Western Red Cedar's Journal

[frugaldoc]

That sounds like a lovely time. I should probably utilize my close proximity to countries such as Thailand and Vietnam to explore that part of the world. I appreciate deliberate pace of your travels with lots of reading by the pool. It was only a few years ago that I learned that travel isn't a race to see everything when you travel to an area.

[Jiimmy]

It’s been fun catching up with your posts. Looking forward to more!

I was in Vietnam about a decade ago. I loved it there. If you need a break from the tropical climate there are some nice towns a bit higher in elevation. The one that comes to mind is Dalat.

[Western Red Cedar]

@frugaldoc - there are certainly plenty of gems in Thailand, Vietnam and other locales in SE Asia. If I was in your position, I'd actually lean into exploring Japan while you are there. Such a fascinating country with amazing cities, natural areas, and arguably the best food culture in the world. It is an expensive location, so if you can leverage your existing accommodations to access the country that would be ideal.

@Jiimmy - Glad you are enjoying it. I suspect you were patiently waiting for me to pull the trigger like a few other members here. Poco a poco

I added a few photos to my last post and will try to keep the travel journal updated.

Dalat is definitely on the itinerary. We have another nine weeks in Vietnam, and are planning on taking things slow and heading south from Central Vietnam. I was in Sapa 15 years ago which is another higher elevation town, and it was stunning.

I'm open to other suggestions as well. We currently have Hue, Da Nang, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Da Lat and Hoh Chi Minh City on the list. I've already been up North on a previous trip, so the plan is to slowly move south.

[bostonimproper]

Beautiful pictures! Happy travels!

[Lemur]

I’m jealous WRC! This journal makes me want to go back to the Philippines again. I miss the relaxed culture, beaches, food, sights, mental decompression, and finally that strange sense of feeling what I call “the order in the chaos.”

It will be a permanent destination for us eventually and then we will have a base from which to more easily travel the countries around us one day.

Enjoy Vietnam!

[Western Red Cedar]

@bostonimproper and Lemur- thanks for stopping by and the well wishes. We won't be able to make to to the Philippines on this leg of the trip due to the weather window for travel, but may try to get there next fall/winter.

DW and I have been in Vietnam for almost six weeks and will be here for just under three months. We applied for the multiple entry visa before we left in case we wanted to visit Laos or Cambodia, but it doesn't make sense for us to make that trip. We've really enjoyed the culture, geography, climate and food here. Not to mention the prices. We've eased a bit more into the slow travel lifestyle, with a full month in Da Nang to kick off the trip. Slowing down keeps costs and stress lower. We averaged about $750 per person our first month here, which included a nice hotel room with breakfast included, massages every couple weeks, and access to excellent Vietnamese and western food (sushi, poke, wood-fired pizza, greek, indian, korean, vegan cafes, etc..). There is a strong Korean presence here, so the food is prolific and high quality. I had my best bowl of Kimchi Jiggae since leaving Korea, and it cost less than $3. I've also found affordable local gyms here, which is great for meeting other foreigners and adding some balance to my day. Our average cost for Thailand was closer to $1,000 per person per month, without the same level of decadence and luxury.

Our days typically include waking up without an alarm and getting breakfast and enjoying some small, strong cups of coffee (herbal tea for dw). I'll lift weights in the morning, then shower and hang out for a while on the internet. We'll video chat with family a few times of week in the late morning. Then we head out to a local coffee shop to talk, read, or write. The coffee culture here is robust, and most of the beans are robusta

After that we'll grab a leisurely lunch, which usually lasts at least an hour, then head back to our room to cool off, read, nap, or watch something online. Sometimes we'll head over to the beach, or do something more touristy like a museum, hike, market, etc... For the most part we try to follow the lead of the locals and stay out of the midday sun.

We usually have an early dinner, between 5:00 and 6:30, then take a walk around town or along the beach before heading back to watch a movie or show on Netflix. Sometimes books or beers instead of a film. It is a good life and I'm definitely not getting bored. As others have mentioned, it is hard to imagine how I managed to fit in 40+ hours of work in per week.

Our last week in Da Nang we were able to meet up with 2B1S and his wife and we took them to our favorite spots. We traveled together to Hoi An for five nights, and really enjoyed strolling around Old Town and through all of the lovely little Alleys that are bursting with life. A mid-afternoon coffee class where we learned about Vietnamese coffee and beans, and made five different drinks, was one of the highlights for me. It was also really nice just nerding out on FI/ERE and the nomadic lifestyle.

DW and I opted to stay in Hoi An for a couple more days, then took a beautiful train up to Hue which is the former capital of Vietnam. Moving adds a bit to the COL, but it is still extremely affordable here. I have a feeling the costs, hospitality, and quality of food will spoil us for the rest of the trip.

We'll be leaving to meet up with 2B1S again in Da Nang, then taking the train down the coast to Quy Nhon and Nha Trang. Planning on at least a week in Da Lat, and then we'll play it by ear.

It still feels a bit bizarre living such a decadent lifestyle, and realizing this was part of my long-term ERE plan and fit into my WOG. A big part of getting DW on board with FI was painting a picture of slow-travel as the initial destination (she's and INFJ). The lifestyle is allowing the portfolio to keep growing, and we can probably accelerate that even more if we shift to work exchanges or WWOOFing at some point.

Some views from Da Nang:

Local Fishermen doing their thing:



Cityscape from My Khe Beach:



The Dragon Bridge with Flowers from Lunar New Year:



Apec Park near the River:



Marble Mountains:

[Western Red Cedar]

"In such times as these, having recourse to periods of and spaces for 'doing nothing' is of utmost importance, because without them we have no way to think, reflect, heal and sustain ourselves - individually or collectively. There is a kind of nothing that is necessary for, at the end of the day, doing something."

-Jenny Odell, The Art of Doing Nothing

[Ego]

Wow! Beautiful. You are doing a great job of selling it to those of us who are yearning for such things. Much appreciated.

I am surprised that the local cycling aficionado has not lured you into a race up the Hai Van Pass.

[Western Red Cedar]

@ego - I'm glad you are enjoying the initial travelogue. Putting the dream and vision out here on the forum helped hold me accountable, and made it a little easier to walk away from the safety and security of my career and former life.

I am surprised that the local cycling aficionado has not lured you into a race up the Hai Van Pass.

I'm not sure I have the chutzpah for that kind of a ride considering the local traffic. Sometimes I feel like I'm pressing my luck as a pedestrian navigating through the city. The train ride over the pass and back was quite scenic though. This kid was getting after it near Hai Van Pass in the rain and looked like he might have been up for a race:



DW and I have been making heavy use of the trains here. I knew from a previous trip that the local trains represented a good option for travel along the coast. I booked 1st class sleepers for the first two trips, which include four bunks - 2 upper and 2 lower - where you can lay out. Yesterday we opted for the second class AC seats, which were leather seats that reclined. Lots of fascinating scenes in both areas. Everything from a local man singing classic folk songs for a Japanese tourist, to teenagers taking endless photos for whatever social media site is in vogue these days.

Here are a couple views of the coast heading up to Hai Van Pass on the train from Da Nang to Hue:





The cities often feel chaotic, but the people here are incredibly kind. It is such a great value and an ideal place to travel slowly. DW is really loving her first experience in Vietnam, and I'm glad we decided to spend a good chunk of time here.

[Western Red Cedar]

Three Months of Nomadic FI:

We've been on the road for three months now! Vietnam has delivered beyond our expectations for culture, value, and quality of life. We are currently in Nha Trang and really like it here. I'm typing this from a high-rise condo looking out at blue and turquoise water towards sailboats, islands, and sandy beaches. Nah Trang is much more walkable and pedestrian friendly than Da Nang in our experience, though some of that might just a higher level of comfort with managing traffic. Crossing the street at a busy cross walk basically means walking out into a stream of a hundred scooters, staring them down, and trusting that they'll avoid you. A real-life version of Frogger.

We have a couple more weeks in the country, and will be heading to Dalat next week. After that to Hoh Chi Minh City for a short stay and Bali for a month, then likely a couple weeks in Malaysia and then Northern Thailand for a month. We haven't done monthly rentals yet as I had initially planned, in part because hotels are so cheap and in part because it gives us a bit more flexibility to change our itinerary based on feedback and reports from other travelers. Our last few places we've stayed are larger condos with small kitchenettes and DW really likes the extra space and simple breakfasts we cook in the mornings. Lately those breakfasts have been eggs over easy, with a slice of fresh bread/butter, and passionfruit. Before we had a decent quality pan, we would make salami sandwiches and maybe some mango or passionfruit. The costs are: 1 dozen eggs ($1), I small pack of butter ($.20), 1 large, freshly baked baguette ($.30), 1/2 kilogram of passionfruit, which is maybe 7-8 passionfruit ($.60). 1 pack of high-quality, local salami, which is 12-16 pieces ($2.25). If we were flexing our true ERE muscles and cooking more often, we could probably be living much more cheaply. But...we both love food and it is one of DW's favorite parts of travel. That means we are eating out a couple times per day. Happy wife, happy life...

We'll likely do a monthly rental in Chang Mai, and may do more later in the year. Still not sure what the itinerary will look like from mid-July onward. The three general options are head to Hokkaido for a month long stay in Sapporo, and hang out on that island for 4-6 weeks to avoid the worst of the heat and rain in SE Asia, then gravitate back to SE Asia later in the year. Head over to eastern Europe and Turkey for 3-4 months, before heading back to SE Asia in late fall. Or, head back to Indonesia for a month, then down to Australia or New Zealand for a couple months on a workaway, before coming back to SE Asia.

The common thread is a return to SE Asia during an ideal weather window. Even though we've both spent a lot of time here, there is plenty more to see and experience. It is hard to find a better value, and keeping costs low at this point of the FI journey will ideally allow the stash to keep growing. I'd like to get to the Philippines and return to Laos. DW and I were talking over lunch today, and we both think we could easily spend another three months contently in Vietnam and utilize the full duration of the visa.

I'm also trying not to let the budget drive all of our decisions. Turkey and eastern Europe is probably the top of the three options at the moment, even though it would probably be the most expensive. At some point I'd like to get to Central and South America, which also offer plenty of travel deals, but it doesn't make sense to relocate so dramatically considering that we both feel like there is more to see and experience here

In terms of finances, I haven't done a detailed analysis of our expenses (still planning on it), but it looks like we are gravitating towards $2,000 per month as a couple over the last six weeks, versus the $1,500 we spent our first month here. We found a particularly good deal on accommodation in Da Nang for the first month which also included a buffet breakfast, and we mostly just hung out at the beach, or in coffee shops or restaurants. Lots of reading, writing, watching stuff online, working out, walking around, and other cheap activities. It definitely wouldn't be hard to live well here for under a grand as a couple or solo traveler. The last six weeks we've been taking trains and buses to different cities, doing some tours, and paying a little more for nicer accommodation. 2k was my target budget per month so we are on track, though I was hoping a lower burn rate in SE Asia would offset higher burn rates elsewhere. Nonetheless, the markets were on a tear earlier this year and I was finally able to access all of my accounts. We cruised past the FI goal I had set at the beginning of this journal, which is pretty exciting! It looks like I may have had impeccable timing by working through the end of the year, and I'm considering the denial of my sabbatical as a blessing.

It feels great to be on the right side of compounding interest, but I'm hoping money will become more irrelevant as time marches on. DW still seems interested in going back to work at some point, and I've kept my eye on different positions as well. I likely wouldn't return to my old employer (might not return to work at all ), but I've been looking at work focused more specifically on natural resources and ecology. We'll see how it all looks in 6-9 months though.

[Western Red Cedar]

Reflections on some of the downsides of travel:

I thought I would take a little time to reflect on some of the downsides of travel and nomadism. DW and I are doing exactly what we planned, and are experiencing some stunning natural areas and cities. All of this at a fraction of what we would pay back home for a similar lifestyle. Nonetheless, in the spirit of transparency I thought it would be worthwhile to write briefly about the downsides, at least through my perspective thus far. This isn't a list of complaints, just a reality check for anyone, including myself, who is idealizing the nomadic lifestyle:

-Our carbon footprint is much higher. This is mostly related to flights and the difficulty in avoiding single-use plastics while on the road. On a positive note, it is much easier to avoid the industrial food system in Thailand and Vietnam. It seems the majority of the meat and produce we eat is sourced within a few hours.

-There is so much plastic everywhere. We try to limit it where we can, but it just seems the cultural norm here to rely on plastics.

-Smog, heat and bugs. The air-quality has been quite good thus far, but that is partially because I considered it closely when developing our itinerary. Every trip outside requires a thorough application of sunscreen in the day, and bug spray with deet during the day and night. I'm often a sweaty mess if I try to walk more than 10 minutes during the middle of the day.

-It is more challenging for me to eat healthy and stay consistent with workouts. I've actually done pretty well with workouts over the last two months and walking is a regular part of the lifestyle, but nutrition is a bit of a mixed bag. Part of this is compromising with DW on what and where to eat, and part of this is choosing places without a kitchen. We'll likely prioritize larger units with a kitchen moving forward.

-The nomadic lifestyle and immersing oneself in strange new environments every couple of weeks takes up a large portion of my cognitive bandwidth. I felt a little burnout a few times over the last 14 weeks just trying to manage logistics and figure out next steps. Some of this is as simple as navigating new neighborhoods and finding a variety of places to eat that fit our budget and diet preferences. Some of it is figuring out a multi-month itinerary, what flights/busses/trains are ideal. Where we'll stay that fits in our budget, doesn't have any glaring issues (mold, bedbugs, general cleanliness, etc) and is relatively walkable. I think some of this is exacerbated by traveling in the internet age, though that might just be nostalgia for my simpler backpacking adventures in the aughts.

-Diarrhea at least a couple times a month (sorry if this is TMI). We love to eat locally, but seem to be gambling sometimes with the abundance of fresh produce and herbs. It is starting to get old...

-Visceral reminder that you carry all your old baggage with you wherever you go. Sometimes I'd wonder why I'm not happier sitting in paradise, doing what I've dreamed about for years. Sitting at a picture-perfect Thai sunset or Vietnamese beach and not feeling that much more content than I did back home. Perhaps reinforces the notion that most people are wired for a certain baseline level of happiness. Some people are at an 8, and some people are at a 3. You can move the needle a couple points in either direction, but you are still working from your baseline.

In regards to the last point, a week ago I read something that served as a reminder to open my eyes, look around, and appreciate what I have in my life. It was helpful in terms of looking at daily life through a lens of gratitude. When I remember that this may be the only time I experience a particular city or country for the rest of my life, it helps me appreciate it more. Focusing too much on budget, optimization, logistics and financial longevity takes me out of the moment.

Anyway....the highs are higher and the lows are lower with this lifestyle. I don't have the routine and demands of work to distract me anymore.

[2Birds1Stone]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the downsides of this lifestyle. I agree with many of the points, though some of these issues can be mitigated with some experience and planning

One thought that came to mind as I finished reading your update....you went through TWO enormous transitions simultaneously. You went nomadic after living in the same place for a decade and having a routine. At the same time you gave up the thing that provided you with so many different things you were used to (routine, accountability, positive/negative reinforcement, socialization, sense of worth/accomplishment etc).

It becomes harder to determine which change is responsible for which feelings/emotions. You should go easy on yourself, it took balls to make these changes and even more so simultaneously, and you've navigated it with gusto and stride.

[Ego]

We've found that carrying a mini kitchen solves or mitigates some of these issues.

The MSR Whisperlite Universal works with just about any fuel known to man and when you add a small additional adapter it works with the butane fuel canisters that are ubiquitous in most of the world. That said, similar Chinese made foldable stoves are available everywhere for very little.

Positives and negatives.

+ Savings. Way cheaper than eating out in most places.
+ Bandwidth. Eliminates the dreaded restaurant search. It is much easier to find groceries.
+ Nutrition. Better control over the healthfulness of what we are consuming
+ Skill. Learn to incorporate local ingredients in our cooking is more interesting than simply eating out.
+ Health. Minimizes the possibility of food born illnesses (vinegar on salads, always!)
+ Accommodation. Eliminates the extra expense of renting places with kitchens.

- Increases luggage weight
- Cost of checked bags.
- Takes time
- We must carry our lunch with us when we are out and about during the day.

[zbigi]

-Visceral reminder that you carry all your old baggage with you wherever you go. Sometimes I'd wonder why I'm not happier sitting in paradise, doing what I've dreamed about for years. Sitting at a picture-perfect Thai sunset or Vietnamese beach and not feeling that much more content than I did back home.

This is my attitude to travel and, in general, choosing a place to live. The bad things (smog, noisy neighbors) can make you fairly miserable, especially if they're high in intensity - but beautiful, serene surroundings don't do have that much of a positive effect. There are studies that people who live near a green, walkable area (like a forest or a city park) are clearly happier, but otherwise I don't think nice locations make that much of a difference. For contentment, internal landscape is much more important. There was a small fraction of people who managed to maintain peace of mind even in the Gulags (as per one account, there were all very religious).

[Western Red Cedar]

@2b1s - that is a helpful reframe in terms of the magnitude of changes I've experienced in the last few months. In terms of planning and experience, I gravitate towards keeping the itinerary somewhat open-ended to allow for additional flexibility. DW and I found this worked better than over-planning, because we could explore places based off recommendations from locals and travelers, and stay places we liked for longer periods of time. Some of our favorite places thus far on the trip weren't on my initial itinerary. The lack of predictability also has downsides as well.

That last post was really just an attempt to be transparent about the ups and downs of life on the road. I was getting ready to write another upbeat post about Dalat, but thought something different might help anyone who is romanticizing "getting away" and the nomadic lifestyle. I've noticed a few posters struggle with the lack of structure and schedule as they shifted away from their home base. It is something I'm also wrestling with.

@Ego - thanks for the suggestions! Fortunately in SE Asia it isn't too challenging to find rooms with kitchens at a budget price, so we should be good moving forward as long as we prioritize that feature. One of the challenges with eating out is that DW is a huge foodie. For her, exploring different cuisines is the highlight of travel. This isn't just local food though. In Nha Trang, we stumbled across a Lebanese restaurant that was her favorite of the trip thus far. We could eat well for $5-6 there and probably went back 8 times over the course of 2.5 weeks. We also found excellent Indian, Greek and Japanese food there, in addition to delicious Vietnamese. Greek souvlaki wraps under some trees at the beach with a coconut or water ended up as one of our favorite lunches - around $5 for both of us.

In the last two days she found some of the best patisserie and the best cup of hot chocolate she's ever had in Dalat. This includes hot chocolate we've tried in Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, Mexico, and elsewhere.

We're still working out our systems, and may shift to eating 2/3 of the meals at our home base with either dinner or lunch out. Since I know eating out makes DW happy and enhances here experience on the road, I'm generally happy to oblige.

@Zbigi - Good points! I probably need to spend more time working on the internal landscape.

[jacob]

-The nomadic lifestyle and immersing oneself in strange new environments every couple of weeks takes up a large portion of my cognitive bandwidth. I felt a little burnout a few times over the last 14 weeks just trying to manage logistics and figure out next steps. Some of this is as simple as navigating new neighborhoods and finding a variety of places to eat that fit our budget and diet preferences. Some of it is figuring out a multi-month itinerary, what flights/busses/trains are ideal. Where we'll stay that fits in our budget, doesn't have any glaring issues (mold, bedbugs, general cleanliness, etc) and is relatively walkable. I think some of this is exacerbated by traveling in the internet age, though that might just be nostalgia for my simpler backpacking adventures in the aughts.

Everybody has a preferred level of planning somewhere between 1 (Fyre festival) and 10 (Military invasion). I've tried a range and seem to prefer somewhere around 7 or 8. Note, there's also a difference between being the planner and the planee. It might be more fun to follow a plan than to make it. It might be less fun to follow someone else's plan. Or be subject to someone else's lack of plan.

Obviously we (ERE) think we must DIY the planning because we can However, I do now there's a contingent within FIRE who just jump on cruise ships (yeah, the most polluting way to travel by far) at a moments notice and accept wherever the ship will take them. This voids all the need for planning while still having a plan of sorts that includes stunning sights and all that.

Slow travel is also a choice. I get the impression you guys relocate by one plane-distance at a time. Instead consider a bike or a bus-distance. If the new place doesn't work, you simply move back to where you came from. Meandering around the world. Basically emulating a bike trip around the world. I'm pretty sure touring bikers only plan 1 day at a time.

-Visceral reminder that you carry all your old baggage with you wherever you go. Sometimes I'd wonder why I'm not happier sitting in paradise, doing what I've dreamed about for years. Sitting at a picture-perfect Thai sunset or Vietnamese beach and not feeling that much more content than I did back home. Perhaps reinforces the notion that most people are wired for a certain baseline level of happiness. Some people are at an 8, and some people are at a 3. You can move the needle a couple points in either direction, but you are still working from your baseline.

Wherever you go, there you are. If you approach everything with a job-like efficiency, you will likely do the same with travel turning it into logistics-management. This is why I think the inner journey is important. You know, I never understood travel people, but I think I know why. The difference is whether every stunning sight is a new unique experience, or whether "seeing stunning sights" is just one experience that one then repeats, eventually not getting all that much out of it. This comes down to which level of abstraction one exists at. For example, is every bite of the apple different or are all bites from the apple the same. For that matter, are apples sufficiently similar that we can talk about the concept of an apple.

Baseline is not just about happiness but also about the framework one approaches the world with. What if people's happiness originates from how well one's approach matches one's actual neurochemistry. IOW, what if you're not really happy being a logistics manager despite being good at it. Then the key would not be to find something else, like travel, to apply logistics skill too, but to look for another approach to the world.

For example in terms of working out, some do it for fun and others think that having fun means not going hard enough ("it never gets easier, you just go faster"). The key to getting out of that trap (if you don't enjoy it) is not to try different sports but to try sports differently.

[Ego]

What if people's happiness originates from how well one's approach matches one's actual neurochemistry. IOW, what if you're not really happy being a logistics manager despite being good at it. Then the key would not be to find something else, like travel, to apply logistics skill too, but to look for another approach to the world.

- Change environment to match neurochemistry / wiring
- Change neurochemistry / wiring to match environment

Both are skills. Practicing both encourages improvement in both sets of skills and increases flexibility.

Focusing too much on one makes the opposite less possible.

[7Wannabe5]

In order to relax from being the logistician, you need to first learn how to express your preferences/feelings. Rule of thumb is that it is easier to experience pleasure if you are not the logistician/decision-maker in the moment. That's why decision-makers have a higher pay grade. I recently had an odd experience when a man in his 50s hired me to tutor him in math. Usually, I claim my table at the cafe, my student approaches me, and I take charge of the situation for the hour. My 50-something male student asked me to move to his already established table, and then mined by brain for math information relevant to his MBA problem set, and ended the session by asking if he could "put me on retainer." IOW, he almost completely flipped the power structure to which I had become accustomed in that role/setting.

My point here being that I've often wondered what it would be like to travel with or date (or live with!!)a man who was capable of truly being relaxed in the follow. My reading of the sub-text of your above posts is that you (WRC)generally inhabit the role of Good Dom*. IOW, you tend to take the lead, but you also honor the preferences of other(s.) So, my suggestion would be an experiment with dropping the lead and only expressing your preferences/feelings for a short period of time. The simplistic way to approach this experiment is to just not allow yourself to verbalize any directives, no matter how pleasantly or tentatively phrased, while simultaneously striving to ONLY follow literal directives issued by other(s.) For example, you are not allowed to say "I'm thinking maybe we could go to X tomorrow rather than Y." and if your wife says something like "My suitcase is very heavy", you are not allowed to interpret that as a directive rather than an informational statement. I only recommend that you do this as a short term exercise towards revelation, because my assumption would be that your wife is "prettier" than you, and the pain/costs of decision-making is part of the price you are paying for the "pretty" towards current equilibrium in your relationship. Men over 40 often end up unconsciously stuck in this mode, because they are the least "pretty" members of society. Just about the only exception I can think of is an extremely good-looking, very stylish musician in his 60s who still has all his hair and two dimples.

*Although I read elsewhere that INTJs are usually either Scary Doms or Bossy/Bitchy Bottoms, but that is likely just harsh stereotyping. It's also not the case that all ENTPs identify as "easy-going and switchy."

[mountainFrugal]

Wherever you go, there you are. If you approach everything with a job-like efficiency, you will likely do the same with travel turning it into logistics-management.

Logistics with a large time buffer can be much less stressful. Try leaving a very large time buffer between places and activities. Opt for seeing some places in much more depth even if that is just the city block where you are staying. Are you actually slow traveling @WRC? Do you and DW have moments of boredom? This would be a good indicator that you are traveling slow enough.

[Laura Ingalls]

- Change environment to match neurochemistry / wiring
- Change neurochemistry / wiring to match environment

Both are skills. Practicing both encourages improvement in both sets of skills and increases flexibility.

Focusing too much on one makes the opposite less possible.

DH and I are both happier if we have water nearby. I like it to be warm and swim able too. The good news is that ambient temperature isn’t super important or salt versus fresh.

I have tried to explain the difference between being on vacation versus being nomadic and I often feel like I am not explaining it very well. It is not like being on vacation you still have to do everyday stuff. The everyday stuff will be more complicated.