for a single.

I decided last minute to take a train from Yangon to Inle Lake. Last minute was the theme for this trip. No planning, no research. I didn’t even get my visa until the day of my flight. The trains in Myanmar are horribly outdated and the tracks didn’t feel very level. You could look down the train and see the cars swaying back in forth in a chaotic dance and while I was in my sleeper bed, I caught air more than once. I might have caught a few minutes of sleep here and there. But I love trains and try to avoid busses, and there was a very good reason for taking the train.

A slow train winds through the backcountry and mountains from Thazi to Inle. It’s a great way to get a feel for the country and its people if you don’t have the time to do proper exploring. It was well worth losing a night’s sleep for the wonderful train ride through the countryside. I won’t say the scenery wasn’t close to northern Vietnam or rice terraces in the Philippines, but it was nice. 

There is one, must-do thing in Inle, a tour around the lake in a boat. I had the boat to myself, which was great. I’d highly recommend it. Normally, a trip like this takes all day when you have a full boat of 5-6 people. I was able to do it in a bit over a half day, which left me with time to get a great massage at the spa in town. Having my own boat, I went where I wanted and stayed for as long as I wanted. No waiting on anyone, and it was under $20 bucks!  

There were many villages on the lake, all on stilts, and some had built up little islands as yards. Most were free-standing huts with woven bamboo walls.  The first thing you see when you come out onto the lake are these fishermen guys who perform for tips. They have some serious balance! 

There’s a bunch of tourist traps, selling overpriced locally-made tourist stuff. But two of them are worth stopping at. There are places that make thread from lotus flowers, spin it, dye it, and weave it with old-school looms. They show you the whole process in the shop, it was pretty cool. I also stopped at the wood makers. The guy showed me how they make boats like the one I was in. Also cool. The rest, skip.  

One thing that surprised me is they build water gardens, and I saw an acre of tomatoes growing in them!  

Inle had the best feeling about it, and it was laid out conveniently. It felt like a beach town. I’d spend some more time there and do some tracking as well.

Yangon, Myanmar

The nicest people in South East Asia can be found in Myanmar. I’ve never come across a country with so many friendly people. After a 2 year break from writing and traveling, I find myself on the road again. I’m here in Yangon largely because it’s one of the only countries I’ve not been to in Asia and yes, I’m keeping score.

Yangon is the largest city in Myanmar and I didn’t do much here, mostly I planned the rest of my trip and acclimated to this new (to me), wonderful, strange, country. 

I did manage to find the only Indian Pizza I’ve ever had outside of San Francisco.  And checked out a temple or two. 

There is a lot of outdated information about Myanmar on the internet. Especially where currency and ATMs are concerned. You should bring some US dollars for emergency money, but there is no need to bring all the money you think you will need for your trip. There were ATMs in every city I was in, Yangon, Inle Lake, Bagan, and Mandalay.  There is a max of about $300 per withdrawal.  Ensure that you sell all your Kyat before leaving unless you plan to use it as Monopoly money.

Cambodia

I was in Anchor Wat in 2009, so I skipped it on this trip. I spent a few days in the Capitol, Phnom Penh, and then headed to the beach. Phnom Penh is pretty meh. The thing that made me crazy was that there was garbage piled up in the streets as if the garbage collectors were on strike. In some places, it was 3 meters high. Talk about a disease vector!

I stayed at Otres 2 beach in Sihounikville for a few nights. It is pretty chill, and the water is excellent for swimming. After riding a bike for 5 weeks, it was just what I needed to relax. I spent a day on a long-tail boat doing some snorkeling. I’d not recommend it. After the Philippines, the snorkeling in Vietnam and Cambodia was disappointing. The best thing about Otres 2 is that it is not overdeveloped yet, and there are almost no hawkers!  It was swim, read, sun, eat and repeat!

Then I took a boat to Koh Rong. From what I heard from others and read, this island is one of the last undeveloped islands in Cambodia. I booked a room for five nights. It was just OK for me. It’s a very social island. Most everyone is concentrated in one place. The only locals are those who work/live there. it’s basically a backpacker island with primarily western food. The issue with all the beaches I’ve seen in Cambodia and Vietnam is the trash on the beaches. Koh Rong is no exception. Most of Asia seems to treat the ocean as its own personal dump and much of it turns up on the beaches. This makes me ill, having grown up in beach culture, where no one would throw trash in the ocean. 

I spent a night in downtown Sihanoukville, so I could quickly jump on the bus to Phnom Pehn to catch my plane to Bangkok. It’s not a nice place, full of young people partying their ass’s off and super overdeveloped and commercial. Sorry Cambodia, but you did not make my list of places I would like to live.

Da Lat and Saigon

It is a short ride from Nha Trang to Da Lat and a beautiful one. I spent a few hours driving through the mountains and had a welcome respite from the heat. Da Lat is a slowly crumbling French mountain town that just happens to be in Vietnam. I am told much of it resembles Paris. But since I have not been to Paris, I could not say. I stayed in Da Lat for two nights, which was pretty chill. I took a walk around the lake and went to the Flower Gardens. De Lat is famous for its flowers, which it exports worldwide. It has a climate similar to Napa, so they grow grapes and make wine. Sadly I did not try the wine.

After I got out of the mountains and was headed for Saigon, the towns started to meld together, and soon the road turned into one long town with no green space. I started early, as it was a long riding day, and arrived in Saigon at my hostel in the middle of the afternoon. Thanks to the help of my trusty GPS app, I did not get lost once! I’d been to Saigon for a few days in 2009, but I was a tourist and only saw a small part of the city.

On the drive-in, I started losing my cool with the other folks on the road. My “irritation with other drivers” meter was in the red! I had considered selling my bike in Saigon and taking the bus through Cambodia. Getting highly irritated was the like seeing a neon light saying, “sell!”  I can not drive safely once I start getting too irritated. I start taking chances, going too fast, and I become a road hazard, which is challenging in Vietnam.

The next day I wrote my for-sale ad and posted it on various online classified sites including Craigslist. And I waited. And waited some more. Five days later, the only responses I received were from people who could not read my clearly written ad and thought I was in Hanoi. I started getting nervous. Should I lower the price? Should I try to find a charity to give away my expensive toy to? Should I stop thinking about how much money I’ll lose if I don’t sell the bike and have ice cream? Yes! And what an ice cream it was. There’s a french ice cream shop in Saigon that turns ice cream into art.

On the 6th day, I got a bite, and another, and a third! An American Expat was going to come by after work, and then a French guy wanted to come by earlier. I let the American guy know he’d have to get here sooner if we wanted a shot. The American called first, after all. The French guy showed up, gave the bike a once over, took it for a ride, and said he wanted to buy it, but that he had to go get the money. I said yes. Then the American showed up with cash. I took his cash and called the French guy and gave him the bad news. Since I did not ride as long as I had planned, I ended up paying about what I would have for a rental after I took a loss selling the bike. Maybe I could have got more, but a week in Saigon was enough.

I did have some good times in Saigon. I made a Vietnamese friend in Hanoi, and she lives in Saigon. We spent a Saturday afternoon together, eating, riding around on her scooter, and had a nice walk. When we met, she was interviewing with the Italian embassy for a visa, which they granted her. After we hung out, she had to go out of town on business and then flew to Italy. Yen, I hope you had a great time in Italy, if you are still reading my blog, drop me an email, I only have your mobile number.

The night I sold my bike, I went out and celebrated. An Argentine steak house serves steak from Australia and the US. So I dropped about 1.5 million dong ($70) on dinner and drinks. I sat at the bar and hit it off with the bartenders. After I ordered my first drink, they started making me custom drinks, and after dinner, they poured me shots of homemade caramel vodka on the house. It was the first time I had steak in months. I decided to do one touristy thing, and on my last day, I went to the former US embassy. It was a neat building. It’s easy to forget that Vietnam is a communist country, then sometimes you remember. 

Seven weeks is the longest I’ve spent in one country outside the US, with the exception of Italy, when I was teaching and taking classes there in the late ’90s. It was great to see a country from top to bottom and go places most westerners will never see. I love traveling off the beaten trail, and on this trip, there were times when I was off the trail altogether. Vietnam, specifically Saigon, is a place I could live.

Hue And On To The Beaches

Hue is the most beautiful city I have seen in Vietnam, it was the old imperial capital, and it still shows. It’s also a place for artists, and education is highly valued here. As I head south, the food gets better. One can only eat so much noodle soup!

I had a great lunch with a couple of local specialties and a beer for under $3 bucks.

In Hue, I went on my first guided tour in Vietnam and got on my first bus in this country. Considering that I had a small hangover from two happy hours from the night before, it was an outstanding choice, we visited some of the emperors’ tombs, a pagoda, and the Citadel. Our tour guide was outstanding, and the tour included a buffet lunch and a boat ride. It was a great way to spend the day and interesting to see the country from a nonmotorcycle perspective.

Hoi An is just south of Da Nang, it’s a sleepy little beach town with great food and an unending supply of touts. I spent a day at the beach and got a bit of a burn, so no beach for me today. I’ve spent most of the day so far catching up with my writing dear readers. The hostel I stayed at here has a pool! The heat was almost unbearable on my ride down, especially with all the safety gear I wore. Thank science for evaporative cooling.

It’s 500 km from Hoi An to Nha Trang, so I stopped in a nontouristy place for the night, Quy Nhon, there’s a guest house in a village just outside of town that I really wanted to stay at but they were booked up for several weeks. I stayed at a hotel with a welcoming and friendly staff. It’s one of the few places I’ve been that have no touts and where no one tried to rip me off or quote a tourist price. I went 36 hours without having any hassles with the price of anything.

I took the road that the Top Gear folks raved about during their motorcycle ride in Vietnam. It’s a nice road, but the claim that it is one of the best coastal roads in the world is not true. Apparently, these guys have not ridden on the east or west coast in the US.

Then I arrived in Nha Trang, it is over touristed, the beach is not that great, and it is full of Russians. From what I understand, from here south, it is Russian Central. I took a day to chill and took a day to go to an amusement park. You must take the world’s longest tramway to the park. The park was a bit of a letdown. I went for the water park, but if you have been to a half-decent water park in the US, it just doesn’t compare. However, the tram ride was quite good. On the upside, I had and good cheeseburger and some excellent Indian food!

Holy Big Ass Cave!

I have been in a lot of caves. All the major ones in the US and a bunch of others around the world. Thien Duong Cave, better known as Paradise Cave, is 31 km long! Tourists can venture in for the first 1.5 km. This part of the cave has a considerable walkway, and great lighting, the designers of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park have done a phenomenal job. It’s the best national park infrastructure I’ve seen anyplace in Asia.

They let about ten people a day on a guided trek that goes 7 km into the cave. I was fortunate enough to get a slot. There were only 3 of us! We had an English-speaking guide and a porter. The cave complex is fantastic! There are places inside that feel like a stadium. There are also parts you have to swim through and some tight pass-throughs. And, of course, stalagmites and stalactites galore.

Before starting, they gave us camo uniforms and running shoes to change into. Of the three of us, I was the only one who could fit into the camo, and no one could fit into the shoes. They are not set up for western tourists. The cave was discovered by a local man in 2005. They have been doing tours of it for three years. My advice is to go now. It’s hard to say what it will be like in a decade. The only downside is that it’s costy. 2,600,000 dong ($130).

We started by going through a gate the tourists never get past and walked about 1/4 km. Then the guide had us turn out our lights, and we were in pitch darkness, and there were no sounds at all. It was very cool. If I had my way, I’d set up a rope that could be followed so you could do the whole trek in complete darkness. Though I’m not sure, there are enough weirdos like me to market it to.

We continued for about 3 km and stopped to take everything off but foot gear and swimwear. The wet parts were coming. There’s a strange cultural disconnect for me with the modesty involved. The guides used underwear for swimwear. I guess what happens in the cave stays in the cave.

It was me, an Aussie riding a bicycle through SEA, and a girl from Northern Europe, and when we got in the water, the Aussie was a bit shocked by the temp. I’ve swum in caves before, but not for this long. After walking past all sorts of fascinating formations and getting detailed explanations of how they form, we arrived at our stopping point for lunch. At the 7 km mark, the cave is open to the sky.

It was breathtaking to come around the corner and see daylight shining down on a little valley in the cave. We found a big rock to have lunch on. Lunch was crap, rice, a few pieces of nondescript meat, and an over-ripe banana. After lunch, we went exploring and swimming. There was a shaft of like shining down on a bolder, way up on a ledge. Of course, I had to climb up there and bask in the light.

The trip back was a rocket run. I kept stopping to take more pictures, and the guides tried to hurry us along, which inspired me to take even more pictures. I do not think the guide said two sentences on the way out. The cave is stunning, and it is a must-do if you are anywhere near the central\northern coast of Vietnam!

Lake Ba Be, Hanoi and Headed South

My last stop before Hanoi was Ba Be lake, a national park with three interconnected lakes. I did a homestay in a village on the lake and stayed for two nights at a place called Duy Tho. It was beautiful and affordable. I rented a boat for a day, which was expensive and loud, but I got to see the lake. It is well worth stopping by the lake for the homestay, but I would skip the boat trip unless you are with a group and have not spent much time on the water. I would have been happy with spending an hour in a small part of the lake in a dugout canoe.

Ba Be is quite beautiful. It was stunning on the water in the early morning. There are all sorts of exciting animals living around the lake, but they’re shy. The boat ride includes a stop by a small waterfall that feeds a hydroelectric plant and a short trek through a big cave. We stopped for lunch near the waterfall.

My host helped me find a faster and less trafficked road to get back to Hanoi, saving countless encounters with trucks and buses and saving me a couple of hours of driving. I was back in Hanoi in the early afternoon. Then it was time to get my bike serviced. It had some issues with shifting in 1st, 2nd and neutral

One of the great things about Hanoi is Bia Hoi. It’s a freshly brewed keg beer with a shelf life of a day. In the Old Quarter, you can pick up a glass for 5000 Dong (25 cents). It’s tasty, cold, and refreshing. On my last night in Hanoi, I went for Indian food at Tamarind. It was pricey but perfect. I was pleasantly surprised. I found a great place for a massage about 5km from the Old Quarter and walked over. For 450,000 dong ($22.50), I got a 90-minute massage preceded by a soak in a barrel, a soak in a jacuzzi, and a steam. Pure bliss.

I ended up in this tiny nowhere town my first night heading south, as my scheduled stop did not feel very friendly. The place I ened up in was very friendly!

I checked in to the only place to stay in town, which had two rooms. the next morning I went for a walk. As I passed by an elementary school, a couple of kids said, “Hello!” and I responded. Within 2 minutes, the entire school emptied out, and I was mobbed by kids saying hello, asking me my name, how old I was, where I was from, and on and on. They wanted to shake hands and were fascinated by my tattoos. I tried to get them out of the road and used taking a picture as a motivator. As you can see from the picture, they never really stopped vibrating.

I walked them all back to the school, some of the teachers were giving me the stink eye, and some were caught up in the kid’s excitement. When we returned to the school grounds, some of the kids were dragged off by teachers, but about 20 of them decided they would show me around town. We went to an outdoor market and the local hospital. I think they were introducing me to their parents, but who knows? One little girl gave me a flower, and that started a trend. After an hour or so of being dragged hither and yon, I escaped.

When I returned to the guest house, the second room had been rented to 4 engineers, and they invited me to eat dinner with them. Of course, out came the local hooch and a bunch of food I did not recognize, but they schooled me and approved of my use of chopsticks. When the bill came, they would not take my money. Of course, the woman who owned the restaurant tried to get me to pay for the whole bill. Unfortunately, if you are a westerner traveling here, you are a dollar sign to some people in SEA. Luckily that unpleasantness is offset by people like the four lovely gentlemen that bought me dinner.

The Final Frontier

I just spent four days riding through the Ha Giong area. It’s what the guidebooks call Vietnam’s final frontier. It has a lot of historical value as Ho Chi Minh spent a bunch of time there; it was a safe haven, and it’s on the border with China. You have to buy a permit to enter the area.

Between my off-road adventure the other day all through the mountains in the frontier area, the views were stunning. The limestone mountains and the roads rising and descending through them made for the best views on this trip.

I met a Canadian, Justin, traveling by motorbike through the north. He had a six-day rental, and we decided to travel together for a few days. Justin was the first westerner I met traveling by motorcycle in Vietnam. While I’ve found many people writing about riding in Vietnam, I’ve only come across a handful of people, and I’ve yet to meet anyone outside of Hanoi who is doing what I’m doing, who bought a bike to see the whole country on.

We stayed two nights in Dong Van, the northernmost city, and trekked for a day. It was nice to get off the bike for a day. The trekking was great. We found an old French fort overlooking Dong Van and then hiked up into the mountains on a random 10k hike. We met some nice guys who invited us in for tea.

The next day, I took the scenic route through the rest of the province and Justin made a B-line for Ba Be Lake. I ended up being off road again for much of the day. Justin got lost and didn’t make it to Ba Be until the following day.

I went to the local Yamaha shop to buy motor oil, and the owner kept giving me tea and shots of rice whiskey. I think I had shots with half the town. I could barely walk.

Today I Was a Motorcycle God!

Today it took me 7 hours to travel 125 kilometers. Most of that time was spent going 50 kilometers on a single-track road, ok, trail, through the backcountry. It was the most challenging day I have ever had on a motorcycle in 15 years of riding, and I’ve ridden cross country in the US twice and been as far as the end of the Pan Am in Panama.

Today’s ride had the best scenery I’ve seen on the trip. I was riding ridgelines, doing hill climbs, and did more river crossings than you could shake a stick at. At one point, about 30 K in, I came to a river crossing that started with 30 meters of boulders doing downhill. It was very intimidating. I did not get any points for style, but I made it through!

If fact I was up to every challenge the route threw at me. If I had known how difficult that route would be, I would not have taken it. It was not any shorter and it did not save me any time, it just seemed more exciting and I’m so glad I did it!

I have a confession to make, I have very little experience riding off-road, and all of the off-road riding I’ve done was on a BMW K1100RS, a 120HP superbike designed for sport/touring. In 1995 I went on the BMW Paris, Paris to Panama endurance rally. There were 120 riders, and we had a fleet of Land Cruisers supporting us. Our route was scouted and mapped, our meals and accommodations were all arranged, and the off-road riding we did was not that challenging.

There is a huge differece between riding a 120 HP motorcycle that weighs 300 kilos and a little 10 HP bike that weighs 120 kilos. You really do not want to stall on a hill climb on a slippery slope with that little bike. It just doesn’t have the torque to recover, especially while sliding downhill, backwards. But recover I did!

I highly recommend taking the scenic route from Vihn Quang to Ha Giang, but have a modicum of self-preservation and do not do it alone! If you want the details of the route, leave me a comment or send me an email, and I’ll get them to you.

It is hard to describe the feeling of accomplishment I reaped for today’s adventure! It has been quite some time since I have pushed my limits as far as I have today, and it was a huge confidence builder. The great thing about an accomplishment like this is that it increases overall confidence and builds self-respect. I’m tired, sore, and exhausted. “Today, I was a motorcycle god!”