3 Asian Travel Tips for the LGBTQ+ Traveler

Asian Travel

Asia is a popular travel destination. Every year, it sees millions of travelers from all walks of life – including those who identify with the LGBTQ+ community.

If that’s you, you may be wondering, after hearing the so-easy-to-find horror stories about the adventures of LGBTQ+ people in Asia, if it’s safe for you to go there.

Here are 5 travel tips to keep you safe on your journey.

Adapt to local culture.

Going to a new country as an LGBTQ+ person can make you stand out – especially if the community is small in the country you’re visiting.

To help you stick out less, be sure to adapt to the local culture – try their food, adhere to their customs, and pay attention to social standards.

Scout out the local gay scene.

Most LGBTQ+ travelers will advise you to scout out the gay scene in the area that you’re going to.

Why? Well, not only are gay bars the most fun, but they’re also a safe space for LGBTQ+ travelers to hang out, be themselves, and have fun.

Most countries in Asia have some sort of gay scene, with the big cities the most likely to be open about it. In these cities, you may find exclusive gay-friendly hotels and hostels, saunas, nightvlubs, and all sorts of night time entertainment (including dragshows!).

One of the most popular gay-friendly cities is Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but Bangkok is another great option.

Reach out to other LGBTQ+ locals and travelers.

Since socializing with members of the community who understand and won’t judge you is a great way to enjoy a vacation, it can be daunting to walk up to someone in a club and start a conversation.

Luckily, there is social media. Using Facebook and other popular websites, you can scout out the gay scene from behind the scenes and reach out to active individuals.

Make use of trending LGBTQ+ hashtags, groups, and online city-specific forums. Even conducting a simple internet search can yield great results.

Don’t limit yourself to who you can talk to – reach out to both locals and other travelers.

Research your chosen country’s laws regarding sexuality.

As you probably know, Asia and other countries in that half of the world have a reputation for being intolerant of diverse sexuality.

So, as a rule of thumb, it’s always a good idea to research the laws regarding sexual preference in the country you’re planning on going to. This being said, obsessing over them won’t help, so don’t go too crazy.

Often, the laws regarding sexuality only apply to locals and not to travelers who are just passing through or taking a two week vacation. Some laws only condemn relationships between certain genders, or public displays of affection between a same-sex couple.

If you aren’t sure about the laws and cannot find adequate information, air on the side of caution and try to avoid PDA if you’re traveling with a same sex partner.

Why Avail Professional Air Duct Cleaning Services

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air quality of American homes may even be 70 percent more polluted compared to the outside. This, coupled by the fact that people spend a substantial amount of their time indoors, emphasize why it is highly important to ensure that the air that you and your family breathe in is clean and doesn’t harm your health in any way.

No matter how hard you try to keep your household clean, air ducts can be blocked and become extremely dirty and dusty. Now, as hot or cold air travels through these air ducts, the air collects dusts, dirt, and allergens. When these unwanted substances get accumulated in the air ducts and are not removed diligently, bacteria can thrive, molds can form, and allergens can spread—thereby, causing medical conditions to occupants when they breathe these in.

In order to make sure that your heating and cooling systems send in air through clean air ducts, it is important to have your ducts maintained and cleaned regularly. While it is possible for you to do this by yourself, you can also avail professional air duct cleaning Las Vegas area just to make sure that the job is done right and without any hassle.

Reasons to Hire a Professional to Clean Your Air Ducts

Below are some of the reasons why it is a good idea to hire a professional to maintain your property’s air ducts.

  • Keeping your air ducts clean doesn’t only involve getting rid of dust and dirt, but also smoke and dander from previous homeowners and their pets.
  • Having your air ducts cleaned by professionals will ensure that your home or establishment was cleaned properly and will stay fresher for a longer period of time.
  • A professionally cleaned air duct can make your heating and cooling systems function more efficiently. Therefore, this can prolong the lifespan of your equipment and minimizes the cost of running them.
  • A professional air duct cleaner understands what your home needs and can inspect for problems. Furthermore, they know how to protect your furnishings, carpets, and other elements in your property.
  • You can avoid all the hassle of cleaning your property’s air ducts because the task will be handled by an experienced and trained professional who doesn’t only have the relevant certifications and know-how, but also the right tools and materials to accomplish the job appropriately.

What to Expect When Hiring a Professional Air Duct Cleaner

Here are the things that you should expect when availing a professional air duct cleaning service:

  • Open access ports in order for the professionals to inspect and clean the whole system.
  • The system will be inspected before the actual cleaning in order to ensure that there are no materials that contain asbestos in the cooling or heating system. Materials that contain asbestos require specialized procedures and only trained professionals with the right equipment should remove them.
  • Vacuum equipment that exhausts outside of the establishment will be used or high-efficiency particle air vacuuming equipment if it exhausts inside the property.
  • Carpet and other furnishings will be protected.
  • Make sure that soft-bristled brushes will be used for sheet metal air ducts with fiberglass internal lining and duct boards that are made of fiberglass.
  • Any access holes that the air duct cleaners made will be reinsulated and sealed air tight.
  • The air duct cleaning service will be up to industry standards.

A reliable air duct cleaning company will not only have the know-how, but also the right equipment and tools to maintain your air ducts and improve the health of your home or working environment. While a DIY approach can work, hiring professionals to do the job proves to be more effective and practical.

Online Business Basics

Working online has been pegged as the solution to all your money problems. You read stories of people who became millionaires online, often with nothing more than an internet connection. Maybe they developed an app, or sold a million pixels at a dollar each. They might have traded currencies, invested in cryptocurrency, or ‘done online marketing.’

The one thing these stories don’t tell is the ‘how’. Without a step by step guide, it’s easy to think anyone can do it. In a way, they can. But if you don’t consider the pitfalls, you’re likely to stop halfway in. Start by deciding on the kind of business you’re going to start. There are two broad categories – either you’re making something yourself or selling someone’s stuff.

Makers and sellers

‘Making something’ could include taking photos, painting, carving, programming, writing, or any activity that involves a physical (or virtual) product. In a sense, making something also includes ideas. If you’re a coach or consultant, then you make some kind of training package that you then share with others, because the skill you’re teaching is a product too.

On the other hand, ‘selling’ is about marketing someone else’s product. This could include tech support or customer care, because you’re pushing someone else’s product or service. It can also include reselling, where you buy something and re-sell it for profit. You might also market someone else’s brand and earn a commission.

Get a virtual office

Think of your online business just like a regular ‘offline’ business. You need the same resources, you just apply them differently. For example, instead of a physical office space (even if it’s a garage), you need a virtual office. That’s the main function of your website. It’s a ‘premises’ where your visitors can come for ‘meetings’. Start with a domain. That’s you ‘www’ and it can cost anything from $1 to $1,000.

Pick a name (e.g. www.business.com) then go to any domain search to see if that web url is available. If not, see what’s similar, or pick a different name. Buy your domain and pay for a hosting package. That’s like the rent on your office, and is due monthly or annually. Now you can hire a web designer or use free tools like WordPress to build your website. Alternatively, go to sites like Wix.com or Squarespace.com. They’ll do everything for you – domain names, hosting, and web design for a fixed monthly price.

Hire a digital team

Now you need a team of staff – preferably the kind that won’t cost you money. Your social media accounts are your customer care staff. Don’t forget to integrate them to your website, making it easy to share content between platforms. Get a merchant processor like PayPal – that’s your cashier. They receive customer payments.

For marketing, engage in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). It gives you visibility with potential customers and pushes you closer to the top of Google and other Search engine rankings. So now you have an office, marketers, cashiers, and tech support. Get to work on your products. And remember, it takes time, so don’t give up!

Pyjamas and backpacks: Surviving in the gig economy

For a long time, the world (i.e. ‘expert’ columnists on the web) didn’t understand millennials. One particular puzzle was their refusal to be tied down to a job. Instead, they’d flit from one to the other, whether they were waiting tables or holding down corporate internships.

Initially, ‘social commentators’ blamed it on impatience.  They assumed this generation was unwilling to put in the time. They were accused of expecting instant raises and promotions, of wanting to leap frog into management. They were described as upstart know-it-alls that disregarded authority and disrespected the old guard.

Their approach to life has been blamed on a culture of ‘participation awards’ and raising ‘snowflakes’. Society was quick to blame how they turned out, taking no responsibility for bringing them up that way. And then an interesting thing happened … people from other generations began to adopt the millennial way of thinking.

The new migrant worker

They came in all shapes and sizes. There were stay-at-home mums who needed mental stimulation and empty nesters. Both missed the sense of achievement that comes with earning income. Some were late-in-life divorcees trying to jump-start their world view. Others were teenagers looking for weekend gigs. Some wanted to work in pyjamas and have more time for videogames, others wanted to travel the world and learn new cultures.

All these people need flexible work hours with enough income to sustain their lifestyles. Online business offers a viable solution, because they can work from anywhere, as long as they have access to the internet. The kind of work available varies. You can use an app to charge scooters. You can write SEO articles. You can sell photos to sites like Shutterstock.

You can open a shop on Etsy. You can trade forex or bitcoin. You can work as remote customer care or tech support. You can become a social media manager, or a campaign influencer. You could be hired as a virtual assistant or freelance designer. Or you could come up with some new niche that no one has considered, like pet sitting.

Making it work

You need two things to survive from gig to gig. One, you need a strategy for finding work. And two, you need to drastically limit your living expenses. If you’re a backpacking freelancer, you can stay in hostels, couch surf, use Airbnb, or live in camp sites. Just make sure your selected option offers internet access and charging ports.

On the other hand, you could move to a smaller residence or a more remote city where rent is cheaper. You might even build yourself a tiny house if you have the capital, or go off grid. There are plenty of guides on paring your cost of living down to essentials. You’ll also learn how to stretch every dollar, so you can survive between gigs.

Join a work platform to find jobs, or walk around your current neighbourhood talking to people. Observation is the best headhunter, and as long as you’re not looking for millions, there’s always some unexpected gig you can do for money. Good luck!

Telework: how, where and when

Exercise an activity, as an employee or a collaborator, without the physical movement of the person employed and with greater flexibility in terms of working time. This is how we can define teleworking , not yet widespread in our country, but consolidated in many economies of industrialized countries . There are many activities that can be done in telework , both as public employees, both as hired or collaborators of private companies . This is a form of work that offers delocalization in the face of time and money saving both by the company or the body, and by the workersame. In recent years, teleworking, although a patchy leopard, is also spreading in the Public Administration , as well as many private companies with the formula of teleworkinghave often carried out plans for reorganization and rationalization of the workforce with benefits of medium and long period.

To find companies that take on the formula of telework , even if they are not many, just contact the employment centers. On the other hand, the telework offers offered by private companies can be found by visiting the specialized portals of the sector. When we talk about teleworking , and therefore working at a distance, we are not referring to unrequent jobs , and often fraudulent ones, such as those linked to chains and pyramidal systems, but to activities that are normally linked to data processing, to information technology , to manage databases remotely and so on.

If the form of teleworking is framed by the company with a “standard” contract, then all the rights of an employee are acquired without any particular differences . But there is still to say that predominantly the employment in telework is almost always referable to a self-employed , in possession of VAT , or that is paid with the “classic” occasional payment withholding tax . In this case, therefore, we talk about compensation and agreements that clearly, even if the work is remote, must always be “crystallized” through the signature between the parts of a specialprivate writing .

How to find a telework

Looking for a new telework? Do you need to work from home and would you like to embark on such a career? Here’s what to do.

Today everyone loves telework as it offers great flexibility and also allows companies to save costs. But how to find a new opportunity to work comfortably in a house? Here are some methods to succeed in this enterprise.

First, take a look at the new job advertisements , starting a search in the local newspapers . Internet then offers a great quantity of offers but they must be carefully studied to avoid the many online scams that today abound on the Internet.

Inserting your own curriculum vitae online can help, especially if you have certain skills and qualifications. Another advantage of being on LinkedIn or on websites like Hotjobs, for example, is that they can be easily found by employers who need new employees in the company.

A fourth option is to open the phone book and to call companies operating in their area of ​​reference to see if they need new staff, then contacting them one by one to receive an answer. 

Finally, the fifth way to become a teleworker is to create an opportunity : for example, instead of trying to be hired as a home-based employee, you can consider starting your own business as a virtual assistant. You can offer your services to many companies.