"Why not combine travelling and work at the same time?"

TRAVELLER ID

Name: Imee

Instagram: misen_11

Age: 37

Nationality: Indonesian

City you're currently in: Hamburg, Germany

Peculiarities: Obsessed with pineapples

Type of traveller: Digital nomad

Most beautiful place you've been to: The world

Motto: Carpe diem

Tell me about your life as a digital nomad

I've been doing this for about 6-7 years now. My schedule is fortunately quite flexible so I work on average 4 to 6 hours. I'm a freelance translator from Japanese to English and also a native checker, so I check people's translations from Japanese into English. I work with a few translation agencies. I know Japanese because I moved there for my education. I did my bachelor and my master there. I usually work half a day, like in the morning and then I go explore a city in the afternoon, or viceversa. My work is based in Japan so I have to follow Japanese time. That means I do prefer to stay sort of in the same time zone. I usually have a close deadline, so the further away I am from Japan in terms of time zone, the harder it is.

How did you find this opportunity?

I've always wanted to be a translator, since I was a teenage girl. Languages have always been my passion. My love for travelling came when I was in Japan. I was doing my degree and I took a one year exchange program to England. That was probably the best year of my life. My credits were not transferable because I was in a unique program so I studied whatever I wanted. I was travelling all over England on the weekends. Shortly after I did my first solo travelling in Europe, Spain and Italy. I eventually married the idea because I loved it so much. I was like "If I'm going to be a translator anyway, why not combine travelling and work at the same time?". I can't remember if anyone inspired me or if I just stumbled into the idea of being a digital nomad. Japan's working environment is quite unique. It's very strict with very long hours and that was extremely unappealing to me. I wanted the opportunity and the liberty to go back to Indonesia more often, see my family and travel the world. I felt the digital nomad way of life is the way to go. I didn't know any other nomads. I wasn't really following any blog. I just did it by trial and error my own way.

Tell me about a typical day as a digital nomad

I wake up super late (laughter), I work for an hour, then watch a movie, work for another hour, eat lunch, nap, work for an hour more. Even though I only really work for 4-5 hours, it's so spread out during the day. If I'm in a new city, I would be a little bit more focused because I do want to explore. I would work either in the morning or late in the evening. With one of the agency it's all very automatic. The project manager of that company would just fill up my schedule. With the other one I receive emails saying "I got this project" with the number of words and the deadline. I have to reply as soon as possible saying if I want the project and then schedule deadlines. I'm beyond grateful. I feel very blessed because 1) I do love translations and 2) it allows me to have this lifestyle. Just have the freedom and the responsibility of every minute of your day, kind of puts things into new perspectives in terms of what you want in life and how you can better contribute to society. One of the greatest opportunities I had was doing some volunteer work. If I were still working in a regular office, I wouldn't be able to do that. There are so many great things about a digital nomad. It's great, do it! (laughter). An advantage is that I get to live the "locals". Most people have two-three weeks to explore a city. I get to actually sort of live in it and stay there for a while. Before, I was a very fast tourist. Now I usually like to stay in a city for ideally 2-3 months but I often have visa issues as an Indonesian holding an Indonesian passport. Everywhere I go I need a visa and I usually have limitations on how long I can stay.

Are there any disadvantages of this way of travelling?

Talking about disadvantages, your social life and your love life suffer. With my social life, I sort of cracked the code. I have what I call "my inner circle". I do monthly calls on specific dates, with certain people. So, I came with the idea because I felt like I had friends all over the world, but they don't live near me. We text each other, saying "Hey girl, I miss you, we should chat soon" and then you don't do it. I asked people who have been friends with me for a long time to choose one day each month and to do a monthly call on that day. It makes it easier to have a scheduled day. Some of my friends eventually couldn't keep up with it, but there have been quite a few who I maintained this with. I started during Covid and I have continued since then. It's a great way to feel and stay connected without actually been together. It gives me a lot of bittersweet feelings when I see my friends and their circle and I'm like "I could have had that kind of lifestyle of being rooted somewhere and having really core friends around me", which I don't really have. I don't feel lonely, though. I like my company (laughter). 

What about your love life?

I would say it's nearly impossible to have a lasting romantic relationship and you can't really do long distance in that. Sure, if you have established a good foundation, long distance will work. If I'm gonna be in the city for a couple of weeks, most people will not be willing to have a long distance relationship. Everybody around me says "You just have to find another digital nomad and it will work". In theory, that should work. If a guy is somewhere and I'm nomading around, I can always go back to that personal spot. If both of you are just nomading in different directions, it's like "Maybe I'll see you some day" (ironic). I don't think I have ever had any romantic connection worked out, unless I was willing to sacrifice by staying put. At this point, my desire for travelling is way stronger than my desire of having a committed romantic relationship. Weirdly and selfishly the way I make decisions in life is to ask myself constantly "Am I happy? What would make me happy? and I choose based on that. For now travelling is kind of infinitely better. No drama (laughter). I've noticed there are a lot of people around me complaining about work and life and stress. I'm like "You don't have to, you have the ability to choose not to". A lot of people say "I have to do this, I have no choice". I'm like "Babe, there's always a choice". Hopefully there will be better environments and infrastructures for people to work remotely.

Do you think there are many possibilities for people to become a digital nomad?

Most of the other digital nomads I know work in tech field, or writers, but I think Covid has shown us that it's extremely possible to work remotely. It's just whether companies are willing to do it or invest in it. A lot of companies are still very traditional in that mindset. I feel like you can be a teacher and be nomading. I know a lady that started teaching Chinese and Japanese to English speakers. She was kind of making a living off that. Even many traditional in-person jobs I feel can be done remotely. Perhaps not 24/7 for 365 days, but at least for a few months at a time. 

You travel “vegan”. What does that mean?

Having more free time to do what I want I watched documentaries and I met a lot of people that introduced me to this concept. If I hadn't become a digital nomad, I probably wouldn't be vegan just because I probably wouldn't be aware of that. I became vegan when I was around 30. It has just been quite a pleasure to go back and revisit some places that I have been to but as a vegan. It's not easy and it's not always authentic. I also became very anti-plastic. I started this experiment of just being very conscious of my waste. I documented for about a month the amount of plastic that I would throw out, to show myself and my friends that it's possible to be a traveller and still reduce waste. I feel like a lot of people when they go travelling are like "Let's get the mini bottle of shampoo". Convenience is more important for them when they travel, rather than "Wait a minute, do we need it?". For a few years I wouldn't buy anything that came in plastic. I do a lot of bulk purchases. My luggage is almost always 50% food. I feel like being a vegan, I'm afraid there won't be food and I don't want to put it on the country or the people to be like "Feed me!". It's my responsibility. 

Do you have any project related to travelling?

No. It was unexpected when I started living this life. I reached my life goal at the age of 30, which is great but it also feels empty. You are like "Am I living happily ever after already?" I kind of missed having something to go toward, like a goal, a project, an obsession. My goal was 1) find a new passion or project, and 2) find places where I can see myself long term. By long term I meant maybe 3 years (laughter). I haven't been able to find either of them. For the second one, I thought "What if I chose 3- places and then rotate them every year?". Three months Japan. three months Australia, three months Indonesia and then repeat every year. I feel like I miss constancy. I have great friends and we stay in touch, but I've noticed every time I talk to my friends, it's like I've missed such a big chunk of their life. They are changing jobs, getting girlfriends and so on. I missed having like a more normal, stable and regular routine. I also have an idea but I'm not sure it's something I would genuinely pursue or it's just a nice fantasy. It's an accommodation kind of thing for tourism. Tourism is a huge part of my life and my passion. Being environmentally friendly, green and all that is another passion of mine. It would be nice if I can combine the two and have like a zero waste hotel. I want the guests to practice zero waste themselves. I would use the profit from the zero-waste accommodation business to fund an NGO/NPO for children in need. It's great to live life for myself, but there's something infinitely satisfying about helping people in need and contributing to society in a meaningful way. 

Do you think people are judging you because of the kind of life you live?

I think the grass is always greener on the other side. I think a lot of people are envious of it. You know, the freedom, you get to travel, the excitement. Some people don't really understand why at the age of 37 I'm still single. My friends are a little bit better, because I've been living like this for so long. Even my mom is like "When are you going to stop? How long do you want to do this for?". I'm like "Forever" (laughter). My relatives ask me "When are you going to get married?". The good thing is, as with everything, the longer you do something, the more people will think it's normal. When I first started people were just waiting for this to end. Now that I've been doing this for 7 years they just know this is my life. In my very specific case it helps that I don't want to have children. That's something I've known since I was a teenager. This helps whereas most people are always torn by this idea of family and kids. I mean, you can still travel with kids. I think it's wonderful to expose your children to all these different cultures, different food from a young age, to show them there's a whole other world out there.

Tell me something you learned while travelling

Travelling to South America taught me that we are more similar than we are different. I met people - we didn't share the same language, the same culture, or food. We come from different parts of the world. Yet, I found some people who were just so aligned with me. There's instantly a connection and it's very exciting. Most of the time we focus on differences: different skin color, background, education. I think we are more similar than we think. We can reach a common understanding. Focus on similarities and not differences.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to travel but doesn’t know how to get started?

Part of the trigger of why I became a freelance translator was the death of my cousin. He was around the same age as me. Seeing someone lose their lives at a young age was this big push for me - if you have something that you want to do and you know it, just do it. Life is too short. There's no guarantee you will be alive tomorrow. If there's anything you want to do within reason - I'm not saying go crazy - there's no time to lose. There's so many people saying "I will travel when I retired". There's no guarantee you will be alive at that age. When I started travelling I was lucky because my parents were financially established enough and they were healthy enough that I could go. I know they are getting older. When they are older of course they will need care and I will have to be there physically more often. So, I'm gonna take this opportunity while I can, while I don't have family obligations and duties. I'm just gonna do what I love.