Alt_Newsletter #0005

April 02, 2025

Attention has been elsewhere in the last week, for obvious reasons.

Chiang Mai felt the earthquake on Friday lunchtime, but largely speaking we are all in good shape. Our thoughts are with those in neighbouring Myanmar, as well as those impacted in Bangkok. If you can, find a way to offer support there.

For Thailand, though, April means we will rally by holding the year’s most anticipated holiday…Songkran!

My whole family can’t get enough of it, and most of our team take time off to celebrate it too. It’s a big thing here, and especially in Chiang Mai.

It’s effectively the summer holidays in Thailand - being the hottest months of the year - so it is a time to travel for many of us. For Alt_, some of our members are escaping the heat at our monthlong pop-up in Japan which is kicking off as I write, and you can check out how the month-long stay is going on our IG.

The family and I are doing some traveling too. We headed to Penang for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Have you been? Do you think it is (or, spoiler alert - could be) a great digital nomad location? See what I thought, and what a ton of people chipped in with, on my LinkedIn post.

Right now we’re on one of my favorite Thai islands and it won’t be long until I’m be speaking at Bansko Nomadfest again, so there is even more adventure on the horizon!

Have a great Songkran, and don’t be scared to spray us when you see us out celebrating it.

John

What’s in today’s Alt_Newsletter:

  • An Alt_ member a lot of you will have had dealings with already!

  • Songkran is finally here

  • Cosmo-Local CNX is on its way

  • Donate your surplus stuff for a local cause

  • More things to do and see at Alt_, and around Chiang Mai this month

The biggest party in town is NEXT WEEK!

It has arrived! The BIGGEST party, in a city that has a LOT of parties. And lucky for us (and you!) Chiang Mai is renowned for having the best water fights in all of Thailand! This is the place to be if you do want to experience the real Songkran.

A brief history lesson…

It would be easy to assume the word "Songkran" just means water fight if you’ve seen a little footage of it, but it actually comes from the Sanskrit word "sankranti," which signifies the movement of the sun into a new zodiac sign.

Songkran's history blends Hindu, Buddhist, and ancient Thai traditions, and some associate it with the traditional start of the Hindu harvest season. The water-splashing tradition symbolizes cleansing and purification, washing away bad luck and ushering in a fresh start for the new Thai year.

For most of you, it’s about putting on clothes that might get wrecked and getting out into the streets with the biggest bucket or watergun you can find.

You’ll find water being thrown and sprayed on virtually every street, but the biggest crowds will be around Tha Phae gate. From late afternoon and into the evening there will be mass water battles, live music and crowds of locals and visitors enjoying a truly unique occasion.

If you decide at the last minute ythat ou can’t miss Songkran this year, then our 10% offer is still valid. Simply book your stay to start before the 30th April using the button below and enter the code WATERFIGHT10.

*Note that the coworking and cafe will be closed on the 13th and 14th.

Alt_Thrift&Give

This Sunday is our next Thrift & Give, where we support local causes by selling our unwanted stuff.

If you’ve some pre-loved clothes, toys, junk (well, not junk) or household item - or anything really - please donate them.

You can drop them off at Alt_PingRiver this week, or bring them along on Sunday.

Details below…

Alt_Projects

Cosmo-Local CNX is coming in September

The cosmo - or wider world - is a big place. Chiang Mai, by comparison, is small.

Add into the mix that community does not need to mean local, Cosmo-Local CNX will connect the two during a month-long pop-up village this September. The festival has a long-term goal too.

It will be an annual festival of the partnerships we help build marrying local wisdom and international expertise, as well as an opportunity to involve more businesses and enterprises every year.

The seasonality that often dictates Chiang Mai’s typical economic model is a challenge for some, but Cosmo-Local CNX’s goal is to turn that challenge into opportunity.

How you can get involved will be made clear very soon!

John and Alt_ are leads of the Cosmo-Local CNX project so you’ll be the first to know when there is more to know.

Alt_Community Stories

Find the perfect Coliving space (if you can’t make it to Chiang Mai that is!)

Ramon & Sole connect a lot of you with places like (but not as good as!) Alt_

Who of you are working in or on something they love? Or have built something that filled a gap you needed filling? This is how Alt_ started. John spotted a gap in the digital nomad scene in Chiang Mai, and solved it.

Well this month’s member in the spotlight did this too, and he’s back at Alt_ this month so we got a chat with him. Ramon loves coliving. He did from the first time he did it in 2020. Today, he and his partner - Sole - run a platform many of you might well have found us on…Mapmelon.

We kicked off with an obvious question - what is it about coliving that speaks to you? - and Ramon took it from there…

The community. That’s the main goal of it and it’s changed my life. It is an easy way to form friendships as you have friends at the place you are staying so you don’t have to go looking for them. 

I have a lot of friends now from when I first started staying in colivings. As time goes on you find you become more selective as it’s hard to maintain that many friendships when you travel around, so my advice is to invest your time in people with similar interests when you are meeting so many new people.

You also have everything you need - somewhere to work, sleep and eat, activities…and people to do them with. You also have people there to ask what to do in the area.

When I first started out travelling, in Covid times I went to the Canary Islands. That was the first time I’d heard about coworking and coliving, and it blew my mind the possibilities outside of my life in Madrid.

Back then there weren’t that many colivings, but I moved around and stayed in ones around Europe and Morocco, making friends. At one point I was talking to them and realised there wasn’t a proper place to find authentic colivings for digital nomads based around community, and so I started developing this app. Eventually, after I met my partner - Sole - we developed it into Mapmelon around 2 years ago.

We started going around colivings, adding them to the platform. We focus on making sure they really are authentic, community-focused colivings - there are a lot of hostels branding themselves as colivings - so users can be sure they are booking somewhere that will fit their needs.

Now we are expanding and colivings apply to us to be on the platform, so we review them and making sure they are up to the standards we require. There is criteria, including the facilities you’d expect to see, but also they must have organised activities and a community in place.

In future, we expect more colivings to pop in Europe - the warm places, especially Spain and Portugal, where it is already popular. Also Antalya is becoming more popular, and Asia too. 

Colivings are different in Asia. Most are a few rooms around a coworking space. Alt_ is more similar to coliving in Europe, and John has really embraced that the community aspect is so important to making a profitable business.

We’ve seen a lot of colivings and we really love Alt_. In fact, we invested in Alt_PingRiver when the opportunity came up!

Ramon has a real love and unrivalled insight into coliving spaces which we could really feel from our chat. Also, we had to ask and the name Mapmelon simply comes from his love of fruit - you’ll see a common fruit theme across his projects!

If you somehow HAVEN’T used Mapmelon yet to find a coliving space then find them here, and remember to sign up for their community while you are there.

And even better, if you know a coliving space that isn’t yet on Mapmelon send them this link and Ramon will check them out and help spread the word for them.

If you have an Alt_ story to tell, or want to appear here and share your thing with the community, fill in this form.

What we’re doing at Alt_ this month

We might be soaking in Songkran (sorry for the pun!) for a few days in mid-April, but we’ve still got events happening throughout the month, including these two this week:

Please come along on the 6th and support a local cause (and probably find that one thing you always needed without realising!). If you’re a dumpling fan (so all of you!), scan the QR or click here to sign up to Dumpling Night.

Watch out for other upcoming events too. There’s another Dungeons & Dragons meetup after the success of the last one - it’s on 12 April so keep an eye on our Instagram, or in the Alt_ WhatsApp groups, for timings and details this week.

All of our regular, recurring events - yoga, ice baths, etc. - can be found here.

What’s going on in Chiang Mai this month

The talk of the town is Songkran for the next couple of weeks, but there is life outside of buckets of water! These are a couple of our favorite picks leading up to it.

And, if you haven’t booked in your spot at the next Alt_Adventures, then here’s your chance!

Alt_ClassifiedAds

Opportunities

Community Manager, Alt_
If you are a social butterfly, can head up a fun activity, or might just love helping people enjoy what Alt_ and Chiang Mai has to offer, then we might have just the thing for you. Our community managers are usually nomads who fancy staying around a little longer, so drop us an email at [email protected] if this sounds like you!

You’ll hear from us again in a couple of weeks when our mid-month mini newsletter hits the printers, assuming we’ve made it through Songkran!

John and the Alt_ team.