iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 14h

The most important thing about a destination is usually a date, not a place. Chiang Mai is loved by every nomad I trust. It's also unbreathable from late January to mid-April. Same city, two completely different experiences.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Something quiet is changing in how colivings talk about themselves. The pitch used to be about the space. Rooms, desks, rooftop. Now the operators I respect talk about the district, the neighbors, the local staff. The walls stopped being the product. What made your best stay good?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

One of the most underrated reasons to bridge all your chats into one inbox is how much focus you get back. Every app switch is a tiny tax on your attention. Kill the switching and the day feels lighter. While you stay in touch with friends. How many times a day do you hop between chat apps?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

To pay by QR in Thailand, I used a Malaysian app. That took a local eSIM, a KYC check, and two currency conversions. Absurd. Still the best option I found after testing everything else.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Dima Pashutskii, my podcast guest, spent years on construction sites, in McDonald's, in tech support, as a network engineer and then a sysadmin, before he found programming. He says the detour made him better at the job, not late to it. How's your work journey?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The standard advice is to buy a local SIM the moment you land. I ignored it for two months in Thailand and saved about 50 USD. The advice is written for tourists who accept it at face value. It does not fit nomads enjoying slow travel.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

You do not need an original idea for a business. Dima Pashutskii's point: nobody opens a coffee shop worried that other coffee shops exist. Yet online everyone waits for an idea nobody has had. What are you not building because someone already did?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Gigi got hired on a superyacht after admitting he knew nothing about sailing. Then a force 9 storm sent him back to school, where we met in Tenerife. New Nerd on Tour Podcast on yacht jobs, storms, and life without labels. Out now on all platforms.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Ryan Li, my podcast guest, spent 10 years in Asia before he properly understood visas. A decade of living abroad before the rules made sense. Today, a nomad can ask AI and get the answer in seconds. What are your remaining challenges?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

A pattern I keep noticing in nomad conversations this year. All have moved past deciding where to go. Now the question is: who is already there? The cheap city with fast Wi-Fi stopped being interesting. Fellow nomads is what attracts us.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

My 3 favorite language lessons from Ryan Li, my podcast guest: - Learn through what you love: karaoke lyrics taught him to read Mandarin - Take breaks between languages: pausing Japanese made it stick deeper - Write daily: 300 kanji from one book, by hand, every day

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The obvious fix for slow uploads was a faster Wi-Fi network. But it wasn't the network. Thai home internet is asymmetric, so download is quick and upload crawls. My video uploads only stopped timing out once I sent them through a VPN. Did you experience it anywhere else?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

One small thing changed how a coliving community works. John Ho, host of Alt Chiang Mai, does a run every Wednesday morning. Someone else started board games. Another resident nomad does a potluck. He states the goal is a community that thrives without him in the room.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

You do not need a popular city to have a wonderful month. John Ho took nomads to a Japanese temple town of 7,000 inhabitants with one main street. Everyone expected boredom. They had a blast. The town was never the variable. The welcoming, nomad-friendly hosts were.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

My 3 favorite discoveries in Chiang Mai: - T-Square Street Food: khao soi, pad thai, papaya salad, sweet roti - Bualuang Studio: a chill café next to my go-to park - VEGAN MAMA: tasty Thai food stall in the famous One Nimman mall

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Two numbers that decided my recent Thailand trip. 11 USD for 40 GB on a Malaysian roaming plan. 36 USD for the Thai tourist SIM I was told to buy at the airport. The cheap one worked because I live on Wi-Fi. What do you pay for a month abroad?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Nomading involves action, not identity. It works like camping. You go, you stay a while, you go home. Stopping for three months does not revoke your membership, because there is no membership. Treating it as an identity is how the gatekeeping starts. How do you define it?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

2016: Each morning found me in a different city 2026: Now I can't imagine staying less than a month in a wonderful destination. Which pace suits you?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The fix for nomad loneliness isn't more events, meetups, coworkings, or Slack. I tried all of it. It produces contacts, not friends. What worked was staying long enough that the same people kept showing up. With no one organizing it. What worked for you?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I spent two months in Thailand and never bought a Thai eSIM. A Malaysian roaming plan gave me 40 GB for ~11 USD. The catch was battery drain and high latency. Wi-Fi covered the rest. What do you use when you stay somewhere for months?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

John Ho encourages digital nomads to enrich the local community in Chiang Mai. The best way to do it is via the upcoming Cosmolocal CNX event. Listen to the full conversation at Nerd on Tour Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

I cut my accommodation costs in half without downgrading a single thing. No hostels, no CouchSurfing. Here's the exact ladder I climbed over 20 years on the road.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

John Ho, the founder of Chiang Mai's first coliving, told me he spent five years building a nomad bubble. Now he's focusing on integration with the locals. Here is what changed his mind:

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Sort Booking com by Genius discount before anything else. I found homey apartments in Kuala Lumpur, Da Nang, Tokyo, and Chiang Mai this way. Same places everyone else sees, noticeably lower prices for longer stays.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

2015: Thailand launches PromptPay. 2019: QR arrives. 2023: ASEAN links the entire region's QR systems together. 2026: E-wallets emerge to support cross-border payments Digital payments = happier street vendors = happier nomads!

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Nomads keep hunting for the one perfect chat app. But that app is never coming. You don't need everyone on your favorite messenger. You need one inbox that speaks all of them.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The official TAGTHAi tourist wallet wants you to bring USD cash, find a KBank branch, queue during opening hours, and exchange at their rates. Before you can scan a single Thai QR code. There are better, fully digital alternatives.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

One of the most underrated reasons for a weekly friend check-in is that it shows you who actually matters. When you ponder who you've missed, the right names surface fast. The habit does the prioritizing for you. Who came to mind just now?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Nomads select a city, then find suitable dates. For me that order is backwards. I don't need a perfect destination. I need the right months in a good one because the calendar decides what I actually experience.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

My favorite example of slow travel paying off: eight weeks in Chiang Mai. - Booked early, so flights were cheap and fit our work hours - No time off taken, so no lost income - Living costs below our Kuala Lumpur base The savings funded the stay.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Save your friend's birthday with a calendar alert. I started doing this on the road. Now, even continents apart, I call or send video messages on their special day. My far-away friendships get a guaranteed touchpoint that they would otherwise miss.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Count the messaging apps on your phone. That number is not clutter. It maps everyone you keep close. Mine says twelve. Family, nomad friends, colleagues, a nonprofit I back. Distance does not end friendships. Silence does.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

John Ho built Chiang Mai's first coliving. Now he is getting nomads to meet the neighbors, with the local government behind him. An inspiring conversation for conscious nomads and welcoming locals. New episode is out today.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Four nomads told me to go to Chiang Mai. Matt with Hannah. And Ramón, with Sole, who loved it so much to settle here. One short flight from my base in Kuala Lumpur, so we booked eight weeks. Sometimes the best research is four people you trust recommending the same place.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Digital nomad. The label is everywhere, but nobody agrees what it means. Here's why I think that's a good thing.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Ryan Li's entire nomad tech stack after 20 years abroad: - MacBook for daily work - Secure laptop running Qubes OS - A phone on GrapheneOS, degoogled - Signal to stay in touch with friends He used to run seven screens. Moving around made him a minimalist.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

As a tour manager, I changed hotels every single night. Exciting for two weeks, draining for a career, and expensive for everyone. Now, as a nomad, I stay 1 to 3 months in one place and pay roughly half.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Ryan Li has lived in nine countries and speaks Japanese, Mandarin, and Khmer. He studied none of them formally. Notepads, karaoke lyrics, and stubbornness did the work. What did you learn better outside a classroom than in one?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Six shifts that turned digital nomading from rare to normal: 1. Affordable travel by air, train, bus, and car 2. Miniaturized devices: laptops, phones, tablets 3. Internet everywhere: Wi-Fi, mobile data, satellites 4. Borderless payment systems 5. Streamlined visas 6. Digitized work and bureaucracy

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

My favorite example of building a life with no plan: Ryan Li. - Sold his car at 19 and flew to Japan with no strategy - Answered a newspaper ad two weeks before flying home - Grew an agency to 30 people from another continent He created opportunity, not found it.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

One of the most underrated reasons for using Indian UPI as a foreigner is that it drops you into local life instead of tourist life. Paying a vendor by QR, like everyone around you, quietly dissolves the outsider barrier. How do you connect with the locals?

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

The fastest way to cut your travel expenses isn't finding cheaper places. It's staying longer in the same one. Same apartment, half the price.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The official route is TAGTHAi: carry USD, find a KBank branch, queue, exchange at their rate, deposit, finally ready to pay. Seven steps before your first scan. No nomad I know does this.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Install your next country's eSIM before you get on the plane. I used to land, jetlagged, hunting a SIM kiosk in a language I didn't read. Now I get an eSIM with a click and walk out of arrivals already online. No queue. No pin. No dead hours offline.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

How Ryan moved money around Asia in the early 2000s: traveler's checks and separate local bank accounts in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, and Cambodia. Today: Revolut and Wise.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I spent years feeling guilty about friendships I was letting slip. Then I changed one tiny thing, and it fixed more in months than guilt did in years.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

My new guest spent 20 years in Asia, learned three languages without studying, and closed his US bank account in year one. Here's what 20 years of trial and error taught Ryan Li.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

As a kid, I loved European aquaparks. Slide down, queue up, slide again. At Buatong, nature built the same playground and flipped it. You climb up against the current instead. Same joy, unlocked by slow travel.

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Piotrek Bodera @nerdontour.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

One of the most underrated reasons to book a community coliving is that it solves a problem money can't. Coworking fixes where you work. But coliving fixes who you eat lunch with and go out on a weekend hike. Loneliness is the real nomad expense. Where did you meet your closest travel friend?

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