imagine if you will be living in Cambodia permanently, for the rest of your life

not as an expat, or long term tourist, but as an immigrant. you cant go back home, your own country just got demolished by Godzilla or decided you are now an exile

how do you feel about that?
or are you already here under those circumstances?

I think as long as there are other countries... I'm never likely to be stuck in Cambodia. I'm here by choice. I love it, for the moment. If I had no choice, maybe I wouldn't love it as much as I do. Who knows?

clippy wrote:or are you already here under those circumstances?

It's slowly dawned on me that I pretty much am, yes. I've lived my entire adult life here, haven't been back in 12 years, have almost no connections there other than direct family, and would no longer know where to even begin trying to start a life again in my home country. All my work experience has been here, and my "marketable skills" relate to local and linguistic knowledge that wouldn't be useful anywhere else. As I said, I was basically a kid when I came here, an angry teenager. Now I'm going to be 30 this year and I've come to realize there may be no going back.

Not entirely sure how I feel about it tbh. Grass is always greener? idk.

Edit: Just to clarify as it might have sounded like I felt negatively about what I just wrote; I don't. Honestly, I don't know if the life I will have is better than the life I would have had in my own country, maybe it's better maybe it's worse. I really don't know and I try not to dwell on it too much.

clippy wrote:imagine if you will be living in Cambodia permanently, for the rest of your life

not as an expat, or long term tourist, but as an immigrant. you cant go back home, your own country just got demolished by Godzilla or decided you are now an exile

how do you feel about that?
or are you already here under those circumstances?

I think you may have all this back to front,,,,, Imagine if Cambodia did not want you to return to live here and you had to live in some shitty country like USA, UK, OZ or Siberia. What if you house your boat , [ and islands ] car and wife were here and you could not return to access your bank account . What if your other bank account [ in Nigeria ] which had $1,000000000000000000000000000000000 in it now only had $1 and you needed to speak to the bank manager personally. And all the e/mails , phone calls and letters to you wife who manages your affairs has not answered.
But I think it would never happen .. Would it ?

TheGrinchSR wrote:I think as long as there are other countries... I'm never likely to be stuck in Cambodia. I'm here by choice. I love it, for the moment. If I had no choice, maybe I wouldn't love it as much as I do. Who knows?

But one of the reasons we get to go to multiple countries is because of the 'weight' of our relevant passports. If our countries were destroyed or no longer seen as having a certain status then would we have the flexibility to travel/relocate elsewhere?

Duncan wrote: Imagine if Cambodia did not want you to return to live here and you had to live in some shitty country like USA, UK, OZ or Siberia.

I've recently thought about this...thought of Thomas Wolfe's quip "You can't go home again," and wondered, what if that were literal, not just a lament over how things (and we) change, grow away in absence...but what if home was actually not there anymore, doesn't exist? That's a different kind of 'can't go home.' Orphaned? Betrayed? What kind I haven't quite worked out yet. My home city was in fact destroyed by Godzilla. I could still go there, but it's mostly just rubble now. But like Grinch said, there are more countries than Cambodia. If I get bored with this I'll just move on to another country, or I guess I could even move to a different city within my own country. But at least in some sense, I can't go home again. And how is one to feel about that? I'm not sure.

JessB52 wrote:

TheGrinchSR wrote:I think as long as there are other countries... I'm never likely to be stuck in Cambodia. I'm here by choice. I love it, for the moment. If I had no choice, maybe I wouldn't love it as much as I do. Who knows?

But one of the reasons we get to go to multiple countries is because of the 'weight' of our relevant passports. If our countries were destroyed or no longer seen as having a certain status then would we have the flexibility to travel/relocate elsewhere?

In my experience money>>passport for flexibility on living arrangements...

Duncan wrote:

clippy wrote:imagine if you will be living in Cambodia permanently, for the rest of your life

not as an expat, or long term tourist, but as an immigrant. you cant go back home, your own country just got demolished by Godzilla or decided you are now an exile

how do you feel about that?
or are you already here under those circumstances?

I think you may have all this back to front,,,,, Imagine if Cambodia did not want you to return to live here and you had to live in some shitty country like USA, UK, OZ or Siberia. What if you house your boat , [ and islands ] car and wife were here and you could not return to access your bank account . What if your other bank account [ in Nigeria ] which had $1,000000000000000000000000000000000 in it now only had $1 and you needed to speak to the bank manager personally. And all the e/mails , phone calls and letters to you wife who manages your affairs has not answered.
But I think it would never happen .. Would it ?

hmmm sounds like you could be describing Sergei P here

TheGrinchSR wrote:

JessB52 wrote:

TheGrinchSR wrote:I think as long as there are other countries... I'm never likely to be stuck in Cambodia. I'm here by choice. I love it, for the moment. If I had no choice, maybe I wouldn't love it as much as I do. Who knows?

But one of the reasons we get to go to multiple countries is because of the 'weight' of our relevant passports. If our countries were destroyed or no longer seen as having a certain status then would we have the flexibility to travel/relocate elsewhere?

In my experience money>>passport for flexibility on living arrangements...

And also its about the skills you have, if you have in demand skills that are transferable then its possible to go and live anywhere and not get stuck somewhere. if you dont then things are more difficult

IMHO, it doesn't really matter so much where you live but what lives inside of you

In other words, what are your thoughts, actions, your level of happiness? Does it come from outside matters or internally (mostly - I think for most of us there is a mix)? How well can you adapt, etc.