Searching for paradise

Who is Arnan?

Hello! Thanks for stopping by. My name is Arnan de Gans. I am originally from the Netherlands. I'm in my 30s. This is my profile.

A little background

I left school when I was 16 and worked as an electrician and security systems technician for a few years. Then went back to school in 2005, got bored and left early again to work Support for a large Apple Authorized Service Provider in 2007. That didn't quite work out so I found something better at an Apple repair shop in Amsterdam in 2009. I worked there for a few years, repairing everything from iPods to Mac Pros. Around 2011 I moved on to a large harddisk manufacturer to work in their data recovery lab.

All the while I had this silly hobby. Web-development. It was fun.

Becoming a nomad of sorts

Over the years I'd become increasingly dissatisfied with the European Union and their nonsense and finally figured out I wasn't going to be happy if I stayed for much longer. Worn out by rising costs, poor weather, peoples ignorance, illegal immigrants and many more frustrations I felt that I had to make some drastic changes to my life. After nearly bankrupting myself with a brick and mortar business I'd started the year before, I suddenly had enough. Over the next year I would spend preparing for something more enjoyable. I sold all my stuff and in late 2015 I left my plain and unfulfilling life in the Netherlands behind and moved to the Philippines. Though currently I'm in Mexico.

When leaving the Netherlands I sold pretty much all of my belongings and I've turned into a bit of a minimalist. I don’t have a lot of possessions anymore. Everything I own pretty much fits in two bags. I find that this works very well for me. The few things I have are much more valuable to me and are more carefully weighed if I should have them at all. On top of that, my life got more minimalistic as well. Along the way I have found new things to do and learned to leave behind a lot of things and habits. As a result, my life tends to be a lot simpler, but at the same time my nomadic lifestyle brought a whole new set of challenges.

My story

Early days

Born in 1985, I lived a fairly normal live up until highschool where everything started to come the rails. The education system tried to push me into a mold I didn't fit into and that clashed with everything I was. Frustrating teachers and employers endlessly just for thinking 'differently'. As a result left early from schools to pursue my own goals. I've worked for several companies in various tech related jobs before starting out on my own and doing webdevelopment full time in 2012 - I turned my long time hobby into a job basically. This so far has worked out pretty well.

Moving to Southeast Asia and back

In late 2015 having prepared everything there is to prepare for I moved to the Philippines. I flew to Manila on October 1st, arriving the next morning. For the first few months I stayed in a place called Puerto Galera to get my bearings and get over the first culture shock and then moved south to Iloilo City, Bacolod to sort of end up in Dumaguete City on Negros Island. Where I have lived for almost 2 years in total. Meanwhile I have explored a lot of the country and have been on most larger islands and even some small ones.

In late 2018 I visited Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. There I discovered, much to my frustration, what a underdeveloped country the Philippines really is. Seeing a more developed country I suddenly realized how low I sunk in my living standards and the daily frustrations I had to deal with. Malaysia was a huge eye-opener in that regard. After returning to the Philippines it quickly became apparent that something had to change yet again. And after some contemplating I left the Philippines for Southern Europe with the idea to roam around southern Europe for a bit and finally to secure a visa for Mexico.

To Mexico and...

The plan was to stay in Spain for a few months to recharge and plan for the next move, but the reverse culture-shock of Europe was so great I skipped Spain completely. As planned I spent a few weeks in Italy then ended up in Milan where I got on a train to the Netherlands for my Mexican Visa and in early 2019 I moved to Mexico. From the Mexican embassy I did manage to get a permit to apply for a Temporary Resident visa. While waiting for the residency status the world kind of ended...

In these times of 'social disfunction' and 'irrational flu' everything goes slow. Including the Mexican government. But I finally have my residency status. In January of 2021 I finally was able to buy a motorcycle and explore more of the country. Over the next few years I hope to do just that. Finally get to know the country and see more of it than just Quintana Roo and its tourist traps. Hopefully I'll find my footing and maybe even stay here permanently. I kinda like Mexico so far.

But if not, I'll probably head south towards Panama or something. Or go see the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty and more of such attractions.

Will code for Tacos

Since 2012 I have been a fulltime freelance web developer. During the first few months I spent most of my time on making a more professional website and turning some plugins I maintain into paid products. Usually I'm working on something WordPress or WooCommerce related.

Working online and occasionally traveling, I guess that makes me something of a Digital Nomad. But I'm not all that Digital. Just being a Nomad is enough for me. I don't follow the hype and never visited a co-working space like those hipster types you see on YouTube. I rather focus on doing my own thing.
I maintain a growing library of plugins for WordPress, WooCommerce, ClassicPress and Classic Commerce such as AdRotate and AdRotate Pro. And I sell a bunch of smaller plugins for WooCommerce and Classic Commerce. Currently I am available as a freelance developer. I know PHP/MySQL/HTML/CSS and a bit of JavaScript. Among other things.

I've been making WordPress plugins since about 2005, back when WordPress 1.5.2 was hip and cool. Before that I attempted to make my own Content Management System. And did odd jobs for local businesses. At the time I wasn't sure where I wanted to be with web-development... In 2012 I turned my hobby into a fulltime job. And I have been lucky with it so far.

Adventure on wheels

I love exploring on a motorcycle. All my possessions on the back, and just go. Following the road, or path or trail. And just ride to the next interesting looking place. Where I'll then probably stay for a while. I like to explore everything I want to see and discover. There is no plan other than a general direction and some cities or areas I want to check out. Most of the time planning doesn't go much further than about 1 to 2 months ahead while traveling.

In January 2021 I bought a brand new BMW F850GS Adventure motorcycle. And in July 2021 I started a 9500+ Kilomters long journey and adventure through Mexico. I've spent about 3 months on the road before finally finishing in La Paz in Baja California Sur. I'm sort of sitting out the pandemic here and am eyeing a recession which seems to be taking over the world. Misery never stops it seems. Anyway, on and off I'm planning a larger adventure to other parts of Mexico while exploring Baja California Sur.

December 2022 rolled around and I'm starting to plan a new adventure through Mexico for 2023. An idea and route is taking shape in my head and I'll be criscrossing Mexico again to end up in the Yucatan area.

Travel

I'm searching for my paradise. It turns out that paradise is a hard thing to find. I've been all over Europe. More recently I've been to South East Asia. Namely the Philippines and Malaysia. Both are good fun for a while. But both countries are not what I'm looking for.
On my travels I am joined by various people from time to time including some girlfriends and my mother, Jeanette.

For questions or if you want to discuss something related to where I've been or what I do, feel free to send a message using the social icons on the lower left.