About Laos

 

When I was living in LA, my oldest brother talked me into going to China. I gladly took him up on it and visited Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenyang. Except for Korea, it was my first trip outside the Western Hemisphere. On the final day of the trip, a friend of my brother's convinced me to move to Korea and open a fusion restaurant, claiming they had plenty of solid investment funding lined up. He even offered me a pretty generous salary. So, I went to Korea and opened the restaurant. Back then, fusion cuisine wasn't anywhere near as popular as it is now. The problem was that, contrary to what they’d promised, there was no investment money at all. So I headed back to LA. But then an even bigger problem cropped up: I had fallen completely in love with life in Seoul. Seoul was just so damn exciting!

So I packed up and moved back to Korea on my own. Living there, however, was an entirely different story from just visiting for fun. I had none of the personal connections that form the very backbone of life in Korea, and the drinking culture literally burned a hole in my stomach. When I finally went to the hospital, the doctor told me that if I'd waited just three more days, I would have died. Around that time, my brother was living in Laos. My mother told me Laos was such a beautiful country that people didn't even honk their car horns, and she bought me a plane ticket so I could go see it for myself. So, I went.

It was déjà vu. Everything about Laos felt instantly familiar. When I first laid eyes on Patuxai, I had this gut feeling that I'd be seeing a lot of it. And maybe because I’d been under so much stress in Seoul, I spent most of my time simply sleeping. Over the course of a year, I visited Laos three times. Then, when my health broke down, I decided to move to Laos for good. Within a month, I packed my bags and left.

The only thing I really knew about Laos was that America had bombed the living hell out of it. It still amazes me that the Lao government doesn't demand reparations. Well, maybe they did, who knows. After living here for eleven years, I've finally come to understand their “BoPenYang” (no problem / it's all good) mindset.

Slowly, I recovered from my illness and found happiness again. I started teaching photography and traveled all over the country, taking in the sights and shooting photos. By my fifth year, I caught myself asking, “What the hell am I doing here?” Leaving the richest country in the world only to end up in one of the poorest. But that thought, too, drifted away with a shrug of “BoPenYang.”

Right now, I couldn't be happier. Nobody bothers me, and there's zero stress. I truly consider Laos paradise on earth. Lately, YouTubers and mainstream media have been churning out negative stories about the country, but it's pure misinformation. Laos is as safe as it gets. Even though people are poor, everyday prices are high. Locals scrape by on pocket change, yet they're genuinely happy. There are no coup attempts, nobody obsesses over the wealth gap, and they're perfectly content just cruising around on their motorbikes. Koreans often get worked up working with locals because of their own ingrained “ppalli-ppalli!” (hurry, hurry!) culture, but in the end, they're only hurting themselves. Laos has never had that kind of desperation.

People who have lived here longer than I have share that exact same sense of serenity about Laos. It's a feeling you can't put into words. Some folks bounce back and forth to Korea, but eventually, they all settle down in Laos. For golfers, there's no better place on earth. In the rainy season, the weather is pleasantly cool, and the gentle drizzle as you stroll down the fairway feels like heaven. In winter, the weather is so flawless you don't even need air conditioning. You just have to steer clear of April and May around Pi Mai, the Lao New Year. That's when it gets scorchingly hot!

With more foreigners moving in, the quality of food keeps getting better, and new apartment buildings are popping up all over the city—relatively cheap given the amenities they offer. Since Laos owes a massive debt to China, Chinese signs are multiplying everywhere, and the roads are swarming with Chinese electric vehicles. The build quality of Chinese cars seems to have improved over the past few years, but the catch is that in five years, every single one will need a battery swap that costs more than the car itself. In five years, the Lao will probably just ditch them on the curb. After all, they bought them dirt cheap from surplus dumping anyway.

To me—and I’ll say it again—Laos is paradise on earth. I am completely content with my life right now. It feels like the right time to pass down my experience and know-how to the next generation. It feels like a fresh challenge. I'm stoked!