I'm freelancer but these days my income has been declining. I also attempt to build my own business but it will take time. Want to know how you secured income/find clients during hard times.
I've heared of it from my friend who was also struggling with insomnia in the past like me. But there is no such an evidence that I can find.
I am facing a deeply frustrating issue with my Windscribe subscription and I need advice from anyone who has experienced this, or help from the official Windscribe team here.
The Problem:
My credit card is currently being billed for an active Windscribe subscription. On my screen/dashboard, the subscription clearly shows as Active.
However, when I contacted Windscribe support to cancel the subscription, they replied saying "there is no registration or account information found" for my email.
I’m stuck in a loop:
My Questions:
I just want this subscription canceled immediately.
While I was waiting at the counter, the immigration officer took my passport but didn't process it right away. Instead, a few locals walked up after me, handed over their passports, and the officer processed all of them first, leaving me waiting until the very end while still holding onto my passport.
To clarify, it wasn't the locals cutting the line—it was the staff actively choosing to prioritize them and making me wait.
I was furious inside, but I chose to keep my mouth shut, swallow my pride, and just ignore it because I didn't want to cause a scene with immigration officers in a foreign country. Plus I thought he won't understand English.
If this happened to you, would you speak up and say something like "Could you please check mine first since I was here?" or would you just write it off as local culture / officer's discretion and let it go?
I recently crossed the land border between Laos and Vietnam and I was asked to pay around 20,000 to 50,000 VND / Kip at the counter for "processing." There was no official receipt provided. This is 100% a bribe/tea money, right?
Many experienced travelers, as discussed in forums like TripAdvisor and Facebook groups, often face these situations. While frustrating, the consensus is that paying the small "fee" is usually safer than challenging the officials, who hold significant power and may cause further delays or issues.
I’m currently trapped in Savannakhet, Laos, and losing my mind over the Vietnam E-visa process. I’ve been waiting here for nearly 10 days now, and the back-and-forth with immigration is incredibly frustrating.
First, they told me to apply from outside Vietnam. I waited over the weekend and submitted the correction on Monday. Then today (Thursday afternoon), they sent it back AGAIN saying: "Please fill in all information in the declaration form." I am 100% sure I filled out all the mandatory fields, so they are probably complaining about the optional sections that they didn't even mark as required. Why couldn't they just tell me everything that was wrong last Friday? This slow, one-by-one correction process feels like a complete waste of time.
I’m planning to cross over to Mukdahan, Thailand tomorrow just to wait it out in a better environment.
Has anyone else experienced this exact issue? How long did you have to wait after filling out the optional fields? Also, has anyone successfully used an urgent/emergency visa agency to bypass this loop? I’m seriously considering paying for an expedited service because I can’t keep waiting forever.
I see less tourists compared to other cities like Vientiane and Vang Vieng and I like quieter and peaceful environment. Although there are less activities I work and spend my time at cafe. Now it's raining season so I came back to hotel earlier. Tomorrow I might head out to Bungva Lake, night market and take a walk along with Mekong River when it's sunny.
How do people normally spend in Savannakhet? I'm waiting my e-visa being approved by Vietnam side, until then I'll stay here two or three nights more.
Replying to other posts who related to your niche or niche does not matter and you keep replying?
How many notes do you post a day?
What an ideal frequency to post articles?
Do you mainly follow people in the niche you're trying to grow in (for example, writers covering similar topics to yours)? Or do you follow anyone whose work you find interesting, regardless of niche?
I'm trying to figure out whether it's better to build a highly focused network around my topics, or simply follow interesting writers and see where it leads.
Am Weihnachtsabend, als ich mit amerikanischen und indischen Freunden Richtung HBF ging, hörten wir hinter uns einen lauten Ruf: „Ching Chong!“. Meine beiden Freunde bemerkten es nicht, und wegen der Entfernung war es nur ein Echo. Außerdem kam es mir seltsam vor, nachts jemanden über die Herkunft einer Person urteilen zu hören, also ignorierte ich es, da ich dachte, es sei nur eine ähnlich klingende Sprache. Oder habe ich mich geirrt? Welche Ausdrücke werden in Deutschland häufig verwendet, um Asiaten zu diskriminieren?
I was sitting at a beachfront café for around 2 hours. I ordered drinks and shisha and was also doing some work on my laptop. It wasn’t extremely crowded when I arrived.
Later, a family came in, and a staff member asked me to move from my beachside seat to an inside table. The way it was communicated felt a bit pushy, almost like I was being displaced because the family wanted the nicer sea-view seats.
Other sea-view tables were occupied by couples or groups, while the indoor seating area was almost empty. So it didn’t feel like there was a lack of space overall.
I’ve honestly never experienced this before in cafés elsewhere, especially after already ordering and staying as a paying customer. I later questioned the staff about it and also mentioned the experience in a Google review because it left me feeling uncomfortable.
So now I’m wondering:
I’ve spent time in Vietnam and met many hardworking and kind people, which is why I’ve been wondering about the reports of some Vietnamese technical interns in Japan becoming involved in theft or violent crimes.
I’m not trying to generalize Vietnamese people at all. I’m more interested in the structural and psychological side of this issue.
Some media reports point to debt, exploitation, isolation, language barriers, low wages, and unrealistic expectations before arriving in Japan.
Do you think Japan’s technical intern system and working conditions may contribute to desperation or antisocial behavior in some cases?
I’ve spent time in Vietnam and met many hardworking and kind people, which is why I’ve been wondering about the reports of some Vietnamese technical interns in Japan becoming involved in theft or violent crimes.
I’m not trying to generalize Vietnamese people at all. I’m more interested in the structural and psychological side of this issue.
Some media reports point to debt, exploitation, isolation, language barriers, low wages, and unrealistic expectations before arriving in Japan.
Do you think Japan’s technical intern system and working conditions may contribute to desperation or antisocial behavior in some cases?
I don’t like people who dominate the public spaces even if it happens unconsciously.
For example
・ someone suddenly watch videos loudly in a small elevator when it’s just the two of us, but immediately stopping when more people come in
・ people loudly singing or yelling behind strangers
I also become irrationally reactive toward people who “take over” public spaces. It’s not direct aggression, but though behavior that feels territorially dominant
What I really don’t like about it is that some people move through public space assuming that it's the default presence for them while others are expected to quietly adapt around them.
This is a weird point, it triggers a competitive reaction in me like I want to push back, reclaim space etc.
I don’t but internally it creates tension.
How would you deal with it if you were me?
I don’t like people who dominate the public spaces even if it happens unconsciously.
For example
・ someone suddenly watch videos loudly in a small elevator when it’s just the two of us, but immediately stopping when more people come in
・ people loudly singing or yelling behind strangers
I also become irrationally reactive toward people who “take over” public spaces. It’s not direct aggression, but though behavior that feels territorially dominant.
What I really don’t like about it is that some people move through public space assuming that it's the default presence for them while others are expected to quietly adapt around them.
This is a weird point, it triggers a competitive reaction in me like I want to push back, reclaim space etc.
I don’t but internally it creates tension.
How would you deal with it if you were me?
First of all, I genuinely admire what the Korean entertainment industry has achieved. The level of planning, global strategy, branding, training systems, production quality, and understanding of international markets is honestly incredible.
It feels like Korea approached pop culture not just as art, but as something that could be engineered for global scalability from the very beginning.
At the same time, though, I sometimes feel like individuality itself has become optimized.
Not necessarily removed completely, but refined, filtered, and reconstructed through massive amounts of market data, trend analysis, fan behavior, algorithms, and branding psychology.
The final result is often extremely polished, addictive, and globally successful — but sometimes it also feels strangely impersonal, like the industry has learned how to manufacture emotional attachment at scale.
I’m not saying this as hate at all.
But another part of me misses when pop music felt slightly messier, riskier, or more human.
For some people, tattoos seem deeply tied to identity, self-expression, art, personal history, or even existence itself — almost like turning the body into a statement or narrative.
I used to romanticize that idea too, and I still understand the appeal. But over time, I’ve noticed myself moving in the opposite direction.
Instead of wanting to add meaning onto myself, I’ve become more drawn to removing things — simplifying, minimizing, stripping away excess, noise, and visible identity markers.
I’m even considering removing some tattoos I got years ago, not because I regret the experiences behind them, but because my sense of beauty has changed.
Has anyone else experienced this shift?
Today I was in a cafe and there were kid nearby running around, singing, dancing, making repetitive noises etc, I noticed something strange in myself — part of me almost wants to “compete” with their energy or noise somehow, even though I obviously did not actually do it because I’m an adult.
Then I quietly sang near a child who had been making noise for a while, and the kid immediately grabbed their parent’s hand and left the cafe. The timing was probably coincidence, but afterward I weirdly felt like I had “lost” some kind of invisible competition lol.
I felt I should’ve just moved seats myself instead of internally reacting to it so much.
I’m curious if anyone else has experienced this strange reaction toward loud children in public spaces — not hatred, but almost feeling overstimulated, challenged, or reactive in some irrational way.
And when it happens, what do you usually do? Leave? Put on headphones? Try to ignore it?
My birthday is coming up soon, and I’ve been thinking about how different birthdays feel as a digital nomad / expat.
Last year in Da Nang, Vietnam, I spent the whole day alone — I went to a massage place where the staff brought me cake and sang for me, then had French food, then did a river cruise by myself. Honestly, it was beautiful in its own way, but also a little lonely.
This year, I realized I actually want to celebrate with people and feel surrounded by others for once. But I also feel awkward directly telling people “hey, celebrate my birthday with me” lol.
How do other digital nomads handle birthdays abroad?
Do you organize dinners yourself? Join events? Ignore it completely? Or have you also felt this weird mix of freedom and loneliness around birthdays while traveling?