I came to Asia for three weeks and never left. This is how people like us live and work here on just enough.
Luang Prabang, 2010. Broke, happy, about to lose my bank card.
From 2013 to 2016 I recorded 80 episodes of Perdu en Asie with people who dropped everything for Asia. Ten years later, I'm calling them back.
Same people, ten years on. Still on the road? Back home with a mortgage? Running a business from a beach town? We ask, they answer, nothing gets polished.
While we track them down, here's the original. AsiaTrek finishing 20,000 km by bike, France to Japan, April 2015.
Phra Julien traded snow for saffron robes.
Mar 2014A Quebecer who learned to forge swords in Japan.
Jan 2014French fighters who made Koh Chang home.
Jul 2014A Lao-Quebecer running a company in Laos.
Jun 2014Before Siargao was on every feed.
Aug 2016The last episode. Until now.
80 episodes, every one still playable. Browse the archive
These people were on the show ten years ago. Some I can still reach, some vanished. Help me find them.
They rode a sail-bike from Mont Saint-Michel to Mount Fuji. 20,000 km. What do you even do after that?
LookingEpisode 4 · 2014Quebecer, Buddhist monk, Thailand.
LookingEpisode 9 · 2014Sword smith, trained in Japan.
LookingEpisodes 5 and 27 · 2014-2015Muay Thai champions on Koh Chang. Thailand now hands out 5-year visas for Muay Thai training. Timing.
LookingOr you're living on just enough in Asia and want to come on the show.
Tell meWhere to actually live for three to twelve months. Rent, internet, visa, and what will annoy you. Updated with the date on it.
The classic. Cheap, calm, full of people doing what you want to do. Burning season is real.
Beach, mountains, fast internet, and a coworking scene that grew up fast.
Big-city comfort for less. The nomad visa almost nobody talks about.
Still great, very full. I'll tell you where I'd stay instead.
Where I got lost first. Slow internet, slow everything. That's the point.
Where I live. Not cheap. Very good for getting things done.
I lost my ATM card in Laos. I found everything else.
Before websites there was punk rock. I wrote for photocopied zines in Quebec and interviewed Green Day and Fugazi. Then a factory job, a software job, 9/11, a layoff, and a long drift between Canada, Laos and Thailand.
In Luang Prabang I lost my bank card, which forced me to stay put. Best mistake of my life. I flew to Singapore for three weeks in 2010 and never left.
I ran this site and the podcast through all of it. I also delivered food on a scooter through COVID to keep my little company alive. Today I run that company from Singapore with AI doing the boring half. Just enough, my way. That's what this site is about.
The long versionSame ferry, same lazy weekend. Different prices, different crowd, and one thing I got completely wrong.
Every two weeks: the new episode, one honest take, one base tip, one tool I actually use. No funnel, no fluff.
