Being A Digital Nomad in Thailand: Sarah shares her itinerary and costs.

Season 06 of Perceived Value is here and host Sarah Rachel Brown is kicking off the new season with recording a full episode solo to share about her recent travels to Thailand. This past May Sarah traveled to Southeast Asia to test out her digital nomad abilities and connect with her friend Ivy who was completing her gemology degree in Bangkok. Sarah traveled the country for a month solo while working remotely which allowed her to travel extensively with minimal savings.

Throughout this month-long adventure Sarah shared her experiences online and many followers had questions as to how she paid for the trip and how did she feel traveling alone. In this episode she answers her most-asked questions, shares her exact costs and let’s listeners in on how she made this trip possible financially.

ACCESS SARAH’S THAILAND ITINERARY HERE!

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

Oh. Hello, listeners. Welcome to Season six of Jersey value, which means this is the sixth year of me jumping on a microphone to overshare about my career and finances. And wow, what a journey it's been. As of late, I've had quite a few moments where someone has asked me, What is the podcast about? And let me tell you, I have my elevator pitch down. So let's just pretend that we're on a coffee date and it's going well. And you've just asked me to explain what my podcast is about. Oh, I interview artists and creatives about the financial and logistical aspects of their careers. The conversations are radically transparent and have been used as teaching and research tools among universities, colleges, craft schools, etc.. See Elevator Pitch is on lock. When I wrapped up season five of the podcast, I was still in Florida working as an independent professional, AKA consultant. And if you haven't listened to that season, it doesn't really matter. But it does give you some helpful context. I re-listened to my last introduction and wow, I just wanted to give last November Sarah a really big hug because I sounded really unsure of what was to come when I moved back to Philadelphia last season. I don't know if you noticed, but I really leaned into sharing about navigating my own career and transitioning to working full time for myself. I felt really vulnerable because in real time I was sharing what was going on and most of the time I didn't know what was going on. I was just going right along with whatever came my way. I am happy to report that I am still self-employed and 16 months into this huge professional transition. I am going to say that I am thriving, which is a very hard thing to do because I am very self-critical. I'm sure many of you can relate, and I really enjoy hurting my own feelings by comparing myself to others. But I'm also not delusional and I can see that I have steady work. I am able to save and contribute to my retirement and I live alone in a big city. And honestly, that feels like the biggest accomplishment of them all because the cost of living is out of control right now. So here we are. It's season six and it doesn't really have a theme. In fact, I know it doesn't, and that's somewhat intentional. I haven't fully planned out who I'll be interviewing. I can't promise you you'll have an episode every two weeks and I'm reverting back to my pre-pandemic preference, which is all interviews to be recorded in person. There may be one or two exceptions this season, but for the most part I know that makes me the happiest. I also have no idea how many episodes will be in the season or how long they'll be. I know there are incredible humans all over this country I could interview remotely and that the data shows that episode lengths between 30 and 45 minutes are best for consumption rates, a.k.a. getting sponsors. But I just don't care anymore. I want to hang out with my guests and get to know them before the microphones are turned on. And I want those conversations to go on as long as they need to. And you can stop and return back to episodes, especially those ones that get to be an hour and a half I mean, I feel like most people listening are studio artists and we all just want to hear something while we work with our hands. Amiright. So let's get to the first episode of the season. This is a weird one. I've never done a full episode by myself and wow, it's happening right now. If you follow me on Instagram, where I'm most active at Sarah, Rachel Brown or the podcast at Perceived Value, you might have noticed that I went to Thailand. I cannot count how many Eat, Pray, Love comments I got about my grand adventure. And it was it really was a grand adventure. But as we all know, social media only shows you the pretty fun parts. And many of you reached out while I was traveling, asking about the logistics of my trip. How much did it cost? Did I feel safe traveling alone? Did I plan it all beforehand? Was I ever scared? So many questions. So I'm going to answer all of your questions. And as I promised I have linked in my podcast description my fully detailed Thailand itinerary, which includes all the costs of my lodging and travel My itinerary does not include costs for food or guided tours or incidentals, but I would estimate those cost around 1300 dollars. I definitely recommend pulling up the itinerary as you listen to this episode. And. But that's also not necessary. It's just helpful. I've outlined the questions that I most received online while I was traveling, and I'm going to go off script. I'm just going to read the question and then ramble at you. And I hope you enjoy that. So let's get into it. Okay. When did I go to Thailand? I went to Thailand in May. A lot of people were whispering in my ear that, Oh, why are you going to May? That's the low season. It's the rainy season. It's on the cusp of burning season, blah, blah, blah. The thing I've noticed about traveling is that I feel people have the best intentions when they say they want to give you their advice and tell you things that they think would be best for your trip. And it is good to take those in and consider them. But at the end of the day, it's your freakin trip. Do what you want. No, I couldn't go in January or February because I was moving back from Florida to Philadelphia. And I also didn't want to go in March or April because I was trying to secure a new clients so I could have, I don't know, an income. And also my friend Ivy who this trip was kind of centered around. And I'll tell you more about that, too. She was busy during those months, so it really came down to May. May was the best time to go. I got into the country on May 1st. I think I left the United States on April 29th, got to Bangkok on May 1st. I left I flew out of Thailand on the 29th. This is on my itinerary. I'm sure you guys are going to look at it and be like Sarah. It says right here, the exact dates you left. I'm not reading my itinerary why I do this. But yeah, that's when I left. I wanted a full month experience and I chose a month because it felt like a good amount of time to really see a country. And if I was going halfway around the world, I wanted to make it worth that jetlag. And also I just felt like five weeks or six weeks, it would just kind of start to feel like I wanted to go home. And I was right. I felt like a month was the perfect amount of time, so I'll be taking that into consideration in future trips, being a digital nomad that I plan. Okay, next question. Why did I go to Thailand? So Ivy who I mentioned is a really incredible person. We worked together at Bario Neal She was the sales director of the New York City location. We worked together all the time. She had her Gia Diamond certification and was really into gemstones. And so she had a lot to do with the sourcing of stones for Bario Neal as well. And I was a custom design specialist, so our work just really included a lot of communication between us and we ended up becoming really close friends, which was lovely So when I quit my job last year, Ivy also had this like itch to kind of figure out what her next move was or how she can move up in the company. And it was very clear to her that she really loved the Stones aspect of what she was doing, but she didn't have her full GIA certification, so she wasn't a fully certified gemologist. And if you don't know what I mean by Gia, it's Gemological Institute of America. They're the ones that set the standard for the 4 c's How we grade diamonds. They're just, you know, you get a certification in there and you can work at a lot of places that maybe you wouldn't have opportunity to work at otherwise. Ivy and her partner, her husband, Adam, who's an amazing person, they both really love Southeast Asia. So when Ivy was kind of kicking around this idea of quitting her job to go back and get her. Full GIA certification. There's campuses around the world. There's campuses in Carlsbad, California. That's like the full campus in United States. There is a remote campus that's in New York City. I don't think it's quite as extensive as Carlsbad. And I do think that there's one in Tokyo. I don't really know. I do know that there's one in Bangkok. In Ivy's family, her father specifically, who's really good with money and started a business and really worked his butt off to create a lovely life for his family, had started a specific type of savings account for Ivy where she could use that money to go to school only to get the tax breaks. Like if she took money out for any other purpose, I think it'd be highly taxed. I'm not really sure I'm going to have her on the podcast to talk about this. I'm going to shut up. But anyways, I went because my friend Ivy quit her job like the boss lady. She is moved halfway across the world to a city to do a seven month program at the GIA to get her full gemology certification. And she did it. So when choosing where to fly into Thailand, I chose Bangkok and I bookmarked my trip with time with Ivy and her husband Adam. So I flew into Bangkok. And I think also as somebody who is a single female traveling alone, it felt really nice to kind of land in the country and get my bearings and work out all the inevitable kinks of figuring out where you are with your phone and money and whatever. Having her there and her husband to kind of help support me and kind of get me grounded before I went on traveling, the rest of the country by myself was really nice. So I had about five, four or five days in Bangkok with Ivy to get to see her life while she was in school and etc.. It was great. So let's go on to the next question because I am rambling, not really, but you know, how much did my trip cost? Well, if you're looking at the itinerary, you can see on the very top I put in an equation to add that up for you. The total for lodging and travel came to $3,458. And I will say, I literally note everything, including train lifts, costs my flight. My flight was $1,492. I bought my ticket kind of late in the game, I guess you could say. I bought it in April or March, March, April, May. No I bought it in March. Maybe early April. See, I'm telling ya. It was kind of late, and there's two reasons for that. First of all, I wasn't entirely sure what my work situation was going to work out in Philadelphia, and I also just didn't have all the money saved. Of course, I could have just bought it. I did have money saved and was capable, but I didn't want to use my emergency funds to buy a plane ticket to Thailand when I didn't know where my full next paycheck was coming from. So I waited until I secured a new contract and then I bought my flight. I didn't travel hack at all. That's going to be something else I talk about in the season with airline miles or anything like that. I flew Emirates. I chose to fly out of New York City because the ticket prices were relatively cheaper there than Philadelphia. And I looked at the cost of taking an Amtrak train ride up to New York versus flying out of Philly. And it was actually cheaper. Shout out to my friend Daniel, who is a GIA certified gemologist who let me crash on his couch the night before I took him to dinner as a thank you. So that's how I navigated that. But yeah, 30 $400, approximately approximately 3500 if we round up. And I want to let you know that I am 38 years old. I am a grown ass woman. I will have experiences again in my life where I want to hop around hostels and really, really focus on keeping my daily expenses to a minimum. But that wasn't this trip. This trip was staying in private hotel rooms, upgrading to a private bungalow when I felt like it. And also the cost of lodging and things in Thailand are relatively cheap for the American dollar, right? Like a thousand baht which is quite a lot of money there. I would say a thousand baht is only like $30 American. So I'm, Ivy for example, we stayed in Bangkok my last weekend there before I flew out and we wanted to celebrate her finishing her GIA certification. So we both threw down on a five star hotel. We wanted to have we wanted to live our pretty life, a five star hotel with a rooftop infinity pool and all the amenities and a corner suite with a Jacuzzi, which we didn't even touch. And we both were willing to put $200 towards that experience for two nights and three days. And that was $450, which is crazy. Like a shitty hotel in the middle of Philly will run you $300 if you're not planning ahead. So that just kind of gives you some perspective on that. And also, like I mentioned briefly when I got into this conversation that my incidentals were approximately 1300 dollars, I backpacked, but I did leave an extra suitcase with Ivy so I could shop while I was in Bangkok and then bring home a bunch of trinkets for friends and things like that. I'm not really big on souvenirs, but I am really big on buying jewelry when I travel, because for me, jewelry is, you know, I'm a value based spender, I'm a jeweler, I love jewelry. And so I'm going to be somebody who throws down on a gold ring when I'm in Thailand because they make their gold at 96% purity And also, I went to this gallery Atta A, B, K that I've known for years and follow the owner. Atty Hi Atty I hope to meet you in Munich Jewelry Week and bought myself a Benedict Fisher brooch that was $475 16,000 baht or something like that, which totally made me sick to my stomach when I looked at the number in baht But in American, I was like, okay, less than $500 worth it. And that's something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. So that really up to my expenses pretty quickly. But again, I saved for this. I am a value based spender. That's where I wanted to spend my money. Speaking of spending money, how much did I save beforehand? one way that I made extended traveling work for me, especially as a independent professional, was that I worked while I traveled. That's right. I worked remotely. Something that I have really been wanting to do for many years is to be a digital nomad. I'm single. My parents are gone. I don't really have a lot of family nearby. I don't have kids. I don't have a pet. The worst thing that would happen is that my plants all die. But I'm somebody who is actively pursuing a life where I can travel to Italy for a month and spend a month working there and just living. It's not. It's different being a digital nomad versus this idea of, a vacation. Like some of my favorite days on my Thailand trip were the days where I found a cozy place to work. I dropped off my laundry. I walked around finding some healthy options for food. I might have gotten a long walk in for some exercise, just like living my life in a completely different place and culture while simultaneously keeping up with my work. It was a nice balance for me. I think I need that when I travel extensively to kind of keep me grounded. I think that's different for everybody. So why am I rambling about this? Well, because I had two clients at the time that knew I was going to travel for a month and were okay with me working remotely during that time. Was it stressful? A little bit at times, only because of the time change, especially when a client wanted to have a meeting to check in or something like that. But for the most part, it was awesome and I got a lot of work done. One client specifically was like, Yeah, that was great. I never felt like your productivity lacked or your communication lacked, and she's kind of given me the okay to really know that. if I want to travel wherever and work remotely, she is down for that, which is really exciting. So I didn't really save for the trip because I treated it like. My normal expenses, right? Like through the month. We all have expenses. We all buy groceries, go out to eat or whatever. So I kind of kept myself within my monthly budget of expenses regardless because I had that money coming in with rent a course, with lodging, paying for lodging in Thailand and paying for lodging in Philly. That was kind of complicated. So what I did was that I sublet my apartment. It worked out from word of mouth. I found somebody who is totally awesome. He actually moved in mid-May while I was there, and so we overlapped a few weeks when I got back and he was really fun to live with and I think we'll continue that relationship that when he needs a place to crash in Philly, he can stay in my spare room. But house hacking is a thing and having him come and pay, I think I charged him $850. Wow. We're really getting into it. My rent is 1400 dollars. So I charged him 850 for my furnished bedroom that I am currently recording in. And that money basically went towards my lodging expenses in Thailand in $850 goes a very long way in Thailand. So that is how I made it happen. I also did give myself permission to dip into $1,000 of my emergency fund, which I definitely did dip into it because I was living my pretty life and buying jewelry and all the things. But I have no regrets. And I built up that thousand dollars in my emergency fund already again. Okay. Next question. How did I plan out my trip? What tools did I use? Well, I did start my itinerary before I left because family and friends chosen family and friends were like, girl, you're going to Thailand by yourself and you're not going to tell us where you are. What if you get kidnaped or whatever? You know, people that love us love to think of like their worst case scenarios, plant the seed in your head and make sure that they have everything they need in case the worst case scenario happens. So I shared my itinerary with my family and friends so they could track me where I was. I connected with all of them on WhatsApp. I had them download WhatsApp, but they never used it so they could reach me. I did plan out the first week of my trip, meaning my time in Bangkok. I knew how long I was going to be there. I had that hotel booked and then I knew my next two stops. After that, I chose to go from Bangkok to the northern area of the city or the northern area of the country Basically I was in Bangkok and I wanted to go to Chiang Mai, which is a really amazing city up north. And between that there was some pretty significant historical sites I wanted to hit. So ayutthaya is an hour and a half outside the city. Some people stay in Bangkok and just take a day trip up there to see it. But, you know, we were moving and shakin, so I booked a hotel there, had all that travel planned out, and then I knew I was going to Sukhothai, which is another historical site. That one was like, oof, that that train ride was that train ride was rough, guys. It was supposed to be 5 hours, ended up being 8 hours, and there was no air conditioning and there was windows down because that's how they air conditioned it. But then they were burning the fields outside. So there was like smoke and things flying in. But you know what? Wouldn't it traded for the world, it was an adventure. So the first nine days of my trip, I pre-planned out. And then as I went, I would kind of figure out what I wanted to do next. Was that always the the best feeling? No, sometimes it was a little stressful and exhausting, and especially towards the end where I was like, I don't know, man, I just want to see some cool stuff and be in a comfortable place And it was a lot of research and time. And if you're somebody who doesn't want to have to stop and think about that, that's great. But I also was working as a digital nomad so it wasn't really that hard for me to put aside an hour of my day to plan out my next four or five days or three days. But that's how I approached it, because I really wanted that flexibility to just kind of do whatever came my way. It was great tools that I used. I use Booking.com. Their app is great. I really like them. I use them to book all my hotels and accommodations. And the reason some travel too. Like you can book flights on there, you can book trains. 12 go.com is a site that I use to get train tickets and things like that. All of this is linked on my itinerary, but Booking.com ruled because the more I used it, the more points I don't know, levels, quote unquote. I unlocked. I mean, I know it's all like a scam. In some ways they're overcharging you. So, like, any discount is really just getting you back to, like, the price it would be if you book to the hotel directly. But for me It felt nice because I could read reviews at places that I was going to and then keep track of everything of where I was. So I really liked it. Another app that I swore by was Get Your Guide before this trip. I don't think I ever went on a single guided tour and shout out to my friend Deidre who has traveled the world extensively. And we talked right before my trip and she's like, The one thing I can tell you is don't let anybody tell you that you should be too cool for guided tours. She's like, I love a guided tour. You don't know where you are. You can sign up. You're in a group of people, they'll show you all this stuff. And that advice was priceless. So I used Get Your Guide, which is an app I downloaded to research and find guided tours wherever I was, and I could pay for it and sign up through it all through the app. I loved it. And again, I know that there was additional fees or maybe a slightly higher cost because I was using a third party app. But as a solo traveler and somebody who needed the time and tools to easily research what my options were. I loved it. Again, linked in my itinerary. What did I pack? What should I recommend bring in? Okay, so I backpacked. So years ago I was engaged. Oh. And he gave me, like, an RBI backpack for Christmas one year. And I remember opening it up and being like, What is this? I'm not an outdoor girlie. I mean, I have become much more in my late thirties, but in my early twenties I was like, Excuse me, what am I supposed to do with this thing? So I've been lugging around this backpack for years. It really has always just sat in my closet, except for when I needed to use it to pack for a move. So I finally used it. It was great. I also brought a small on suitcase because I promised Ivy I'd help, bring back some of her books from school because they're going to be heavy and whatever. And I'm a good friend. And then I also used that suitcase to pack any, like, trinkets and things that I bought a lot my trip, I ended up using two things the most that I did not expect. I bought a nice, comfy pair of, loose light fabric pants for my plane ride. And then in the back of my mind, I was like, Oh, I'll wear these when I go to temples, because you have to have your knees covered and your shoulders covered when you go to temples. I also packed this sun shirt that I bought when I was living in Florida because everybody was like, Oh, we're going to go kayaking, but you have to wear long sleeves. And Iowa Girl in Me is like, Wait, excuse me. I do things in the sun, get really tan. And they were like, No, no, no, you need a sun shirt, you'll be burnt to a crisp. So I also brought that because it was a lighter fabric and I knew was really hot in Thailand in that maybe I would use it and oh my gosh, you guys, that sun shirt and those pants were my two most worn pieces of clothing because often when going out for the day and being at temples and things like that, I was renting scooters so I didn't want to have skirts on. Pants were really good and the U.V. is so strong there that you need to be covered up. I remember getting the Bangkok, and I was like, What is up with these people? It's so hot. And they're wearing tennis shoes, pants, long shirts. Heck, they even usually have things around their necks protecting their necks from the sun. Some all the scooter guys wear gloves and I get it. I didn't have gloves in the top, my hands got sunburned. So definitely bring hat things to protect you from the sun. You're going to want it. Next question. Did I travel alone? Was I ever lonely? I did travel alone. Ivy and I just hung out. We were in Bangkok, so everything else was on my own and I never felt lonely. In fact, I think I felt less lonely traveling than I do in my daily life in Philadelphia. I tend to feel. It's hard. my parents both passed away in my twenties. Right. I have a brother, but I haven't seen him in a few years because he lives across the country. I do tend to get lonely. And this is not to say I don't have chosen family or etc. I do, but I'm single. It just happens. And I will say, when I was traveling in Thailand alone, that's actually probably the least lonely I have felt in years and just the happiest I felt. And it wasn't in the sense of like, Oh, I'm running away from my life. My life is so bad back home. No, I love my life as well. But there was just this. There is always something to look forward to, which I think is important. And I always I was always surrounded by people. I was pushed out of my comfort zone. I had to talk to strangers. It was just so much more interactions in my daily life than I allow myself to have in Philly. Like I walk around Philly all the time, but I have my headphones in. I'm unapproachable. And in Thailand, I rarely had my headphones in. I needed to be alert. I was in a new place. I didn't know where I was. I was forced to ask locals questions and they were so kind. The people in Thailand were amazing. So no, I didn't feel lonely and in fact, I felt the least lonely I had in years. Next question. What was the hardest part of this experience? Oh. Nothing really stands out. Oh, you know what? Never mind. Take that back. The hardest part of this experience was my phone. So AT&T does not let you change out your SIM card. They do not unlock it unless your phone is paid in full. I had did my research, I thought, but this was something that is not readily available through AT&T. They don't really tell you this easily. I didn't come across this on travel blogs that I read. Of course, until I came home and researched it more. And everybody was like AT&T customers. Be careful. If your phones are paid-in-full you can't unlock it. So that was awful. And then the, you know, my IP address or whatever, I'm in Thailand, I couldn't access the AT&T website. It wouldn't work, so I couldn't reach them to figure out why my phone was locked. I had to use WhatsApp with my chosen family to log into my account on my behalf to tell me. So there is like three or four days where I didn't have wi fi or a phone. And again, I was so happy that I landed in Bangkok and had Ivy because she helped me. Right. she even there's this app, okay. They're Lyft or Uber is called Grab. It's amazing. And you can literally get someone to pick you up on a scooter to go everywhere, which by far was my favorite part of my trip is being on scooters. Oh my God, I love them. So she would, order me grabs on her phone or share. Oh, no, no, no. She would share her wi fi signal with me so I could order a grab on my phone and then we would share each other's rides, which the app lets you do. So she would know when I arrived and where I was in case I got dropped off in the wrong location and she couldn't find me. It was a nice little workaround, but eventually I just looked up a mall that had three levels. Thailand is so crazy. There's a whole mall in Bangkok where you go to and it's all electronics, like it has a theme. And one theme was the fourth floor where it was all reselling of old electronics, tons of phones and whatever. So I just walked around and haggled until I got a good deal on a phone. I got an iPhone six, the case, everything for less than $100. Then I went somewhere and had my SIM card put in and paid for a month of service and wi fi and whatever. And that was it. That was the hardest part of my experience. What was my best experience? Well, okay, this is a hard one because there was so much I mean, my best experience was just being able to understand that I am a badass, independent woman who traveled the country by myself for a full month, was never truly in danger, never felt insecure, did everything that I wanted to do. But if I had to speak to a specific experience, it was probably my most expensive guided experience that I paid for. I was on TIK TOK Thailand travel, TIK TOK doing research for my trip, and I kept seeing these floating resorts It was a state park, it's called Khao Sok, and it's all in my itinerary. And basically years ago they built a dam and flooded this area on purpose. And so you can do guided tours into the state park and it's stunningly beautiful. It's on the mainland. You can get to it's 3 hours north of Phuket Island, which a lot of people know what Phuket is because that's where the big tourism is. And I paid 200 and something dollars for an overnight guided excursion into the park where we took a long boat through the park. drove the boat around the park to look at all the wildlife. We saw elephants, we saw bison. We saw every bird. You can imagine monkeys. And then you stay at these floating resorts. There's a handful of them and you get your own little floating hut. And mine had its own little kayak out front. So I got to go alone and kayak around this beautiful park. And the water was this perfect teal. And then the next day we went through a hike through a jungle to another. Body of water on the other side of the jungle hike where we took a bamboo raft to a cave. I've never been in a cave before. And then we got back on our boats and went to a different floating resort for lunch. Guys, I know this all sounds made up, but it's true. It all happened. It was on my Instagram. I can prove it, but that was my favorite experience. Okay. Well, you have my itinerary. You have this last I don't know how long of rambling of me talking about all aspects of my trip. I hope this is helpful. I hope it empowers you and makes you feel like hell. Yeah, I could do that. And again, remember, I went all out. I did not spare expenses. This wasn't like I was on a strict budget I gave myself permission to truly live my pretty life, to spend a lot of money. I was working remotely the whole time, so I had my paychecks coming in. I house hacked and rented out my spare room to lower my rent at home to put that money towards my lodging expenses in Thailand. And I made it happened. And this is only somebody said to me they're like, wow, what a life in it once or sorry. Somebody said to me, Wow, what a once in a lifetime opportunity and. I looked at them and I was like, Yeah, I guess you could think of it that way, but I don't think of it as a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is just the beginning of many more traveling, digital nomad experiences for me to come, because this really made me happy and it was kind of me testing out whether or not I could work remotely and thrive. And you know what? I found that I could. And it was really great. You know where to find me. You can find me at Sarah. Rachael Brown. You can shoot me an email which I always have listed on my website if you have any more questions. Thanks.