10 Location Independent Asian Wanderers You Should Follow on Instagram
Divya smiles with her toddler and her adopted pups. Photo by Divya Dugar.
Divya Dugar, a digital creator, shares her diary of slow travels across India and Thailand with three rescued furries and a toddler
Divya’s travel diaries on Instagram started around four and a half years ago. Initially, the idea was to share snippets of travels with her two dogs, Marco Polo and Tigress. Then, Pari (a third dog) and Marius (her son) joined, and the family grew. Divya Dugar became an inspiration to many when she took them all on journeys on Indian Railways.
Dr. Toni Liu has the best time sky diving. Photo by Dr. Toni Liu.
Dr. Toni Liu, Holistic Healer and Cartoonist, does it all! She now doubles as a sexual health educator and relationship coach in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Dr. Toni Liu is a Chinese-American ex-gynecologist, family doctor, cartoonist, sex educator, self-love and relationship coach, global nomad and fierce advocate for mental health, Asian-American intergenerational trauma, LGBTQ2IA+, women's equality & reproductive rights, and de-stigmatizing sex.
After hitting rock bottom at age 30, she quit traditional medicine despite severe backlash from her family. She travels to better understand gender discrepancies in different cultures and to educate communities with limited access. She loves cats, dancing, racquet sports, baking, learning languages, and being one with nature.
Emily spent some time remote working in Siargao, Phillippines. Photo by Emily Fang.
Emily Fang is a community entrepreneur who moved to Singapore on a whim and stayed for three years—she now rotates each quarter to her beloved cities
As a community person who has spent 5+ years building developer and product-focused communities at Google, OmniSci, Stripe, and FOSSA, Emily cofounded the community Asian Wander Women and founded the media arm of AWW.
While living in Asia, she found her passion of bridging the east and west for Asians abroad and connecting people together over travel and shared interests. She is also a YouTuber and a writer; she started her quarterly rotation, where she’ll move to San Francisco, Singapore, Taipei, and leave one open for adventure.
Ivy Xu spent a year long traveling to different tech hubs around the world. Photo by Ivy Xu.
Ivy Xu, Edupreneur and CEO of Prequel, switches cities every month
Ivy is a location-independent entrepreneur living and slow traveling to different startup and cultural hubs. She is currently the CEO of Prequel (previously known as Beta Camp), where she runs a startup bootcamp for kids, and moves to a city every one to two months. You can also check out her YouTube channel on entrepreneurship.
Photo by Sasmini Bandara.
Sasmini Bandara is a digital nomad who is working remotely as a program manager for an Accelerator program and a newly started content writer
Sasmini is a digital nomad exploring Asia at the moment. She is an advocate for remote working and a lover of productivity tools. She works as a remote accelerator program manager supporting startup growth and as a content writer promoting sustainability, web3, and remote working.
Photo by Samantha Shark.
Samantha Shank, CEO and Founder at Learn in Color, is now building Her Host, “an Airbnb meets Couchsurfing” platform
Entrepreneurship has always been in Samantha Shank's blood. At 14 years old, she began the educational blog Learn in Color. Within a few years, her entrepreneurial endeavors were making her a full-time income and she had graduated college early—all before being old enough to have a drink! In 2022, she and her one-eyed dog drove from Indiana to Los Angeles, where they now reside.
Photo by The Gone Goat Blogger Pashmina.
The Gone Goat Blogger Pashmina quit her job and traveled solo to the Himalayas—she went on to become a passionate adventure seeker featured by Forbes
Pashmina is The Gone Goat, nicknamed after being called a traveling goat. After having this blog for three years, solo adventure narratives have become a well-worn trope: the stories always start with the person quitting their job and spending a length of time journeying “exotic” terrains. She now runs this blog, work as a consultant for PR projects and also a contributing writer with an environment portal, Macaranga.
Photo by Laura Gao.
Gao worked as a Product Manager in San Francisco until April 2020, when in response to anti-Asian racism and rampant misinformation about their hometown, they published a webcomic, "The Wuhan I Know", on Twitter where it went viral
Laura Gao is a queer artist, author, bread lover, and continental drifter. Gao has been traveling around for as long as they can remember, having first crossed oceans when their family immigrated from China to the US when they were a kid and then switching schools and homes almost every year until middle school. The past couple of years, Gao was fortunate to quit their previous job in tech and live out their dream as a nomadic, self-employed artist and writer, having lived in Taiwan, Portugal, and Germany. Gao would love to continue this with their girlfriend and potentially a dog or two to sit on their paddleboard on lakes around the world!
The Wuhan I Know comic inspired their bestselling debut graphic memoir, MESSY ROOTS, which was published in March 2022 with HarperCollins and has since garnered three starred reviews, been featured in NPR and the New York Times, and is shortlisted for the Harvey Awards, Indies Next List, Indies Introduce List, and the Texas Maverick List.
Photo by Xi Liu.
Xi Liu, Forbes 30 under 30, is moving forward sexual health awareness in Southeast Asia
Xi Liu founded Ferne Health, a woman-focused sexual health platform that offers consultations and at-home testing kits for cervical cancer and sexually transmitted infections. She launched the Singapore-based startup to challenge the stigma around discussing sex in Asia as well as to provide accessible healthcare to women; she spends her time in Bali and Singapore while focusing on tele-health for the modern woman.
Photo by Lan Anh Dang.
Lan Anh Dang, a Global Marketing Manager, finds herself leaving Vietnam for Singapore and London while finishing her MBA program
Lan’s life, by design, has always been around changes. She lives by being a minimalist, her passion for digital marketing, and learning how to appreciate experiences. Recently, she left a big part of her life in Vietnam and Singapore, and moved to London as part of her NUS MBA candidacy. She now works for a remote company, so you can find her at a WeWork, in a cafe shop, or next to the beach.
