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When its time to leave

If you're reading this you're already on a platform where people are informed, and quite likely you have at least peeked into some sort of preparedness content and such.
Maybe you're already a "digital nomad", or aspire to such a lifestyle? Maybe you are even working remote, and already have started preparing, building a side hustle that can scale later.
Some of us have also put a lot of energy into research on specific countries or regions, maybe even a single jurisdiction.
But what if that country suddenly closes down or catches a colour revolution? What if an opportunity arises in a country that you never even considered, a country that you have no knowledge about whatsoever?

Plan C versus Plan B

A good plan B is well researched, fits your needs, and has no huge gotchas that you know of. Ideally you will be in control all the way, and unless something major happens you won't have to ditch it or return back to square one.
This was a good way of doing things until 2020 hit, in my own case it worked very well until it all unraveled. I had planned for close to anything anyone can plan for, with businesses that could withstand almost anything.
But I never planned for the airspace to literally close down globally...
Although I walked away from what I had built early, and by doing so preserved resources that I can still draw on, I also did hang onto my plan B at least on a subconscious level.

Flexibility and adaptability

For someone migrating in a controlled manner planning everything and following all rules makes sense. The problem is that this comes at the cost of being nimble and flexible, it can easily turn into a real trap.
In retrospect I see that I should have had a plan C all along, especially since it would have backed up my plan B by leaving me with a mindset where options are key.
This way of thinking is what I have focused on the past couple of years, in many ways getting back to a much younger self where the world is my oyster :-)

Trial runs

Since Vietnam is an option for me here in the region I did my first plan C trial runs there, starting off with a few days in Da Nang and then later Saigon, doing two separate, very improvised trips.
For my previous plan B there was a lot of planning, especially around visa and travel gotchas. This time I did things very differently on purpose, arriving with no return ticket, no hotel booking and nothing but a small backpack.
What would be the worst that could happen? Perhaps getting into a dialogue where I'd try to convince them that I can book anything right on the spot using Travala and crypto, maybe showing my dollar bills to prove that I could fund myself. Super worst case some argument around health checks and such, but likely never anything worst than having to go back on the next flight.
Still, for someone past half a decade on this planet it does something to the mind to ditch all the "what if"s, to revert back to yoloing things. All the tiny things you can read in the queue at immigration, the mental part of calming your mind and getting any dialogue right.
Of course it worked like a breeze both times, and of course I reverted to my old way of checking out any big city: just walk! Then walk for a few hours more, get some food, then keep walking! :-)
You get a much better impression of any place when walking around at random, popping up at hotels asking if they have a room or not, how is an old geezer with worn out shoes perceived? Are they able to point you to a run down, cheap place to stay?
Do those places ask you for a passport or not? Not that I was on the run of course, but what if that actually happened? Would you be able to hole up somewhere so you'd be even able to keep fighting another day?
This is what a trial run is for, do it anytime you travel and you'll build knowledge and skills that in many cases can be transferred to other cities.

Fixers and helpers

Any messy and inscrutable country has fixers and helpers. Some have very organized setups where informally appointed visa agents streamline everything for a fee, and some are far more messy, where you might have to mix them in with what you do yourself to get a footing.
Do you know how to assess these people, and the services they render?
Any experience around these things is valuable, and you really need to observe and remember each tiny detail, especially since it might make sense in retrospect when you have learnt more about the situation you are in.
Especially Saigon was interesting, walking all the tiny back streets I was met with many astonished glances, but not much hostility. Would it be possible to maybe pass down the same streets a couple of times each day, and then connect with the right people? Probably!
Passing by a rather large and polished motorbike shop I had already been going for hours, I was sweaty and getting into that meditative, slow but determined way of keeping going for hours.
And this is what the guys hanging around the front desk must have recognized, they looked at me in an approving manner, I greeted them with a tiny nod & then kept walking...
To these I was already "marked" as someone who is certainly not a tourist, maybe even someone up for rough times, but also that it was not my first rodeo!
I have no idea what they might be up to, and of course you can never just walk up and ask, all I am saying is that if this was not a trial run then I'd certainly pass by another day, and then see where things might go from there...
Something similar happened when I finally found a hotel, the owner was a guy who had broken his back when training in the US during the war, he had purchased the hotel recently, probably after saving up since he got hurt.
Once again some real interest, some tentative mutual respect, and an opening into something... Certainly a good base to get started if I had to, someone to learn from, to give me pointers...
There is a lot to be said about this of course, and lots of it is hard to sort out and categorize, so I will try to get around to this later. The important part with any kind of fixer or helper is that you have to get it right, you have to earn the trust, and also assess those that might help you, especially in the context you are in.
Of course there are no "consumer rights", no HR department, no guarantee you won't be ripped off, no guarantee that they might not fuck up landing you in trouble! Which is why you need several of these, you need to compare information, learn as much as possible in a short amount of time, and then get your decisions right, without blaming anyone else at any point. That mindset will land you in trouble for real!

Where to hole up

To get used to "plan C thinking" hotels are perfect, you can so easily do this anywhere, even in your own country or city. A hotel is always a potential base, it is a place where it is totally normal for guests to ask any weird question, and it takes a lot before they turn on a polite, quite guest that shows real interest for their country and culture.
Can you leave a bag for when you come next? This always works as a way to get yourself flagged as someone who intends to get serious about the location, merely asking might give you valuable pointers.
I have had an increasingly larger bag in an old hotel for more than a year when I was building my plan B, at a certain point I was even offered a room in the part for locals, at a price that was impossible without building that connection.
Recently I left a bag in Kathmandu before doing random legs via Dubai, Cairo and Istanbul. I even forgot to leave the key, and a very helpful immigration officer at the airport actually delivered that to the hotel, declining even a tiny tip.
Returning a month later than I had told them of course the connection was deepened, and even though I really cannot afford that hotel I feel certain that they will remember me. I never run into trouble or lose anything really, but if that happened I know where to go for the night with no passport and no cash until things get sorted out...
And now that I will return there soon I also have a few expats that have gotten to know me, one of whom has stayed there for 12 impossible years. I've even got the number to their visa fixer!

What cannot be done online

Many of these things can not ever be done online or on a phone line. Sure, you can research a lot online, you can get the general picture, but since these are grey zones you will never get the whole story, not even when you finally find the right fixers. They need to protect themselves, but also they need you not to know too much. Its a good thing if you do, but let them take the lead, use your growing knowledge to merely check off the boxes, are they doing their job right or not?
You also won't know how you function in environments like this. How do you handle the insecurity? Are you able to parse all the information, or will the need for a manual or service agreement block you from pulling the trigger?
Or maybe you're not seeing the risk, just taking the chance with the wrong things where you cannot afford to go wrong...
Even if you want to follow every rule in the book, which often just is not possible, you still need to deal with others in a very alien environment, especially if you've had to trigger a plan C to somewhere you know nothing about!

Where to from here?

I have always been a "big picture" guy, I've always seen things that others ignore, and that has been both a good & bad thing through the past decades.
But what is clear by now is that my plan C is getting better, and that simple fact makes me relax a bit in my current plan B location. There have been times & forks in the road where I have been very close to ditching my plan B forever, and we might still get to such a fork.
From here I will keep honing my skills, I will keep writing stuff like this, and I will try to get some structure to things that are seemingly chaotic and random. In reality they are not, any jungle has a very clear set of rules, what matters is to stay alive another day to learn, always...
Do you have any comments, questions or objections? Anything is welcome, this is the jungle after all!
I like where your head is at, very interesting ideas about leaving some kit spread around the world like that.
Just a note on Vietnam, I lived there for some years and while the people are fantastic, the government is heavy handed surveillance state.
There was no covid there during the height of lockdowns all over the world, life went on as normal for about 1 year as they closed the borders really early. It was great for a while, then covid started trickling in across porous northern border.
I remember being visited by police who rounded up all resident foreigners in Da Nang and had us report for the swabs as a group. They keep a record of where everyone is.
Then when covid finally did get in there the lockdowns were intense. As in not allowed to leave the house at all for several week periods, army guys would come and give you a ticket for 2 visits to market per week during 1-hour window.
I actually was jogging anyways during that time but got hassled by police a few times.
About 1 year later they kicked out 80% of foreigners. I wasn't there anymore but knew lots of long term residents, some with businesses, who had their lives turned upside down.
I love that place but just something to keep in mind if you are trying to "disappear" there, it's probably not the best spot for that.
I bet you could disappear in Laos though 🙂
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Oh, you were there!
I'm well aware of what happened in Vietnam...
It is definitely not the place I'd bail to if the bioweapon demons get another scam going!
These two trips were short, and Vietnam was cheap, I'd been there once before only, and also it was at a time when things were really calm.
At a meetup that you might know about in Da Nang a young Vietnamese guy who seemed to know his stuff told me that people were extremely pissed off not only by the harshness, but also that a lot of people at the top made obscene amounts on the whole thing. He claimed that another round would not be possible, people would actually rise up...
I had a relatively good time myself, on tiny, rural roads right outside a large city, going to the river on my motorbike even when everyone were totally insane :-)
And if it all happens again? Better chose the right spot, I myself will not tolerate any of the BS any longer, so gotta be somewhere that I won't be cornered...
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100 sats \ 3 replies \ @aljaz 4 Sep
Having skills to adapt to any situation is more likely to get you out of a tight spot than a second passport. But its very useful to have both.
I always like to suggest this book - Emergency by Neil Strauss to people as it has some interesting insights. Tim Ferris published some bits of it on his blog.
Skills over things is usually the best bet, but if you can have both. Having the ability to find someone to smuggle you out of the country when everything locks down or having pieces of paper saying you must be allowed to leave accomplishes the same thing in the end.
There is one thing that people frequently forget which mostly comes before all of this - be in good health and good shape as most of your plans will fall apart without that.
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Absolutely! I did have the second passport plan going, but now you need 2-3 since we can't trust any state after all that has happened...
So at least until Bitcoin reaches a million I'll have to be as flexible, frugal and adaptable as possible :-)
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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @aljaz 4 Sep
i think there is a lot of us waiting for similar things ;)
tho one thing that people miss is that yes, passport is the best, but having residency in multiple countries is already a good step towards more freedom of movement as that tends to mean that you can always go to that country.
The other side of it is that you can optimize in the other direction, the cost of 2-3 passports buys you a lot of land in the middle of nowhere, maybe instead of disappearing out of a country you can disappear inside one.
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Yep, and its not hard to imagine an environment where disappearing is the smartest, residing without residency...
The past years I've gotten by using cash, selling gold I loaded up in 2020, and leaving close to no traces within the Digital Gulags ;-)
These days I will probably have to ramp things up & get some fiat income going, but also I will avoid that if at all humanly possible!
Which is where any tiny amount in sats comes into the picture :-)
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A is boring AF haha
Maybe plans should have other types of names, like plan Turtle (fiat), plan Tiger (Bitcoin) and plan Eagle (Monero)?
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First of all, I'm just envious that you have any plans whatsoever and don't just bumble through life
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5 sats \ 2 replies \ @Fabs 4 Sep
Ay... Bumbling through life like bubbles in a bottle of water... How it should be. 🐝🥳
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That is also right, for the tactical level only ;-)
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5 sats \ 0 replies \ @Fabs 4 Sep
'xcuse me, Sir, we're dealing in tacticool only, over here.
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Anything can have a plan, even pure chaos!
Its all about the mindset, do you want to get some structure and birds eye view of your own situation or not?
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"Everything that happens is convenient"
"There is no evil that does not come with good"
These proverbs or sayings are always in my head when I have to plan to achieve a goal. I always have a plan B, I have never needed to have a plan C. Since I was little, my mother told me that I had to know what I wanted in order to know what to do and how to do it. So it was that my first big project was to become a doctor. I knew that to access university I had to study at the best high school in my area. I prepared for the entrance exams, I wanted to be admitted to the specialty of biology which was in line with medicine as a profession. I tried hard but they gave me a mathematics major. To do? It was not what I wanted, but I still enrolled, I had a strong preparation in mathematics and when the university admission exams arrived, I was rewarded for following my plan B, mathematics was the most difficult exam, but for me nothing extraordinary, there was I've been preparing for 3 years.
So it's true that fun without planning is better. But life is not all fun. I always have a plan A and a plan B, I have never used a plan C, but if it happened I accept it as such.
"It is better to want what you have and not have what you want", it is not being conformist or not fighting for what you want, it is valuing what we have, taking advantage of it and when possible we will have what we want if we really want it.
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Not disagreeing with any of that. I call this plan C as a rhetoric device since plan B is sort of an established term in the freedom movement, its more about the processes that some might need to get going if/when they get thrown into the unknown for real :-)
Fun without planning is better? I've never been thinking like that, perhaps except for the wild years any teenager should have haha
I know many try to live like that, with no plans whatsoever, but then that is the plan, to just drift... That is not for me, but I can go into that "mode" with a strategy or overall plan when I have to, which in my opinion will be an essential skill for anyone in the years to come, especially those who have never had their plan A and B unravel due to external circumstances...
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Inspirational. I want to hit the road.
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Great! That is my main goal, to inspire & then build something viable from that :-)
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This is kind of cool. Jason Bourne vibes! You are right that real connections are cemented offline. Trust is in a handshake.
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Yep, and the thing is that these are natural skills, this is how we are supposed to operate without all sorts of guard rails!
There are so many stories to tell haha, but until now they have not made much sense online, hopefully now a sizeable portion of people who insist on owning themselves have woken up to the fact that they might have to at least get some inspiration from a fictional character like Jason Bourne ;-)
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