Our joys and struggles while relocating to Laos: Arrived at last

Okay, so I have decided to write this blog in English. It seems every Dutchie is quiet capable of reading and understanding english so hopefully this will not form a great problem (Dad, I trust that you will translate for Opa and Oma). Jack will help me with correcting my english writing. Because correcting me is his favorite way to spend his time anyway.

I'll give you a short introduction.

I met Jack 7 months ago while backpacking trough SE Asia. I just finished med school and wanted a break after 6 years of (sometimes) intense studying. I did what no girl should do, I fell in love with an Australian guy. We travelled together for two months and became inseparable. When it was time for me to go home he decided to follow me there. As I started working as a doctor in The Netherlands we were happily living together in Maastricht for three months. Then his visa ran out and it turned out to be harder then we thought to get a permanent visa for Jack. He had to leave the EU for 6 months. As it was so difficult for us to be together in the Netherlands we have decided to find our luck elsewhere. And where is better than the place where we fell in love with each other. Jack had this plan for years to start a hostel and I would love to do volunteering work as a doctor and work abroad. Jack had to leave in April and I had to work until June. So 27th of June I finally flew in to Bangkok to be reunited with Jack again.

11/07/17

In Bangkok I finally met Jack again after 9 weeks, 1 day and 18 hours. (but hey, who was counting?) So some of you know we are also busy for filming for something that I am not allowed to mention in public yet. So the first few days being in Laos were quiet hectic and exhausting. It was a real emotional rollercoaster. As Jack and I were trying to connect again it was difficult as we were also being filmed all the time. Also on our first night we already had to deal with a major set back. The hotel that we had our eyes on for our hostel already did not work out as planned. So the next day (+ camera crew) we contacted a local real-estate agent. They area a really nice couple, she is a local Lao lady with an English husband. They gave us a lot of information and showed us two more hotels in Luang Prabang that are up for rent. So now we are opening our eyes to other opportunities as well. We are currently also looking in to long term rental of land and building something ourselves outside of the city. Very long term, very scary project. To get as much help on our hands as possible and do everything in the right order we have decided to meet up with a lawyer firm in the Capital of Laos, Vientiane. This is actually an Australian firm that specializes in foreign investors. But before we went there we decided we needed a little holiday. Yes we needed it. From all our hard work! So we went to Vang vieng to have a few days of relaxation and fun. Of course tubing and way too much cheap alcohol (and chicken bacon cheese) but it was amazing to finally really be back together again, even in the same guesthouse as before! We had a wonderful little break (pictures will follow). After that we headed to Vientiane. We had been there before… read: we were at the bus station to catch a bus to Thakek. Vientiane is not really a city for us to stay for pleasure. Maybe other people think of this differently. In our opinion it is a big city with a distributed city center where nothing can be found. We looked for a phone shop for over 2 hours. And when we asked a taxi driver to drop us off in Vientiane center, we got dropped at the shopping mall outside of the city called conveniently Vientiane center. At least the food was remarkably better than in Vang vieng. So after meeting with the lawyers we got back to Luang Prabang as quickly as possible with the always enjoyable sleeper bus.

So far I have been here for nearly two weeks. Slowly the immensity of what we are trying to do here is sinking in. The way we feel about it now is to rent a smaller guesthouse first, just to get a sense of business here and see what kind of problems we encounter. After that we can try for the BIG plan. But for now, in my eyes, this already looks like a lot. I am hoping we can get our normal life starting soon. I want to start Lao lessons soon and be able to find my way around the city. Every day we are still discovering marvelous new spots in town. There are a so many nice cafes and restaurants in this city. And the food…. mmmmm don’t get me started on that haha. You should just come and try.

Groetjes Claudie & Jack