If the heart has no place to rest, it is a wanderer wherever it goes.
Written by: Chiang Mai TIMES
After living in Chiang Mai for so many years, I’ve seen enough of the city’s rise and fall, such as 2018, when ordinary cafes were overcrowded, or 2020, when a large number of restaurants closed due to lack of interest…
Today I saw an article by a Western blogger on Facebook, which resonated with me. I plan to discuss the theme he mentioned, “Chiang Mai is losing a large number of digital nomads,” with everyone.
The mass exodus of digital nomads from Chiang Mai: the ideals and realities behind a low-cost life
The blogger’s article received a lot of enthusiastic comments from netizens on Facebook. TIMES Jun believes that it truly expresses the voice of a group, which consists of those who have lived in Chiang Mai for a few years and ultimately chose to leave.
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The blogger wrote in the article that when he first arrived in Chiang Mai, he felt he had found the place he had always longed for, the place all digital nomads are seeking – cheap rent, milkshakes available everywhere, and workplaces with fast wifi speed. Even while having a full-time job, Chiang Mai gives you a sense of being semi-retired.
He then wrote: “For a period of time, this was indeed the case, and in fact, the situation was even better.”
In the early morning, he can stroll through the alleys of the ancient city, sip coffee in a quiet café, listen to the monks chanting at the temple, and see the temple still shrouded in the dawn light. He can hear people speaking with five different accents in the shared workspace, such as a German developing applications, a Brazilian trading cryptocurrency, and an Australian editing a blog…
At that moment, it seemed that a shared ambition permeated the air, and everyone was silently striving for the “freedom” in their hearts.
But later, some situations changed, and this change did not happen to just this blogger.
After having coffee and chatting with some people who had lived in Chiang Mai for a long time, he heard a saying — that Chiang Mai is losing a large number of digital nomads, and the reasons for this are not what most people think.
When people hear that “Chiang Mai is losing a large number of digital nomads”, it is easy to point to an objective reason: in recent years, the air pollution in Chiang Mai has been severe, which has scared many people away.
BUT FOR THE BLOGGER, HE BELIEVES THAT AIR POLLUTION IS NOT THE MAIN REASON WHY CHIANG MAI IS LOSING DIGITAL NOMADS, WHICH IS WHAT TIMES AGREES WITH.
He believes that if you are just starting to have remote work, just beginning to live abroad, and just pursuing freedom, then Chiang Mai will be a place that allows you to land easily. It is gentle and pleasant, affordable, offers limitless exploration, and is highly inclusive, meeting all the fantasies of many beginner freelancers at first.
But in the end, those factors that make Chiang Mai look “perfect” will gradually become its constraints. There is a sense of “success and failure are both due to the same reason.”
The blogger explained that the conversations in the café have started to become nothing more than a repetition of the same story, with everything merely being the same script being run with a new batch of people.
Some digital nomads have begun to fall into an unspoken cycle—neither investing in work, nor in themselves, let alone in the countries they are in; everything has never truly run deep.
Thus, the blogger began to notice how isolated he was from the world. Although he was in Thailand, he felt he knew very little about the local area. Of course, he had attended some local festivals, tried street food, and learned a bit of Thai, but he still hadn’t integrated into it.
He believes that “most of us have never truly integrated.”
This is the sorrow of foreigners in Thailand. You can live in Thailand for many years, yet still float on the surface like a water lily, unable to truly take root and integrate.
In addition, the city of Chiang Mai itself is slowly developing, rents have started to rise, and cafes have become more glamorous, but for some reason, business has become quieter, and it has become more difficult to obtain visas. Some friends he knows have also started to move away from Chiang Mai.
Before you know it, Chiang Mai is no longer just a place, but a brand. IT EXUDES A FREELANCE REMOTE LIFE VIBE, BUT THE MACBOOK ON THE DESK BECOMES A SHOW, AND THE SHOW IS ALWAYS A MASK.
The blogger said that Chiang Mai gave him too much. Here, his work motivation was enhanced; here, he learned to live frugally; and it was also here that he faced an unprecedented loneliness —
Having everything you thought you wanted, yet still feeling like you have lost something.
In summary, he believes that those who have left Chiang Mai should all resonate with this.
As a digital nomad who arrived in Chiang Mai quite early, TIMES not only agrees with this blogger’s statement but also wants to praise his excellent observational and expressive skills.
Coincidentally, two days ago, I talked about this topic with a British friend on our way home from dinner. He and I both lived in Chiang Mai for 10+ years, and we talked about the disadvantages of Thailand, because compared to the British policy, if a foreigner lived in the country for 10 consecutive years like him, he would have already obtained permanent residence status or a passport.
What is the situation like when it comes to Thailand? Even if he buys a house and obtains a long-term visa, in the end, he is still considered a foreigner. Not to mention the 90-day check-in at the immigration bureau, even going on vacation to the southern islands for a week or two without a passport and only carrying the pink card could be problematic. (This is because some hotels only recognize the passports of foreigners, and they do not trust local issued driver’s licenses or ID cards.)
Thailand’s policy of “not easily accepting outsiders” has created a sense of alienation. “I no longer seek integration or a sense of belonging; I just hope they can make my life simpler and stop coming up with complicated policies,” my friend said helplessly.
In the comments section, a reader’s comment was also agreed upon by other netizens. He summarized the blogger’s article with the following comment:
“If you read the article, you will know that this has nothing to do with air quality, but more like a mental state, feeling bored with the monotony of life. When everything becomes normal, there is no excitement at all. At this point, it’s time to leave and look for another place to stay for a while. In my view, digital nomads are people who move around and do not stay in the same place for many years. If you settle down, the nomadic life comes to an end, so this is also a normal process.”
At this moment, I suddenly thought of a word - “inner demon.” And that famous saying - “If the heart has no place to rest, it will wander wherever it goes.”
I agree that Chiang Mai is losing a large number of digital nomads, and air pollution has accelerated their departure, but the core reason for their complete departure is still the “inner demons” themselves, rather than the city’s fault.
I hope that each of us can find that peace of mind and a safe place, not just for a while.
