How the Decision to Become a Nomad Traveller Changed my Life!

The decision to become a Nomad traveller changed my life and never regretted it. I am Michael Pooley, and I come from Hawaii. If you have always wanted to travel around the world, become a nomad, a spiritual traveller but not sure how to do it, I will attempt to show you how I decided to take the fears away and move to live to a destination of my choice for the time being until I fancy to move on. The more attention you pay to the details before you set off, the less headache you are going to have overall in your experience of the nomadic lifestyle.

I feel that this experience made me more independent, more open, and overall, a better person. I can’t find one reason to be scared. You will be surprised how often you can surprise yourself. As a nomad now I feel that I take the best decisions and count the journey as an adventure a lot. Have you ever travelled to foreign countries where you enjoyed the adventure, noticed the different lifestyle and culture, the beauty of the sights, experienced different cuisines?  Did you have thoughts like leaving everything behind and follow your dream, go wherever you want to, but don’t have a clue how to do it? Thinking can you afford such an adventure year around, where would you go, how long can you travel with your funds, understanding visa requirements, knowing what kind of health insurance you should have or have any at all?

The Decision to Become a Nomad Traveller

How and Where I made the Decision

I have always had a desire to see South East Asia, so last November I went to Thailand to find out if this was my new country to call home. Upon arriving in Bangkok, I knew for sure that it was not my kind of place. Densely populated, much traffic, extreme noise while the BTS Skytrain is like a cattle cars, packing in people at each stop, where fewer people get off than getting on. An experience you should not miss! Bangkok was fun to visit, but I’m not a city person.

The beautiful architecture of Bangkok, the food is delicious, the women are beautiful, everyone is smiling and friendly. The night market is a must adventure.

The Decision to Become a Nomad Traveller

Many beautiful temples stand out all around the city, in reality, works of art centuries old!

The Decision to Become a Nomad Traveller

Chiang Mai

We travelled to Chaing Mai a more relaxed city. We were there for their yearly celebration of Loy Kathrong which is during holidays that coincide with the Yi Peng Festival (Chiangmai Lantern Festival). The Festival takes place during the full moon of November. We bought ourselves a large sky lantern from one of the many vendors clustered around the riverfront area, writing a prayer, wishings, offerings to God on the sides of the rice paper lantern. The sky lanterns are made from rice paper, stretched over a lightweight bamboo frame. We found our way to the riverside to lit the candles and incense in our small Krathongs. We made of a slice of banana leaf-shaped as a boat held together with toothpicks, decorated it with flowers, candles, and incense and lighting the candle making our wish, releasing it from the riverbank.

We next prepared and lit up our sky lantern and watch it float up into the night sky. It was a beautiful sight to behold as thousands of other sky lanterns floated up in the clear night sky with a full moon.

The Decision to Become a Nomad Traveller

Chaing Mai has many sights to visit as well as Elephant reserves. It was another great experience here with two ‘mother’ elephants and their two babies, six months old and 30 days old. The little one 250 lb baby elephant was trying to curl up in your lap wrapping her trunk around me. Such an amazing feeling! We wanted to take her home, but she would get so much bigger, and they do eat quite a lot each day and where were we going to put her? Much too large for our suitcase. So we decided to let her stay with her mother and just come to visit. This feeling was enough to get addicted to travelling. I wanted more but how was I going to be able to move about the year around to my desired destinations in South East Asia?

The Decision to Become a Nomad Traveller

Taking the Big Decision

When back home I started reading about other people travelling as they please, anywhere in the world. I was wondering how on earth I was going to leave my home, family, friends, and possession. How was I going to afford it? I spent endless hours reading blogs about how to live a life of a media Nomad as they use to call themselves. I read that it is possible to earn money while travelling as a nomad, but the thing is to make a plan, collect the money you need for an airline ticket to your destination in mind and have enough to survive until you get your plan in a play, of making money.

Many countries want and need people to teach English, and they pay handsomely. All you need is a BA degree. Doesn’t need to be in English, can be any major. Or if you can work from home, than anywhere in the world can be your office, or get a job doing what you do best. There are a lot of different ways to money-making ventures to get involved in, meeting people and talking, maybe help them to sell their idea online without having to touch any product, or discovering an idea you have to make money. If there is a will, there is a way to accomplish your dream. All of which are ways to make money each month and the more you do it, the more you can make.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a degree or a career I can go anywhere to make money. I do have a Social Security check coming in each month that I can live on in an inexpensive country, as well as a saving account. Not a lot, but enough to get me by for a couple of years if my SS isn’t enough. So I thought about it, researched different countries cost of living and if their climate is what I’m accustomed to, and talking to other expats living there, I decided on Vietnam.

With my destination in mind, when do I go and what do I have to do to make this real for me. I had the opportunity to talk a lot with others about this and remember a lady mentioned that for three years she and her husband went to India on a similar trip and her husband found work at a computer company. There were others with similar stories mentioning the same thing. “Stop thinking about it, just do it.” After all that research, one day I decided to go for it! I went online found the cheapest and best rate to Vietnam and bought myself a ticket.

The Decision to Become a Nomad Traveller

When I announce to friends and relatives my decision to become a nomad free traveller and get to Vietnam, they got excited. Several introduced me to their acquaintances that lived there. I got in touch with my friends’ acquaintances living in Vietnam to gather as much information as possible about visas and places to go and visit. They urged me to get there, relax, get used to the country and do some travelling around the country to see which place I would like to settle for a start. It was the feeling of being in the flow that moment like I made the correct decision and everything was falling into place.

So, I am in Vietnam by now, travelling around the country at my own pace, staying at a place for as long as I wish, meeting people and enjoying life. Honestly I never for a minute regretted it. I feel that this experience made me more independent, more open, and overall, a better person. I can’t find a reason to be scared.

Bottom Line

The decision to become a nomad traveller changed my life. This travel bug is a lot easier than you would believe. With new surprises day after day, my life has a meaning ever since I set off and I am confident I made the right decision. So, if I can do it and so many others, why not you. Go for it!

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