How Digital Nomads Choose Their Living Environment

For over a year, I have stayed in 8 cities across 7 countries during my travels, mostly in AirBnb homestays, and also in two co-living communities. I have some personal insights on long-term living environments suitable for remote work (over a month).

🌆In terms of city climate, Yunnan Dali, Thailand Chiang Mai, Malaysia Penang, and Indonesia Bali are highly recommended.

• Chinese culture: Dali > Penang > Chiang Mai;
• Number of digital nomad communities: Chiang Mai > Bali > Dali > Penang;
• International atmosphere (density of European and American tourists): Bali > Chiang Mai > Penang > Dali;
• Natural scenery: Bali (volcanoes, beaches, rice fields, fireflies) > Dali (Cangshan, Erhai, farmlands) > Penang (coastal, foothills) > Chiang Mai (mountains);
• Interesting activities: Chiang Mai (nightclubs, markets, food, temples) > Dali (markets, community sharing) > Bali (yoga, gatherings) > Penang (night market stalls, shopping malls);
• Cost of living: Dali < Chiang Mai < Bali < Penang;
• Vegetarian friendliness: Penang has the least, while the other three cities have many options; Dali offers free vegetarian food, Chiang Mai has the most vegetarian choices, and Bali’s vegetarian food is more similar to Western styles.

🏠In choosing accommodation, I personally prefer living in co-living communities or apartments close to them. Because in a foreign land, a certain amount of social interaction gives a greater sense of belonging, avoids depression from being alone, and facilitates gathering and sharing more information and resources.

Specific to living conditions, the ideal hardware and software conditions are as follows. Hardware conditions for accommodation:

• Independent or shared clean bathroom, with hot showers available morning and night. (Necessary condition)
• Sufficient washing machines for multiple people to use without frequent queuing; wind and rain-proof drying conditions. Or outsourced laundry service, 10 yuan per time, returned washed and dried within 2 days. (Necessary condition)
• Single rooms with a desk and chair. (Necessary condition)
• Warm in winter and cool in summer. (Necessary; the climate in Chiang Mai, Penang, and Bali meets this; Dali has plenty of sunshine in winter, but you need thicker blankets, thin blankets + electric blankets are not enough)
• Stable electricity and internet, without frequent power outages or network disconnections. (Necessary)

Software conditions for the community:

• At least one sharing event per week, encouraging residents to initiate sharing, with a screen or projector.
• Diverse community members: content creators (writers, bloggers), health coaches (fitness instructors, spiritual mentors, bio-nutritionists), internet professionals (engineers, designers, investors).
• The community manager is present long-term, actively initiating and promoting community activities, encouraging other members to spontaneously initiate activities through co-living rules (residence requirements) or rewards (community creative works or tokens or points).
• Weekly community-wide exchange activities, with each person speaking in turn but controlling the time, to reflect and review thoughts from the past week.