What I Hope to Learn in Thailand (5 Lessons for Any Traveler in Southeast Asia)

What I Hope to Learn in Thailand (5 Lessons for Any Traveler in Southeast Asia)

25 December 2008

9 Comments

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I’m about 5 weeks late in writing this article, postponed by a breakup, lack of motivation, work projects, political protests, getting distracted by tons of new friends, and by going on extended mental vacation! This Christmas I’m writing from my new temporary home in Bangkok, Thailand, and I wanted to finally share some of my goals for traveling abroad in 2009. I’ve let a lot of personal issues get in the way of my writing in the past year, but in the new year I will strive to offer you much more frequent updates about my attempts at living the dream, and tips on how you can too!

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I left the States only about a month ago, and already I feel like I have shed my “old” life and am living in a completely new reality! Before my departure, I’d been asked a number of times why I wanted to go to Thailand. My answer back then was simply that I was ready for change. I had lived in Sacramento for 24 years and I was ready for new scenery. But I don’t think I’ll fully understand my reasons until after my journey ends (if it ever does!—life is a journey with no destination).

I was literally two weeks away from moving down to San Diego a little over a year ago. I had left my job at Sac State and was interviewing with marketing & design firms there (which is how i came across a few awesome individuals, like Rodney Rumford and digitaltelepathy’s founder Chuck Longanecker), when suddenly I split up with my girlfriend at the time, so the bottom fell out on those plans.

After that, my desire to travel abroad started as a bit of an escape—to eliminate all ties to my old “self” and start fresh somewhere new—and my interest in crossing international boundaries was fueled by Timothy Ferriss’ inspiring New York Times Bestseller The 4 Hour Workweek.

Reading Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Workweek changed my outlook on the world, and it literally shaped the future course of my life more than any other book has. I learned that the rules have changed. Earning a living doesn’t require you to put your life on hold—working 40- to 60-hour weeks until retirement age is the “deferred life plan” as he calls it. And most importantly Ferriss introduced me to the concept of geo-arbitrage (something I’ll get more into in a future post, but put simply, geo-arbitrage means earning in stronger currencies like the US dollar, Euros, and British Pounds sterling, and then living/spending where the cost of living is considerably lower). Ferriss, like many other business backpacker/vagabond/digital nomad types, says that Thailand and Argentina are two of the world’s best remaining destinations where Americans can easily stretch their dollar.

I had been interested in Thailand since I was just 17, when my high school French professor—Alec Hodgins, who I still maintain a relationship with and whose teaching had an immeasurable impact on my life—took his wife and son for a three-week excursion to the small Southeast Asian nation and came back with wonderful stories of the friendly people and photos of the gorgeous landscape. Thailand in my mind became one of the last sought-after paradises. It was beautiful, you could live on the beach, and the price of living was inexpensive.

So rather than dream about some future vacation there or wait for retirement, I decided to mold my life into something where I could work and travel at the same time. I’ve spent the last year and a half building a business that I can run remotely from anywhere on the globe (as long as there is a decent internet connection). And then I went for it!

When I got serious about my goal to move to Thailand and start traveling through Southeast Asia for a year, dozens of people in my extended network began to come out of the woodwork. Every single person I talked to had good things to say about Thailand. I still haven’t met a single person who didn’t enjoy their time here, and many have stayed here indefinitely or moved their families here. I met several PhD students who did an exchange program with my university for a semester, and they were so friendly and selfless—I was looking forward to change of pace from Sacramento, where it felt to me like strangers are typically pretty impolite to each other.

I felt much more jaded with my hometown than the people around me, but perhaps I was just tired of being in the same place all of my life. I had been fortunate to do quite a bit of travel across North America and Europe, but I had always lived in the same city. I felt like I needed new inputs, and going somewhere as different as I could find from what I was used to was appealing to me. Fast Company magazine ran a fascinating article a few months back about creativity and how to come up with new ideas, in which Gregory Berns, author of Iconoclast, describes how in familiar contexts, your brain falls back on experience—old neural connections—to fill in the gaps and reduce its workload, thus processing the world, both perception and imagination, more efficiently. He talks about the importance of new environments and new experiences for creative thinking and innovation:

“Novel experiences are so effective at unleashing the imagination because they force the perceptual system out of categorization, the tendency of the brain to take shortcuts.”

Additionally I felt that if I didn’t take my opportunity to go for a “gap year” if you will, while I’m still just 24 and have no commitments—no relationship, no kids, no car payment, no mortgage—then I might get stuck in that game and never be able to go wander the world like I truly desired. Another quote that the jet set and the location-independent entrepreneur types often like to allude to is by Mark Twain:

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

So with that I think I’ve talked enough. Finally, here are some of the things I hope to learn as I travel throughout Southeast Asia in 2009:

Simplicity.

Extended travel is a great opportunity to separate oneself from dependence on material possessions. Before my departure, I sold most of my stuff on Craigslist. You’d be surprised how little you need to travel with (with exception of my laptop in my case!). Since I am essentially homeless, wandering from one city to the next, from one apartment or hotel to the next, I hope to learn to be content with only the possessions that are most necessary.

Pace of life.

In many Asian cultures, unlike American career-centric thinking, care for oneself and for others is much more important than business. With less need for material things and the ability to get by with less income, I thought this would be a good chance to scale back the amount of work I do, slow down, and concentrate more time on reading, personal growth, and improving my writing. I’ve got a long reading list of books on simplicity, psychology, positive attitude, the alleged law of attraction, success, and entrepreneurship to read in the year ahead.

Personal growth.

Life in paradise is not without its many challenges. I’ve already been stuck in travel purgatory because of unforeseen political protests, had to sort out un-sortable visa and immigration issues, and, well most recently I’ve woken up to a cockroach, two poisonous centipedes, and a dead lizard on my apartment floor in the past two days! But part of this adventure is to overcome challenges, and especially to learn to be more self-reliant. In Sacramento, not that I relied on it, but if I ever really needed it I had parents and family to fall back on and tons of friends to spend time with daily. Here, I am forced to make new friends, build a new network, and solve problems entirely on my own. To seek new solutions to new problems, almost daily. It can certainly be frustrating, but I think in the end it will be well worth it.

Openness to new ideas, new values, new people.

I think that, as a traveler, there is an ease in making new friends. Thais are intrigued with Western culture, and with other expats you have an immediate common bond simply by the fact that you are a stranger in a foreign land. You can easily form friends with people you might not normally engage with back home. Additionally, as a traveler, you must learn to be more trusting of those around you simply because you rely on them: your taxi driver, people who give you advice on the street, your fellow travelers, and so on. If you can learn to trust people and assume the best in others, most of the time you won’t get burned, and you will learn a lot about foreign cultures, religions, and ideas at an accelerated rate.

Calm down.

One saying the Thais have is “mai pen rai” or “it doesn’t matter.” It’s similar to when we say “no worries” in the US. My Thai friends are always telling me not to be so serious. In the last few days, I’d been stressing out about getting outside of the country before my visa expires, and how to get my paperwork with the immigration bureau in order. Well my good friend Tiam (who we call “The Protector”) told me that Thai law, unlike law in the US and many other parts of the world, is very flexible, and he took me to the immigration office where we were assured that overstaying one day would be no problem at the border. Customs, social norms, and rules are different all around the world, but in general as I face the challenges of travel and living abroad, I hope to cultivate Jai Yen, or “cool heart” in the face of adversity, and trust in the fact that one way or another things will work out okay.

In the end, I hope to prove to myself that life is only as hard as you make it. Although there are tons of language and cultural barriers/differences (some of which I will discuss in my next post), I believe that people around the globe are really all essentially the same. Some of my friends and family from back home were worried about my safety—the media is good at scaring people when there are robberies, kidnappings, acts of terrorism, etc.—but I really don’t think that life in other countries is any more dangerous or difficult than it is in the States. As seemingly “crazy” as people drive here, I haven’t seen a single vehicle collision since I’ve been here, whereas back home I could easily get in a car crash any day of the week (one of the leading causes of death in the US). I choose to accept that I could get hit by a bolt of lightning and die at any moment, so I should do as much as I can with every day I’m given. Why not live my dream in the meantime!?

You can too! Stay tuned.

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By the way, if you want to keep up with my (mis)adventures around the world, please follow me at codymckibben.com where you can see live updates of my photos and activites around the globe and across the web. Additionally, I’ve just started a second venture with my friend Brooke Ferguson from Sacramento, called BusinessBackpacker.com where we’ll soon start coaching other entrepreneurs to follow in our footsteps and live the nomad/vagabond/location-independent lifestyle!

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Selling All My Belongings

14 November 2008

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So New Girl ripped my heart out. Given, we’ve only been dating for two months, and I knew this moment had to come. Unfortunately we were doomed from the beginning. I don’t know what I expected to happen, because I’m leaving for Southeast Asia for a year and she has an acting career to concentrate on when she graduates college. I knew New Girl wasn’t the one, but she was definitely a kindred spirit—you know, someone that you connect with from the moment you meet them (we could always tell what was going on in each others’ head). I had no expectation that she would wait around for me for the year while I’m abroad, but I thought we were at least on the same page in wanting to enjoy this while it lasted.

NG spent a week in Mexico with her sister and her sister’s fiancee. When she came back she was a completely different person than the one I dropped off at the airport.

I’d had all this anticipation for Sunday night—waiting all week for her to return, making big plans to show her a great time for the next two weeks; I even designed a website for her acting portfolio while she was gone!

I know travel changes you (otherwise I wouldn’t be spending a year abroad) but six days apart shouldn’t make someone go from the “honey, baby, I love you” end of the spectrum to wanting nothing to do with you. I have my ideas about what happened, but frankly I don’t expect her to give me the explanation I deserve. I haven’t even heard her voice since Sunday night. I had to push her to tell me that we were actually broken up—and via text message no less!

I dunno what the hell is wrong with her, I just know how it feels. It feels like being effin’ dead inside. I can’t breathe, I can’t eat or sleep at times. I feel as though, once again, the world has proven to me that I can’t count on anybody but myself. At least NG’s given me my reason to move back.

Before the breakup, I almost settled for that sense of security. I mean, we were really happy. She’s a great girl, and we had a fantastic time together. When you’re with someone who makes you feel great, when you have someone to “come home to” and share life’s challenges with, it makes all the other shit almost bearable. But now I am reminded of why I wanted to get out of here in the first place.

I know I have a great life here in the States, but I’m also tired as shit of it. I have a few fantastic, close friends and some really supportive family, but I’m jaded. I’m a workaholic, which makes me stressed out and out-of-touch. I am often crushed to see how quickly some people can turn around and treat others like human trash, and without thinking twice about it. We are lucky in the U.S. to have so many freedoms, so much comfort and security, but a lot of people seem very unhappy—and I’ve long been one of them.

So this is why I’m leaving home for a while. I feel jaded with life here, and I don’t know why I’m here. I often feel like I wasn’t meant to be here—in this time, or on this planet, or something. I just don’t fit in. I don’t see anything I’d be interested in spending the next 60 years on. I’m just not into it. And I know I can’t expect life to be that different anywhere else, but I have to look around and see what else there is.

I’m not trying to get your sympathy vote or sell you a sad story. I know there are plenty of people out there in the world who have had it much rougher than I have. But after being in one place for all 24 years of my life, I can’t look around without being reminded of past failures, deceit, rejection, and so on, and this is just my way of dealing with the emotional baggage.

This is the point:

I should have started a lot sooner, but the idea is to sell everything I own, hit the road with a backpack, a laptop, and a week’s worth of clothing, and start fresh somewhere new. Piece by piece, I’m either selling or giving away everything that represents my old life. I’m going to go somewhere as different as I can possibly find—for a year, or however long it takes—with no set agenda. We’ll see what opportunities present themselves and where life takes me. I’ll be back, but for now I have to do this while I still can—while I’m not in a relationship, have no kids, no mortgage, no car payment…

Some people call it a quarterlife crisis! But it’s time for me to let go of all the reminders of a past life and move on to see what else life has to offer me.

Here’s how you can help:

I leave in 11 days! I have already sold a ton of my furniture and stuff. And I am listing a whole bunch more on Craigslist, but time is running out and I also just don’t have the energy or emotional capacity to get a fair price for all my things, what with all the travel planning, running my business, and the breakup running through my head at all times! Please checkout some of the stuff I have below. If you’re interested or know someone who might be, please get in touch. I just need to rid myself of as many material possessions as I can for now, and if I can give them a happy new home, or help you guys get your hands on some things that you might find useful, then that’d be great. For local Sacramento-area friends or family, of course I’m willing to give you some of this stuff for cheap or free if you’re interested, so let me know (that excludes the car or the iMac, now!):

I will write more soon about my trip and what I hope to get out of it, but for now, thanks for your support and your help!

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Get John Jantsch’s New Social Media Marketing Book for Free!

13 November 2008

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John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing has teamed up with Microsoft Office Live Small Business to provide a thorough e-book guide to social media for business owners. For businesses, social media is a new language that businesses have to learn, and Jantsch guides you through all the basics: blogging, RSS, search, social bookmarking, social networks, and microblogging tools like Twitter. All you have to do in exchange is give Microsoft your email address (ugh I know, but just remove yourself from their subscription list if they bug you too much!). In John’s words:

“You know I’m a big fan of the use of social media for marketing a small business. Having said that, I’m really a fan of social media done right for small business. That means that some of the tools won’t be right for you, the ways others use some of the tools won’t be right for you, but the power contained in the new way people expect to communicate - and therefor you must learn to communicate - is something that every small business must come to understand.”

(see: Free Social Media for Business ebook on Duct Tape Marketing)

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Global Entrepreneurship Week: Unleashing Ideas Around the World Nov. 17–23

12 November 2008

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In several recent years, the Kauffman Foundation has hosted Entrepreneurship Week USA, or E-Week. Well now it’s truly a global event with schools and organizations around the world holding activities to promote entrepreneurship. Global Entrepreneurship Week 2008 starts in just 4 days!

Visit UnleashingIdeas.org to learn more and view the [...] Continue Reading…

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Looks Like My Political Rant Provoked Some Good Discussions

30 October 2008

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Thanks again to everyone who supported me and helped promote my last post about the economic bailout, presidential race, and culture war. I’ve said my peace, so I’ll try my hardest to make this my very last political post until next year, but I just wanted to follow up [...] Continue Reading…

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Personal Branding Guru Dan Schawbel Never Ceases to Impress!

30 October 2008

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My Gen-Y colleague Dan Schawbel has strategically positioned himself as a personal branding expert over the last few years, and he continues to impress me on nearly a monthly basis. Among his many projects, Dan founded an online magazine called, fittingly, Personal Branding Magazine, and their new quarterly issue [...] Continue Reading…

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I’m Mad As Hell and I’m Not Gonna Take It Anymore! This Government Is An Unprecedented Failure. It’s Time For Change!

27 October 2008

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The financial sector is failing. The dollar is already a lame duck in currency markets, and the Fed just printed up another trillion dollars (God knows where that will come from!) so Wall Street can pay their C-level executives. The presidential campaign is like a bad joke, and the [...] Continue Reading…

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An Easy, Free Way to Get Top Search Ranking for Your Small Business

26 October 2008

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I think with the economy in the toilet, business owners are eager to expand their online reach, and they’re trying hard to get creative with advertising and promotions. I’ve been getting a lot of questions from colleagues and friends recently about how to best promote their businesses online, and [...] Continue Reading…

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Tune In for a Free Social Media & Internet Strategy Conference This Wednesday!

26 October 2008

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Two weeks ago I told you that you can’t ignore social media if you’re gonna succeed in business these days. Well this Wednesday there is a great opportunity for many of you small business owners and entrepreneurs I know. If you’re interested in internet marketing strategy, building a web [...] Continue Reading…

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Tim Ferriss is Turning Me Into a Spammer! (OR: Why AMEX Cardholders Should Sacrifice 5 Minutes of Your Time Today for 100 Thousand American Schoolkids)

13 October 2008

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For American Express cardholders, a simple vote today can give 100,000 students $1.5 million for education. No joke and no exaggeration. Take a second and earn some karma! [...] Continue Reading…

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You Can’t Ignore Web 2.0 If Your Business Is Going to Succeed

9 October 2008

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Perhaps you’ve been hearing all the hype about blogs, wikis, and Facebook, and you just don’t get it. Perhaps you think your business can survive without a web presence or active participation in Web 2.0 networks. Well, you’re probably wrong.

Many small businesses are still stuck in 1995 when it [...] Continue Reading…

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F**k Voting

3 October 2008

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View Video

Click here to visit DeclareYourself.com

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