I left Canada back in November 2021 and moved to Southeast Asia, had enough of the cold Winter, the average 9 to 5 life I had and just wanted to travel and explore SEA. I was looking for something that my hometown Montreal didn't have, I won't be going into the details of my personal life.

I decided to leave specifically after the pandemic, it was my last sign that I needed to say to myself, "let's do this!". The pandemic was really hard for me mentally, I had to shut down my business and a few other things that really made me feel really bad about my life situation.

One thing led to another and here I am in SEA, I prepared for 1 and a half year before booking that one-way ticket to SEA. Sold everything and left.

Now there are many things that happened to me mentally, first month I felt really sad and broke down after my niece sent me a GIF image saying that I was the best uncle in the world. I bought her a paid of airpods and she was so happy I could tell as she added them in the GIF. I literally broke down and started crying, even now I'm tearing up writing this. (This was major emotionally)

I've met many people to say the least, culture in SEA is really different from Canadian culture, people here are a lot more communal. Community, family and religion plays a huge role in the daily lives of people here.

Food is still making me sick, especially street food, last time I was on a ferry and I got one one of the worst stomach pain in my life after eating rice and chicken, vomited dozens of times in a few hours, I thought I was about to die, thank God I didn't. lol

Now I'm married and got a kid here, which are things I could've never imagined a few years ago. Crazy how life goes.

So what I've learned after living in SEA for +5 Years:

Regardless of where you live, you will face problems, issues and challenges, I've faced quite a few challenges here in SEA, one specifically that really had me stressing related to immigration and paperwork. (As you know, sometimes paperwork/bureaucracy/corruption here in Asia is quite complicated sometimes IYKYK)

If you're leaving the West to espace problems, just remember that you will face problems wherever you decide to relocate to.

And this is something I've only realized after moving here.

I just went back to Montreal not long ago, and couldn't wait to move back to Asia, I'm at a point where I can really say that Asia is my new home.

Have a nice day. ❤️🏝️

(Another thing I want to add - there's no cr*ck here unlike Canada, which is a good thing lol)