Well I'm all packed up! On November 25th, I will fly out of Laos and onwards to settle in a new retirement destination, the identity of which will remain a secret - but do try to guess!
Why on earth am I leaving Laos, and especially the beautiful city of Luang Prabang, where I have lived for several years, and hoped to remain until my UK pension kicks in, in 2025, at which point I had laid plans to relocate to somewhere with a sunny beach and better health care. So what went wrong?
Well, Covid-19 didn't help of course. Laos made valiant efforts to keep out the virus, primarily because its health-care system is crap - the country would not be able to cope with massive numbers of infections. But sadly, returning Lao workers from Thailand who crossed illegally back over the Mekong river brought Covid with them, and the rest is history.
I have just endured the second of very strict, month-long lockdowns here in Luang Prabang, where barriers were built across our road to stop anyone trying to enter or leave, even though there were no Covid cases. No food allowed in!! After exhausting what I had in the house, I went to the sole, tiny village shop and was able to buy enough water to drink for a month, as well as many cans of pilchards in tomato sauce and packets of mama noodles. That's what me and the local cats have been surviving on. Other villagers have been catching frogs to eat and eating weeds from a small pond!! Luckily, I have a banana tree in my garden, so I got some fresh fruit. I've lost a few Kg.....
But that's not why I'm leaving. The 'encouragement' to go was when the local police bigwig drove past my house (before the lockdown), and saw my radio amateur antennas, (I'm the only radio ham in Laos, with a radio licence from the central government). The next morning, there was a police 'raid' on my house, with 8 bemused police taking photos of everything and anything. I was grilled for an hour, and then another police raid that same afternoon, with more police. Yet another visit the following day, and then I was 'invited' to the police station for a lengthy talk and what I was doing in Laos
The last straw was another forced visit to the police, where I was told that I was living in Laos with a false work permit (not true), fined $200 (no receipt given of course), and my local ID card confiscated (no big deal!).
So I decided that it was time to leave, and although internal (and international) travel is very difficult, due to Covid restrictions etc, I will fly out from Laos next month, with my pre-planned retirement destination being the goal.
But where am I going? Make your guesses!