Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

blog.mobilejazz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 197 posts

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#31

Post by znq »

neindanke wrote: post #27

Is what they're doing legal? I'm pretty sure a tourist visa means you can't use it for work (activities for which payment is received or capital is gained), even remote work. I'm told that the Thai government is pretty harsh in punishing such things.

We were there on holidays ;-)

But I know what you're talking and while what we're doing is technically a gray zone, what the government is after is mostly freelancers that basically live in Thailand, but are not paying taxes there and are constantly on a visa run to re-enter the country.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#32

Post by iagooar »

nthState wrote: post #7

I've always dreamed of having a company (that was making money) where I could relocate my team once a month every month to a different place on the planet. London, Tokyo, Singapore, China, San Francisco, Iceland, France, Germany, Russia, Australia, India, Canada... We could be a travelling startup. That would be so cool!

Count me in!

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#33

Post by obstacle1 »

Hytosys wrote: post #19
bart42_0 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In most cases the kids will have a ball in a different country

I predict there is much more to parenthood besides fostering adventure, unfortunately. Educational and social stability come to mind. Relocating your family for two entire months is easier said than done.

The kids get two months off every summer. Take them then. Consider it a vacation.

The most capable, adaptable, and accomplished adults I know moved around a bunch as kids. It forces you to learn how to live in the world and get out of your comfort zone. The most anxious, bitter, and underperforming adults I know grew up in the prototypical suburban bubble environment. End meaningless personal anecdote.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#34

Post by normloman »

iolothebard wrote: post #30
normloman wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but then you'd need a team who'd travel with you. And few people can just pack up and move every month. If you have kids, you'll want to keep them in the same school. Or you might be tied down to care for a family member. I would never leave my area for long because it's where all my friends live. It's simpler to have a remote company. Then you can take all the trips you want, and your team can work from whereve…

Bah, everyone's in their 20 with no family!

The more time I spend here, the more I suspect that HN is populated with single 20 year olds with no friends or family. Thus, they create a "work family" to fill their social needs. The result is insular teams with mandatory beer pong tournaments.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#36

Post by eyeareque »

iolothebard wrote: post #28
eyeareque wrote: post #16

I worked remotely from Tahiti for a few months. It was an amazing experience that I'll always cherish. Now I just need to convince my new boss to let me do this again somewhere else. For those of you in the pacific time zone (sf bay). If you're interested in doing this, I recommend Tahiti or Hawaii. It's three hours off from pacific time during the summer months but only 2 hours off during winter. You can easily work…

Lol, 8am Pacific Time. If the developers I worked with were in by 10am scrum I was surprised. I called it CA time. Roll in at 10am, 1.5-2 hour lunch, surprisingly most everyone gone at 5pm because kids or something else. My coworkers would ask me how many hours I was working, to which I'd reply 40. How many are you working?

I worked 40 a week during my trip. I'm not a developer though, and my coworkers worked similar schedules.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#37

Post by anonu »

iolothebard wrote: post #28
eyeareque wrote: post #16

I worked remotely from Tahiti for a few months. It was an amazing experience that I'll always cherish. Now I just need to convince my new boss to let me do this again somewhere else. For those of you in the pacific time zone (sf bay). If you're interested in doing this, I recommend Tahiti or Hawaii. It's three hours off from pacific time during the summer months but only 2 hours off during winter. You can easily work…

Lol, 8am Pacific Time. If the developers I worked with were in by 10am scrum I was surprised. I called it CA time. Roll in at 10am, 1.5-2 hour lunch, surprisingly most everyone gone at 5pm because kids or something else. My coworkers would ask me how many hours I was working, to which I'd reply 40. How many are you working?

I was recently on vacation in Fiji for 2 weeks. I visited a couple islands - even some that were quite tiny by island standards. What impressed me was that there was fast 4G wireless service everywhere. Would definitely think about working remotely from Fiji with that high internet quality.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#38

Post by normloman »

bart42_0 wrote: post #5
znq wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, I'm one of the co-founders who runs Mobile Jazz. To answer your questions: 1) We actually wanted to experience a new culture and also have some kind of adventure. We're already doing things in Spain, so we just wanted to try out something new and see how it works :-) 2) This was only a 2 month experiment, but our whole company is set up for remote work. So some of us continuously travel and work from different p…

Ok, clear. It can be a great way to run project in a lovely pressure cooker. Everybody 7days per week involved/committed without the distraction of homely nuisances. I'm very interested in your camper-van-blogpost And Mauritius is great!

Do you realize how evil that could sound? "I can force everyone to work 7 days per week by moving them to an island, miles away from their friends and family."

If you need people to work 7 days per week, that's a problem. Hire more people, or set longer deadlines. Emergencies happen, but working late for a whole week or more is a systemic, productivity and morale sapping flaw.

But you're right. Mauritius is great!

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#39

Post by dataker »

neindanke wrote: post #27

Is what they're doing legal? I'm pretty sure a tourist visa means you can't use it for work (activities for which payment is received or capital is gained), even remote work. I'm told that the Thai government is pretty harsh in punishing such things.

Technically, if they don't receive money in a Thai bank, it'd be both hard and unfeasible to be punished.

Don't wanna state the obvious,but even If you're coding(could claim to be open-souce work), it's not like the police is gonna spy on you.

Re: Working Remotely From A Tropical Island In Thailand

#40

Post by Sammi »

icebraining wrote: post #29
bart42_0 wrote: post #2

It sounds and looks very nice. I have two questions: 1) Why did't they move to one of the Canary Islands? Part of Spain, Barcelona is a part of it. Less hassle because you stay in Europe, same language, same culture as in Barcelona. I rent a flat (70m2, furnished, 500m from the palmtree-beach, €500 /month), in the center of the capital on one of the islands, the internet connection is reasonable. Sounds comparable to…

Are you sure you're not talking about the Balearic Islands? The Canaries are not even close to Barcelona, they're off the coast of Africa.

Geographically you are right, but thinking timezonewise it is close.
Post reply on HN