I feel like Gauguin.

Bored of US, Korea's competitiveness, settled in poorest country in Asia. Just the timeline is different with Gauguin, and of course the fame as well.

Laos is a one-party communist country, but it seems that no one has any complaints, it appears.

As a foreigner, living here for so long, I've forgotten how it was when I came here first. It's like everywhere else with same problems. Especially in Vientiane, the capital.

Real estate prices are at silly end, prices are high being a landlocked piece of land. Yet, most live on measly income.

And then, there's the super-rich who live in domed palaces driving a rarest Italian or German made cars that cost average Laotian's entire life's income. There are so many fancy cars that one Lao girl proudly told me that Laos has the most-fancy cars in Asia per capita.

And then, there are the motorcycles for the poor, but without complaints. They come out every corner without looking at the oncoming traffic.

Before I came here, Toyota Hilux was the car for the rich, but when I got here, the rich upgraded to Range Rovers because they were too many Hiluxes. Now, if you see a Range Rover and it's like a taxi. The car market for the rich has gone exotic.

I have some ideas about how they get so rich, but the fact that no one complains remains the mystery of Laos.

I opened a coffee shop when I got here in the first year. How I got it opened is a long story now that time has passed.

As a first Lao customer, older French educated Lao gentleman came to the cafe. I asked him what is like to be a Laotian and he said; Laos has immense resources, Mekong River provides fish, the land has abundance of fruits and vegetables. No one goes hungry. So, when other country invades, Laotians say take it, we have plenty! I could not understand that concept at the time. Now that I been living here for over 10 years, the concept has seeped into me. And it all goes back to the word "Bopenyang". Like the word meme for Laos PDR, Laos, Please Don't Rush. Everything is A-Okay!

Can you grasp that concept in this day and age??? If you live in it, you can.

But Laos is changing as the inevitability of change.

Money talks in all languages, no translation needed, just the exchanges of currencies.

It's all about money, even in Laos now.