nomad4ever

What an earthquake @ Asian Stock Exchanges around the region, after yesterdays announcement! The Thais suffered the most of course. I monitor a few stocks and funds over there, mainly an ABN Amro Certificate (covering the SET50 candidates), which lost about 25% yesterday, with Siam Commercial Banking, Krung Thai Bank and Bangkok Bank all around 19-30% in the red.

On average, it was a 15% crash at the SET, the Stock Exchange of Thailand and a single digit decline in its currency – the Thai Baht.

A blood bath!

written by Chris

It looks like the high rise of the Thai Baht is over for now. The Baht, with gains of more than 16% this year, was Asia’s best performing currency in 2006 – thus making traveling to Thailand slightly more expensive than usual for foreigners.

But what is that? Over the last 2 days it had the biggest 2-day-decline since May 2004, as reported this morning by Bloomberg.

written by Chris

I was asked by Lizza from expatinterviews.com, if I could fill out their questionaire about people living abroad from their home country. While surfing their website, it’s really interesting to compare the different interviews of other people, who are in similar situations but have different experiences and encounters in countries around our globe.

On further thought, I felt it could be interesting for my own site as well, so here are the questions and answers I provided:

Where were you born?

I was born in Germany, in a small town which has no more than 20.000 souls and is located not far from Berlin in the eastern part of Germany.

written by Chris

If you are coming to Indonesia on a Visa-on-arrival procedure, you have no choice but to travel out and back in to Indonesia to re-new your visa. This usually after 3 days (USD 10) or maximum 30 days (USD 25), depending on how long a visa you paid your US Dollars for.

Visa on-arrival or extendable visa?

That’s something similar I used to do when still living in Phuket/Thailand. Every month you just travel to one of the surrounding countries, cross the border, the officers at the checkpoint stamp you out, you enjoy a few hours in Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia or Laos – and back you travel to Thailand. New stamp, new visa. Now it’s a bit more difficult, as Thailand recently changed their visa regulations.

written by Chris

Are those governments gone crazy? Instead of cutting their overhead and lowering government and state influences on economy, tax systems and benefit/welfare systems; they pass the buck – to the normal/everyday people who have to get the ‘cart out of the dirt’.

I wonder how long people are still letting things happen like that. Probably forever. It’s like the lamb on its way to the butcher. Get out there, fast! We are a global world these days. Everyone is talking about globalization, it’s time you discover the benefits of globalization for you!

written by Chris

By now you probably know John Locke already. He is a freelance writer and the author of ‘Ten Lies We Believe’, which led to hefty and interesting discussions on this blog. John was so nice and wrote another guest post for nomad4ever. This one goes even a step further and shows the way, on how we can overcome the dependence cycle we are trotting every day; right ahead to a road of fulfilment:

Your true self – a sovereign individual

written by Chris

Michele Koh, a Singaporean who currently studies in London, has an interesting blog called ‘The 11th House’. She wrote a nice article about the best ways to explore a foreign country. I’m happy that she allowed me to re-publish that post here, as it fits thematically with my blog as well.

It’s best to read, when listening to Zamphir’s pan-flute epos ‘The Lonely Shepherd’; which most of you will remember from the movie ‘Kill Bill Vol. 1’, although the original version is at least from the 1970’s. Another alternative is Leonard Cohen’s ‘Waiting for the miracle’. Ready? Okay, here we go:

written by Chris

Nick, over here at Baliblog, wrote an interesting post about moving to and living as a foreigner in Bali. He is now here about 4 years and compares the changes after his first visit in 1993 and today and covers a lot of interesting areas, like

• Getting hold of money
• Local transportation
• What’s the food like?
• How does the climate affect you?
• Internet Access
• Meeting people
• Whom can you trust out here?
• Staying in shape
• What to do all day?
• Longevity
• The Balinese People

written by Chris