Travelling and working in South East Asia | The Long Haul - Living & Working Abroad - Lonely Planet Forum

ONLINE

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 19:41:25 +0000

We are travelling to Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand for a total of 5 months. I will need still to work during the trip and so for these 5 months I need to run a mobile office. Clients will call my local number and I need to take care of these calls as well to get a decent and secure internet connection.

Regarding the calls my original idea was to buy local sim cards. I would have previously subscribed to an online provider of Voip call services that offer a local number. Then I would forward the calls to this local number at no cost (included in the flat rate) and then forward the calls into the local number to the Malaysian/Thailand mobile phone number. This way I could manage to be called at a very low cost. Have you been confronted to my problem during your trips and which were your experiences/solutions? How was the sound/voice quality?

Further there is the question of the internet access. I know there is free WLAN almost everywhere, but I’d rather stick to a secure internet connection as I might have to access online banking etc. So there is the option of a mobile modem? I could get a second prepaid sim card and lay it into the modem to be able to surf. I think this should work?

Any advice would be certainly appreciated!

ONLINE

Wed, 02 Jul 2014 04:17:28 +0000

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Fri, 04 Jul 2014 12:53:49 +0000

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ONLINE

Mon, 07 Jul 2014 08:39:49 +0000

Hello,

I will try to answer some questions, I traveled for several months as a digital nomads.

I was trying to do generic searches before arriving in a country "best network speed <insert city here>", you can also check the speedtest results online. Yes, Wifi 3G and 4G is great in big cities like Bangkok, HK and KL (and I am sure Singapore as well, need to go there :))

For Telephony, most providers in S.E Asia have crazy low rates to call in America, about 1-4 cents per minute.
About the call quality, Free Wifi in some countries is enough, but if you go outside big cities, you will experience big latencies which are really annoying on Skype Calls or even VoIP voice-only options.

For this reason, I am a little bit geek but from being an expat for the last 10 years in different countries, I stick to having my local Canadian phone number. It is a VoIP # that I keep since 2003.

I have my own VoIP server in Canada, when I change my SIM CARD, I add the new number to my system and my clients, friends or family can reach me at the same number and they don't need to pay the over$sea long di$tance call$. When I call them, I call them, I use IDD (International Direct Dialing) with a local sim card. I have also a Google Voice number that ring my Google Hangout if I am on a decent connection and Skype as well.

But the most important tip I can tell you is : work places.

Depending where you go, search for coworking spaces or popular QUIET cafés.
Cafés are often crowded and noisy in highly-touristic destinations, people go there to eat, drink or chat at loud because they are on holidays, it is sometime hard to be able to work.
ឺ
Enjoy being a digital nomad in South East Asia, it's great, but if you want the digital nomadic dream of working by the beaches, watching a sunset sipping a cocktail, it is possible. But from my own experience it is only good for selfies, and tweeting about your digital nomad life. To work between guitar players, smokers ... and choppy Internet, it can be tricky ;) This is how I decided the next step for me :)

If you pass by Siem Reap Cambodia, let me know and I will hook you up with local digital (ex)nomads ;)

Jeff

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