After living her entire life in Australia, Diane Lee had never lived or worked abroad… and wanted to. Taking a payout from her job in 2016, she decided to volunteer for three months at a social enterprise in Hanoi—a restaurant she visited for lunch while on tour in the capital in 2010. Three months turned into four years. This book is a memoir of her time in Vietnam, and tells the story, through essays and blog posts, of what it's like to be an older, single woman living in Asia—and all that that entails.
For Diane, living abroad—in Vietnam—seemed like a good idea at the time. Starting a new life abroad involved more than just finding work and an apartment—and this book is a candid, brave and raw expose of life as an expat in a developing south east Asian country. From immigration woes to dating, to dealing with crippling anxiety to making friends to starting a company to moving back to Australia and repatriating her cat when coronavirus hit—this book has it all, and is sure to be a valuable guide for anyone looking to work in other countries, or considering it.
