I found this the same way I find most of my other ones. I rent a hotel for a week, and then just spend that week doing normal stuff, but telling virtually evert single person I meet that I’m looking for a decent apartment. I’ll tell the people checking me out at the registers, the secretary at the dive shop, the managers at bars, masseuses, etc. without fail, somebody eventually knows somebody. Sometimes if I’m having trouble I’ll offer a finder’s fee (usually around 20 bucks in SE Asia). At that point the problem is visiting each location to see if it’s worth renting, not whether or not I’m going to find a rental, lol.

This one is in a local neighborhood, the owners live downstairs, and the upstairs floor that mine is on has 3 apartments they rent out (two single bedroom units and one two bedroom unit.

The Internet is surprisingly good. Before the pandemic it was pretty hit or miss, but they did some infrastructure changes and it got much better when I returned for the first time late in 2021. I generally just use the hotspot with mobile data, but my next-door neighbor has a fiancé who works from home managing a Swedish call center and has postpaid cable internet… and several back up batteries for her system. The only real downside is that power outages/brownours happen fairly frequently. Usually if it’s storming, so it probably once a week on average? Sometimes for an hour, sometimes for a day. I guess they didn’t get around upgrading the electricity grid, just smell signal, lol.

Yep, it’s a local neighborhood in a very small tourist town. My biggest problem is the next-door neighbors who raise fighting roosters that make a lot of noise right before dawn every morning.

Puerto Galera, Philippines. $130/m + around 30/m for power. It’s a pretty basic 1 bedroom with small bath, but the view on the balcony (last pic) is awesome.

https://imgur.com/a/XIIKefk

Back up everything on a regular basis. 3:2-1. 3 copies of essential data, 2 local and 1 off-site (in the cloud, etc).

Are you discussing a roller speargun? if so, no. Locals get really angry if you shoot fish. They can do it, but you can’t. That’s not the law, that’s just what happens. Expect to get hassled.

If you mean a roller luggage, that’s totally fine… but I recommend getting one that’s a little more heavy duty. Osprey makes good ones. I think they also make one that has backpack straps zipper up. Don’t go to Walmart and purchase rolling luggage that has tiny little cheap wheels. Get something that will last you a long time. It’s an investment.

As far as tourists go, that totally depends on where you are in the city. Phuket is fairly large and the “tourists who get drunk and want to fuck” generally congregate on the one “red light district” street. In BKK it’s spread out in the pockets around town. Don’t expect to get off the airplane and see drunk tourists everywhere you look driving through town. There aren’t that many of them, but they usually hang out in the same areas.

Philippines.

Asked another way, your question is “can you be a remote worker in your own country?”

I feel confident you can answer this on your own.

You seem to have a very confused perspective on what constitutes “digital nomad”. There are no geographic restrictions. There are no “it has to be in a low cost of living area” qualifiers. It’s just a generic phrase for somebody who doesn’t have to work in one set city.