Wataru Otsubo 
THAILAND · HOUSING This guide contains affiliate links. If you buy through them I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. We came here with a number and a condition: 20,000 THB a month, and somewhere the dog could live. We signed at 25,000, in a house that I had not seen … Read more
CHINA · CONNECTIVITY This guide contains affiliate links. If you buy through them I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. I bought an Airalo China eSIM a week before I flew — US$19.00, five days, unlimited data. I thought that was the job done. It was not. During my two-hour connection … Read more
THAILAND · TRAVEL INSURANCE This guide contains affiliate links. If you buy through them I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you, and I only recommend things I have used myself. I do not buy a separate travel-insurance policy for Thailand; I rely on the cover attached to a Japanese credit card. … Read more
THAILAND · YI PENG This guide contains affiliate links. If you buy through them I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you, and I only recommend things I have used myself. Currency: amounts are given in the currency they were quoted in. Conversions use the Bank of Japan’s official rate for August … Read more
A Karen village in Lamphun sits metres from the power line and has no electricity. Not because it cannot get it. Because it turned it down.
Karen hill tribe silver is sold worldwide as ancient tribal craft. I spent a day in the village that makes it and found two very different accounts of where it came from.
Sold 15GB for 199 THB. Got 20GB with calls, then 60GB without. Four bills, no two the same. What that means when you are choosing a plan.
THAILAND · MONEY This guide contains affiliate links. If you buy through them I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you, and I only recommend things I have used myself. Thailand runs on QR payments. At a market stall, in a taxi, at the shop on the corner, you scan a code … Read more
THAILAND · COST OF LIVING This guide contains affiliate links. If you buy through them I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you, and I only recommend things I have used myself. Currency: amounts I paid are given in the currency I paid them in. Conversions use the Bank of Japan’s official … Read more
THAILAND · INSURANCE This guide contains affiliate links. If you buy through them I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you, and I only recommend things I have used myself. Currency: amounts I paid are given in the currency I paid them in. Conversions use the Bank of Japan’s official rate for … Read more