Empty Nest + Retirement + Nomadic Lifestyle aint for the faint of ego. I had expected more times of loneliness, boredom, and questions of purpose than I’ve ended up feeling. But I never anticipated how the triple-whammy of losing in-person-parenting, work and home community would dam up the steady stream of strokes that keep us…

“What do you do all day?” I’m often asked. Other than “there’s still not enough time,” I’m never quite sure how to answer. We live here, so it’s not all tours and insta-photo moments. So here’s my journal from just this one random any ol’ day as a digital nomad in Hoi An, Vietnam. 6:15…

We move from the beach over to the heart of Hoi An, Vietnam just in time for “Tet” – the lunar new year we narrowly call “Chinese New Year” in Vancouver. While the calendar new year in Montreal was met with kombucha, half-hearted resolutions and Emily in Paris, Tet in Hoi An is a full-throated…

It’s 9pm on my first night in Vietnam when I become a millionaire. On the corner of a well-lit street, with no traffic noise to drown out the waves lapping on the shore one block away, I slip a crisp $100 bill to our AirBnB host, who opens her wallet and pulls out 2.6 million…

Last stop of our Northern Thailand jaunt is Chiang Rai. Honestly it’s a lot like Chiang Mai but on a smaller scale, but there are some fantastical quirky sites (Condom Café anyone?) to make it a worthy stop. White Temple of Chiang Rai If Gaudi were to build a Buddhist temple, he’d come up with…

Chiang Dao may have been scenic, but three hours further north into the mountains we are ensconced in the beauty of Mae Salong. Twenty miles from the border of our old stomping grounds of Myanmar, this is also the region where refugee Chinese soldiers fought back against the Chinese Communist regime, and were subsequently welcomed…

After a week of bliss bubble yoga retreat, we’re on the road again. With no-one doing all our cooking, planning, exercise enforcement and entertainment, it’s back to navigating and discovering the wonders of Northern Thailand on our own (with two dear friends from Vancouver). First stop – Chiang Dao, a winding 45 miles (90 minutes)…

At 5:30 am the soft melodic gong ripples the darkness. I’ve been half-awake for a while, listening to the remaining echoes of the nighttime frog chorus ceding to the vibrations of pre-dawn stillness. Sarah and I embrace wordlessly, quickly dressing in the dark and slipping out into the cool air. Barefoot along the long wooden…

We took the longest route in modern history to get to Thailand. Thanks to some life curveballs – dental work, sick son, revised Christmas plans – our simple (and nonrefundably-purchased) ticket across the Pacific from Vancouver to Thailand turned into: Vancouver-Albania-Philadelphia-CostaRica-Chicago-Montreal-Pittsburgh-Philadelphia-NewYork-AbuDhabi-Bangkok-Chiang Mai! Last chance to be a neck-craning New York tourist Halfway there – another…

For our first new adventure of 2026 we choose the exotic tourist mecca of… Pittsburgh! Home of many championship sports teams, voted America’s most livable city in 1985, and a decayed steel empire – surely those three claims to fame merit a week of our lives? Really we’re here housesitting and spending a final week…