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| Luang Prabang |
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| Luang Prabang |
I want to tell you the story of this 'Epiphany' I experienced a year ago.
I love this word, whose primary meaning is the celebration of the visit of the wise men to Jesus newly born, in other words, the manifestation of the divine to the common people. But in English it is more commonly defined as a sudden revelation of the essential meaning of something often initiated by some simple common occurrences.
From this story actually stems my presence here in San Francisco.
I had decided to go on a trip to Asia to turn the page of an almost 10 year relationship. I was as well at a turning point of my professional life. I was kind of worn out by my job environment, after 22 years at Air Liquide company, and was wondering what could be my desire for the 20 years of work to come.
In this context I decided to travel alone, not allowing a friend to accompany me. I wanted to leave my mind open and available to random encounters and to my new environment, and I did well.
I set off on a trip to Laos and Cambodia in January 2014.
I met a few people there. Surprisingly they didn't know what they were telling me unwittingly was going to change the course of my life and I didn't know it either!
# The trigger point for a change of life
I met Christophe and Olivier in a restaurant in Laos at the border of Thailand. They both had settled in Laos a few years ago and were so happy about their new life here. I was actually very intrigued and envious. I asked them what the trigger point for taking action was, I was actually obsessed by this question. They both had spent time in this area, were attracted to its quietness and simplicity, and were both at a turn in their lives when they had a strong desire for a change. One of them had this anecdote : he was in the Parisian metro and smiled spontaneoulsy at a woman sitting in front of him, whose gaze he had crossed, and she responded in turning her face and pouting. He could not put up with this anymore. (Eveybody knows Paris is the capital of pouting faces whereas San franciso is that of fake smiles, however...) They also talked me into going on this Gibbon experience trip, which I had not planned previoulsy. So I set out to do that the next morning...
# The job I would have loved to do
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| The Tree house of the Gibbon Experience |
The Gibbon exprerience trip was created by a French man to raise people's awareness about the preservation of the jungle in Laos and its last remaining Gibbons. It is actually a 2 to 3 day hike in the jungle, using an exceptional zip line cable network throughout the forest enabling the visitors to glide above the canopy. Guests sleep in tree houses at night, with breathtaking views of the forest. The fear I had about this trip was to be surrounded by young rich westerners, which was borne out by facts. Nonetheless, it appeared that those guys mostly from South Africa and the United States were English teachers in Bankgok or Seoul and told me about their job. I found it so awsome, it was like a thwarted desire that came back to surface. I was thinking then how wonderful it would be to do such an exciting and rewarding job.
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| Nyaung Kew The fishermen's village |
I met Mary on the boat trip from the Thaï border to Luang prabang: a 2 day trip on a boat that used to be authentic but that now looks like a touristic bus filled with mainly western tourists. It has lost its former charm I think. However the journey stills remains impressive for we do not cross a bridge for the two days of the trip, nor a town, rarely a village, sometimes wooden houses spread out in the countryside, mainly endless wild forests, just to tell you the level of industrialised development of the country. Mary is a 30 year old German girl from Berlin, she was sitting just behind me. We had time to talk. She was actually in the process of changing job. She wanted to study sustainable environment and quit her job in the tourism industry that had led her on luxury ships throughout the world, but she found it too perfunctory and was seeking a more meaningful job.
Same process with a Corean girl I met later on, on the little boat that drove us to Nuang Kew fishermen's village. This one wanted to leave a job in web advertising she found meaningless to a job in the tourism where she thought the could find more human relations. As you can see the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. However, I was really impressed by this turning point they both had decided to take in their professional lives.
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| The Cambodian young lady |
When I arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, after a 10 hour bus trip, it was nearly midnight. I had actually made no hotel reservation, and it appeared that the hotels were rather full. Exhausted I asked the first rickshaw to take me to to a place he recommended. "Cheap place" he said. I ended up in a gloomy room without any window, nor any bathroom, just a mere water hose over a toilet to take a shower. In short this place was awful but It was too late, and I was exhausted to make a move. However the Young cambodian woman who was in charge of the hotel rooms made up for the ugliness because she was so sweet. She offered me fruits for I had not eaten a bite for hours, offered me to use the open air kitchen sink to brush my teeth. She asked me this common question which was: Do you have children? To which I answered no. Surprisingly her reaction was: You are so Lucky you are free to go wherever you want, you can travel and discover the world. I am stuck here with my two kids.
A couple days later leaving Phnom Penh for Siem Rep, I was in a bus sitting next to a whole Indonesian family who was here for a family vacation. The man of the family asked me the same question, to which I gave the same answer. His reaction was : Good for you, children are lifelong worries in life. You are free!
Well that was a new insight I had not thought about !
All of those people were the stones that paved the way to my epiphany.
When I returned home, my company was offering a severance package including a training to learn a new job to the employees who decided to leave. Then it became clear that I could change job, become a teacher and settle in South East Asia if that was what I wanted.
And so I did.
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| Luang Prabang |
