Building from Bangkok: 11pm calls, French tax battles and rock & roll nights

December 7th, 2025. Week five in Bangkok. The honeymoon phase is fading. Reality sets in.

Working across time zones is harder than I thought. French bureaucracy is even worse from abroad. But Bangkok nightlife? That's the unexpected reward 😎

11pm meetings: the hidden cost of remote work

"Can we do a quick call at 6pm Paris time?"

Sure. That's midnight for me in Bangkok.

My French clients don't think about time zones. They schedule meetings at the end of their workday, which means late evenings for me. I've had project updates at 11pm, urgent bug reviews at midnight, "quick syncs" that start when I should be winding down.

The math is brutal: Paris is 6 hours behind Bangkok during winter. Their 5pm is my 11pm. Their 7pm is my 1am.

I tried pushing back. "Can we do mornings instead?" The response is: "We have back-to-back meetings in the morning."

So I adapt. I structure my days differently now. Deep work in the morning (8am-12pm), lighter tasks in the afternoon (shopping at IKEA, again), client availability in the evening. It works, but it's not ideal.

The ironic part? I moved to Bangkok for flexibility and freedom. Yet I'm still constrained by French business hours…

This is one of those things nobody mentions when they romanticize the "work from anywhere" lifestyle. Time zones matter. A lot.

But thankfully all of this is soon over. My contracts are coming to an end.

The French tax exit: incoming complexity

January 2026 is approaching fast. That's when I officially become a non-resident of France for tax purposes.

Sounds simple? It's not.

The French tax authorities are notoriously aggressive with expatriation cases. They'll scrutinize everything. Look for any reason to keep me classified as a French tax resident.

Why? Because losing a taxpayer means losing revenue. They don't make it easy.

I need to prove I've genuinely relocated. Cut all substantial ties with France. Demonstrate that my "center of economic interests" is now in Thailand. One mistake, one oversight, and they can challenge my non-resident status.

I'm not doing this alone. I've hired lawyers and accountants who specialize in expatriation. I cannot risk making an oversight or a mistake that would cost me a tax audit and thousands of Euros in a few months…

Here's what's coming in the next weeks:

• Eliminating my French address - already done, but need to maintain proof of no return (did you know that the French tax authorities can monitor your communications and find out which flights you've taken in the last 3 years? Scary...)
• Severing all family ties with France - easy, I'm divorced and I have no children
• Closing my SARL company - liquidation process, final tax declarations, administrative shutdown
• Disaffiliation from French social security - proving I don’t have health coverage in France anymore, by demonstrating that I no longer have any paid work in France
• Closing all French bank and savings accounts - transferring everything to international proving that I’m not counting on France to make money with my savings
• Canceling French insurance policies - complementary health insurance, home, liability, everything
• Filing French tax declaration as non-resident - specific forms, specific timing, specific documentation
• Proving Thai tax residency - visa documentation, condo lease, utility bills, affiliation with the Thai tax authorities

Each step has documentation requirements. Each document needs to be perfect. Each proof needs to be bulletproof.

The French administration will challenge this. I know they will. They are tracking everyone.

But that's the price of exit. Freedom isn't free. It's just expensive paperwork.

Bangkok nights: the unexpected upside 🍸

On Friday night, my Czech friend Adam took me a to really cool place: Black Cabin

Adam is a maker. He builds tools, ships products, trying to live the indie hacker life, like me. He already spent 4 months in Thailand in 2025 and he's considering moving to Thailand.

Black Cabin is a club in Thonglor. Live music venue with a twist: young Thai bands covering classic rock hits.

We walked in around 10pm. The place was packed. Dark lighting, intimate stage, bar along one wall. The vibe was electric.

A Thai band was playing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Then Oasis. Then U2. Not karaoke-style covers. Actual skilled musicians playing with passion and energy.

The crowd was mixed: locals, expats, couples, groups of friends. Everyone vibing to the music. No pretension. No VIP tables. No velvet ropes. Just people enjoying live rock music.

The atmosphere felt like a secret underground club from another era. Impossible to find in France anymore. Everything there is either sterile bars with background music or expensive clubs with €50 cocktails and strict dress codes.

Here? We stayed until 1am. Listened to two different bands.

Total cost for the entire night: 190 THB. That's €5. One beer.

In Paris, you pay €15 just to enter mediocre venues. Drinks are €20-25 minimum. The vibe is always either too pretentious or too tourist-focused. And don't expect rock live music, it doesn't exist anymore.

Bangkok has this effortless cool that European cities lost somewhere along the way.

Adam already knows a lot of amazing places to enjoy Bangkok's nightlife. "I’ll come back in February" he said. He’s convinced.

I get it. Once you experience this lifestyle, affordable, vibrant, no bullshit, it's hard to go back.

This is the reality of building from Bangkok. Time zone gymnastics. Tax bureaucracy nightmares. And surprisingly perfect nights that cost less than lunch. The complexity and the simplicity, all mixed together.