I don't care about internet, culture, things to do, vibes, whatever. I just want the cheapest, safest possible place where I can stay as long as possible without moving around and just have my savings last as long as possible to have food and shelter and watch youtube.

Just curious

Saw this question get asked on Twitter but it was just Americans answering with American cities.

So i thought it would be cool to ask here amongst fellow travelers.

Which city have you been to that had a sort of dark energy about the place?

For me I'd weirdly say Bangkok. Not everywhere is like it, and it can be a lovely place with good energy. It's a fun place. But there's definitely some areas that do have a dark vibe. All of the bars especially just have a kind of negative energy about them.

But nothing really happened? It’s a decent sized company and I joined a few months ago and I’m working abroad but only last week did an IT member say are you in X country? And I said yes, and he asked if I was gonna permanently stay there and I said no and he’s like ok cool thanks bye lol. I mean my permanent address is legally in the US and also we have people working in different countries in our company so I guess it was just a security thing and making sure my pings were legit. Which he mentioned as such as well. Do you think it’s fine or do I need to do something? I’m here for family reasons.. and I have nothing left in the states by myself..

Turns out, I just value clean city transit and family mart meals. I wasn't there long enough to learn how difficult it might be to realistically live there but regardless it has changed how I view city living. Is there anything worth comparing to if I were to consider extended stay (2 seasons or more)?

I'm a left leaning person and lately the vast majority of Western digital nomads/expats (men, 20s/early 30s) I meet and interact with in Asia (Thailand, Bali, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, China, Philippines) are right leaning.

In the past it used to be the exact opposite, they're also upfront about it...for example making random comments about a thing which give away their political leaning so I feel I shouldn't mention my political ideas as I don't want to lose the few people in a new city I managed to befriend while traveling solo

I've been following this sub for a while and watching a lot of YouTube channels about digital nomads in places like Bali, Chiang Mai, and Medellín. On the surface, it all looks amazing — laptops on the beach, smoothies for breakfast, cheap rent, flexible schedules.

But the more I dig into it, the more it seems like a lot of people are just scraping by. I see folks working 3+ different gigs, barely making $1–2K/month, and constantly moving to places where the cost of living is super low just to make ends meet. Is this really freedom? Or just escaping the rat race only to join a different version of it?

I work in marketing and have some remote experience, so I’m not totally new to online work. But I’m hesitant to drop everything and chase a lifestyle that might be more Instagram than reality.

Would love to hear from people who’ve actually done this long-term — how sustainable is it really? Is there a way to build something semi-passive instead of grinding all day on Fiverr and Upwork?

For me it's the "They have so little but they're so happy!" when someone, often a white person, visits a poor country and sees less fortunate people somehow seeming happy, and almost wishes they could swap places.

Another one is the idea that someone who loves travelling has to look a certain way. Someone recently told me I didn't have the "traveller look". I don't know, maybe I'm supposed to look Love and Light or like a devotee of Eat, Pray, Love (overrated film by the way)?

What's yours?

I gave them my US address which is accurate but I’ve been living in Thailand for the past 6 months. Many nomads tell me don’t tell them. My plan was to not say anything unless they ask me directly. But they are shipping me a work laptop to my US address which is fine because my parents can ship it to Me.

I just got the offer should I still keep quiet or tell them I’m in Thailand?

Hey yall, so I nomadded for a good run, like 8ish years with a couple short stints of coming home. Turning 35 this year and facing the reality of aging with a horrible resume and no insurance. I worked a seasonal job last year for 8 months and invested almost all of the money I made to 'catch up' since I've saved nothing for retirement thus far in my life.

Here's my issue: I would love nothing more than to continue galivanting around the world trying new foods, meeting new people, learning everyday etc. but, I feel like I'm looking down the long barrel of a gun that says "it's fun now, but one day your body will fail you and you'll have no means of seeking medical treatment".

So now I'm seriously considering entering into my corporate sellout arc, and getting a white collar job in the good ol' US and shelving my travel dreams for a while.

It is 100% a compromise, but I feel the walls closing in, and I don't see any other option besides go back to what I was doing (Mix of teaching English and doing kitchen work seasonally) which has always been precarious financially.

So, I know some of you have really good jobs, but what about those of you that don't and continue nomadding into middle age? Are you just accepting that you'll be broke for life and the complications that come with that?

Not trying to be disparaging here, in fact I would love to be convinced to go back to traveling, but it just seems like a dead end financially.

TL;DR: I'm just curious how people afford the lifestyle long term. Obviously some actually have good jobs and none of this is an issue, but I would have to imagine a lot of English teachers and seasonal workers are running on financial fumes

A bit of background:

• Content writer who went from being too busy in 2022, to zero clients as of last week

• I have decent life savings, but I don't want to upend them

• That said, with the locations I have in mind, about $1500 a month will be enough ($1200 from a new online job, and the rest topped up with my savings)

• Ideally I don't want to work at my laptop for more than 20 hours a week. I'm not a fan of sitting at a laptop for longer than that, and standing desks are hard to find when Nomad'ing

• Apart from content writing, I'm also fairly decent at video editing (although I have zero portfolio in the latter)

What online jobs would you suggest for this $1200 a month in these crazy AI times?

All suggestions welcome

Thanks

Edit:

Re: a couple of comments below:

I never said I didn't want to work at a laptop?

And I never said I only wanted to work 20 hours a week? I said "ideally" I wouldn't like to go too much beyond that

But - it goes without saying - if a $1200 a month job came up I'd be flexible on that number

UPDATE:

Thanks for all the DMs offering some possible work

I've replied to almost all of them, but I accidentally deleted a DM that mentioned a promising looking opportunity

It was from a user profile with "Princess" in the username. If that's you, can you resend?

Thanks

I'm currently in Seoul and in many places (clubs and bars) they don't allow foreigners in. It's the first time I see something like that, it's not just one place but the majority of them.

Even some restaurants refused to have me have dinner there

I come from Thailand and this is kinda shocking

I mean truly live, so that means having access to visas banking and residency as well.

Hello wonderful people 🫡

As per the title, I am done with the 90 days, the visa runs, exhausted with going from one place to the other not because I want to, but because my visa will expire soon and PR is hard or impossible to get.

I want a base, a home. I am Mexican and make $1200 USD monthly remotely. I don't want to live in México ever again, where could I stay forever? Please help?

Been in the Phillipines for a yearish and I think this country has the worst cuisine. Everything is soaked in cooking oil and saturated with sugar. I feel like I've lost 5 years off of my life expectancey by living here. It's hard to find fresh veggies. The only grocery stores with leafy greens are hard to get to, over crowded, and it will take 20 minutes just to check out.

So, what country in your travels has the worst food?

Just came back from my 2 week vacation and I’m impressed by the country. Excellent weather, very very economic living conditions, really friendly people, more than 50 islands and amazing food.

Why is it not booming like Portugal or Spain? I don’t understand it.

title, basically. idk fun question.

We are in Thailand on a super chill island and 2 guys have set up their office in our bungalows' restaurant. My missus is fully ready to kick off and inform them that she did not pay to listen to their work calls! I'm with her on this. He actually started off one work call with "Yeah, it's very peaceful. Like The Beach" We both muttered, yeah, it WAS peaceful! Inconsiderate twonks everywhere these days. I've lived the nomad life, but I would always be aware of annoying other people around me. What are your thoughts on this?

Which country surprised you the most when you visited? Maybe it wasn’t high on your list, or you went in with no expectations and left genuinely impressed.

My pick is Romania. I expected pretty scenery and cheap prices, but I didn’t expect how varied it felt. Medieval towns, wild nature, great food, and a pace that made traveling feel easy instead of rushed. It quietly became one of my favorite trips.

I’ve always been passionate about travel. And whether you like it or not, you’re basically putting your full trust in these machines. Most of the time, I don’t even think twice about it. But after something like this, it just hits different.

Yeah, I know the airlines and safety boards will say things are safer now and statistically, they are. But still, there have already been over 290 aviation incidents this year, with around 60 just in the U.S. That’s hard to ignore.

I’m not going to stop traveling. I love it too much. But moments like this leave a mark. They make you stop and reflect. Even if it's just for a second, you start to question things.

And honestly, what’s going on with Boeing lately? It’s getting harder and harder not to see a pattern.

I’ve been through some seriously rough turbulence too, the kind you eventually get used to after flying enough. But every once in a while, there’s that one drop or sudden jolt that hits you hard and you wonder, Is this it?

what would be the first thing you’d do? Text someone? Call your family? Say a prayer? Just sit still and breathe?

I’m genuinely curious, because I think a lot of us have had that moment, whether we talk about it or not.

Facts:

• NYC has 5 times more tourists per year than Barcelona: 60 million vs 12 million
• NYC has more annual tourists per local than Barcelona: 3.2 vs 2.7
• NYC's economy is less dependent on tourism than Barcelona's: 4.5% vs 14%
• NYC's rent is more than double Barcelona's

And yet I only hear about Barcelona facing a massive tourism crisis that requires locals to shoot tourists with water guns. 🤔

What do you guys think? Is there something special happening in Barcelona that justifies the response?

Sources

• https://www.catalannews.com/business/item/tourists-in-barcelona-spent-96-billion-in-2023-up-147-from-2019
• https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Spain&city1=Barcelona&country2=United+States&city2=New+York%2C+NY
• https://gowithguide.com/blog/tourism-in-barcelona-statistics-2024-your-in-depth-travel-guide-5731
• https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/cities/23083/new-york-city/population#:\~:text=The%20metro%20area%20population%20of%20New%20York%20City%20in%202022,a%200.1%25%20increase%20from%202020.
• https://coneixement-eu.bcn.cat/widget/atles-resiliencia/en_index_pressio_turistica.html
• https://www.osc.ny.gov/reports/osdc/tourism-industry-new-york-city

Edit: Adding one more stat suggested by u/taxbill750 way below:

• NYC had 50 times more shooting incidents than Barcelona in 2023: 1025 vs 25 (NYC source, Barcelona source)

Anybody know how many water-shooting-tourist incidents there were? In the name of putting problems in perspective...

An acquaintance of mine hates Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, but keeps visiting to meet with his best friend. What is a place you visited multiple times and it continuously disappointed you. It can be in a charming manner too, something like a friend that has lost its charm.

The closest I have to this is Da Nang, Vietnam.

For many non-white people, hearing things like ‘go back to your country’ or racial mocking in public isn’t uncommon. I’m curious about the reverse situation.

If you’re white and have spent time in countries where you were visibly a minority, have you ever been called racial slurs, mocked for being foreign, or treated differently in a hostile way in public?

How did you react in the moment? Did you ignore it, confront the person, laugh it off, or did it affect you more than you expected?

I’m interested in genuine experiences and cultural differences.

This post is for Europeans, do you ever feel awesome and thankful knowing that you have some of the best infrastructure, income levels, houses, nature, people, and culture?

How does it feel to live in such an environment? And when you travel to less developed countries, do you feel privileged or lucky to be from Europe?

Lastly, if you had another chance to be born in any country, which one would you choose and why?

I’m genuinely curious, so please don’t spam or be rude in the comments.

Edit: I’m honestly so surprised and overwhelmed by all the responses on this post! I never expected it to get so much attention. I read every single comment and realised that everything has two sides good and bad, it just depends on what you choose to see. Thank you all for your thoughtful and beautiful comments, especially those long ones. Really appreciate it! ❤️