£40,000
Feb 1, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
⚡️ Welcome to The Discovery Fund.
We're Elizabeth & Martin, two people who got sick of not having enough time to work on our own ideas – so we saved up all the money we could and quit our jobs. Now we're going on an adventure to discover new places, new people and build our own futures.

We made this site to document everything: from where we are and what we're doing, to what it's costing us. We'll be updating TDF weekly – join us for the ride!
✈️  First stop: Dubai!
⏱️ Our journey begins in:
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Feb 25, 2024
Martin
🎥  What's in my bag?
Challenge number 1: getting everything into a single rucksack. Check out all the things I'm taking with me.
Feb 26, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸  Let's go!
Feb 27, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📍 We've landed in Dubai!
📸  We're loving it here so far.
Feb 29, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
🎥  First time in Dubai.
This city surprised us and it wasn't what we expected. Check out what we got up to.
📸  More city highlights!
⚡️ Our thoughts on Dubai.
We can't lie, Dubai impressed us more than we expected. From its super clean streets and architectural wonder, to the great food and relaxed vibes, this city has a lot going for it. In the end we feel like we could have spent a bit more time here – but who knows, maybe we'll be back.
Mar 1, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
✈️  Next stop: Hanoi.
📍 Good morning Vietnam!
📸  Our home in Hanoi.
Mar 6, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸  The food in Hanoi is awesome.
Mar 8, 2024
Elizabeth
🎥   A day in our life.
Mar 9, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
✈️  We're taking the adventure south!
⏱️ Time left in Hanoi:
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Mar 12, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
🎥   Our last day in Hanoi.
📸  We're going to miss this place.
⚡️ Our verdict on Hanoi:
After the initial culture shock of this chaotic city, we've grown very fond of Hanoi. It's full of literally thousands of amazing coffee shops, unlike anything we've experienced before. It's a great city for remote work! But Hanoi was just the first stop, so let the adventure continue.
Mar 13, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📍 Oh hey, Da Nang!
📸  We love our new apartment.
⚡️ First impressions of Da Nang:
So far we're LOVING it here! We've only been here an afternoon and we've already seen the beach, soaked up some rays and found some cool hangout spots. This is what we always imagined our digital nomad life to look like. We're really looking forward to making this place home!
📸  Beach life starts here!
Mar 16, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸  Back in business!
Mar 18, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
⚡️ The community here is so damn good.
In our first week in Da Nang we've been making a special effort to attend many of the cool events in the city. From art classes and startup events to joining a brand new co-working community, we have already met tons of cool people and made plenty of new friends. We're blown away by how much of an amazing community exists in this city.
📸   So many cool people!
⚡️ We're now members of Coworking Danang.
By random luck, a brand new co-working space opened today, so we went over to check it out. After hanging out all day (and most of the evening), we definitely just found our tribe. There are so many cool people, even on day 1. It was an easy call – we're now members... and the best bit? It's only a 3 minute walk from our apartment!
📸   What a beautiful space!
Mar 20, 2024
Martin
💬 Reflections on Da Nang.
What I'm doing now
martinrue.com/now
I'm writing this on a warm Wednesday afternoon in Da Nang, Vietnam. I moved here 1 week ago.
Mar 24, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
🎥   Holi Festival 2024.
Mar 28, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸   Life lately:
Apr 2, 2024
Elizabeth
⚡️ I've infultrated the backpacker scene!
I posted on social media that we've moved to Da Nang, and by pure chance someone I've never met commented the name of a girl I'd also never met named Hannah. Turns out she's also a brand designer passing through Da Nang. I went to meet her that same day, she invited me along with her and a few girls from her hostel to Hoi An.
📸   Girls trip to Hoi An.
Apr 2, 2024
Elizabeth
⚡️ Back to Da Nang!
The other girls are moving on in their travels, but luckily Hannah is coming back to Da Nang for a while. We've got lots in common, so I'm looking forward to more co-working, gym sessions and late night chats before she goes on her next adventure.
📸   We're besties now.
Apr 8, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸   We're having the best time attending events and learning vietnamese. We've even run our own werewolf game and sang karaoke!
Apr 14, 2024
Elizabeth
👩🏼‍💻 Journee: Launch day!
I'm so excited to finally be launching Journee, my online prompted journaling app. I've worked on the design and Martin built it – and now it's finally out there in the world.

Basically, the whole point of Journee is that it’s like a prompted journal, just super personalised. When you write a journal entry, Journee analyses what you've written to give you another prompt, so you can dig deeper and deeper into self-discovery. Launching was the easy part, now it's time to grow it!
journeeapp.com
Apr 17, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸 We've been saying goodbye to some friends.
⚡️ Until we meet again.
We're already seeing the first wave of awesome people moving on to their next adventure. At the same time, in the digital nomad community, it's never goodbye for good, it's more like a 'see you later!'.
Apr 20, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
⚡️ Chàm islands trip.
This weekend we're heading to a remote island off the coast of Da Nang. We're going together with 15 other people from our coworking family to explore the secluded beaches and go snorkeling!
📸   What a stunning place!
Apr 23, 2024
Martin
📸   So... I bought a bike.
Apr 26, 2024
Elizabeth
🚂   A quick trip to Huế
🎥   The most beautiful train journey.
Apr 29, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
🎥  Life in Đà Nẵng.
In this vlog we share all the reasons why we came here and what our daily life in Da Nang is like.
May 1, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
🎥  24 hours on the Chàm Islands.
Together with everyone from our co-working space, we spent 24 hours on a tiny island off the coast of Đà Nẵng.
May 7, 2024
Martin
📸   I took a little trip to to Hội An.
💬 Here's a little /now update.
What I'm doing now
martinrue.com/now
I'm writing this update from a bathtub - one of my favourite spots to get some serious thinking done.
May 11, 2024
Martin
👨🏻‍💻 I finally gave my personal site a little love.
I've given my personal website a bit of a refresh. I think it now better explains who I am and what I'm working on, while staying uber minimal.
martinrue.com
May 20, 2024
Elizabeth
👩🏼‍💻 I have my own site now too!
Martin has very generously let me use his code to create my own version of his site. So for the last week I've been getting stuck in and solidifying my programming knowledge from the last few months. I'm really starting to get it now! What I'm enjoying most about learning to code is being able to sit with problems for a long time and the joy I get out of finally solving them. Can't wait to do some more soon, but for now it's back to design.
elizabethkershaw.co.uk
💬 I've also writtn my first /now update.
What I'm doing now
elizabethkershaw.co.uk/now
It's currently raining outside, and the calming sound of this tropical downpour seemed like the perfect backdrop to write a little update on what's been happening in my life.
May 22, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
⚡️ Border run time.
This week we're doing what they call a 'border run', which means we've been in Asia for 3 months now! To renew our visas we have to get on a bus, cross the Laos border, wait for new visas, and travel all the way back on the same day. We paid a visa company to organise the entire thing for us (and 30 other europeans) and even though it was a long day, everything went smoothly and it was a great experience!
🚎   Got our shiny new visas!
🎥   Here's how it went.
⏱️ Time left in Vietnam.
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May 23, 2024
Martin
🎥   A vlog from my trip to Hội An.
I took a few days off to go on a solo retreat to the beautiful town of Hội An. I spent the time riding around and just being alone with my own thoughts. It was awesome.
May 31, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
⚡️ We moved apartments!
After 3 months in our last apartment, we felt it was time for a change of scenery! This new apartment is only a few streets over, but is nicer, has a pool and is literally half the price of our last one!
📸   Apartment No.2!
Jun 3, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸   We've been attending more farewell dinners, making use of the pool and getting work done.
⚡️ A Digital Nomad Hack:
Finding new friends out here is overwhelming, because there's so many people to meet. Our new favourite way to make new friends is speak to everyone at our current friends' goodbye dinners. We've met the coolest people this way, and we always joke that for every one friend we lose, they replace themselves with 2-3 new ones 🤣
Jun 8, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
🎥   We went to the Đà Nẵng International Fireworks Festival: Vietnam vs. France!
📸   And went out for drinks at Maia after!
Jun 13, 2024
Martin
👨🏻‍💻 Introducing: Ling-oh!
I'm starting a newsletter! If you love language, it's for you. I'll be sharing tips, insights and inspiration every two weeks. Please sign up to catch the first issue.
lingoh.news
Jun 20, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
🎥   We took a trip to Hội An.
Jun 25, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
⚡️ We decided on our next city.
After lots and lots and lots of deliberation, we've landed on Bangkok as our new home. We'll be staying there for one month before heading over to Chiang Mai. We can't wait to find all the cool places in this massive city!
✈️  See you soon, Bangkok!
⏱️ Time left in Đà Nẵng
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Jul 1, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸  The daily grind.
⚡️ We're working hard...
If you've been wondering why we're a little quieter over here at the moment, it's because we're spending every day working away at our projects. We've got big plans for Yakk, Journee (and now a secret third project) and there's lots to get done. But don't worry, we'll still update TDF when we do anything interesting!
Jul 7, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
🎥  We've been in Đà Nẵng for so long!
We thought it was time for a little update, and to show you a few new spots and what life is like here in July.
Jul 29, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸  We finally went to Ba Na Hills with a cool new friend we randomly met in a coffee shop!
Aug 8, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
🇹🇭   Our Thailand DTV visas have come through and are valid for 5 years! We're super happy.
Aug 11, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
⚡️ It's our last weekend in Đà Nẵng.
We've spent the weekend doing some amazing stuff. On Saturday night we had our leaving party - a family BBQ at the cowork followed by some karaoke. Even Martin had a good singalong! On Sunday Elizabeth volunteered at a local orphanage to clean the facilities and play with the kids!
📸 A weekend well spent.
Aug 12, 2024
Martin
👨🏻‍💻 Introducing: Yakk's new homepage and a brand new book - Nomad Vietnamese.
Today I launched the second major iteration of the app, along with a new design and Yakk's first paid book. It's a big milestone. This thing I've spent so much time building has actually started to make money.

This is work I love. Work that gives me meaning, and provides me the opportunity to build something and add value in the space that excites me the most – language learning.
yakk.app
🎥  What I've been building.
After months of hard work, today I achieved my goal of writing a language book for digital nomads to make their experience in Vietnam 100x better.
Aug 14, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
⚡️ We've been thinking...
Over the last few weeks we've really intentionally leaned in to our Vietnam life. As excited as we were to head back home, we're even more excited to just stay here.
🎥  We can't leave Vietnam.
After 6 months living in Đà Nẵng, Vietnam, we have decided we can't leave. In this video we share the reasons why we love life here and why we decided to cancel all of our plans to return to Europe.
Aug 15, 2024
Elizabeth
⚡️ I've picked up some freelance work.
I've recently started some contract work. It's for a remote company, working two days a week at my freelance rate! The people I work with are so funny and collaborative.

But the real highlight is that for a few months I can cover our living costs working only a few days a week!
💸   So you might see the ticker ↑ go up sometimes from now on!
Aug 16, 2024
Elizabeth
🎥   I made my first youtube video!
It's the year 2024 and I can not let another year of my life go by where I don't fulfil my destiny of becoming a youtuber. So here goes: How I lost myself (and found myself again) in Vietnam.
Aug 17, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📍 We're Bangkok bound!
📸  This might be our coolest apartment yet.
Aug 22, 2024
Martin
💬 What I'm doing now.
What I'm doing now
martinrue.com/now
I'm writing this update from a cool co-working space called Paper Plane Project in Bangkok, Thailand.
Aug 25, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸  We're loving the energy in Bangkok.
Sep 1, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
🎥   Bangkok is awesome.
Our first two weeks here have been awesome, and Bangkok is truly impressing us. We share our thoughts on life here in Thailand's capital, and consider whether we could really move here long term.
Sep 7, 2024
Elizabeth
🎥   My own Bangkok vlog is live now too!
Welcome to my Bangkok era, where I explore this fantastic city and uncover who I can be on the other side of little daily excuses and the fear of being better.
Sep 8, 2024
Elizabeth
📸  I've entered the BKK girls groupchat!
Sep 13, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸  We're making the most of Bangkok life before it's on to our next adventure.
Sep 16, 2024
Elizabeth
🎥   Bangkok condo tour.
In Bangkok we're choosing the condo lifestyle, and we're loving it. In this video we give you a tour of our apartment and the amenities that make life here so cool.
⚡️ We're going to miss it here.
Soon we'll be leaving Bangkok, but there's still so much left to discover in this incredible city. That's why we've decided to come back after Chiang Mai until the end of the year. And, obviously, we're coming back to this apartment.
Sep 17, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
🚂   Off to Chiang Mai!
💸   Another boost to the fund!
Sep 18, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📍 We made it!
🎥   This is how we got here.
Instead of flying, we chose to get a train to Chiang Mai, here's how it went.
📸  We seem to have an eye for great apartments.
Sep 18, 2024
Martin
📸  Back on the road, and all we have to show for it is this lowsy police ticket...
Sep 23, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸  Chiang Mai so far...
Sep 27, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸  It flooded in Chiang Mai this week.
Oct 1, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸   We got our thai driving license. It only took one weekend. No more police fines!
Oct 6, 2024
Martin
💬 A now update from the floods.
What I'm doing now
martinrue.com/now
I'm writing this update from my apartment in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is currently having its worst flood on record. For the past 2 days I've been stuck here with no water and power, which also means no aircon or internet.
Oct 8, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
🎥   It flooded again! This time we filmed our experience.
This one broke the record as Chiang Mai's worst ever flood. We decided stay put and capture how it all played out.
Oct 16, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸   We're heading in seperate directions for a few weeks!
🚂   Martin's heading back to Bangkok.
✈️   Elizabeth's off to Krabi.
📍 See you soon!
Oct 18, 2024
Elizabeth
💬 Time for a /now update!
What I'm doing now
elizabethkershaw.co.uk/now
I've just arrived in Krabi, where I'm meeting my friend Hannah for a 3 week girls trip. Today is the first time I've been alone in 8 months. How wild is that?
Oct 20, 2024
Elizabeth
📸   Hannah's back! We're spending 3 weeks together here in Krabi.
Oct 26, 2024
Elizabeth
🎥   We're having a blast.
This vlog is just a little insight into how we've been spending our time together, pushing each other to follow our passions and have lots of fun along the way.
Nov 1, 2024
Elizabeth
🎥   It's so nice to have girl time.
Making new friends is one thing, but becoming close enough to travel together and try new things is a real privilege and we're excited to take you along with us!
Nov 6, 2024
Elizabeth
✈️   Hannah's joining us in BKK!
Nov 14, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
⚡️ We're back in Bangkok
We are back in Bangkok for the rest of the year, and we're doubling down on the routine. We have no more travel planned for this year.
🎥   Time for a life update!
It's the perfect time of year to be in Thailand, and in this video we share what our life is like here now that we've found our routine.
Nov 19, 2024
Elizabeth
📸   It's my 26th birthday!
🎥   Here's 26 life lessons for 26 years!
I just wanted to sit down and chat about some of the most prominent lessons I've learned in the 26 years I've been alive and try out a new format of chatty videos. Enjoy!
Nov 30, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
⚡️ We've extended our stay.
We're still thriving off the energy of Bangkok and aren't ready to leave just yet. So we'll be staying until mid Feb before heading back to Vietnam!
⏱️ Time left in Bangkok.
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Dec 5, 2024
Martin
💬 A little end of year update.
What I'm doing now
martinrue.com/now
34º in December is a little weird for me. The city has really Xmas'ified over the past few weeks, with decorations, music and festivities all over.
Dec 12, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
📸   Christmas has officially begun!
Dec 15, 2024
Martin
🎥   Here's why I'll never quit Esperanto.
In this video I celebrate Zamenhof Day by heading to the Bangkok Esperanto meetup, and to my surprise, meet a bunch of young students who are learning Esperanto as part of their curriculum here in Thailand.
Dec 16, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
⚡️ Elizabeth's Work Update
I'm about to hit 10k followers on Linkedin. And recently I've been meeting so many girls like me working on cool stuff. So I've had an idea to build an exclusive community for us all to level up together in the new year. I really want to launch before christmas, so I'll be dissapearing from normal life for a week.
⚡️ Martin's Work Update
I'm working on a new idea: LangSesh. It creates on-the-fly language exercises for people who have a spare 3 minutes and want to improve their target language. I'm making good progress to launch it at the start of next year.
📸   Here's a little sneak peek:
Dec 19, 2024
Martin
🎥   I'm doing Advent of Code 2024.
AoC is an annual set of coding challenges that come out each day leading up to the 25th. It's a fun way to practise your problem solving skills and this year I decided to challenge myself by recording my solutions live.
Dec 20, 2024
Elizabeth
👩🏼‍💻 Introducing: Journee Girls Club!
Today I'm launching something exciting I've been working on the last few weeks. A private online community where ambitious girls:

→ Get expert masterclasses on all aspects of life
→ Co-work on their dreams with their new besties
→ Build real connections with other girls who get it

I've just opened applications for the founding cohort, and this is the Vision doc I've made to get people on board!
✨Vision Doc✨
Dec 25, 2024
Elizabeth & Martin
🎥   Merry Christmas!
This is our first Christmas away from home and we're spending it with some of our closest friends in Bangkok.
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