This Sunday has been officially dubbed by Technomadia as the “Day of the Nomad” at SXSW in Austin, Texas.

Here’s the schedule:

11a – SXSW Session: ‘Technomadism – Becoming a Technology Enabled Nomad‘ hosted by Cherie & Chris of Technomadia

12:30 – SXSW Session: ’How to Make Money While Traveling Around the World‘ hosted by Jason Boehle & Tynan

(Both sessions will be held at the Marriott Courtyard, Rio Grande B at 300 East 4th Street – 1 block west of the convention center)

2 – 4p Nomadic SXSW Meetup (SXSW Badge NOT required) At Casa Chapala (Cesar Chavez (1st street) and San Jacinto) Meet us for food and drinks whether you’re attending SXSW or not!  Please bring cash. No entry charge but we’re going dutch on what we munch.  Please RSVP if you’re showing up!

We really hope you’ll join us.  Looks like there’s going to be a great group of location independents in Austin. Come get to know each other and get inspired!

It’s for real. Local medias may not be raising the alarms, but Dengue Fever, and Chikungunya Fever (which is also a mosquito-borne virus, with similar symptoms to Dengue) prevalence is rising at an alarming rate.

In the case of Dengue, which I’ll focus more on than Chikungunya, The World Health Organization and The Centers for Disease Control—although neither seem to have current statistics for the public—are calling Dengue an epidemic and have shown the disease to have about doubled in the last decade—ending in 2007. As for Chikungunya, its impact is also hard felt, more so than Dengue in many areas. (Current public comparative data for this disease is also lacking greatly and therefore not offered.) Since a lot of people choose to nomad and live in the most affected areas of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Singapore, it’s a significant concern to us at the Nu Nomad. According to the World Health Organization’s most recent report, 75% of the reported 50 million cases are occurring in Southeast Asia.

And, yes, I’m here to see it—and feel it.

I first noticed the extreme rise in these two mosquito-borne viruses in 2008 while living on Koh Lanta. Then, many of my fellow island nomads, expats, neighbors and myself were experiencing flu-like symptoms. The first concern we usually had was that it might be Malaria. More often than not though, it was something else: like Dengue Fever. So, testing for Dengue soon became near automatic. And, yup, many of them had caught it. At least for those who contracted Dengue they now knew where they stood (err, more likely, where they curled-up into a ball and sweated for a week) and could size up the risks of remaining in that area. But, then came Chikungunya Fever. With it being a relatively new major disease, with very few hospitals even in Bangkok able to do rapid testing, people often thought that if their flu-like ailment weren’t Malaria or Dengue, then they just had the flu.  Maybe no, maybe so—who’s to know?

Since those healthier more care-free days of Koh Lanta, however, the south of Thailand has exploded in cases of both Dengue and Chikungunya. Moreover, there’s now even a significant increase in these diseases here in Bangkok—where yours truly is recovering nicely from a bout of Dengue himself.

Oh, yes, my own Dengue experience. (I’ll try to be brief.)

Well, I decided to spend December on Ko Phayam (a little-traveled island near Burma’s border) with a dozen or so friends in celebration of my 50^th birthday. (I had a great time. Thank you to all who shared it with me.) Anyway, while on Phayam it quickly became noticeable how many people were feeling sick. (In fact, many people coming over to Phayam from neighboring Ko Chang island were also complaining of unusually high levels fever-related ailment there. So, by no means is the problem just on Phayam.) Half of my friends and many people I’d met on Ko Phayam island began experiencing all sorts of ailments that included: fever, chills, loss of energy, body aches and headaches. (I, however, felt just fine.) Although the affected were concerned, they understood their options were limited to two: either leave the island for a mainland hospital for a blood test (small islands like Phayam and Ko Chang have no testing facilities), or wait a few more days to see if the symptoms go away by themselves. Of course most had chosen the later hoping to Buddha it was just the flu. And in a normal year, they would most likely have been fine to do so. Not this year though. (The unusually persistent rain this year has only exacerbated the epidemic.) Anyway, most of my friends and people I’d met there who shared similar symptoms were eventually diagnosed with either Dengue or Chikungunya. (FYI: though both Dengue and Chikungunya share very similar symptoms, Dengue tends to produce more aches to ones muscles and Chikungunya to ones joints.) I’d learned the news of my friends’ diagnosis’s not long after I’d returned just after the New Year, safe and sound (or I thought) to Bangkok—my current base.

More than a week after my return it was my turn to feel flu-like symptoms. Though not really worried about it, I thought I should still go pay Dr. Nick of Mission a visit. (“Dr. Nick” is not only my personal physician and contributor to my co-authored book, the Nu Nomad and to our blogs on Malaria prevention, but he is a tropical disease and preventive medicine specialist.) After some poking and prodding, Dr. Nick and I agreed it was most likely that: the flu. Not having many of the associated symptoms of Dengue or Chikungunya (rash, extreme muscle pain, los of appetite, to name just three) put me at ease enough to not bother to order a blood test. (Silly me.)

To make a very long story short—a story that includes a bout of acute intestinal infection severely complicated with (probably mild) food poisoning—About ten days later I paid Dr. Nick another visit to learn that, yes, I had indeed contracted Dengue—and that it was unclear if I’d contracted it on the island or here in Bangkok. Because of my recent ailments and having left the island several weeks earlier, it wasn’t all that odd that Dengue was just now being identified.

The lesson here is that one should not shy away from getting the blood tests for Dengue, Chikungunya and also Malaria if they’re experiencing flu-like symptoms, especially this year with Southeast Asia being drenched in water. The cost is not all that great and, anyway, that’s what your travel insurance is for.

Prevalence

During the hour we waited for my lab results to come back Dr. Nick and I talked about the recent surge in Dengue and Chikungunya. He was astounded by how many new patients he’s been treating in the past few months alone (Most were coming in from tourist islands. And since Dr. Nick is American, he sees a lot of the Internationals.) Where he usually sees only a few Dengue and Chikungunya cases per month this time of year—it being the so-called “dry season,”—this year the caseload has “sky-rocketed.” (He was unable to offer specific numbers.) This, naturally, made me wonder: Why aren’t there public alerts on this? The answer could be the lack of national and international funds to properly monitor and advertise the rise of these diseases, or perhaps it has something to do with not panicking the tourists in an already anemic high-season. Who knows. So, consider this such an alert.

Prevention

Both Dengue and Chikungunya are caused by the Aedes mosquito. This bad boy has black and white stripes on its legs and body. It bites during daylight hours. Since mosquitoes breed in clean, stagnant waters in shady areas, like those lush, green garden-like areas we are so fond of, it important to take extra precautions when leaving, say the hot, dry, sandy beach for the cool, shade. Wear clothing that covers your skin more completely than just shorts and short sleeve or tank tops. And use mosquito repellent; there are several natural options. (Naturapel available at REI stores is the best I’ve come across so far.) Mosquito coils are helpful, just like a fan is when in your room. When taking a nap, use that mosquito net.

Treatment*

Because Dengue and Chikungunya are caused by a virus, there are no specific medicines or antibiotics to treat them. For typical dengue, the treatment is purely concerned with relief of the symptoms. Rest and fluid intake for adequate hydration is very important. Acetaminophen/Paracetamol (Tylenol) and codeine may be given for severe headache and for the joint and muscle pain. However, Aspirin Ibuprofen, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs should only be taken under a doctor’s supervision because of the possibility of worsening hemorrhagic complications.

Long Term Effects of Dengue Fever*

Usually, there are no long term serious concerns for someone who gets dengue fever. However, as with any serious virus infection, there is the possibility for a person to form a chronic fatigue-type syndrome after recovering from dengue, but this is also true for the flu and a number of other viruses, such as with mononucleosis. It is rare for it to happen, and is more often seen in people with a past history of depression, anxiety or similar mental illness. It is more common in women than men.

Dengue, unlike some kinds of malaria, has no potential for “coming back” again in the future.  If a person contracts dengue again, it is a new infection, not a reactivation of the old infection.

There are four kinds of dengue virus. Once you have had one kind, you are immune to it. However, you can still become infected with another type. A second infection with dengue tends to be more severe.

There is a higher likelihood of having a complication due to dengue with a subsequent infection, such as dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome.  Dengue hemorrhage fever is when there is bleeding and dengue shock syndrome is when the blood pressure goes down and there is leaking of fluid out of the blood vessels into other parts of the body, such as the feet or the lungs.

The majority of people who have a first episode of dengue fever can be treated as an out patient. The opposite is true with a subsequent infection where most need to be hospitalized.

The good news is the dengue will go away on its own.  The people to be most careful and concerned with when there is a dengue infection, is children.  They are much more likely to have a more severe form and many of the people who die from dengue fever are children.

Although deaths do occur with dengue, most of the younger, healthier, travelers are at very low risk for this.  People with heart disease, diabetes, immune problems, children and the elderly need to be followed closely when they have dengue and should not just try to “tough it out”. Although there is no medicine to kill the dengue virus, hospitals such as Mission do have good treatments to handle or even prevent the complications of dengue fever.

* Information and advice provided in great part by Dr. Nick Walters, MD.

Photo by: spcbrass

Today I’m writing to you about the opening of a new project that is at the core of our passion at NuNomad. For the last several months Ricardo and I have been hard at work creating a social networking component of our site we are calling the NuNomad Tribe. I truly believe that with your participation we will be able to create an interactive community that will change the way we all create and maintain location independent lives.

How is that?

The Inspiration

The inspiration came from my family’s year abroad last year. While planning the trip and later meeting many other nomadic families in our destination choices I had a realization.

1) Specific information for location independents when making travel decisions is not easy to find. While there are many travel sites and expat sites, there are very few devoted to our particular needs as working location independents who may stay in one place for a month or 6 months and have needs for remote office space or other business capabilities.

2) Most professional nomads are re-inventing the wheel over and over and over. Because there is not a great hub for information sharing among nomads, most of us have to spend many hours doing the same research of those before us when having a social network for communication among ourselves would greatly simplify things. For instance, when I was searching for a school in Oaxaca for my 10 year old I spent hours and hours online searching, reading and trying to find forums discussing the subject. When we arrived at the school on the first day we met at least 6 other nomadic families who had all gone through the same tedious searches only to arrive at the same decision. What if there had been a communication hub? How many hours would have been saved?

3) Nomadic lifestyles can be needlessly wasteful. Most of us in this community discuss downsizing, frugality and simple living. However, the reality is a lot of waste can be involved in maintaining location independence. For instance, many of the nomadic friends we made in destinations had had to purchase certain basics in order to conduct everyday life. Basic furniture when furnished dwellings weren’t found, or in my case just a coffee maker and a dvd player. When our friends were leaving their destination or returning home it was often difficult to know what to do with the things we purchased. Again, what if there were a communication hub for selling or trading these things? Yes, Craigslist is out there but it is often sparsely utilized in other countries.

4) Most nomads develop a wealth of information and personal connections to service providers in their destinations. Sharing this information can be invaluable. During our stay in Oaxaca we befriended our taxi driver who I came to trust like a family member. We also fell in love with Avril who came to clean our house once per week. I wanted to be able to continue sending them business after our departure and I wanted to help other new arrivals to Oaxaca with contact information for these amazing people.

5) There are many brilliant people on the internet writing about lifestyle design, frugality, travel and location independence. There is a wealth of information available for people wanting to develop this lifestyle. However, it is not always easy to find this information. Again, a communication hub where links to this information was readily available could be invaluable.

What We Have Created

Every cell of my being kept screaming, “We need this place to communicate!!” And so, the NuNomad Tribe has been born. This is our opening day.

I can’t tell you how excited we are to present this to you. Of course, we are new and will need to grow in numbers and activity in order to make it invaluable but we have a lot to offer. Here’s what the NuNomad Tribe can offer you:

• A centralized location to meet other nomads, make friends or communicate in real time through chat with others in your destinations or in places you may want to visit in the future.  Get the inside scoop from people who have walked the path before you! Where else can you find greats like Cherie and Chris of Technomadia, Barbara Weibel of Hole in the Donut, Christine Gilbert of Almost Fearless, Dragos Roua of Brilliantly Better, Annabel Candy of GetintheHotSpot, Joanna Haugen of Kaleidoscope Wandering, Greg Rollett of Rock Star Lifestyle Design or John Bardos of JetSetCitizen, just to name a few established members so far all in one place?
• A Classified Ads section where you can buy/sell/trade anything that’s relevant to nomads.  Browse the possibilities or place your own ad and perhaps bring in a little extra cash!  Where else can you advertise to a hand picked set of people at no cost.  This is the craigslist of location independents!
• The ability to create or join groups on topics of your interest.  Want to talk about gourmet food in Thailand? The viability of Digital Nomading?  Join a group conversation.
• Coaching for people who want to develop a location independent lifestyle.  As soon as we have enough interested parties we are willing to being group coaching calls helping future nomads get onto the road.
• Incentives for participation.  While we are trying to build our stores of information we’ll be giving away cool stuff.  We have a built in point system for your participation.  Win a NuNomad t-shirt to start!

If you are currently location independent or think you want to be I urge you to join our NuNomad Tribe today and participate in making this the premier social networking site for our special population!  Go now to the NuNomad Tribe where you can watch our video tour or simply click here to join now.  Hope to see you there!

by Ricardo

This past month I’ve been deluged by stories of economic hardships by many close friends. All are creative, resourceful, economically responsible, hard-working people. Some of them are losing their homes and will be declaring bankruptcy; many others are not far from that. Lack of having enough work, if any, is the biggest culprit. These very human examples of having to survive bitter economic times are, simply, more of what we’ve all been hearing for over two years now. I’m sure we all know someone in a similar situation—that someone could be you right now. But I hope not.

Along with the longevity of this adjustment/correction in the global economic picture, viable options seem to be narrowing-down now that personal excess has been curbed, overtime eliminated, and savings depleted. Since personal income is not likely to return to its former level anytime soon, the only other option is to reduce expenditures. For many it’s come down to having to move-in (co-share) with others who are experiencing similar economic hardships—so that resources can be shared and expenditures narrowed—and/or cut-out all non-essential expenditures and live off of credit cards while weathering the economic storm (and we all know what an evil trap that can become).

The folks I’m referring to above are for the most part people whom I’ve known for years, certainly way before I’d co-founded the Nu Nomad. Now, however, questions are coming my way like Titanic passengers to scarce lifeboats. Faced with the realization that their income is not likely to return itself to the levels they were accustomed to, and cost-cutting is not going to bridge the gap, all options are now on the table. Moreover, they are also taking stock of their lifestyle, values and options for the immediate future. Though all have very personal decisions to consider, all are determined to not go down without a fight, yet live as large as possible. Yes, they’re looking into Nomading.

Although my recommendation for preparing for a location-independent life is to not do so in haste, sometimes you’ve got to punt! (That’s an, American, football metaphor.) One friend, for example, is letting the bank take over her house, since what she could sell it for now is less than the mortgage amount. She plans to telecommute from somewhere in Mexico until personal savings can be replenished. A few others are looking into Southeast Asia where rent, transportation and medical care is but a small fraction of what they’ve been paying. A few are simply looking into less-expensive American communities. But what they seem to all have in common, aside from drastically reducing their overhead, is another chance at life. It’s sort of poetic, when you think about it. When life is considered good (meaning, few cares, steady income, et cetera) it’s when we’re most complacent and less imaginative. Really, we’re rarely at our best then. But when our backs are up against the wall, that is when we begin to see what’s clearly in front of us and the world we’ve missed-out on. This is when we begin to understand that we can get more out of less. And it is during crises like these that ignored opportunities become obtainable dreams because the alternative, despair and total defeat, are really not options at all.

As for yours truly, I’m still financially okay. I’ve had the fortune of being able to enjoy a comfortable, location-independent life with an annual income comparable to what I made nearly twenty years ago. So I’m sort of conditioned for a life as a nomad. And I’m solo. But the math is still there for those who wish to crunch the numbers to see if their miracle is ready—to take a leap of faith into the greater unknown. I wish you all success and bliss. And, of course, I’ll be around to answer whatever questions that I can help with.