#itinerantfoodie ✈️🍴

I think the 2010s for me was all about all the fruits of the previous decade paying off, as well as experimentation and consolidation.

A lot of learning along the way too (conferences).

Summary - TLDR; edition

• Started my location independent journey
• Became a part time blogger
• Travelled on first class for the first time. Learnt how to travelhack and do business class flights more often.
• Experienced a lot of different business and first class lounges (Hong Kong so far wins)
• Improved and will continue to improve on minimalism, decentralization and mobility/freedom

2010 - Lets start this decade right

• My 2010 kicked off with life in the USA (New York / Boston / Los Angeles). I got to attend South By Southwest for the first time, and experience my first tech conference. Lots of learning / networking, and much parties (all on someone’s corporate budget). And also got to do some serious roadtripping between US cities (highways are nice).
• Ended with a mini-gap year in Europe and Asia
• From business trips, obtained Emerald One World Frequent flier (upgrades galore). So now was able to fly almost like the the 1% .. Decided that I’ll try to maintain Sapphire at least.

2011 / 2012 - New Paradigms

2011 / 2012 saw the start of many good things later on (including this site)

As the Mayans did predict, there would be a big change in the world.

• Introduced to bitcoin. Got some free bitcoins from a website. The rest is history falling into the rabbit hole.
• Visited Hong Kong for the first time. Loved the cross section of eastern and western culture. That also influenced my later decisions.
• Started doing apps for other people who wanted them which timing could not be impeccable, as sales started to dry out and also with ROI.
• New beginnings of my food and travel blog as well as this blog on github
• In 2011/2012, decided to go back into the startup world again adding yet another SoLoMo type app in there (but with prettier UI!). Built a bit of it, however visions misaligned and left the team as a result.
• Started learning how to read Chinese (wasn’t hard having Japanese knowledge). Also learnt how to read Korean (easy).

2013 - 歡迎來到香港

• Moved to Hong Kong (part of the reason was also to escape some drama 😀 but found more with the umbrella movement ☂ the following year)
• Visited Taiwan for the first time

2014 - Eastern Exploration

• Visited China for the first time (not just Shenzhen)
• Visited South Korea for the first time

2016 - Transitions

• Migrated this blog over to a new blog platform for the better.
• Started being more transient as an experiment, Spent time (1+ months) in Taiwan / South Korea / Phillipines / United States / Thailand / Cambodia / Vietnam).
• Started selling / giving away stuff in hopes to be even more transient.
• Ended off the year in Siem Reap and start the next with a sunrise at Angor Wat.
• Attended web summit for the first time

2017 - Digital Nomad beginnings

• Started off the transient journey. Got an Estonian e-Residency and company instead.
• Started a new life in Thailand (March 15th 2017). Didn’t plan on doing it but it just happened, and I ended up refunding my return flight. Discovered a community of remote workers. There was (and still is) a lot of temptation because its full of “gap year backpackers” and “full moon parties” which initially made it very easy to be distracted, but it seems ripe with many opportunities to build stuff and also having a nice serviced apartment sub $300 was a very good drawcard.
• Continued to more transient lifestyle in 2017 as discovered that visas don’t last for too long, including a trip throughout china, and an epic land road trip from Northern Europe to Southern Europe over the course of 2 months. The key take was some good business building connections out of Europe and also figured the Asia and Europe time zones are very similar.

2018/2019 - Slowed down with travelling

• Became a slow traveller as found some long term stay options for Thailand as I loved Thailand a lot.
• Motorbike trip through Vietnam and Laos
• Unlocked Bali. Great for short visits but didn’t seem very impressed.
• Explored some new Cathay Pacific Lounges, and paused my membership so I would keep my status.

2020s and Beyond - Moving foward

General gist of things is decentralization based on past experiences.

• More mobile / flexible / minimalism (consume less; travel with 1 hand carry bag) / sustainable lifestyle. Actually researching more options on working off a tablet and raspberry pi combo.
• Explore some more countries - Georgia is on my list. Also reconnect with some friends met along the way during the last decade.