when i got to bangkok for the first time it just had that pulse you've got this kind of street level city which is your food vendors and your people running to work and taxis and motorbikes there's a real energy on the street and then there's also sort of this sky city that's happening in these skyscrapers that is fancy rooftop bars and restaurants as well as interesting working spaces and malls so you have the contrast of everything from the fancy chanel store to the 20 cent pork on a stick skewer being grilled on the street my name is jesse schoberg i'm 41 years old and i relocated to bangkok thailand on about eight thousand dollars a month i'm an entrepreneur and a web developer i've been working online for about 20 years i currently run a company called drop and blog i think a lot of entrepreneurs kind of lend themselves to being nomads as well because there is some sort of a seek of adventure and freedom that kind of comes from both sides i decided that thailand was a place that i would like to live when i first came here in 2015 the quality in life in thailand compared to the united states i'd say for ninety percent of things is much better it's a very easy life compared to the us as well as you're dealing with a bit of a currency arbitrage the thai people are much different than in the us it's a much friendlier more relaxed and more inviting it's generally a culture that is interested in meeting foreigners and different people and it's just a very welcoming place in thailand there's not much to miss when it comes to food being in a major city here you really have pretty much every type of food in the world and thai food is amazing so japanese food korean food there's a lot of a lot of great things here i live much better in thailand than i did in the us while i could afford a a pretty nice life in the u.s it's just the the level of services that you get here are completely blowing away what you get in the u.s so it really makes the life more luxurious i live in a one-bedroom service department i pay 2 700 a month we're in a very trendy district and my fiance and i both live here it includes quite a few amenities including all utilities electric internet as well as cleaning and some laundry it's very full service and i find that removes a lot of my life admin time and allows me to be more productive and have a lot more free time there's amazing versions of fresh food all over the country that you can get full meal that's freshly made of fresh ingredients for around a dollar fifty and you can't really do that anywhere in the states or europe this includes grab which is their local version of uber as well as the local bts which is their train system i originally grew up in southern wisconsin about an hour and a half north of chicago i grew up in a small town not too much trouble also not too much adventure and not too much drive to achieve exciting things so i always had the idea that i wanted to get out i had been to panama city panama on a vacation once and i really enjoyed it so i thought i'd give it a shot once i saw a few other people that were doing a little bit more traveling gave me some inspiration to go explore some new places and move on from panama during the pandemic i was living in mexico city for quite a while but i always knew that i liked it better here in asia and that's why i kind of retreated back to thailand as my base if you're planning to spend a lot of time in thailand there's quite a few different visa options available there's a business visa as well as a thai elite visa and they're working on a new one called the long-term resident visa the business visas are usually annual renewables and then the thai elite visa is a five-year visa that costs about eighteen thousand dollars and gives you unlimited access to thailand as well as entry and exit privileges but the visa options are changing regularly and they are starting to put together some new options so it's best to check with an immigration lawyer and see what the best option for your situation is a lot of people think that thailand is a scary place but in reality it's a lot safer and a lot more calm and a lot more inviting than most other places in the world safety in thailand is something that a lot of nomads really appreciate even here a major city in bangkok there's just not a huge amount of street crime as far as language barriers are concerned here in bangkok you can definitely get by with english especially in the more central more touristic areas however learning thai has been a huge advantage the thai people really appreciate it and as a foreigner you can really engage in the culture and have a better life if you do have some level of thai i think it's important to respect locals in any place that you are a guest and again the thai people really appreciate as well and your life is better it's really a win-win to practice the local language i met my fiance janine in the philippines she was living there and is born there and she was working for a startup and we kind of hit it off we're planning to have our wedding in phuket later this year and some people might think that planning a wedding abroad might be a bit more difficult but actually things are very organized here in thailand and we have a planner that's helping out and it's been going very smoothly so far i don't really have any plans to move back to the us i plan to keep thailand as one of my bases for the foreseeable future i find living outside of the states uh a bit more interesting it's fascinating to learn about different cultures and have authentic foods around the world as well as just uh interact with different people with different ideas i find the states to be a bit complicated the last few years and it doesn't really feel like it's getting better if you're looking to become a digital nomad and live around the world my first advice is to try to have either some level of savings or ideally a low level of income that is already being generated on the internet i think if you're looking to relocate to thailand or bangkok the best thing is to join some of the facebook groups either around the city that you're looking to move to or possibly around any interest that you have then you can start to interact with locals and ask some of your questions and that will help your transition process a lot i definitely recommend spending time in thailand it's a special place and while it might not be for everyone it is worth a try and it's a very beautiful place with amazing people you