It was a calm Saturday morning with a light breeze following the rain and a gray sky hanging overhead. I was sitting in 'Mondrian's Nest' in the yard with close friends, sipping coffee and talking about all the adventures and experiences we had been through in our lives.

Disappointingly, the apple mango tree bore very few fruits this year, leaving many people who had been eyeing them since they first appeared as small, green balls feeling let down. I climbed to the top of the ladder and carefully picked the last visible mango with a long stick. One of my acquaintances once told me that whenever they visited our house and saw those mangoes, they felt a sense of peace. The tree had grown too tall, making it incapable of bearing an abundant harvest.

Our conversation would traverse various continents, yet it always concluded with stories about Laos and its peculiar charm.

A wonderful couple I have known for over ten years had become quite wealthy during that time, and they were now planning to travel the world in a motorhome. What a magnificent life!

After the couple left, leaving just JW and me to soak in the soft atmosphere of the day, JW remarked, "We really are living a life with nothing to envy!"

While others were striving with all their might to make more money, we were just lounging around—JW scrolling through his phone and I listening to blues music.

Indeed! What an enviable life we are living~~~!

It was a moment of awakening, as if a sudden realization of the self came washing over me from out of nowhere.

This is precisely the peculiar charm that Laos offers us. Calmness, and tranquility.

As the world changes at a rapid pace, the allure of Southeast Asia is also fading and transforming; however, Laos maintains its calm and composure, much like their attitude of "Bopenyang (No problem)!"

They just newly paved the road in front of our house with five centimeters of asphalt, and just down the street, a 10-story apartment complex is going up. It is a sign preparing for the coming changes in this poor but continuously growing country, where 10% of its 8 million population is concentrated in Vientiane.

Despite the tourism industry being in a record-level slump, the people here do not complain, just as they refrain from honking their horns even when stuck in traffic. They are fine as long as you do not touch their pride or their property.

Bopenyang.

Their sense of accepting things has become as light and natural as hamburgers and pasta. So, without rushing, they nonchalantly wait for their time! This reminded me of a Laotian gentleman who once told me that Laos has an abundance of things, so I should take to my heart's content.

It is precisely that attitude that will make this country great in the near future. Bopenyang!

This tranquility is what holds me back from leaving this country.

It seems the answer to what life is about lies precisely within the silence.