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Freedom Journal


Personal reflections, transitions, phases of life.


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Islands, beaches, villages, rice fields, inspiring landscapes.


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Autonomy & Skills

Fishing, fire, shelter, simple gear, essential skills.

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Money & Freedom

 Protecting your worth, reducing dependence on fragile systems, building autonomy.

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Planning a long stay in Asia: a 7-step roadmap, from defining the project to organizing the final 30 days before departure.

Long-Term Travel in Asia: From Dream to Concrete Departure

A 7-step roadmap to plan a long stay in Asia: clarify your project, check your budget, choose your pace, secure the essentials, and organize your departure without getting lost in the details.

  • 6 Months in Asia: Budget, Visas, Itinerary and the Reality on the Ground

    6 Months in Asia: Budget, Visas, Itinerary and the Reality on the Ground

    Everything you need to know to prepare a 6-month stay in Southeast Asia: real budget, tested destinations, concrete steps, daily life 🟩 Introduction Leaving for 6 months in Asia isn’t a trip. It’s a test. A test of lifestyle. A test of pace. A test of what you think you want… against reality. Many people…

  • Apps for Traveling in Asia: My 2026 Toolkit

    Apps for Traveling in Asia: My 2026 Toolkit

    Updated: May 2026 — based on several months in the field in Thailand, Indonesia and Southeast Asia. What you’ll find here: the tools I actually use to cut down the friction of long-term travel — transport, accommodation, money, internet, translation, documents, safety, notes and memories. For each use case: what the app does, what it…

  • Lombok (Indonesia): Guide and Field Experience

    Lombok (Indonesia): Guide and Field Experience

    Lombok: Guide and Field Experience Everything you need to know about Lombok after 1 month on the ground: real budget, areas explored, comparison with Bali, and in what conditions this island makes sense. Introduction Lombok is often presented as a calmer alternative to Bali. That’s partly true. But this island offers much more than that.…

  • Pasola Festival in Sumba: Dates, Villages and Complete Guide

    Pasola Festival in Sumba: Dates, Villages and Complete Guide

    The Pasola is one of the most spectacular rituals in Indonesia. Every year in February or March, several villages in West Sumba hold this traditional horseback fight, where riders face off with spears on a grassy field. If you’re planning to attend the Pasola, this guide gives you all the practical information: 2027 timing, best…

  • Nyepi Bali 2027: A Practical Guide to the Day of Silence

    Nyepi Bali 2027: A Practical Guide to the Day of Silence

    On March 8, 2027, Bali enters complete silence for twenty-four hours. Empty streets, closed shops, the airport at a standstill. An entire island coming to a stop by common agreement. This is Nyepi — Bali’s Day of Silence, the Hindu New Year according to the Saka calendar. A useful clarification right away: Balinese Hinduism is…

  • Real Budget for Southeast Asia: How Long Can You Really Travel?

    Real Budget for Southeast Asia: How Long Can You Really Travel?

    When I was preparing to leave for six months in Southeast Asia, I had one simple figure in mind: €1,000 a month. That seemed enough to live decently without seeking luxury, while keeping some margin. Six months later, that figure was still roughly right. But it had taken on a different meaning. I understood that…

  • Pasola: Inside a Spectacular Ritual on the Island of Sumba, Indonesia

    Pasola: Inside a Spectacular Ritual on the Island of Sumba, Indonesia

    When you travel for a long time in Southeast Asia, some experiencesgo far beyond what you’d imagined at the start. The Pasola, on the island of Sumba in Indonesia — an island located an hour’s flight from Bali, but twice as large and a hundred times less touristy —clearly belongs in that category. On March…

  • Tetebatu (Lombok, Indonesia): Immersed in the Countryside at the Foot of Rinjani

    Tetebatu (Lombok, Indonesia): Immersed in the Countryside at the Foot of Rinjani

    I hadn’t planned to stay two and a half weeks in the Tetebatu area. At first, it was just a stop. A rural area at the foot of Rinjani, known for its terraced rice paddies and forest walks — not really a village in the dense sense of the word, more a scattered cluster of…

  • How I Recognize a Place of Transition

    How I Recognize a Place of Transition

    Introduction How do I spot — and validate — a place that can support a life transition? For me, the answer comes in three layers, always in the same order: first emotional, then mental, then physical. Emotional: a place speaks to me if, within the first few seconds, something inside me says “ah, yes…”. Mental:…

  • How to Know When Hesitation Becomes a Real Calling

    How to Know When Hesitation Becomes a Real Calling

    Three markers for knowing when it’s time Hesitation can last a long time. Months. Years, even.It isn’t always a problem. Sometimes, it’s simply the time needed for something to mature. For you to see more clearly. For conditions to align. But there comes a moment when hesitation changes nature.It no longer protects you. It holds…

  • Autonomy: Between Myth and Reality

    Autonomy: Between Myth and Reality

    First article in the “Autonomy” pillar This text marks the entry into a new part of the blog: hands-on skills, being grounded, field techniques. But before talking about fire, water, camping, or food, I needed to lay a clear foundation: what kind of self-reliance are we really talking about? Not the fantasy kind. Not the…

  • Tax Residency: The 6-Month Rule, Myth or Reality?

    Tax Residency: The 6-Month Rule, Myth or Reality?

    March 2026You hear a lot of contradictory things about tax residency.I wanted to get a clear picture before leaving — whether for optimization or simply to travel with peace of mind. Changing your tax residency generally concerns long-term expatriation, not a simple trip of a few months. If you’re planning a long departure, I also…

  • Checklist Before Leaving for 6 Months in Asia

    Checklist Before Leaving for 6 Months in Asia

    Leaving for 6 months in Asia doesn’t require perfect preparation. But some things, if poorly anticipated, can needlessly complicate the start of the trip — not dramatically, just from a lack of foresight on concrete points. This list brings together what actually helped me before leaving. You can read it quickly to check the essentials,…

  • Life Moves Forward in Phases

    Life Moves Forward in Phases

    Life moves forward in phases.Long ones and short ones.Sometimes gentle, sometimes rough.Sometimes obvious, sometimes incomprehensible. Nothing original about that: everyone goes through highs, stable periods, lows. For me, this movement has often taken the shape of travel.A clear need to create a different space, suited to the moment.Not to run away, not out of rejection.…

  • Another Way to Talk About Autonomy

    Another Way to Talk About Autonomy

    Today, there’s a lot of content out there about self-reliance. It talks about simple living, breaking away, fire, nature, degrowth, returning to the essential. These stories can inspire, create desire, open doors. But sometimes, something doesn’t quite fit anymore. The image is powerful… but the substance stays vague. The project seems ideal… but reality pushes…

  • I Don’t Know If I Should Leave (And That’s Normal)

    I Don’t Know If I Should Leave (And That’s Normal)

    I’m sitting in my garden in the Dordogne, coffee in hand. Around me, the houses I built and worked on for my clients. Twenty-five years of work, building sites, and pride too. Everything is fine. Really. And yet. It’s not a whim. It’s not a midlife crisis. It’s not being fed up. It’s more discreet…

  • When the Inside Changes Before Everything Else

    When the Inside Changes Before Everything Else

    Sometimes, something starts to shift inside you.Nothing dramatic.Just a gentle vibration, a slight shift, almost imperceptible. You keep going about your life normally, without disrupting anything.And yet, inside, something is moving.A quiet, almost intimate movement that no one else sees — but that you can feel very clearly. These aren’t breaking points. Nor heroic moments.It’s…

  • My Challenge: Six Months to Live Freely

    My Challenge: Six Months to Live Freely

    This six-month challenge was born from a simple wish: to change my life, step by step, toward more freedom, independence and clarity.It’s a gentle, accessible progression, blending exploration, daily practice and personal transformation. Here’s how I’m going to live — and document — this adventure. Between nature, independence and exploration Reinvent yourself, lighten your load,…

  • Money, Comfort and Freedom

    Money, Comfort and Freedom

    Three simple words.Three realities we often blend together, without really thinking about it. We were told that if we had enough money, we’d have comfort.And that with comfort would come happiness.But in real life, things are never that straightforward. For a long time, I didn’t try to understand any further.Money was simply something you earn…

  • Living on an island… or almost

    Living on an island… or almost

    The idea was never to become a modern-day Robinson Crusoe.Nor to abandon the world, nor to break away from everything.I’m not looking for permanent isolation, still less a fixed way of living. What I look for in an island isn’t isolation for its own sake.It’s a pause.A space between two cycles.A way of breathing differently…

  • Emmanuel, pilgrim on foot: “Freedom is something you learn”

    Emmanuel, pilgrim on foot: “Freedom is something you learn”

    After 5 and a half years of walking — the scarcity, the cold, the backpack that was too heavy, but also the constant welcome, the generosity of strangers, the kindness of the road — Emmanuel tells us what it all taught him: that freedom doesn’t come from the absence of constraints. A meeting — paths…

  • What Is True Luxury?

    What Is True Luxury?

    True luxury wasn’t where I expected to find it.It appeared elsewhere, gradually. When we think of “luxury,” we often picture the same scene:red sports cars, brand names, showing off, the urge to impress. I’ve seen it up close, brushed against it now and then.And to be honest: when it isn’t about showing off, that kind…

  • When the monsters fade away, something begins

    When the monsters fade away, something begins

    Nyepi — the Day of Silence Some cultures understood something we have lost. A way of moving through chaos without fighting it. Of releasing unrest without amplifying it. Bali turned it into an annual ritual. And that ritual says something about our times. Listen to this article in audio This text also exists in audio form,…