so we're leaving Asia and we have three big reasons why we've
made this decision and we're going to share that all with you in this video
we're Lloyd and Mandy we're digital Nomads that have been travelling southeast Asia
for the past nine months in search of somewhere we can call our home base we've
made a rather drastic change to our plans and are leaving Manila Philippines today
good morning it's just before 6 a.m and we're about to head to the airport we are leaving
Asia we'll explain everything soon but we're late to get to the airport so we've got to rush there
song
so so loud to draw attention Buddies
so as you probably know we've been in Asia for about nine months South East Asia we've been
to Bali Thailand then Singapore Malaysia and now the Philippines and we love it in
Southeast Asia we really love the culture and the people it's really affordable which is why
we started here staying here long term just isn't really an option for us there's a few
reasons why we can't really see ourselves living here although when we first came here we thought
we could there's a few things that are sort of forcing us to leave Ramen for breakfast
this might be our last Asian dish before at least in Asia as usual I ordered too much Food it comes
with free whatever they are dumplings dim sims nice too appreciate pretty good
the first reason that we've decided to leave Asia is because of our dog bear so if you've
been following our journey uh you will know that we had to leave our dog bear back in
Australia when we left to go travelling because you aren't allowed to bring them
not only is it technically illegal to bring dogs into Bali although some people do do
it and they're companies that do import dogs into Bali we didn't feel comfortable bringing
him somewhere where it was illegal not only that though there is a big problem in Bali
with dogs being poisoned and even stolen from their owners there's a big issue with Street
dogs getting poisoned a lot we went and visited a shelter there we just couldn't do it we were clear
conscience bringing bear into somewhere where we knew he might be in danger Thailand was an
option because you are allowed to bring dogs into Thailand but it's a pretty similar situation in
Thailand they don't really get treated all that well and because of the humidity and the climate
we just don't really feel comfortable bringing our Labrador to Southeast Asia I feel like it would be
a very selfish thing for us to do we'd probably prefer to leave him in Australia than bring him
in Southeast Asia yeah just he's not really built for the climate he's sort of a big boy and as
Australia is even a bit of a push for him so he's definitely reason number one we're actually just
working right now to get some money sent to Lloyd's sister who has been looking after him
in Australia for us the whole time that we've been traveling which has been great but we use
Payson to send her money to look after bear for us so Payson is a money transfer app that lets
you send money to people all over the world 24 7 using just your smartphone tablet or laptop
they transfer your money using local currency or other supported currency at the middle rate
with no additional fees all you need to know is the recipient's name credit card number or Bank
details and it only takes a couple minutes to sign up through the app or the website you just
add your card as funding and send money around the world in a Flash so if you're like us and you're
traveling around and you have to send money home or maybe you just have contractors and Freelancers
that you need to pay for your business definitely try Pace in because it's a lot easier than using
traditional methods like your bank I find that when I send money using my regular bank account
other bank account it gets lost in the system and there's no real way of tracking it so pay
send has been really good for us so pay send always charges a fixed International fee per
transaction regardless of the amount sent as a regulated financial institution they make sure
all of your data and personal information is as secure as possible they even have a dedicated
security team that works hard to keep all transactions safe if you are interested in trying
three transactions you won't be charged any fees at all that's
three fee-free transactions all right we're gonna plan to catch
foreign
thank you
foreign
four hours later we have arrived in Tokyo this isn't our final destination but we have a quick
layover here before we head off to our final destination we want to share with you the second
reason that we've decided to leave Asia so when we came to Bali nine months ago it was right at the
end of covert in Australia borders just opened up Bali just opened up so we knew it was going
to be challenged we might get locked down again we didn't really know what to expect we have noticed
traveling through Asia has been really difficult because covert is still such a big thing here
and it doesn't feel like that's going to change anytime soon whatever your opinion is on Covert
we don't have one but wearing a mask every time you have to get into a taxi go to a restaurant
go to a shopping mall even be outside we were even told to wear masks at the beach in the
Philippines it's just not the way we really want to live no we're ready to go somewhere
that is a bit more open-minded about it and we don't have to wear a mask we don't have to
worry about all the checking in and vaccination cards and all that sort of stuff we really just
want to stop thinking about it really yeah we have found somewhere that is a lot more
relaxed and has been a lot more relaxed during this whole pandemic so we're going to see what
it's like we also have one more reason as well which we'll get to in a minute foreign
ly arrived in our final destination we're in Playa del Carmen Mexico and in case you're wondering why
we didn't film the rest of our trip or a lot of it we got onto our flight in Tokyo to Mexico City
thinking it was a 10-hour flight ended up being 12 and a half overnight not much sleep was had At All
by the time we got into Mexico City we actually had to pretty much run to our connecting flight
to Cancun from Cancun we had a private shuttle that took us to our hotel which didn't work out
too well so we booked this sort of Airbnb style accommodation on Agoda it was self-check-in but
I never got any confirmation email from them telling us how we check in and we're arriving
at 11 30 at night so I emailed back a couple of times asking telling them what time we're
checking in asking them how to check in and lo and behold we got there and there was no one there
there was no way of getting in there was no way of contacting him we're basically standing on the
side of the road at midnight in Mexico having no idea where to go luckily our driver was super nice
and he took us around to a couple of other hotels we got accommodation for the night we stayed a
really nice hotel which was way out of our budget but we didn't have a choice so it was quite a long
stressful day but we made it we're all rested and we're feeling good and so far we love it something
foreign
Mexico for a couple of reasons and in particular Playa Del Carmen we did a lot of research on
digital Nomad friendly areas and this came up as number one on a lot of lists mainly
because there's a lot of affordable long-term accommodation there's a lot of expats here there's
tons of gems yoga Jiu Jitsu lots of shopping we're actually about to head to Walmart so
you can get anything you need here there's also really good reliable internet here it's a really
fast connection something we struggled with in parts of Asia but the biggest reason we came is
because about a year or a year and a half ago they actually legalized CBD oil and cannabis oil which
if you listen to our podcast or you've seen any of our previous videos that's something that's
really important to us something that we use for a number of years in Australia to help us sleep just
to really help anxiety it's such a good natural medicine that does so much for so many people
and unfortunately in most parts of Asia it's completely illegal and it doesn't really look like
there's going to be any Pathway to making it legal apart from Thailand but we did notice in Thailand
there's quite a big gray area as far as buying it so that's probably the number one reason we
chose here but there's a bunch of other reasons as well the location is so good there's so much
to do from here you just drive to Cancun Airport you can take a quick flight anywhere in Mexico or
Central America it's a couple of hours to the United States it's not far from Canada which
is where we both have family so the location was a big thing for us as well from what we've heard
Playa Del Carmen is very dog friendly and from what we've seen as well there's so many dogs
here so it could potentially be somewhere that we could finally bring bear on our travels with
which feels pretty good I think we don't actually see much content being created around Playa Del
Carmen and Mexico in general so we're really excited to share our Mexico series with you
guys coming up on our channel so if you haven't already don't forget to hit the like button and
subscribe to our channel so you'll be aware of all of our future Mexico videos coming to
you we want to show you exactly why this is the best place to live as a digital nomad thank you