Tips of being a barcamp nomad with little cost – in South East Asia

Being a nomad is not so difficult. What you have to do is just keep yourself free from stuff which stop you to be a nomad, then just keep moving, do not stop, such a simple thing.

However the most hard stuff to be free from “for me” is “Financial” stuff.  I have to have enough money to pay for the transportation, I have to feed myself during trip, have to feed my staff, my cats etc….  “financial” stuff is the one always there to stops me.

Well… unless I won the lottery or else, it won’t let me be totally free from it, but there are some tips which could help you to be a “Barcamp Nomad” with little money – as I do. Being barcamp nomad is easier than being “pure” nomad.

• MUST
• Transportation
• Accomodation
• Stuff you better bring with
• Keep updated

MUST

Topics in your mind

It’s better to prepare slides, but it doesn’t have to be prepared in advance. BUT you should think of topics what you can share with others. As I know, many people make slides at the venue during the event, that works.

However, you can’t be “just a listener”, Barcamo is sometimes called “un-conference”, there are no organizer, no guests, everybody there are participants, it’s a user-generated event, which means you also have to “participate” to “generate” the event.

Well, topics could be anything, geeks are interested in anything, doesn’t have to be techie talk. You don’t have to do 1 hour proper session, there must be some lightning talks.

You can get ideas from anything, here are some slides from past barcamps. You can find a lot more on internet.

• BarcampSingapore3
• BarcampKL
• BarcampBangkok2

Communication and sharing

Someone said “We are not traveling for techie talks, we are traveling to meeting people and having beer!”. Yes, the most exciting thing about barcamp is meeting people and having fun together. For that, talk to people there, if you are too shy to speak to people, you can use geeky stuff such as twitter or blogs etc.

I think this is also the most useful tip for being a barcamp nomad. Once you get know many barcampers from all over the world, then if you have chance to go their city, they’ll be your great host. And also if anybody coming to your home city, then you can be the host.

It’s so much fun.

Budget transportation

These transportation information is based on my experience, which means it might not work for someone not living in Thailand, but I think most of the South East Asia countries are similar? I’m not sure though…

Bidget airlines

There are many budget airlines. I always check airasia first, they are cheap if you book in away advance. There are many more budget airlines you can check on the internet, google it (sorry, I’m too lazy to list them up).

Promotion flights

Well, Airasia is not always the cheapest, especially if you book just few days before the travel date. Sometimes normal airlines such as TG, Bangkok Airways or any other airlines has promotion price, which are sometimes a lot cheaper than airasia.

The conditions of promotion prices sometimes don’t let you to change flights, or only available for specified flights, or no milege additional etc, but anyway, airasia doesn’t have any of them, not bad deal.

Trains

I’ve tried train trip in Thailand only once but it was great, if you go with some people, then it’s gonna be a lot of fun. Bangkok – Chiangmai 2nd class fan sleeper costs only 581 THB, you can get confortable bed, clean sheets, pillow and blanket.

You can book railway tickets online but the seats/beds available for online booking is limited, also it seems like the booking system has trouble often. Usually you can’t book 1st class sleeper on the internet. It’s better to go to the station or specified agent to book your seats.

I have used H.I.S Bangkok which is a Japanese travel agent in Times Square where connected to BTS Asoke station. You can just drop there and ask them to book for you. They don’t charge any extra, price is the same as buying at the station.

But their website is basically in Japanese, I suggest you to go there directory, as they write on the website they can’t book railway tickets online or phone. There are many Thai staff, so you can talk to them in English.

buses

Buses are faster than train. A lot cheaper than flights. There are so many buses connects Bangkok and everywhere in Thailand. There are 3 big bus terminals in Bangkok, depends on where you go, you have to check where the buses depart.

There are sign and time table in English at the bus station, not so difficult for foreigners to travel.

Vans

ดูแผนที่ขนาดใหญ่ขึ้น

Vans are little faster than Buses. I think. But little harder for foreigners to find out where and when the vans depart.

Actually once you get know about this, this is more convenient way than taking buses. You can go most of the places in Thailand from Victory Monument, also quicker than buses. There are a lot of vans to go many places. Going to Victory Monument is a lot easier than going to the bus terminals.

However, there are no clear time-table (or maybe there are, but I don’t know), and no sign in English. What you have to do is asking people around where and when the van departs. If you are non-Thai speaker, better to go with Thai speaker, or ask someone to write down the name of the town you are heading to, otherwise you’ll end up at a street noodle shop and miss the transportation.

Share cars or vans

If many people traveling together, it’s cheaper to hire a van, or just drive your car :) It’s fun to travel with friends :)

Joining visa run tour

This doesn’t sound like being a barcamp nomad, but I guess it might work, if the barcamp is happening somewhere like Phnom Penh, Vientiene or Penang etc where tourists go to get their tourist visa.

The visa run tours depart from Bangkok are running almost every weekday, and also a lot cheaper, because they arrange many people together and dealing with embassies, agents. You can check these information online.

Most of the visa run trip including the cost of Thai visa and the service fee, but the visa run buses are a lot nicer than normal buses and they server hotel and food. Even if you are not getting visa, you can ask the agent if you can jump in the tour and ask for discount because you are not asking to get visa for you.

Get accommodation

Ask local barcampers for a spare bed/sofa etc

Well, if you know anybody local, or even if you haven’t met anybody local there, I’m sure you will find someone offer you for a spare bed/sofa. If you are joining barcamps, then you might have contacted some of barcampers online. Barcampers love sharing stuff even bed/sofa.

If you don’t think of anybody, you can ask someone who goes many barcamps, then he/she can introduce you to the local barcampers.

The last barcamp in Bangkok, the day before the event, many people stayed my place, @Chipro from Vietnam, @Viirak from Phnom Penh, @CerVentus from KL, Siva from Singapore and me. We all stayed in my bedroom and had #BarcampASEAN there, it was great fun.

Guesthouses

This is the first choice for a barcamp nomad. In Thailand or many other towns around south east asia has cheap guesthouses. They are usually easy to find, and you don’t have to book in advance. You can just walk around the town and walk in and ask if they have any room available.

Join pre-beercamp

If you are arriving one day before the Barcamp, there must be pre-Beercamp at the night before the event. Local barcampers, barcamp nomads from other countries must having beer somewhere in the town. Just jump into the beercamp and ask other nomads where they are staying. I’m sure you can get much information about cheap accommodations at the beercamp. Then you can go with some of them and stay the same place, next morning, you can head to the venue with your new friends.

Book online budget hotels in advance

If you prefer budget hotels more than guesthouses, it’s better to book online in advance. Walk-in tariff is usually a lot higher than online rate. There are so many websites for hotel booking, you can go online and compare the rates.

If you don’t mind staying at a cheap guesthouse, then you don’t have to book it if it’s not the peak season.

Go to the agent in front of the hotel

If you walk-in a hotel, better to look for travel agent around the hotel. Most of the time, travel agent close to the hotel has better rate than walk-in by yourself.

Better booking an accommodation in advance if you are arriving late night

If you are arriving after 23:00 or midnight etc, it’s difficult to walk around to find guesthouses, you better to book somewhere in advance, but just one night is enough. Next day, you’ll see other barcampers and get information about budget accomodation.

Stuff you better bring with

Map on your phone with GPS

Do not forget download map data before you leave your office/home, loading map via GPRS costs, better to download via wifi in advance. If you taking train, bus or car, then it’ll help you a lot to find where you are. And also it’s fun to track the route.

Geeky T-Shirts

At least one, if you have other Barcamp T-shirt, that’s the best. This is the sign for other people to find you are a geek/barcamper. Some other barcamp nomads who you have never met could be on the same plane or bus, then they’ll know you are heading to barcamp.

Another point is that you might won’t be able to get Barcamp T-Shirt, because sometimes the prepared T-Shirts are not enough, or organizers hand it out on the 2nd day, so you need at least one Geeky T-Shirt you wear at the first day of barcamp.

Name tag

Well, most of the barcamps prepare name tags for participants, but for just in case, better to bring your own name tag. If you have joined any events, you might have some name tags already.

Conversion adapter

Well… this is the one I always forget and buy new. The shape of the AC tap is different in many countries. Do not forget this.

Business/Online ID Cards

It doesn’t have to be business cards, your private cards or anything. For example, I always bring my private (online) cards and business cards from MOZO. Because most of barcampers know me as 31o5 not as the one who runs company in Bangkok, and I’m there as 31o5.

You will meet many new people, and you have only few hours to 2 days to talk, and it’s so hard to remember everybody’s name (for me, it’s super hard). Cards makes it a lot easier to keep contact with new friends, and make people to remember you.

Geekie stickers on your laptop

well…. geeks love stickers…

Keep updated

Follow active fellow barcampers

Well what I can tell is only about people I know, most of them are in South East Asia.  Sometimes people call them as “organizers” but as my understanding of bercamp spirits, I’d like to call them as “well-known active-fellow barcampers”, because every single person participates barcamp is organizing it. However, these well-known active fellow barcampers promote about barcamps a lot, better to follow them.

follow Barcampnomads list on twitter. This list follows barcampers in Asia including Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Japan.

Subscribe Geeky techie events calendar

Not only barcamps but also many techie events information is keep updated on this calendar.

Join Barcamp Nomads wave

This is little chaos these days, and not much people are on wave all the time, but you can get updated here as well. It’s a wave, so you can update your event information as well.

well…. see you online and offline somewhere in the world :-]