NuNomad

Meet the Nomads - Family on Bikes

by Carmen

Through wanderings of Twitterland I came upon @familyonbikes and was intrigued by their bi-contintental cycling adventure with two young sons.  The Vogel family has literally been "on the road" for two years now.  Beginning in Alaska they have slowly biked their way to Costa Rica and will continue until they reach the tip of Argentina.  In doing so, their youngest son, Davy, will be the youngest person in world history to make this biking trek.  Read on to hear from Nancy Sathre-Vogel about their life on bikes.

I see on your site that the two of you were biking long before you had children.  How many bike trips had you done before this adventure and what countries did you see?

John has been cycling much longer than me, but together we cycled through Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, China, Yemen, Mali, and Israel.  He has also cycled in Australia, Zimbabwe, Norway, Taiwan, and Malaysia.  Of course, we’ve also cycled quite a bit in the USA and Mexico as well. 

Taking your children on such a long and physically demanding journey must have been a huge decision.  How did you make the choice that this would be your way to travel and how did your children’s ages factor into the decision?

John and I had always dreamed of taking off for a year-long journey with our kids, but we figured it would always remain just a dream like most people’s dreams do.  But one day John came home after a particularly rough day in the classroom and told me he wanted to take off on a bike trip.  I thought he was crazy – I mean, parents just don’t do that!! 

For the next three weeks John kept talking about the bike trip and he managed to convince me that we only live once, and we had to take advantage of this time with the kids if we were ever to do it.  Four weeks after John first raised the idea, we ordered our bicycle built for three.  Two months after that, we were on the road.

Our biggest concern at that point was that the kids wouldn’t like touring by bicycle.  We had quit our jobs, spent $6000 on a bike, and taken off.  And if the boys didn’t enjoy it?  We were terrified. 

It became evident immediately that our concerns were unfounded – the boys loved their life on the road!  They took to cycle touring like a duck to water.

And so it is that we are still on the road – this time riding from Alaska to Argentina.  The boys learn way more on the road than they ever could in a classroom, and they love what they are doing.  For me and John, this is our one and only chance to spend this time with our boys – soon they will be grown and have lives of their own.  Right now, they are enjoying being with their parents – and their parents enjoy being with them! 

Do you cycle every day or take days of rest on a regular schedule? 

We take lots of days off.  LOTS!!  In fact, we cycle less than 50% of the days. 

How do you decide how long you will stay in a location?

That depends on a lot of factors – what there is to do in that place, how tired we are, what the weather is like, etc…  Basically, when we are ready to move on, we do. 

I see you have many sponsors both corporate and individual.  Have you been able to sustain your life on the road through sponsorships and donations? If not, are you also deriving income from other means while on the road?

We do have a few corporate sponsors who are providing gear, and a few individuals who donate a small amount of cast each month.  However, the vast majority of our expenses are coming from our retirement account.

John and I decided that life is too short to not take advantage of it.  Our boys will only be boys once.  This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so we decided to go for it.  We will be poorer when we retire, but we’ll have loads of memories!! 

How do you fit homeschooling into your life?

For the most part, our journey is the boys’ teacher.  They learn so much simply by traveling around the world!  Mother Nature is also an awesome teacher and the boys learn tons from her. 

That being said, there are a few areas where the learning can’t come so naturally.  For those areas, we supplement their education with actual lessons.  We have math books with us, and the boys work on that in the tent or hotel rooms.  They also write journals or essays occasionally and are learning to make video documentaries.  They are both avid readers, so our biggest challenge in that area is finding English books!

 

Can you describe the Reach the World program you are participating in?  How does it work for you and the kids in NYC who watch?

Reach the World is an exciting program!  We are connected with classrooms in NYC via the internet, and we become the eyes and ears of the kids in those classes.  Each week we post online about our experiences – writing, photos, and videos.  The kids call that up and learn about the world through our experiences.  It is a neat way for disadvantaged kids to have a chance to experience the world. 

Do you have any advice for nomadic families based on your experiences so far?

The main piece of advice I have is to never, ever, not even for one nanosecond doubt your children!!  Children have an amazing ability to do way more than we give them credit for!

To learn more about the Vogel family, please visit their website Family on Bikes

And We're Off! Our Family NomadingYear Begins

By Carmen

Getting ready to take off for a year of travel means a lot of activity around the departure date!  With our departure from Austin, Texas set for June 22nd there was a lot to do in the final weeks.  Our dear friends from the kids' school hosted a going away party for us, complete with Brazilian capirinhas.  It was a wonderful way to be able to say goodbye to more people than we would have been able to have individual time with.  The girls got to spend some final moments swimming, dancing and playing basketball and ping pong with their friends, and Tony and I got to have some fun conversations with other parents.  It may have been somewhat awkward for Tony since he is not able to do the whole trip with us.  Both he and I answered many questions about how this would work and when he would visit.  I think for a lot of families it is difficult to imagine being separated for this length of time.  Ideally, Tony would join us, but unfortunately in his particular career as a state employee, telecommuting has not yet become acceptable.

After a very lovely evening, we turned our attentions to the final preparations.  The addition of our house needed to be readied to rent.  A renter had already been found through our school community and we needed to remove all of our personal belongings and get the place clean.  I was thinking it shouldn't be too difficult since we had only lived in the addition ourselved for 2 years but it is amazing how many personal items and dust can accumulate in even a short time.  As everything got emptied out, Mia and her friend, Bianca (who will be joining us in Brazil) had a grand time climbing to the top shelves of the closet and peering over the walls!  It is our hope to break even with the money we spend for rent in Brazil and what we bring in in Austin.

I tried each day to do a few hours of preparation and be sure to include some fun in the day.  Since the kids were already out of school it was too much to ask for all work and no play.  We spent time visiting our favorite swimming spots in Austin, including Deep Eddy and Barton Springs.  During these last few days our oldest daughter turned 16 so we also had a birthday celebration and attended an outdoor concert. 

Since our new renter will be sharing the kitchen with Tony, my cleaning efforts needed to extend to other parts of the house.  I'm really not a great housekeeper!  I'd rather be working or homeschooling than mopping.  As a result, I was pulling things out of the refrigerator that looked like the mummified remains of King Tut!

On to packing.

One of the biggest challenges with this particular trip is that we are starting out in the summer of the U.S. and moving on to the winter of Brazil.  We hear Florianopolis is having one of it's coldest winters and friends have told us to bring full winter clothing.  I have been determined to keep everyone to one suitcase and one carry on with the exception of my daughter's viola.  The cello did not make the cut!  In order to do this and have access to summer clothes for the first leg and winter clothes for the second leg I did this: I had each of us pack our summer things and as many winter things as possible into our alloted bags.  Then I mailed a box to Connecticut with our winter coats and a few sundry items like school books.  We have been using our summer clothes on the east coast. When we depart the east coast on July 7 we will unpack our winter coats and put our summer clothes into the box.  I will mail the box of summer clothes to Brazil (since we won't need them for a couple of months).  That way hopefully we will save some money.  I found it was pretty difficult to weigh our bags at home and only hoped we were within the 50 lb limit.  The picture you see is everything we took for 4 people to stay away for a year (minus the box of winter clothes).

With everything ready to go, we awakened at 6 am and Tony drove us to the airport.  We said a short goodbye since we would see Tony a few days later on the East Coast and moved towards check-in only to find that one of our bags was overweight by 6 pounds.  Rather than pay the fine we did a frantic re-arrangement of stuff from the offending bag to another slightly underweight bag and were able to get everyone into compliance.  The flight from Austin to Dallas was uneventful. Unfortunately the travel took a turn at this point.

We had a scheduled 3 hour layover in Dallas. This turned into a 4, then 5, then 6 hour layover as the flights were delayed for weather in Boston. Next, we were told the landing gear on the plane was broken.  Finally, we chose to spend the night in Dallas when it became clear that our arrival in Boston would be well after public transportation shut down.  This was the right move as it turned out other people waited much longer and eventually the flight did not go at all.  We tried to make the most of our night in a somewhat seedy hotel with a final meal of Tex-Mex food and breakfast of Texas shaped waffles!

We were very happy to finally arrive in Boston that afternoon where we stayed with cousins for 2 nights.  It is so wonderful to be able to reconnect with family and for the kids to have a sense of how there cousins live on the other side of the U.S.  We were greeted with cool temperatures and rain.  Although all of our East Coast friends were feeling down about the un-summerlike temperatures, I was overjoyed to be out of the Texas 100+ heat!  Our cousins live on a lovely pond and there is a feeling you are in the wilderness even though in reality it is the suburbs.  The kids also enjoyed feeding their chickens, seeing their huge vegetable garden and eating my sister-in-law's homemade yogurt, strawberry syrup and fresh eggs.

From the suburbs of Northborough, Massachusetts we made our way to the town of Cohasset.  Cohasset is on the Massachusetts shoreline north of Cape Cod and is the town that was used in the filming of "The Witches of Eastwick" with Jack Nicholson.  It is the quintessential New England shore town with lovely homes and gardens.  Here we stayed with an old college friend of mine and her family.  My 8 year old was completely impressed when our 10 year old hostess told us she owned her own sailboat.  We walked to the end of their block where a boat picked us up to take us to the Cohasset Yacht Club.  Here my friend's daughter took each of the girls out on her sailboat one at a time for a short ride.  It's amazing how a 10 year old child can command her own boat with such precision!  Unfortunately, all the water in Cohasset was closed to swimming due to bacteria so the next day we went to the shore in Scituate.  Here the water has nice big waves, there is a long stretch of sandy beach and a rock that makes a natural slide.  We finished our visit with burgers and ice cream at the local street side joint.  Then on to Connecticut.

 South Lyme Connecticut is the home of Point O' Woods, a beach community where my mother in law's father built a vacation home in the late 40's.  We arrived here 3 days ago and will remain until we fly to Brazil next Monday.  Our family has enjoyed our visits here for many years but not until I was able to make my income mobile have we been able to stay for longer periods.  It's great to let the kids enjoy the same traditions that their parents, grandparents and great grandparents have enjoyed.  Ice cream on the beach, beach movies, crabbing and swimming to the dock are but a few of them.  Yesterday was spent catching 57 crabs and letting them race back to the water 2 at a time, then finding sea glass.  Later we'll go hunting for an abandoned grave in the woods.

The challenge ahead of us lies in reconfiguring our luggage for the trip to Brazil and trying to get the girls to continue practicing their Rosetta Stone Portuguese despite the constant lure of fun with their cousins.  I can't tell you how thankful I am to be traveling again, to be able to give our kids these experiences and to be able to maintain my work while doing so.

Meet the Nomads - Brian - Around the World with No Debt!

 by Carmen

I recently met Brian of No Debt World Travel through Twitter (@brianepeters).  While he's not a NuNomad in the sense of maintaining his income while on the road, I was intrigued by his experience of a round the world trip without incurring any credit card debt.  In addition, as an African American traveler, he has written about some of his unique experiences while on the road.  Brian's sense of humor and positive outlook is amazing. Enjoy!

Brian, I’m intrigued by your blog, No Debt World Travel.  Obviously, you began your adventure attempting to prove that you could travel around the world without going into debt.  How long were you on the road, what did you see, and did you stay out of debt?

I stayed on the road for four months and covered 4 continents. Australia, South America and Antarctica will have to wait for the next trip. I visited

Hilo, Hawaii
Tokyo, Japan
Bangkok, Thailand
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Hong Kong, China
Cape Town, South Africa
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
London, United Kingdom
Paris, France
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Athens, Greece
Barcelona, Spain
Marrakesh, Morocco
Rome, Italy

When I arrived back home, there were NO travel charges from the trip on any credit cards. Completely debt free! Currently planning the next trip!

I saw that you started your trip with savings.  Did you travel entirely on this savings or did you derive some income while on the road?  If so, what did you do to create income?

This was all done on savings. I realize now that if I wanted to stay longer in places there were plenty of opportunities to work locally by teaching English, working in hostels, or like many nomads do now, freelance over the Internet.

I realized that teaching English is huge overseas. So many want to learn because it provides more opportunities for better paying jobs.

What type of airline ticket did you purchase?  Round the world or did you buy as you went?  What have been the pros and cons of your ticket choice?

I bought a round the world ticket from Airtreks. I could have chosen a round the world ticket from one of the airline alliances or gone with an agent like Airtreks.

Airtreks goes for the cheapest possible price regardless of the airline and pieces them together into one round the world itinerary. The problem is potentially the airlines connecting are not in sync so tickets are not carried over as easily for the next flight.

An airline alliance (Sky Team, OneWorld or Star Alliance) are groups of airlines that have codeshare agreements, use connecting terminal space, etc. So for example, American Airlines and Japan Airlines are part of OneWorld. American would take me from New York to Los Angeles and then I could connect to Japan Airlines from Los Angeles to Tokyo, Japan. With an alliance the connections and reservation setup should be seamless and should make the trip much easier.

When I got to Europe I bought the tickets as I went, usually departing from the smaller Gatwick Airport outside London. I also used the EuroStar train from London to Paris. That was a very enjoyable ride and I highly recommend it. Just book early to get the best prices.

What did you find were the best ways to save money while traveling?  What mistakes did you see others making in terms of money spent while on the road?

I stayed in hostels which I am a big advocate of. I stayed in Hawaii for $25US a night. Tokyo was $30US. Those were the highest prices I experienced the entire trip, except when I splurged at the Venetian in Macau for my birthday. Thailand was $13US a night. In Cambodia I was in a hotel, but it was $6US a night! SIX DOLLARS!

Hostels are far beyond what the movies portray them to be. You can get clean, centrally located hostels with great roommates. In fact the only problem I had was a loud snorer in a few rooms. Otherwise, everyone is there to enjoy themselves. I also saw families and older travelers, so hostels are not just for the straight out of school 21 year old. (If You are Nervous About Staying in Hostels..)

The biggest cost would be food. For those of us who don’t want to live on Ramen noodles and candy bars, it can be tricky. I tried to pick hostels that had kitchens with functioning stoves and refrigerators. One of first things I did after getting settled was to find the nearest grocery store and buy some pasta, meat, etc. Take it back to the hostel and cook up something there for cents on the dollars and will last for a few meals. I did a lot of that in Tokyo and Rome. Cheap food was most plentiful in Thailand. No need to do that there.

You are the first African American nomad that I have interviewed.  Knowing that race relations vary greatly from country to country would you say you had any unique travel experiences by virtue of being African American?  Were there any particular places that you have found to be especially welcoming or unwelcoming because of race?

My experience has been great. I did not have any issues. Needless to say I stand out in a crowd in certain places overseas, and my uniqueness usually makes me the center of ‘good’ attention.

When I was at the Venetian in Macau, a group of Asian tourists stopped to take pictures with me for a solid 5 minutes. Not like I’m not famous already (ok, maybe in my own mind) but I don’t think they ever met an African of ANY descent before. Too bad we could not understand each other or else I would have found out where they are from. (Instant Celebrity)

In Cambodia I was invited to a wedding reception. I was the only non-Cambodian at the event. I got a couple of looks when I walked in, but by the time the music started and the drinks started flowing, I was a member of the family. Had a blast! (Cambodian "Invited" Wedding Crasher)

Also in Cambodia, once we got away from the city and into the countryside, you could tell people had never/rarely seen a Black person. Kids would stop and wave. I swear one girl’s jaw dropped and she pointed when she saw me. I never took it personally because I never felt the comments or reactions were malicious. They were just surprised to see me.

In Ethiopia women wanted to marry me … within 10 minutes of meeting me. Ethiopia is a lovely country, nothing like the images of “We Are The World” from the 80s, but poverty is still prevalent. A little bit of crazy, funny and sad all at the same time. (Who Loves Ya Baby? Apparently...Everyone)

Anywhere on the continent of Africa I get mistaken for South African, Ghanaian, Moroccan, Senegalese, basically name any country there. While in Marrakesh, vendors called me ‘Barack Obama’ to get me to buy their goods or sit at their food stalls.

When walking through Marrakesh on foot the people would say, “Welcome Marrakesh! So nice to have you here!” And they would honestly mean it.

The point: No matter your race, gender or nationality, go into any new situation with an open heart and mind and everything will be OK. Smiles and laughter are universal and the tools of any good traveler. Use them early and often.

If you were to start your adventure over again would you do anything differently?

I would not have waited so long. Even when I booked the ticket I would say I had an even amount of excitement and nervousness. Once I touched down in Hilo, HI all the nervousness dissipated. Not for any particular reason, but I committed myself to my trip and all the anxiety was gone.

I would really use Couchsurfing next time around. I love hostels because of the low prices and the great people you meet, but Couchsurfing would have been a whole new experience. Meeting a local up close and personal would have added a whole new dimension to the trip. That is as close to living there as you can possibly be.

Lastly I would try to find a volunteer opportunity. I tried to do some work in Cambodia, but there was not enough time to get things setup. As a Westerner when you travel you realize what you have, even if you think it is a little bit, could be more than someone could ever imagine to have. If I can I’d like to give something besides money.

All the little things I’ve learned about the trip and round the world travel I am releasing in a book this summer. Once you get out there you see it is not that difficult and I want to get that message out to people. So please visit No Debt World Travel to find out about that.

Survey Results - Money, Nomads, and Fears

Recently the results of a survey created by Free Pursuits and Location Independent have come out and the results are really interesting. While there is a lot in the data, I'd like to focus today on the area of money fears and realities among location independent/nomadic people and those who want to be. When asked the question, "What's the greatest fear you have about location independent living?" there was a significant percentage of both current nomads (we'll use this term from here on since it is brief) and aspiring nomads who named financial issues as their biggest fear. These financial issues were expressed in many ways including fear of running out of money, fear of losing their income source, fear of their businesses drying up, etc. So I wanted to take a closer look at these fears against the reported realities.

Current nomads were asked the questions, "Do you earn more or less since you became location independent?" and "Do you spend more or less since you became location independent?" Aspiring nomads were asked, "Do you think you will earn more or less when you become location independent?", and "Do you think you will spend more or less when you become location independent?"

Current nomads reported the following:
"Do you earn more or less since you became location independent?"

13 much less
23 less
11 same
22 more
11 much more

"Do you spend more or less since you became location independent?"

24 much less
29 less
18 same
16 more
3 much more

Aspiring nomads expressed the following:
"Do you think you will earn more or less when you become location independent?"

14 much less
50 less
27 same
52 more
15 much more

"Do you think you will spend more or less when you become location independent?"
19 much less
67 less
45 same
34 more
3 much more

For those of you, who like me, are visual learners, please click below to see a 3D chart of these results compared
Download Money and Nomads
Here's what I find interesting in these results:

If you look at the distribution of actual nomad earnings you will see that it is almost completely balanced. While 11 reported no change in income 33 reported earning more/much more and 36 reported earning less/much less. Differences between the extreme "much more/less" categories and their less extreme counterparts were also near mirror images of each other.

How does this reality compare to the image aspiring nomads have of earnings while on the road? It's actually pretty accurate. Aspiring nomads showed a similar pattern and distribution for what they imagine they may earn while living an location independent lifestyle. The only differences were in extremities. The actual nomads have less variability in their answers while the aspiring nomads show a steeper curve in those who dream they will earn more or less as compared to earning the same.

Now let's look at spending.

Actual nomads reported a definite reduction in spending while on the road as compared to their former life. Again, aspiring nomads have got an accurate image of this, the only differences being in the degree to which they believe they will spend less.

So, what does this all mean? We see here that there really seems to be no significant differences in earnings for actual nomads or in beliefs about earnings by aspiring nomads. As for spending, the majority of actual nomads are spending less or much less and aspiring nomads are envisioning a pretty accurate although perhaps exaggerated picture of this. In a nutshell, nomads are earning the same and spending less, and onlookers are gaining a fairly accurate picture of the reality.

We return then to the fear factor. In spite of the reality, there lurks a significant fear among actual nomads and aspiring nomads alike that the money coffers are going to dry up while they're on the road. As a coach and former psychologist I've spent a lot of time speaking with people about fears and their dreams. It's important when faced with any fear to try to sort through perception vs. reality. In other words, "You worry that you may run out of money on the road? What is the evidence that tells you this can happen?" "What about being on the road do you think makes you more likely to run out of money or work vs. if you were at home?" Now, I'm not saying that a nomad has never run out of money or work and had to come home. However, I think we can all name enough people who have run out of money or work without ever traveling or living out their dreams.

If you are among the many with this worry another question you might ask yourself would be this, "Given the worse case scenario (perhaps all your clients tell you to shove it in the same week and you are on a mountain in Timbuktu) what would you do?" "Are you really safe from losing your income if you stay home?" "Is it worth it?"

Meet the Nomads - Nomadesigners Weathering the Economic Downturn

by Carmen Bolanos
We first interviewed Greg and Yoko of Nomadesign.jp in May of 2007 living in Tokyo (see Greg and Yoko Nomadesigners in Japan). Greg is French and Yoko, Japanese. Now two years and an economic crisis later these nomads are determined to maintain their international lifestyle. By pairing the maintenance of their own business with work opportunities in their new destination they are keeping afloat through hard times.

Hi Greg and Yoko, when we interviewed you a couple of years ago you were running Nomadesign.jp from Tokyo . Is this still your main professional activity or have things changed for you?

Greg: Let's say it has "evolved" enormously since 2 years ago. I personally work in the same field (identity design) playing very different roles on the top of always being a designer & always using nomadesign.jp. The time-line could be described like this: 2006 setting-up of Nomadesign.jp in Tokyo , good, fast start. 2007 incorporation of Nomadesign in Japan , excellent yearly results, we buy our Tokyo apt. & get married. 2008 things slows down dramatically, the global crisis hits us in the teeth by focusing too much on the Japanese market. I revert back to my online logo design work worldwide while Yoko looks for work as a fashion design teacher. We rent our apt. 2009 Yoko finds work in Beijing , I follow her there & partner with the largest brand design company in China , ZhengBang which is our current situation.

Yoko: Doesn't time fly...? For us, it sure has been like being on the roller coaster these years. Since we are still in the middle of the fast ride, I'm telling you that it's not all fun. Professionally, I have very little to do with Nomadesign's brand design business now, except when our business associates in Japan need me for mediation time to time. As Greg said, I am full-time at Raffles Design Institute Beijing, coaching fashion design students since January.

How did you choose Tokyo in the beginning?

Greg: Choosing Tokyo was a mix bag of choices & necessities. Yoko's business, my desire to comeback to a city I have lived for 8 years already in the 90's. The opportunity to create a business in Japan... all that made us stay a total of 3 years, with the first year still traveling between New York & Paris.

Yoko: I had my business in Tokyo since 2003, originally in apparel design, until Greg and I decided to transform it into the online brand design business. Before then, I spent 7 years in 5 different European countries, so it would've been just fine being back & based in Japan , after all it's my home country, and I thought it must be easier to start & run a business there. In reality, the past 5 years had been pretty much struggling (except 2007), trying to make a smooth ride. Last year, we were slammed not only from the global recession, but also from taxes which were calculated from the income of 2007. It's quite easy to incorporate in Japan as I suppose same in the U.S. , but the taxes are not, at least for start-up small businesses.

What caused you to decide to change locations?

Greg: Yoko's opportunity. A true opportunity has we found out later on for both of us. I personally believe it's one of the best move I have done in my life... but I did not decided this one... I just went with the flow.

Yoko: The application process with the school HQ in Singapore was carried all online for about a month in last December. I signed the contract around christmas and we flew to Beijing on the 2nd of Jan. I guess it was all possible because they do not celebrate the same holidays as we do!

So there was a job opportunity for Yoko, but were there other reasons for choosing Beijing as your next location?

Greg: I contacted someone in Beijing recommended by a good friend of mine, Roberto De Vido. She described Beijing & the opportunities there for people like us in a much better light than what we had imagined. She literally convinced us to come... & can not thank her enough to have given us an accurate description of what we could expect with a great welcome from her when we arrived.

Yoko: The school has many campuses in Pacific countries, so initially I was requesting to be located in either Shanghai , Singapore , Sydney , HongKong, Bangkok or HoChiMinh. We wanted to be in a relatively business-orientated capital with mild or hot climate. There was no position available for me at their campuses, so I said ok to Beijing , after talking with our new friend in Beijing . We had never been here and knew nothing more than what we saw on TV during the Olympics!

What were the challenges of moving your business to Beijing , if any?

Greg: Money of course... despite the fact that Beijing is 3 time cheaper than Tokyo , we still have to pay for things in Japan . After freezing the company we have been helped by Yoko's parents, set up a budget & started renting our apt. The move happened January 2nd 2009 & by January 9th we were in our current Beijing apt... a very new & comfortable 100m2 in the middle of Beijing . We were set in just 1 week. We bought an electric bike for Yoko, which is the preferred instrument of locomotion here & adjusted with the neighborhood... which is a bit of a challenge when you come from Tokyo... these 2 cities are almost complete reverse of each other. I personally have not completely overcome the spitting on the street every 5 minutes by almost everyone... but the humor of Beijingers, the great food & the energy of the city help me overlook negative aspects. After 2 months in Beijing , Yoko found a chihuahua we named Sammie. After 3 months we both had to come back to Tokyo to settle our working visas. We came back at different times & I had to wait almost 1 month in Japan . In the meantime our tenant had to leave because the Japanese division of his company was cut for global crisis. It is now 1 month we have not yet found a new tenant & this is the only thing dragging us down financially right now.

Yoko: Not many locals speak English, so it seems better to know some Mandarin. But if you have a good translator, they are very inexpensive to hire (full-time around $500/month) and you will be fine most of the time. You might have to give up on having total control in communication though. We didn't find it's amusing to have communication problems each time we took a cab, so we bought ourselves electric scooters to travel. I never ride a scooter in other countries including my own, but the electric ones need no fuel, no license and run as fast as the ones with gas, fantastic!

Had you had many Japanese clients and if so, how did they react to your move? How did you handle their reactions?

Greg: We have made more than 150 clients in the past 2 years. The logo design business is often a 1 time business... especially during time of economical struggle. When we started Nomadesign, it was during a boom of individual entrepreneurship in Japan ... something new in this country. But when the economy started to tighten up, small businesses started to fall very fast & entrepreneurial ambitions faded away even faster. But we managed to keep attracting some clients, especially about naming. Knowing I was now working in Beijing , several clients asked me if I could mediate works to create Chinese names for their businesses. It is one of the best opportunities & a major advantage I have found in doing this move.

How has it been so far trying to conduct business in Beijing ?

Greg: The word "great" does not begin to describe it. People I am working with at ZhengBang are absolutely fantastic. We have been lucky to meet a lot of very good people in a very short period of time. Because of my situation as a foreigner in Beijing doing a job very few people do in this country, I have been working on major projects from day one being placed in front of leaders of major/historical Chinese corporations & institutions... something that would have taken me 20-30 years to achieve in Japan or in Europe. Beijing represent a real lucky break in my career at this time. 70% of the top 500 companies in China have made significant moves this year to expand their presence abroad, seeing the global squeeze as a major opening to introduce their brand. I currently play a major role in avoiding cultural gaps & pitfall, making their offering & image relevant to a brand savvy audiences in foreign countries. I also give seminars at ZhengBang to explain certain ways of working & some strategies they have often heard about but never really applied or deeply understood because it does not make sense with a Chinese audience. Chinese people have been cut out from the "global brand story" for the last 30 years. I sometime feel spending my time connecting cross-cultural nodes to give them an accurate picture of the western & Japanese market place... while learning everyday about China & Chinese society which sometimes looks like a parallel world.

Yoko: The oppotunities are certainly here, but unlike in other western orientated cities, they might not be well-packaged and so obvious. You may initially feel less comfort and convenience, because Beijingers are still in the process of discovering many things that we are familiar with, including good service and work ethic. That means the opportunities are still raw, but I heard it is not so anymore in Shanghai , for example.

In the west we hear a lot about the many restrictions and censorship of the internet in China . Are you affected by this? Have you had to change anything about the way you do business? For instance, I notice you now have a blog. Are there any issues for you in posting from China ?

Greg: Apparently my blog has not been censured yet...which is not the case with most of my friends. I do not post much since I arrived in China ... just not enough time. Coming to China I made the decision that I would not debate politics with anyone... & apparently the general Chinese population made the same decision with me, because no-one has asked me what I think about the latest ruling coming from the party. You see plenty of ridiculous stuff... one of the most funny situations was to have a meeting with a dozen brave "comrades" in charge to judge my logos for a major national company they were carefully "minding". I found myself drinking tea in a massive communist style amphitheater too big for the 20 of us, speaking through a table microphone to the other side of the room with valiant farmers, villagers & school teachers looking at my PPT presentation with a bit of amusement due to my "foreignness". But the really annoying part is the "great firewall". I use hotspot shield to go behind it but it slows down my browsing greatly. Since June 4th I feel I am back in 1999... no 1989.

Yoko: It can take longer to upload/ download and we gave up to see YouTube (not only because of the speed problem but the government banned it). It is really annoying that the government controls information here but I felt the same kind of "propaganda" when I visited book shops in France and saw what they wrote about the U.S. few years ago.

Do you have any thoughts about how long you will remain in Beijing ? Do you have a next location in mind?

Greg & Yoko: Yoko's contract is for 2 years. I think we will stay as long as we have comfortable living & fun doing what we do. I also believe, both of us are in position to be traveling a lot for our business, so the base could be China or Japan ... but our general life may bring us in various part of the world. Right now, there is no better location for business than being in Beijing .

Truth in the Nomading World - Are People Really Negotiating Out of 9-5?

Recently there has been a lot of talk about lifestyle design, The 4 Hour Work Week and negotiating your job to allow you to have a nomadic lifestyle. I was just reading a Muselife blog by David Walsh on how to negotiate a remote work agreement. There are lots of good points in it. Timothy Ferriss also spends a lot of time in his book discussing the same thing. In fact, in our upcoming book we touch upon it as well.

Believe me, I'm a big supporter of the idea. Surely there is an inordinate amount of wasted time happening in corporate America - time that could be morphed to allow a person to function outside of the office while maintaining their productivity and working from wherever they please. It all makes a huge amount of sense.

At the same time, though, I have to be honest about what I'm seeing. In my 3 years so far writing on the subject and interviewing nomads I'm running into a lot of self employed entrepreneurs and freelancers. In fact, most of us blogging on this subject I believe fit this description as well. I have as yet to find a nomadic individual who is getting their paycheck from a larger entity where they have negotiated a remote work agreement. That's not to say they aren't out there. I have heard about them - just haven't met one yet. Which leads me to wonder how many people are negotiating remote work agreements successfully and traveling the world?

I'm actually hoping to draw some disagreement here and be introduced to a wealth of people who fit this category because there is a part of me that wants to be wrong about my suspicions. Perhaps the latest survey put out by Location Independent Living and Free Pursuits will shed some light on my question.

If I'm wrong please introduce me to some of these folks because I'd love to know more about what they're doing and for whom. If I'm right - that most people actually nomading are self employed, what does that mean? What I believe it means is that or society hasn't quite arrived to embrace this concept yet and that those folks out there with the balls to push their employers and be at the forefront will pioneer a movement from which everyone will benefit in the future.

Nomading - A Cultural Revolution!

by Carmen Bolanos
June 7, 2009

This morning I was talking with my friend Marcia Pirmez (who, by the way, we are going with to Brazil) and I was reminded of several issues about nomading that are close to my heart. Although I've touched on these in the past it seems time to take a new look at the larger social significance of nomading.

While many people may look upon NuNomading (technomading, digital nomading, location independent living, whatever you'd like to name it) as a trendy alternative lifestyle I firmly believe it is much more than that. In fact, I believe NuNomading has the potential to change the future shape of our country and the world.

How so?

In the larger scheme of things, the world as we know it today ie. rushed, dual working families who commute 30 minutes each way to work, carbon emmissions heavy, time short, is a very recent phenomenon. Until the industrial revolution most families spent their days at home, growing their own foods, creating the daily necessities, raising and possibly homeschooling children. Not until the last couple of centuries has the majority of the population been spending their days away from home and away from each other. Of course, life was not all rosy and our ancestors suffered many hardships we do not now. I'm not suggesting we return to the former way. However, I do think we've allowed some very essential life qualities disappear in the process that need to return.
In addition, we've created some real headaches of stress, pollution, resource shortages and isolation that did not exist previously.

How Does NuNomading Fit In and Why NuNomading Needs to Become a Cultural Force

The emergence of the NuNomading movement offers an alternative answer to many of the above cultural woes while maintaining many of the gains we enjoy today. A typical NuNomad works independently of their location, stays in one location longer than a typical tourist, is an owner of very few material goods, and is in charge of their own schedule.

Let's look at what this can mean to our society:

What this could mean:

for employers -

• lessened need to physically house employees resulting in less overhead for office space.


• higher employee retention. As employees enjoy the freedoms of moving independently, being near family, etc. they will be more likely to remain with their company over a company that is not nomad friendly.


• freedom to choose from a broader geographic pool when finding employees. Want that great programmer from Seattle but your company is in Dallas and the guy doesn't want to leave? No problem.

for individuals -

• the freedom to work from where you want, when you want as long as you are producing.


• the freedom to spend more time with family or friends.


• elimination of commute time.


• elmination of the need for a professional wardrobe.


• the freedom to attend to emerging life situations. For instance, your elderly parent becomes ill out of state. With a NuNomadic lifestyle it is simple to relocate to the parent's home while needed.


• less stress.


• higher ability to make one's own meals while working from home and lessening of temptation to "just stop for fast food" due to stress and time shortages.


• more time to attend to exercise, hobbies, other interests by eliminating commute time and being flexible in your work schedule.


• the choice to live in areas of the world with lower living costs


• the choice to experience other cultures

for families -

• the ability to work from home and attend to family with more freedom.


• the ability to expose children to new cultures and world experiences.


• more family time by eliminating commutes.


• lower living costs by reducing the need for "2 car families" and bringing the option to live in lower cost of living countries

for society as a whole -

• the lessening of carbon emissions, thereby reducing pollution and doing our part to fight climate change.


• improvement of overall health of citizens who are less stressed, able to exercise more and tend to health issues with more freedom.


• improvement of societal cross cultural understanding. As more people experience and learn from cultures foreign to their own, greater understanding will be produced worldwide and a decrease in conflicts will result.


• less stress on resources as people learn to measure their happiness in terms of experiences and not material goods.


• a rise in services geared towards nomadic living ie, shared temporary office space, rotating living spaces, internet cafes, worldwide social networking.

So, what will it take to effect this change? I'd love to hear your thoughts. As I see it, the gains are already clear to many individuals and families who dream of this lifestyle and certainly clear to those already living it. The challenge lies in educating our workplaces and governments as to the benefits for society as a whole. Employers are slowly understanding the benefits of allowing workers to "telecommute" however, there are still many digging in their heels on the issue and even more that begin the heel dig when they hear their telecommuter is considering changing continents. The governmental issue lies in a couple of different arenas. First, relaxing their stance about nomadic travelers upon entry and exit. Governments need to gain understanding that a NuNomadic worker is continuing to pay taxes in their home country, and destination country if laws dictate, is not taking from the local economy but rather contributing to it through their spending. Secondly, in the U.S. as our federal government is the largest employer it is often a workplace trendsetter. Government employers in particular must be encouraged to promote nomadic workers as much as possible.

Power to the Nomad!

How Does a Nomad Get a Vacation?

by Carmen Bolanos
June 4, 2009

OK, so this probably seems like an odd question. I mean, nomads are traveling the world all the time, seeing amazing sites that many people in the 9-5 world only dream about, right? Isn't our whole life just one big vacation? It may appear so to the outside world. Some folks would have you believe that we're only working 4 hours per week!

Real life for most real nomads is a bit different. True, we may work sporadically and many of us may not put in 40 hours in a given week. Also true that we may be doing so from some of the most beautiful places in the world. I'm not trying to say that the lifestyle isn't enviable - it is.

However, to be able to support yourself enough to travel the world indefinitely means having a reliable source of income. That means being reliable ourselves. Many of us are entrepreneurs with clients or web sites to attend to, or perhaps audiences expecting to see us perform. We have to be good at what we do. We actually work! In fact, like many at-home entrepreneurs it can be easy to let work seep into personal life. When your laptop is strapped to your back or sitting next to you, how easy is it to turn it on just to get a few minutes work only to find 4 hours later that you're still there just "tying up some loose ends"?.

That's why it is all the more important for us nomads to have a strong sense of boundaries between work and personal time. There was a time in my life that I realized even though I had enjoyed amazing mobility and freedom I hadn't actually had a week without working for 6 years straight! This isn't healthy for anyone.

Be sure if you're on the road for extended times to designate days, weeks or even months where you do not work. Plan ahead for it and make it happen. This means letting your clients know you are not available between certain dates, you do not answer your business line, you do not attend to business emails or check your web sites. If that's not possible for the amount of time you need a break then designate the work to a partner or a virtual assistant. You have to give your mind a vacation as well as your body. So what if you're sitting in front of the Taj Mahal while you make that business call - you're still working!

In addition to the long breaks you will periodically need, be sure to give yourself a daily break schedule. Designate your work times and your personal times and keep to strict boundaries between the two. You'll find that you get more done in the long run because your mind and body will be refreshed and ready to focus when work time comes. After all, you got into this lifestyle for a reason, right? And I don't think it was to work.

Preparing Kids for Nomadic Travel - Languages

By Carmen Bolanos
May 28,2009

As strongly as I feel about the merits of travel, I feel equally strongly that children should also have an opportunity to experience the world and cultures different from their own. When we take off next month I'll be leaving with my 3 daughters, ages 8, 14 and 16 for a semester of school in Florianopolis, Brazil. My husband will be staying behind this time but we hope he will visit as often as possible. I am lucky that he is understanding and willing to give us this opportunity even if he can't participate in the same way.

My two oldest daughters have been in a Waldorf/Steiner school here in Texas. My youngest was in the same school but has been home-schooled the last 2 years. At first I thought I'd probably spend the traveling year homeschooling like our nomadic friends, the Atkins family and soultravelers3. In fact, after our planned 5 months in Brazil I may very well home-school for the remainder of the year depending on where we land.

However, for our first destination we found (through the help of a friend)another Waldorf/Steiner school in Brazil that accepted all 3 kids! The opportunity for them to make close friends of their age and be completely immersed in the culture was too much to pass up. (Not to mention, my professional life could use some more designated hours without children.)

While all three are really excited about the opportunity there are also some nerves in the mix. My youngest is especially anxious about being in a classroom of kids where she doesn't speak the language. Enter the Rosetta Stone!

I decided to get the Rosetta Stone, Brazilian Portuguese version and installed it on my laptop. I've been so pleased that the method of this software is such that all of us are able to learn from it. It's amazing to watch my daughters picking up the basics of the language and hearing their beautiful accents forming. So I wanted to share this video of Mia learning Portuguese this week. It's really helping her confidence as well as the rest of ours.

Travel Genes?

by Carmen Bolanos
May 26, 2009

It's 11:30 pm and I'm completely exhausted. This weekend we installed a subfloor in our bathroom, tiled the bathroom floor, finished tiling our shower, picked up a table from a lovely Mexican furniture maker for the sinks (not a small task, I think it's well over 100 pounds), finished the table with polyurethane since it will get wet a lot, painted the walls, removed the tape, bought a toilet, installed the toilet. The tips of my fingers have no skin on them from the grout sand and my knees are permanently white I think. I've never felt better in my life! Really.

Why?

All this work is in preparation to rent the addition of our house to a woman and her daughter while we are away in Brazil. To me, this work is another step towards being back in the world. For whatever reason I am never so invigorated as when I'm traveling or about to travel. I don't know what it is. It is as if there is an integral part of my being that is dormant until I'm on the road. It is not as if I have all wonderful memories of travel. While I do have amazing memories, I've also had more than my fair share of travel fiascos, robberies, rare illnesses, last minute emergency returns and even a near kidnapping. I know that things can go bad. And yet I still long to see the world. I come home only to mentally plot the next destination. Is it possible there is a nomadic gene? I think maybe there is. My father spent almost 20 years in the world without returning home. Somewhere back in our family we have some middle eastern bloodline. Perhaps we were on camels and living in yurts. Maybe that's where it came from. I don't know.

Certainly, not everyone feels this way. My husband enjoys vacations but has no interest in long term stays or nomading. He says it's not his thing. Luckily, he is understanding enough to let me do my thing. And while I hear many people feel envious I also notice many bewildered looks among others who hear what we're about to do. I'm beginning to think the bewildered looks come from people without the nomadic gene.

Whatever the explanation, I can only tell you that when people ask, "why travel?" the only response that enters my mind is, "I must".