I'm a Digital Nomad. It's Not as Fun as It Looks
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I think the way to go is to have a home where you stay ~9 months out of the year. A secondary home where you stay 1-2 months a year. Then you spend a month on vacation traveling and checking out new destinations.
It's not so bad if you live cheap for 9 months, and sublet your apartment while you're gone. Traveling doesn't have to mean flying every week either. Many destinations are cheaper than home, and staying there actually saves you money after a while.
So if you're on a developer salary in Europe, this sort of arrangement is well within your means.
Added benefit is you can run an AirBnB off-season, depending on where and what you buy.
Such things are realizable loan-free with a few years worth of savings, no richness needed.
I'm an expat (full-time in Thailand) and this is so true. 10 years since I made the move and new immigration-related red tape pops up all the time.
The same goes for a metro or subway card. You can buy them one-off with cash, but the lines are super long. If you have a work permit, you can get a public transit card that you reload from, you guessed it, your bank app.
I don't remember the process for SIM cards. You can definitely get a travel one. Mine is "permanent" because for a brief period I had a work-permit job.
Renting an apartment the "right" (legal) way requires a ton of paperwork, but most landlords just fudge all the difficult fields. And that's true for a bunch of services/requirements in Thailand.
Probably worst of all is that even if you have a work permit (or, in my case, a marriage visa), you still have to go to immigration once every 90 days just to confirm that you're still in the country and don't have any warrants out for your arrest. 90-day reports are the bane of any foreigner in Thailand and take a whole day for what is essentially just a roll call.
Untangling those is a full time job for me.
There's no fee for the 90-day renewal, so no opportunity for expecting a bribe - unlike so many other aspects of Thai immigration, where chance of a bribe seems to guide policy, and obfuscation of those policies. So the 90-day renewal does not even enrich govt, or (more importantly :) its immi officers. It is just an unjustified nuisance to all participants.
And you need an exit visa if you plan to leave the country before the 90 days and then re-enter. Also unnecessary, because you will transit immigration at the border anyway - unless you are sailing out on your private yacht :)
It is difficult to move countries and change banks/phones/2FA. Banks seem to think that changing a phone is significant - they Knew Their Customer last month, but getting a burner phone in a different country seems to mean they do not Know You Now as a Customer. Phones do not (should not) indicate anything other than travel or holiday - not residence, not tax liability, not property ownership, not marriage, not intentions for a full tax year, nothing.
If you are renting in a resort/tower/block from a company, and they have an online govt account (most should), then when you sign a lease or long-stay, they should file a TM 10 online. You should report to the immi office within 30 days, but it's a formality, they just check on the system. When you next do annual renewal, you need to bring copies of the property ownership records (Blue Book, etc.), but the company should be well-organized, well-documented and familiar with the procedure.
The problem is private landlords. They do not have online account, and you together, will have to file paper TM 10 at the immi office. You will need Blue Book etc, but there may be a chain of ownerships of the property, mixing Thai individuals, Thai companies, and farangs who want to hide their identity or stake (more than 49% ownership by farangs is illegal). Then it can be almost impossible to get the right docs.
You cannot stay hotel, temporary boarding, or AirBnB for a long-term visa.
Note, that bribing public officials is an offence in your home country, if you are from US, UK, EU, (... OECD), because FCPA, UK BA etc. Doing your own application, without any bribe, is the best approach, ethically and financially (but not for stress and hassle :) Make it a point of honor to do the application yourself.
If you are going through something, it's good to have long-term relationships to lean on. The hardest part of long-term travel for me is loneliness. I could be a digital nomad, but my friends make me miss home after 4-6 weeks.
"We can take you on a hike... We cannot turn you into somebody who likes hiking."Dubai executes trans people, and that person may not identify as trans but I'd absolutely be terrified to go there if I were visibly gender non-conforming.
Is it just fun for people to be around rich oil arabian men?
T a x F r e e
and also has (expensive) alcohol, unlike Saudi (hotter, duller, more backward, no music, and no beer).
Dubai should not be a tourist destination. There is nothing there.
If you want desert and desolation, with mountains, and nicer people, go to Oman. Musandam is remarkable (fjords on the Strait of Hormuz!), and usually accessed from Dubai. Hiking around Jabal Shams canyon, or Jebel Akhdar, can be tough but enchanting (apricot and rose harvests), and there are a smattering of old forts in the mountains (e.g. Nizwa).
Egypt is much more famous, and rightly so. However, the best single destination in the world, not just the Arab world, is Petra (Jordan), which should certainly top any bucket list.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikhailfranco/albums
An early morning view of The Monastery at Petra, with my poetic musings...
Counterclaim: I live in Dubai, have several trans friends and colleagues who live and work here, and they have many other trans friends who come to visit frequently.
Never heard a single instance or issue of this, not to mention executions.
Where are you getting this crap from?
They are but economic migrants, of varying... shades.
* In Berlin, two Indian guys work at Delivery Hero. One writes code in an office and the other delivers food on a bike. One gets called an expat and the other an immigrant.