Back when I arrived in early November it seemed like everyone was living in fear a bit. The streets were covered in mud, there was no power in the city, no businesses were open and the only place to get a somewhat cold beer was an enterprising guy with a cooler who will forever be known as Cooler Man. With a serious shortage in places to hang out at night and some intimidating warnings about Haiti’s safety hanging over our heads, we all tended to grab a couple of beers each night and retreat to our balcony. This usually ended in everyone getting wasted and being told to be quiet after 10pm then retreating to far off corners of the yard to continue the festivities.

One of the happiest moments of the deployment for me, and this is embarrassing to admit, was when a friend came back to base with the most deicious egg sandwich of all time. I’m not a big fan of the food here so the discovery of this 75 cent sandwich of the Gods was a life saver that everyone was soon addicted to. As an added bonus Egg Sandwich Lady (as she came to be known) is right across the street from us and also sells beer and pop. So Cooler Man was out and Egg Sandwich Lady was in due to food and being closer. We are so fickle.

At this point businesses seemed to be opening up again and many of us had been in Gonaives long enough to realise that it’s not the scary place it first seemed. The locals are friendly and we had all made Haitian friends and hanging out with them after work meant that we needed to find a real live bar. Enter Speakerman. His beer price was two for 50 gourde which was cheaper than everywhere else. Plus he had real tables, a fridge instead of a cooler so the drinks were actually cold, and he even had a sound system, hence the name. Speakerman soon became our local pub which was funny considering it consisted of some patio furniture on the side of a busy, dusty road with trucks barrelling down it at high speeds a few meters away. But traffic calms down after dark and that’s when the dancing in the streets begins to the ‘Beep Bop’ song which will forever remind me of Haiti. It has no words, just ‘beep bop beep beep bop bop’ over and over again and then the actual song is played over and over again - I think seven times straight is the record. How much I’ve had to drink has a direct effect on whether I want to shoot myself or dance along.

One night while at Speakerman for a few people’s leaving drinks, a huge UN vehicle full of Argentinian soldiers drove past us. They came back down the same road at about 1am and this time they stopped. Of course we were on their truck within minutes, wearing their hats, and drunkenly holding their guns. Did I mention I love Haiti?

We spend most of our nights at Speakerman but decided to venture out one night to a place called ‘Hotel Delux’. It involved a trek in the dark down scary alleys and over a trash pile. On arrival, the music was super loud, our local volunteers were practically molesting a willing girl on the dancefloor, the beer was expensive, and the place was mostly empy except for us. We were wondering why we ever ventured away from our beloved Speakerman and decided after a couple of drinks to leave. One of the other volunteers had bought a beer at Egg Sandwich Lady and was trying to bring the empty back but the doorman wouldn’t let her leave with it. Another volunteer reached through the door from the outside, grabbed the bottle and bolted. The door guy slammed shut the iron gate and suddenly three blan (foreigners) were trapped inside and three were outside. Some local volunteers came to our rescue after about 10 minutes of arguing and we decided that venturing off to unknown bars might not be the best idea. It was an entertaining end to an otherwise boring night though.

Gonaives will never be on anyone’s must see list for cities to party in but we’re doing alright here! It’s amazing how fun patio furniture on the side of the road with an overly loud sound system playing the same song over and over can be when you’re surrounded by the right people. I’ve had a blast here so far and, while partying wasn’t on my list of things to do here, I’ve had my fair share of crazy nights and fuzzy memories that I hope I’ll never forget.

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Ok ok ok! I’m not supposed to be planning. But that doesn’t mean I can’t stockpile a list of interesting things as potential plans, does it? I’m leaving Haiti on February 19th and then I’m off to Australia for a couple of weeks for a wedding and some crazy catchup parties. I will be back in Miami on March 9th with nothing set in stone but a vague interest in heading to Central America for a look around.

I’m not really interested in hitting major sites or sitting on a beach as I’ve sort of lost interest in travelling of late. I’m more interested in doing something like volunteering, studying Spanish, WWOOFing, going to major sporting events or festivals, working in a hostel or a bar, learning a new skill, or even puttering around the area on a bike and couchsurfing along the way. I don’t care where I start and don’t care where I end and I don’t really have a time limit at this stage.

So if anyone out there has something for me, anything at all, leave a comment with your suggestion and I’ll check it out. Thanks!!

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I wrote a while ago about applying for a writing job on another blog and I got the job! The blog is called Location Independent and is about working remotely while living anywhere you want in the world. They cover loads of topics but they’re looking to me to stick to sharing my internet marketing knowledge and maybe chime in now and then about locations that are good for people who work remotely.

I finished my first article for them a few days ago: Back to Basics: 8 Ways to Make Money on the Internet Pop over and take a look if you’re interested. I’m going to write a whole series that will be similar to the first posts here on Nerdy Nomad and will post the links as the articles are published.

At £15 per article and about two articles a month, this won’t be a huge moneymaker but it is a great way to reach a new audience and hopefully get a few more readers over to my own blog. Plus, the people over at Location Independent are dedicated to taking their blog to the next level (whatever that entails) and it could be a great opportunity to tag along for the ride if things really take off for them.

I have lots of ideas so writing shouldn’t be a problem for me. My biggest concern is that I’ll find it hard sticking to a schedule after being a slacker for so long. I’m really looking forward to the collaboration though and I don’t think this small amount of structure will be too much of a shock to my system.

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One of my favourite things about building websites is getting to be creative with the look and feel of each site I build. True, lately I’ve been lazy and have been using the same layout for most of my new sites, but that doesn’t mean I can’t customise them to stand out from one another.

If you look at my site Working Holiday Info you’ll see that loads of detail was put into drawing characters from different countries holding items from the country they’re destined for. This took a crapload of time but I was willing to spend the time on it because I love drawing and I wanted to built a site that stood out a bit. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to spend on making all of my sites so customised, I don’t have the photos to draw on for inspiration, and I have no idea how to use Illustrator to make my own images from scratch.

For some reason this afternoon was the first time I thought of a solution to this problem: stock photo websites. I’d heard of stock photo websites as a way to earn money online but I had never thought of actually buying photos to use on my own sites. I suppose a part of me hates paying for things that I can do myself but as I attempt to build more sites and start earning a bit more, it makes sense to spend the money now to save the time later. Plus my finished websites will have a much more professional, polished look for a small amount of money.

I just downloaded my first ever stock photo which can be seen in the header of my Living in Sydney website that is nearing completion (finally!) As of right now there’s no title but I am decent enough at Photoshop to be able to pull this part off myself. It’s actually getting that background photo that’s tricky for me.

I used the first site I stumbled onto iStockPhoto and it had loads of great images to choose from. I spent US$18 on 12 credits and bought that image on my Sydney site for 3 credits for a small image (1527×314 pixels). The cheapest files are 1 credit and the most expensive are 28 credits for super huge files. Spending $4.50 on one photo might seem pricy but I expect it to be on every page of my website for the site’s lifetime (or at least until a redesign) so I think it’s a bargain.

The main reasons for me going down this road is to save time, get quality images, and not step on anyone’s toes by ‘borrowing’ images I find on Google. If you’ve got a bit of a design mind but don’t have the time or resources to snap photos and make images of your own from scratch, start browsing around the stock photo sites and see what you can come up with.

Does anyone have any recommendations for other good stock photo sites to draw files from?

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I’m not really a big fan of New Year’s resolutions but this year I thought I had a good one. After being burned a couple of times for making plans way in advance, first on a course in Thailand and next on a flight to Buenos Aires, I decided that, in 2009, I wouldn’t plan a thing in advance and would just go wherever I felt like going.

That lasted about 2 weeks before I decided that I wanted to go to Australia for a wedding on February 28th. I now have in my possession a flight reservation and a large chunk is missing from my savings. Spending the money to go will be totally worth it because of the people I’ll get to see while I’m there but making the plans a month in advance really makes me nervous.

I still plan not to plan once I get back to Miami on March 9th. There are a few ideas in the works including riding donkeys around El Salvador with a friend, hopping on a yacht around the Caribbean, heading to the States to work on a fundraising idea for Hands On, or just seeing what falls into my lap when the time comes.

I think it’s in my nature to always think a step ahead and to look for interesting things to get up to… I just need to learn how to think about these things without deciding straight away that I want to do something and locking it in several months in advance. This type of travel totally works for me, but I really want to try out the whole wandering around with nothing planned whatsoever to see how I like that.

I’m looking forward to giving it a try but will have to wait a little longer than expected now. How do you guys prefer to travel? Do any of you just go where you feel like going without any advance planning and just see where you end up?

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Having the freedom to travel all around the world with your job in tow is almost too good to be true but choosing a place to call home for any extended period of time can become a bit overwhelming with all of the options out there. Before making a decision about where in the world you will be calling home next there are a few things you should take into consideration.

• Visas – Choosing a country with strict visa controls may lead to headaches down the road in the form of visa runs, complicated renewal requirements and the possibility of having to deal with strict immigration officials if you happen to overstay your visa. Choosing a country with relaxed visa rules and low or no visa fees will makes life easier when the time comes to renew.
• Internet Connection – Choosing a country where the internet is fast and reliable is something that is pretty important for me. Heading to the jungles of Papua New Guinea to live would be an adventure, but it probably wouldn’t make sense if you need the internet.
• Cost – One of the major advantages of working remotely is that the wages you earn in your home currency can be spent anywhere in the world you choose. So if you choose to live in a cheap country then you might have the potential to live it up on a wage that you might barely be able to scrape by on at home.
• Currency Rates – Have a look at the current exchange rates to decide where in the world is the best value for money. Argentina and, more recently, Iceland are good examples of countries that have become a lot more affordable due to problems with their economies and the devaluing of their currency. Taking advantage of shifting currency rates will allow you to get better bang for your buck and might open up new, previously expensive destinations to you.
• Language – Depending on your outlook, heading to a place where you don’t understand the language could be deemed a huge hassle or a great opportunity. If you want to arrive in a place and get settled in without too many headaches then choosing a place where you speak the language will help. But if you have the patience and want to challenge yourself then heading to a place to learn a new language might also be appealing.
• Safety and Security – Danger is something that appeals to some people but, for most of us, living in a safe place is a top priority. Places are rarely as bad as the media makes them seem but keeping out of war zones is probably a good idea.
• Health – Having the ability to go to a hospital if you get sick or injure yourself is a good thing so doing a bit of research on the healthcare in your potential new home would be wise. You might also want to avoid heading to places that are in the midst of an outbreak of some random disease.
• Festivals and Events – Major events like the World Cup or the Olympics are pretty good reasons to move to a city if you’re into that sort of thing and your friends and family will love you for letting them crash on your couch during the big events.
• Weather and Seasons – Being somewhere when the weather is miserable can have a huge impact on your experience in a city. Trying to hit a place during the season that works best for you will add to your overall enjoyment of your newly chosen home. It might also be a good idea to keep informed on when hurricane or cyclone season is in certain places to try to avoid getting caught up in any nasty storms.
• Activities and Hobbies – Take the time to research the places that will let you get the most out of your hobbies so you’re able to fill your down time with things you enjoy doing whether that be diving, skiing, surfing, dancing the tango or whatever.
• Culture and Customs – Choosing a place that is totally different in culture to what you’re used to is appealing from an adventure point of view but might present some challenges when it comes to more practical things. If you’re not the type that is willing to adapt then sticking to a country that has a similar culture to your own would be the safest bet.
• Travel Connections – If you plan to do a lot of travelling from your new home base then choosing a city that is well connected is a good idea so that trips away will be easy and affordable. Stranding yourself in the middle of nowhere might be more your thing but if you want to travel a lot you might find that it will become pretty expensive and time consuming.
• Friends – Having a couple of friends in your new home city is a great way to kick start your social life and adapt to your new surroundings quickly. Plus, getting to visit with old friends for a long period of time and to explore their home town can be pretty appealing.

As someone who can work from anywhere I’m pretty much free to choose to live anywhere I want and the world really is my oyster. This can almost be a little overwhelming and finding a city that is a perfect fit is a big challenge but not a bad problem to have!

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A couple of days ago there was a bit of a crisis at our home base here in Haiti. The town we’re in, Gonaives, had run out of gas and a car was sent to Port-au-Price to get some more. Unfortunately, we discovered that there was none to be had in Port-au-Prince either. Aaah Haiti.

We use gasoline to power our generator which, in turn, powers the internet, our electronics and the water pump, among other things. The lack of water would have made us all pretty gross but I’m sure we would have found a way to get water in buckets from nearby pumps. The idea of having no internet or power for a long period of time is what really scared me and it got me thinking about other hurdles that have led to unexpected periods of me being unproductive.

• Travel adaptor breaking in The Philippines - I found myself stranded in legaspi after a four hour flight delay. I had wanted to go to a nearby town called Donsol to be ready to swim with whale sharks the next day but, instead, was trapped in a super crappy hotel. I had brought my laptop with the intention of doing some offline work and was ready to sit down and get loads of stuff done when I realised that my travel adaptor had shat itself. At first I thought it was my power cord so I was releived that it was only the adaptor, but it meant that I couldn’t get a thing done that night because my laptop battery was dead.
• Ordering a meal in a place with broken wifi - This happens all the time but there was a spell in Chang Mai where I kept heading into cafes or restaurants supposedly with wifi, ordering a meal, and then opening my computer to find that the connection didn’t work and nobody knew how to fix it. I seem to get a lot done in cafes and restaurants and I’m always in the mood to work so it’s frustrating to not be able to get online and then have to eat a meal before heading on to another place to try again and order more stuff.
• Wifi but no powerpoints - Hong Kong airports is pretty much devoid of powerpoints except for one I found around a corner near the Ben and Jerry’s place after you go through security, I think. I had a dead battery and needed to get online to get instructions on how to get to my hostel and spent about 30 minutes wandering around the airport looking for a plug in vain.
• Power falures in Bangladesh - The town I was volunteering in in Bangladesh had pretty sporadic electricity and it would usually only be on from about 6pm until 9pm. Even then, it contstantly cut in and out. If my phone and computer were charged I could still do work in the dark but my computer screen would get dive bombed by bugs which made working pretty difficult and sort of gross.

So far these little mishaps are the worst hassles I’ve faced that have caused me not to be able to do the work I wanted to. All are out of my control and annoying, but none are realy that bad and I’m pretty thankful of that. It’s always frustrating when you’re ready to work and some silly thing stops you from reaching your desired results.

Have any of you been frustrated by a silly, small thing on the road that meant that you couldn’t get your work done?

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I read a really cool post over on The Art of Non-Conformity that wrapped up his year of travels in 2008 and thought I’d have a crack at it myself. I haven’t been to nearly as many places as that guy but I still think I’ve had a pretty interesting year.

Countries I Visted in 2008

• England
• The Philippines
• Bangladesh
• Malaysia
• Hong Kong
• China
• Thailand
• Myanmar
• Canada (Windsor, Toronto, Niagara)
• USA (New York City, Detroit)
• Haiti

Highlights

• Swimming with whale sharks in Donsol, Philippines
• Playing poker and meeting people at Friendly’s Guesthouse in Manila, Philippines
• Building houses and playgrounds in Bangladesh
• Riding on the top of buses in Bangladesh
• Volunteering to teach English in Yangshuo, China
• Couchsurfing for the first time in Kaili, China
• Going to the Olympics in Beijing
• Bathing elephants in Northern Thailand
• Boat ride in deck class down the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar
• Camping with five friends in the middle of nowhere in Haiti
• Going to a soccer game in Haiti

Transportation

I flew a lot. I took almost 20 flights, spent a load of cash on airfares and probably have a massive carbon footprint at the moment. I have found that buying flights at short notice can still be affordable and it’s allowed a lot of flexibility in my plans, which has been great.

The longest journey of the trip was a 36 hour boat ride in deck class a few days after a 32 hour train ride in Myanmar. I discovered a love of overnight train journeys after some great experiences in China and Thailand and then discovered that in Myanmar, overnight trains are not the most reliable things in the world and had to sit through a 10 hour delay.

The craziest journey has to have been my seven hour trip on Xmas from Gonaives, Haiti to the Dominican republic border on a tap tap (essentially a pickup truck with benches) with 27 other people crammed on the back. A pretty uncomfortable way to travel but it was worth it for the experience. Travelling on the top of buses in Bangaldesh with the locals and their wares has to be a very close second for madness.

Lessons Learned

I had planned on taking a sustainable living course in Thailand but decided at the last minute to go to Haiti to do volunteer work so I lost the $500 deposit. I also booked several flights in advance and ended up changing my plans and losing $750. I’ve decided that making plans is bad for my bank balance so I’m going to try 2009 without making concrete plans to do anything too far in advance.

I also know now that travelling for the sake of it doesn’t really turn me on the way it used to. I much prefer doing things, whether it being attending a major event like the Olympics, volunteering, taking a language course or even renting an apartment and doing my internet work for a while. I can’t see this attitude changing in 2009 so I’ll be on the lookout for interesting opportunities in whichever area of the world I end up.

Plans for 2009

I’ve decided to kick planning to the curb for the foreseeable future but that doesn’t mean I can’t have some rough ideas for what I want to do, so here goes.

• Travel on a sailboat
• Study a new language abroad (Spanish, French or Arabic are on my list)
• Cycle across a country
• Do more Couchsurfing and WWOOFing
• Search out more volunteering opportunities
• Learn about natural building and sustainable living
• Hitchhike

I expect to be in Haiti until March 2009 so would expect Central and South America to be my next stops, but I really am up for anything so who knows where I’ll end up. On the possible agenda after Haiti are a trip to Australia for a wedding, crewing on a yacht to Central America, or riding a donkey around El Salvador. I really have no idea what will happen and I sort of like it.

I had a great year in 2008 and I’m excited to see what 2009 holds. I have no idea how much I spent versus what I earning but I’ll attempt to sort out an annual revuew of my earnings and spending in a future post.

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Ahhh! My earnings have dropped down to $885 and I have only myself to blame for some serious laziness. I have been blogging sort of reliably but I haven’t been doing much else. I know that I work best later at night when everyone is asleep but I’m usually too tired to think after about 10pm so I haven’t managed to be productive. I need a kick in the pants and hopefully this crappy month will scare me into doing some work.
Earnings breakdown:

• Google Adsense - $195 - Adsense is getting worse but I haven’t done anything about it. The good news is that so far in January, things seem to be back to normal.
  
• Affiliate Sales - $555 - Affiliate sales are diversifying but that doesn’t help much when my big earner takes a hit. If it’s an indicator for what lies ahead then I’ll be in trouble.
• Linkworth & Text Link Ads - $23 - I think this might be my final month for this category. TLA has been eliminated from my sites and Linkworth has cancelled their one remaining ad.
• Private Link Sales - $30 - I am riding high on my three monthly subscription payments for $10 and not much else. I have a few people to collect payment from but haven’t heard back. I think my PR for Travoholic.com has dropped to zero and many of my other sites are still stuck there. Emailing Google about this is on my agenda but, like everything else, I’ve been putting it off.

December saw a big drop in earnings but it was also the second full month in a row of doing no work at all. I have learned that being surrounded by people isn’t conducive to me being productive. I am going to attempt a late night working session tonight and see how that goes.

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For our holiday all of us were looking for some serious relaxation and a chance to do next to nothing beyond eating lots of bad for us food, drinking cocktails and collapsing on the beach. The windsurfing town of Cabarete was suggested as a possible destination and it turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. We were surrounded by other tourists, bars, sand, surf, food and were a bit overwhelmed at first but managed to accept the pace of life and spent five days being lazy, drunk and stuffed with food. It was great.

When our holiday came to an end we were actually all ready to get back to Haiti. Cabarete was nice but too orderly and I think we were all craving the chaos and mud that we had left behind. After taking a tap tap with its own sound system we arrived into the chaos of central Cap Haitian and accidentally held up an entire intersection for a few minutes while we wrangled over price to meet a friend in a hotel at a beach an hour away. This taxi was definitely not meant for the hilly, pot holey, and all around terrible road and I was amazed it surived the journey. The road did a number on the taxi though and all the driver kept saying over and over was ‘not good, not good’ as the bottom of the car scraped along the road.

When we eventually made it to the hotel at 6pm and were in good spirits since we never expected to survive the ride. We were happy and confident having survived the taxi ride but were surprised to see that our friend had left for a place nearby called Labadie Beach. Normally no problem, we’d just go to the other beach… but this is Haiti and getting there involved short taxi and boat rides. Problem? Because he had already nearly killd his car, our taxi driver refused to take us any further and there’s virtually no traffic on the road we came in on. So we paid loads for the airport taxi guy to take us down the road and even more for random boat people to take us to Labadie. It all worked out ok after we got to the beach and were led on a wild goose chase down dark alleys and riverbeds. We found our friend, had some drinks, spoke to an interesting 83 year old American guy who runs a beautiful hotel there and pretty much just chilled out.

Getting to Labadie was kind of a nightmare so I’m not sure why it never crossed our mind that getting out wouldn’t be just as much of a pain. But we don’t think of these things so we wandered around town a bit and left way later than we shoud have. We ended up getting stuck for several hours at the end of the dirt road right next to a beach that Royal Caribbean has leased for it’s guests. The ridiculous thing about this beach is that the entire thing has been walled off so that on one side there are floating bouncy castles, cocktail bars, jet skis and copious amounts of white people and, on the other side, there is a dirt road and 100 Haitians (and us) fighting to get onto a pickup truck to get away from there. There was a gasoline shortage that day so very few tap taps were operating which meant that our fight to get onto a truck was unsuccessful and we were sort of stranded. Not how I was hoping to spend my New Years Eve.

By this point it was about 2pm. We were at the end of a long road with no hope of getting onto any kind of transportation so we just started walking. The new plan was to get to the hotel were almost stranded at the previous night and hope for the best. We had a sympathy drink once we got there which raised our spirits but a friend of mine was sick of waiting around and headed off walking further down the road. I joined her and we walked for about 3 minutes before finding a bar, grabbing some drinks and parking our asses at the side of the road chatting to a couple of nice Haitian guys who gave us jewellery.

Eventually we snagged a ride back to Cap Haitian with an airport taxi and managed to get on a tap tap that was due to leave at 5pm for the 4 hours journey back to Gonaives. I didn’t think vehicles travelled at night in Haiti but I was happy to see they did… until we actually started moving. We were pretty crammed and the road was terrible and even scarier at night than during the day. We passed the time by chatting to the locals and getting a mobile Creole lesson in the process.

We arrived back at base at 10:30pm and I’ve never been so happy to see a place in my life. We were all in one piece and pretty thirsty so we headed up the road to Speaker Guy for several tasty beverages, a badly timed New Years countdown, hugs and kisses, terrible dancing, some serious avoidance of drunken Indian UN guys, more drinks, worse dancing, and fuzzy memories. It was probably my best New Years so far and it couldn’t have been in a more bizarre place, dancing on the side of the road in Haiti and happy as hell to have made it there in one piece.

Happy New Years everyone!

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