Thread: From Laos to Turkey - A Christmas story :)

As requested, here is a little more detail about my recent move to live in Turkey - the background, reasons etc.


I tend to be a bit of a nomad, moving from country to country. I moved to live in Thailand around 2003, then moved to Burma, then Laos, then Burma again, then Laos! As I moved past 60 years old, I began to consider the realism of growing old in Laos. It's a beautiful country, but certainly in Luang Prabang, it lacks decent hospitals, dentists, shopping centres, and no beach in any part of Laos etc. Additionally, the UK pension that I would start to receive in 2025 would be frozen and not increase each year - that only applies if one lives in EU countries and a select few others, including Turkey.


So I started to research living in my dotage in a different country, where I would have access to a sunny beach, a choice of healthy food, reasonable healthcare, easy visa, low cost of living etc etc. Time and time again, the beaches of south-western Turkey came up tops. So it was my plan to stay in Luang Prabang until my retirement date, and then relocate to Turkey.


However, 2 unexpected events moved that date forward. Covid came to the land, and although the number of deaths has thankfully been low, the local economy was all but destroyed. The vast majority of hotels and restaurants and cafes closed down, and their foreign owners returned to their home countries. Luang Prabang was like a ghost town.




The second event was unwelcome attention by the local police into my 100% legal amateur radio hobby. I was the only radio ham in the whole country, similar to when I operated my transceiver in Burma, where the military became very interested in what I was doing and how my knowledge of rockets might be useful to them (I designed guided weapons and satellite equipment years ago, so my knowledge was 'historical').


Although I had a licence from the government office in Vientiane, the local police bigwig decided that I was up to no good and raided (the best description of what happened), my house with 8 police officers. Actually they raided my home twice in the same day, then the next day as well, then took me to their office in town for a grilling. Despite direct communication from the Vientiane government office to leave me alone, they continued their hassling of me, taking me again to their office and fining me $200 cash (no receipt) for some fake charge. I decided that I didn't want and didn't need this hassle, and so brought forward my move to Turkey.


Trying to leave Laos in the middle of a Covid pandemic was a paperwork nightmare. There were no scheduled flights out of Laos, so I had to book an expensive $700 charter flight to Kuala Lumpur, with no refund if it were cancelled. Then there were documents from my village head to confirm that I lived in the village, another from him to allow me to travel to Vientiane, another from the visa company confirming that they managed my visa paperwork, then another document from them requesting that I be allowed to travel, then the letter from my embassy requesting that I be allowed to travel to Vientiane and fly out of Laos, another document authorising entry into Vientiane, then another document from the Covid task force in Luang Prabang authorising travel, then an official translation of my vax card, copies of flight tickets, hotel reservations etc.!! Phew!


Once in Vientiane, I went to the national health centre for a PCR test and document. The place was packed with Chinese in hazmat suits and it took many hours queuing for the test. We all returned later that day to collect our results. We all had numbered receipts. The nurse called out about 20 numbers and those people all raised their hands. "Right, you all have Covid" was the comment from the nurse!! We others all moved rapidly away from the unlucky 20 One of them was a guy from The Philippines with whom I had eaten lunch with!


So the next morning, I arrived at the airport. I had prepaid for extra baggage, but I was still overweight, and it was not possible to pay extra again. (I had 2 boxes with radio equipment in them). So I had to 'abandon' one box at the airport. I chose heavy items that I could make or buy again, but it was a bugger to have to throw away about $500 of equipment....


One act that the corrupt police boss in Luang Prabang had done at our last meeting was to confiscate my Lao ID card, and this could mean that I would not be allowed to leave the country, since one has to show this card at the airport immigration desk. I had foreseen this problem, and had a police report from a local police station in Vientiane that stated that I had lost my ID card a few days earlier. This police report enabled me to be waved through immigration and onto the departing flight!


There were many (many!) checks of my documents during the long flight to Istanbul, with stops in KL and Doha. Finally, I arrived at Istanbul Airport and their immigration desk. I prepared all my Covid/vax documents and translations, as well as a Turkish contact QR code that I registered for prior to my flights. The immigration officer waved these away and said "I just need to see your passport"! I was stamped in for 90 days....


Welcome to Turkey


Next post, I'll talk a little about Istanbul and my trip across the country to live near Fethiye, and why I chose that location.