I know a lot of people are having a hard a time at the moment, people losing jobs, money being tight etc. Not a great situation, though in the greater scheme of things necessary and long overdue. I just wanted to put one idea out there today.

If you are reading this blog post then you are one of the luckiest people to have ever lived in the history of the humanity. Staying alive and prospering was a real challenge for the majority of our history and it is still the case for most people alive today. We have all the knowledge of the world within easy reach through the internet, can travel almost everywhere in the world within 24 hours and are pretty much free to do whatever we want with our lives. A heavy thought but one I need to remind myself of once in a while. Let’s not squander this opportunity.

If you do celebrate Christmas in your part of the world, have a great day! Otherwise just have an awesome time for no reason at all.

Stay cool.

So after a week of driving around Koh Lanta sorting out accommodation and our working area I was finally able to get down to being productive. As I mentioned before I’m out here with a couple of friends that have decided to stay in a serviced apartment while I commute 3 minutes down the road from my guest-house to use their internet and enjoy the air-conditioning. The photo above is actually misleading because it’s far too hot to work outside and having the sun shine on your screen isn’t handy either. But I didn’t want to destroy the ideal fantasy that some of you might have built up in your mind. Also, the reality of me sitting in an air-conditioned room with the curtains drawn just wouldn’t make for a good picture.

I usually arrive at the apartment around 10 and work until 13:00, we then go for lunch, maybe a swim, then work until 18:00. I’ve been doing this 7 days a week, although today we took the morning off because it was high tide which is ideal for playing frisbee in the sea. I should get out in the sun a bit more though because I’ve been here since the 20th of November and still don’t have a tan.

So far this week I’ve been working on a membership site for my brother and have been writing a couple of articles for one of my affiliate sites. My dad passed on some translation work for me to do and I’ll be doing that for the coming weeks while planning on how to move forward with my own projects. I’ve also fixed up a few things on nomadicneil.com including improving the SEO of the site. All I need to do now is choose some ads to put up so I can squeeze a few dollars out of you guys as well. You know I’m relying on you to pay for my cocktails right?

BTW, if you’re interested to know, the price for my accommodation is 7500 Thai Baht / 225 USD / 138 GBP / 152 EUR per month. Just a simple room, nice clean bed, a fan and a cold shower. The apartment my friends stay in is 1200 THB / 362 USD / 221 GBP / 245 EUR per month. They get air-conditioning, internet included and a warm shower. Plus they have a cleaner come in whenever they want. As you can see I’m slumming it somewhat, but I’m easy going. As long as I have a clean bed and a mosquito net I’m happy.

BTW, if anyone has any questions for me about anything just leave them in the comments section and I’ll be happy to answer them.

Right now I’m sitting in a nice air-conditioned cafe on the island of Koh Lanta, off the west coast of Thailand, drinking a cool Mango shake. Myam, myam!

But let me back up for a moment. I spent the first two weeks after my last day at work getting vaccinations, packing stuff and figuring out what I wanted to take with me. My parents were kind enough to keep hold of most of my things, mostly clothes, saving me from using a storage facility.

Although the initial plan was to go to Thailand with one other friend, in the end two other people decided to join us. So on Wednesday the 18th of November the 4 of us boarded a plane to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, we stayed one night to recover from the 13 hour flight and from there flew to Krabi in the South of Thailand. We had arranged a mini-bus to take us to the island of Koh Lanta and 4 hours later we were chilling on the beach. I won’t lie… it was actually overcast for the first 3 days! I waited till the sun came out to take pictures though. Now the sky is clear and the temperature is probably in the high 20’s or early 30’s (Degrees Centigrade).

Over the past few days we’ve been looking for accommodation that we ca stay in for at least a couple of months and that provides us with all the facilities we need, not too far from the beach, close to bars and restaurants and with WiFi internet included.

We rented scooters and combed the island, speaking to expats, locals, estate agents and property investors. It’s been quite hard work searching for 6 hours a day, but we have settled upon an arrangement which should allow us to work towards our goals. It’s been quite challenging satisfying everyone’s needs and wants. In fact not everyone is completely satisfied. It’s was sometimes frustrating because I’m used to travelling on my own and don’t need to think about anyone else but myself. But we’re not just here for a holiday and we’ll have to compromise on some things in order to get work done.

Other than looking for a place to live we’ve been doing Yoga and short meditation sessions on the beach, having the occasional massage and have spent time chatting up Swedish / Canadian / Dutch tourists at the local beach bars in the evenings. Hard life.

Anyway, this is going to be the first proper week of work, exciting times!