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By Jim Herrier
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
When my wife Ellen and I announced to our friends and family that we were moving to Asia the consensus was we would be back in less than two years.
That was ten years ago.
Our first move to Singapore was simply fantastic. A beautiful and sophisticated city on the doorstep of every dream destination you can imagine. Within weeks we were in Bali (the weekend retreat of Singapore ) and we’ve now been 17 times. Beijing was next, then Hanoi, then Phuket and Bangkok in Thailand. We never stopped travelling in Asia and have never run out of amazing places to go.
After two years we left for a business opportunity in Shanghai. The drama and pace of living among 23 million people in what is surely one of the most dramatic cities in the world was exciting but getting out of it was a necessity. We kept travelling, throughout China and farther afield: Sri Lanka, India and all over Australia.
While in China we made friends with two respected Australian journalists: Steve and Colleen Wyatt. As reporters for the Australian Financial Review they went to places we had only heard of, covering stories ranging from worker unrest in Mongolia to riots by Uyghur peasants in Urumqi. Dinner with them was never dull.
After three years, business — this time our own — took us back to Singapore and our travels continued unabated. More India, Laos, Cambodia and the delightful towns and villages of Hoi An, Danang, Ho Chi Minh, Luang Prabang, Chiang Mai, and Phnom Penh. Our Australian friends were posted back to Sydney and then to their hillside home in Byron Bay. On a Skype call Steve revealed they were writing a new book. No surprise, they had written a number of business books; usually exposes of big business and government fiascos. But this one was different.
A new book on Retirement
