Visas hassles whilst been a Location Independent

No posts for 10 days as I have been taking a little down time from the computer and business related things using the time to reflect and try to figure out what next, a combination of continous gray skys for what feels like 9 months along with the allways nagging visa stuff brought me to a pretty interesting place.

After a week of getting nowhere and still been unable to get my head around what to do next. The Visa regulations changed again “adding fuel to the fire” and not for the better nuff said… After 8 days the weather broke finally and I was able to get out on the bike which instantly changed my mood and slowly I started to formulate a plan that could relieve me of this visa bullshit which accompanies my lifestyle.

As you can see it’s not always rosy not having to work and been able to travel and live anywhere with a small income.

At some moment on the bike I had a simple thought “stop fighting the system” and work with it.. The system been put in place at present is a requirement for an onward flight on entry along with proof of accommodation and proof of income or funds this is for the supposed easiest of visas type tourist. As I’m on some thing even less, a visa exemption I’m expecting to see some serious lock downs on this also. Which would make any plans of living here in Chiang Rai pretty much impossible.

I like Chiang Rai to the point that I could easily stay here for a very long time, it has most everything and I don’t think I could ever better my place of living for what I pay each month along with the cost of living here. In short what I ended up realizing was that not only the visa thing is / was bothering me, the simple fact of having very little to do which is the same as no excitement, along with days and days of gray sky’s back to back was getting to me in a bad way..

If you dig deep enough you will find that excitement is the thing that creates happiness.

So I came up with a simple solution to cure all things. It wasn’t difficult as all I needed to do was look at what I wanted before I left America then modify it slightly based on experiences gained and the few things I know of my self. What I wanted before leaving was to travel and see many countries and all they have to offer.. Problem is I don’t like roughing it, worse still I pretty much knew this before leaving. At one point in Fort Lauderdale I happened on the most perfect set up! Quit the job maintain everything in Fort Lauderdale and travel as often as wanted. “nice kinda expensive though” making it next to impossible without waiting a few years.

So with little effort I happened on the next best ever setup! Maintain everything here and travel often “to comply with visa rules” which basically pans out to 4 weeks here at a time and then a trip to a foreign country for a few weeks or more if so desired. Finances and my own personal needs will probably dictate about 2 weeks travel each time just enough to make life exciting without retracting from an overall need for basic creature comforts.

So that’s it back on track, only time will tell if this will in fact allow me to stay in Chiang Rai for as long as I wish without needing to be concerned as to how I can get around the system all the time.

The final byproduct of this new setup is it also allows me to explore other possibilities to Thailand at a leisurely pace, maybe a country that is not hell bent on making younger semi retired location Independents jump through hoops for no logical reason, yet will still allows me to maintain the standard of living I have here in Chiang Rai at a similar cost, along with the other not so obvious factors safety, and good people.

September 2011 update
Seems like for now I’m not one of the few with problems.. So I’m just going to stay put for a while and deal if I have to!

4 thoughts on “Visas hassles whilst been a Location Independent”

  1. Well, you could try Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam or even Indonesia. Thailand has only been getting stricter on short term stays.

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