slow travel and remote working.
We have been hearing rumours about companies offering up to 3 months a year of remote working from anywhere you want…South East Asia is “anywhere”! We built this business with a laptop, hot-spotting data, and slow travelling around Asia - since 2012, before 3g!
You manage your work. We will fill in the rest of your time with activities and landscapes with soon-to-be some of your best memories. Pick your poison: surfing, cooking, trekking volcanoes, trekking with orangutans or elephants, all the beaches, indigenous tribes, scootering, waterfalls (so many waterfalls), lush jungles, scuba diving. And the best part of Asia, you will be fuelled by all healthful foods and tropical fruits and the best coffees, of course. And if you didn’t know, therapeutic massages and other forms of self-care are very affordable out here too.
“Treat yo’self” - Tom and Donna, Parks and Rec
The destinations are limitless - And if you bookend your month of remote working with paid time off, you will truly be able to wander where the wi-fi is weak and experience the true essence of South East Asia.
We Simply Ask That You:
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Destinations were chosen based on: strong, reliable internet; access to western creature comforts; and access to a variety of adventures. Just say yes to anything and everything that piques your interest.
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If you don’t try, you don’t know. This can be a month of firsts for you. Weekends can be filled with learning how to dive, surf, trek, cook, or to just get pampered. You can even start/end your work days with nature if your office hour time zones work in your favour.
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Science says that it takes 21 days to create good habits and it is hard to start something new in old places and spaces. Use this change of scenery to be mindful and heartful with everything that you do. All it takes is one breath to centre yourself. Let’s do it. Breathe in deep, smell the fresh baked cookies. Hold, two, three, four. Breathe out, blow out the candles on your birthday day.
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As your perspective shifts and a weight is lifted off your shoulders in halfie-holiday mode, remember those heavy feels you lived with for so long and lead with love, kindness, and compassion for your colleagues, for the service staff, for animals, for everyone and everything. Be the sunshine.
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The world we live in now was designed by the 1% of the world that can understand binary and coding. We are not meant to live online, and stay continuously distracted from knowing ourselves. We are meant to connect and communicate, with ourselves and others. And that starts with learning how to just be. To just be in the present moment and appreciate the magic in each moment.
Indonesia
Indonesia spans over 16,000 islands, believe us when we say that one month is just the beginning. Where we will send you will really depend on how you like to spend our time. If you like jungles, it will be North Sumatra. If you like surfing, it could be off beat Bali, Java, or South Sumatra. If you like summiting, we will have to move you around a bit but you can be the tallest person on five of the Indonesians islands for a second. Then there’s diving, the best diving in the world in our humble opinion. And culture - did you know that there are over 400 indigenous languages spoken in Indonesia?
Vietnam
Vietnam is rich in culture, a lot of history, trekking, and very good food and coffee. The country is very long from north to south, so landscapes change quite drastically with beautiful, unimaginably large rice terraces in the north, white sand beaches in central coast, and jungles as you move south. The Central Highlands that separate Vietnam from Laos means cooler temperatures and crispier air. You have probably heard of the Hmong Tribes but there are 54 ethnic groups in all of Vietnam and so much to learn from them just by spending time with them.
Cambodia
Cambodia AKA “isn’t that the place Angelina Jolie filmed Tomb Raider” is more than just Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples in Siem Reap. Slowly make your way around Cambodia to see Siem Reap, Battambang, and Phnom Penh. Then head east to Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri because nature is calling. There are elephants and gibbons for you to meet.
Laos
Laos is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia and they have the mountains, lush jungles, and rivers to make up for the lack of beaches. Laos is a balance of Thailand and Vietnam in many ways, being sandwiched between the two. There are rice terraces and trekking you won’t believe until you see it. They have elephant sanctuaries. They have karst mountains towering over rivers. And the food is unique and always super fresh.
Jin’s words of Wisdom
While travelling and in life, you pay in money, time, or grit. There is always a balance here. The more money you have, the less time you will spend on local transportation, the less grit you really need to get to the best spots around Southeast Asia. But there is a cost to that as well.
When you fly over regions rather than slowly travelling through them, you miss out on glimpses of the soul of a place. There is something special about riding a motorbike when you can smell, feel, see, and sometimes taste what you are passing through. Not everyone is blessed with an endless amount of time.
So it really comes down to your style of travel. Your personality. Your interests. What you want to get out of this time investment. What you are willing to put into it. How you want to impact the people and the places you will meet. Travel, truly exploring, can be transformative. And a biased opinion, it brings clarity to any problem.
As much as we will be supporting you throughout your month with us, you need to have a bit more grit and independence: jump on a scooter to explore your own surroundings. You will need to find your own favourite coffee spot you like to spend your mornings working from. Or a restaurant that has your new favourite local dish. We also can’t help you make local friends either. We can guide you in choosing the best locations to sleep depending on what you want to do, but the rest, these little things will be completely up to you.
Are you ready? I dare you! A month away with Chickenfeet can be a combination of any of the below:
