Crypto Nomads Seek “Proof of Nipple” in Thailand
Here’s what really happens on a “decentralized vacation” in Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai, Thailand. A tuk-tuk driver picks me up from the airport, tells me to put my phone in my pocket, and then, just before we reach my apartment, he lurches to the side of the road.
A teenage boy dumps a bucket of ice-cold water on my head, and then another shoots me with a water gun, the kind of plastic rifle that squirts out a steady stream. I’m wet and cold. The teenagers break out laughing and the tuk-tuk driver laughs, too, and it’s clear that this was a set-up.
Welcome to Songkran, Thailand’s New Year’s holiday, which is celebrated by three days of water-gun fights. Shops and restaurants are closed. The streets are half party, half war zone. Everyone — kids, parents, grandparents — sprays each other in this “cleansing ritual” that feels like a slip-and-slide version of The Purge.
It’s a polarizing holiday (the cooler-than-thou roll their eyes, and by some counts, hundreds of people die from moped accidents), and Chiang Mai is a polarizing place. The ancient-yet-modern city, full of Buddhist temples and artisanal coffee shops, has the dubious distinction of being the “Digital Nomad Capital of the World,” as its good weather, expat bubble, and low cost of…
