The Malaysian government run a program called My Second Home, an incentive program for cashed up foreigners to reside in Malaysia on a multiple-entry social visit pass. Flying so often with AirAsia has seemingly made KL my second home, which is where I am now for the third time this year. While KL has become familiar to me, I would say that Chiang Mai has a better chance of becoming my second home.

I have just come from 3 weeks in Chiang Mai (and off and on since Christmas), and it is now starting to feel like a second home to me. Maybe not second home (London would fight Chiang Mai for that title), but certainly home base in Southeast Asia.

Chiang Mai ticks all the boxes for liveability. Life in the old city doesn’t require a car, cafes are plenty, and there is so much quality street food here that you could get by without ever having to step foot into a restaurant.

[30 baht ($1) Mango and sticky rice - I can live with that.]

On top of all that, there is also a great community there. I have been hanging out with a group traveller geeks who happened to converge on Chiang Mai at the same time.

To give you an idea of the geekiness of this group, here are some of us celebrating Pi Day.

[Crazed for Pi - Eating pies on Pi Day (photo)]

Among the group who have been in Chiang Mai at some point recently are fellow Nomads, Vagabonds, Exploring, Wandering, Wanderers, Flashpackers, Passport Holders, Photographers, a Russian Spy, those on on their own path, and one who is A Little Adrift, to name but a few.

[Hat tip to the Bangkok visitors to Chiang Mai The Mad Traveler and Ray and drop in traveller Justin.]

Most of us here have some sort of online presence, even if just a twitter account. Introductions usually start by way of a handle indroduction. Take for example this typical greeting:

New Person (to me): Hi, I’m Paddy
Me: Hi, I don’t believe we’ve met
New Person: I’m Dizzy Elephant
Me: Ohhh, Dizzy Elephant, we meet at last!

It is an eclectic bunch, for sure. I never would have imaginged meeting an Asian-American with a degree in Psychology called Bubba.

For me, Chiang Mai is a great place to work. I think I have the best job in the world, but no job is perfect. While I enjoy being my own boss, and working my own hours (usually more hours per week than working for someone else, btw), I don’t have the proverbial office cooler to stand around and shoot the breeze. I have had this in Chiang Mai.

While you can do this online easily enough, there is nothing like a face to face meeting to ask questions. I find people tend to give up more information in a face to face situation compared to online. It does for me anyway. I’ve gladly given out few trade secrets over a coffee that I wouldn’t normally give out otherwise online.

While I was here I had to make the most of the reservoir of knowledge that was in town. I got some tips on SEO from a resident search engine expert, and I also plucked up the nerve to have a website appraisal. This was the first time in 8 years of working for myself that I have let someone give me an honest run down of what I need to change. That was hard, but a good hard. One of the outcomes of this is to step out of my comfortably anonymous world of online affiliate marketing, web design and development, and more into the blogging and social media aspect of the business.

So I am now back in Malaysia for the rest of the week. If you are around contact me here or via twitter.

Next stop, India.