Don't Trade Your Freedom For a Paycheck!
Greetings from beautiful Phuket; the largest island in Thailand. I’ve been living here for one month (7 months around Thailand) after receiving a job offer at a growing ad-tech startup located in Rawai. Unfortunately, I was let go since the founder wasn’t able to procure the necessary work permit in Thailand. Thankfully, I received my paycheck of 50,000 Baht and I have my freedom back again. You can always make more money, but you will never get your time back. That’s why I choose to use it wisely doing things that I love. I would encourage my readers to not trade their freedom for a paycheck. Life is too short to waste your time doing things you don’t enjoy to create the illusion of success in order to impress people you don’t like. It’s now possible to work from anywhere online. I help entrepreneurs adapt to the remote work lifestyle, escape the 9-5, and be their own boss. For those of you who are interested in being a successful digital nomad, I created a full online course available on Teachable here.
I waited until the last minute to get my visa extension since today, September 26th, marks the final day of the visa amnesty program that was enacted by the government to curb the spread of COVID-19. I already paid the 1,900 Baht and just need to pick up my passport from immigration on Monday. Afterwards, I’m still trying to decide whether to stay here in Phuket (mostly empty since no tourists), return to big city Bangkok (where life is returning to normal), one of the other smaller islands, or the most exciting option of traveling around this beautiful country documenting my adventure and taking beautiful photographs. I can rent a brand-new shiny blue Yamaha NMAX for only 3,000 Baht per month which will take me anywhere I want to go. A direct flight to Bangkok is less than 700 Baht and takes about 45 minutes. However, in this particular case money isn’t the most important factor since I received my paycheck from my previous employer before they fired me.
Before coming to Phuket, I was living the dream in Koh Samui (the 3rd largest island in Thailand) for just over one month. I had so many fun experiences on this beautiful island (Koh Phangan and Koh Tao), went diving a handful of times, and met some amazing people that I hope to reunite with again soon. It’s very sad to see how this world pandemic is devastating the global economy in Thailand since many of the popular locales are heavily reliant on foreign tourism. There’s only been 60 deaths in the entire country and yet the majority of businesses are shut down, borders are closed to tourists, and the locals are struggling to survive. The government is already encouraging more domestic travel amongst Thai citizens with special flight incentives and discounts at hotels. However, it remains to be seen whether this is putting a dent in the economic recession. Phuket alone has lost over 40 Billion Baht from lack of tourism since the beginning of the pandemic! All of this hardship from a virus that has killed 0.1% of the world population with the majority of the fatalities in their late 70’s. It makes me seriously question whether there isn’t a sinister ulterior motive behind all of this nonsense. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the COVID-1984 pandemic is heavily politicized and clearly another case of media mass hysteria. I truly believe that fear and propaganda are more dangerous than the virus itself. In fact, I’ve been saying this from the very beginning amid a backlash of naysayers on social media.
That being said, I don’t think anyone truly knows exactly what’s going on and always do my best to exercise critical thinking and skepticism instead of falling prey to the myriad conspiracy theories out there. Whatever the case, I’m grateful that I made the wise decision to stay in the Kingdom of Thailand during this world pandemic. In the words of William Wallace from Braveheart, “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our FREEEDOM!”
Keep your head up and stay vigilant! You may also be interested in reading the blog post Traveling During the Coronavirus Outbreak.
