How It All Started

To try living somewhere other than where I was born has always been my dream. Not forever. Exactly as I write — to try. To experience something completely different. A different environment, a different culture, different everything.

That’s why it couldn’t be Austria or Prague. And I had no interest in going north to freeze. So, the opposite direction — south.

And Asia felt the most different to me. But which country? When? How? For how long?

Once Upon a Time in Propeler

Around 2012 (I don’t remember exactly), I was walking along the embankment in Petržalka, at Propeler, one evening with my friend Bobo. He was finishing his job at Greyson and didn’t know what to do next. He had received an offer to work in China for Home Credit, and he hesitated over whether to take it. He already had a wife, Klárka, and two daughters. He couldn’t imagine completely leaving home for many years (even though he and Klárka were already experienced travelers and had met on an ocean cruise ship — as workers, not passengers ;).

But this time was different. There was family, a mortgage, children. It resonated with me immediately. I told him it was the opportunity of a lifetime — that he wouldn’t regret it, but that he would surely regret it later if he didn’t take the chance. It would be a life-changing experience for him and his family.

And so it was. Although the Margetíns have been back in Prague for over a year now, they spent several years in China and then a few more in Vietnam, in Ho Chi Minh City. Their daughters studied at the British International School and are continuing their studies in Prague.

I never asked Bobo outright, but I don’t think he’d object to me saying that this part of his life was an enriching experience that was definitely worth it. I don’t even know if he remembers this conversation of ours at all, or if it was somehow significant for him. But I remember it as an important moment in my life and in his (in ours).

And since then, I have quietly envied him (in a good way, of course).

Vietnam

Later, when I met the love of my life and the topic of this dream of mine came up — to go live somewhere else for a while — we weighed options from New Zealand to the US, until we finally chose Vietnam. And, as luck would have it, Bobo and Klárka were there too. It was 2019, and I also convinced Bažo that the two of us would go to Vietnam to check out the situation.

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We headed to Saigon (officially Ho Chi Minh City) and, of course, we visited Bobo and Klárka. I looked at accommodation options and job opportunities. Bobo even helped me with a position at Home Credit. I liked it there very much and was determined to move there with my family.

But various complications arose (the cost of schools, the cost of rent, work visas, lack of a university degree; my costs came out to over €12k per month, which was far from the idea of a cheaper Asia), but I didn’t give up completely.

But then came COVID. And global lockdowns. Bobo could tell plenty of stories — for example, about an elderly man with a submachine gun standing guard outside their apartment to make sure they didn’t break the curfew ;)

And suddenly it seemed like a stroke of luck to us — that we never made the move, that complications came up, and that we weren’t in a foreign country during an unprecedented global pandemic.

The Years Go By

Time flew, and I couldn’t stop thinking that this dream of mine might not succeed. The children were growing up, and we welcomed new ones ;) Arthur, Simeon. Suddenly it was even more difficult — to set off for a foreign country like this as a family of six.

But I have this one phobia. And I think it has a fundamental impact on my life and lifestyle. I have a fear of fear. I hate being afraid of something. It keeps gnawing at me; it doesn’t let me sleep. Even worse is when there was one specific moment when something could have been done — for example, standing up for someone — and then it’s gone and can’t be taken back. That really gets to me, and I blame myself if I wanted to do something but didn’t do it because of fear. For example, I have a fear of heights. Despite that, I literally had to go for a walk along the rim of the UFO (SNP bridge, rim from the outside), even though it was the last thing I would want to do myself. (Thanks to Johnny Fratrič for this experience :))

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And since I was already afraid to undertake such an adventure with four children, the die was cast — I simply had to do it. I believe in the old wisdom that at the end of life, a person won’t regret so much what they did, but mainly what they didn’t do (and wanted to, just were afraid — I’m adding that here).

Journey through Asia

So I started talking about it with Simonka again, and she was open to it. All that was left was to choose a country. In the end, we said to ourselves that instead of choosing one and maybe not choosing well, let’s try several. We’ll stay long enough in each place to get a feel for what it’s like there, what the people are like, and how life is there (for expats, of course), but not so long that we get tired of it and want to go home already.

So we’ve chosen a journey through Asia and then we’ll see. Of course, there’s Vietnam, but also China, which I personally look forward to the most. But we will move to Asia gradually so as not to put the kids through long flights. That’s why we will go to our first long-term destination (Bali, Indonesia) through the United Arab Emirates (5 days) and Thailand (5 days). We will always take a break to take in the new country, rest after a long flight (including time at the airport), and adjust to the time difference (we will shift by about +3 hours each time, and then have 5 days to rest).

Why Now?

At the beginning of 2025, I said to myself that if not now, then never. Leo was in his third year at a five-year grammar school. Now he’s already in his fourth, but I didn’t want to pull him out later, right before graduation. And then the opportunity to do this as a family — all together — might never come again. This is the last opportunity.

And how is such a thing done? Simply. I talked it through with Simonka, we told the children, and started preparing them for it. But mainly, I started telling everyone around me — “we’re leaving in the winter.” I don’t know how yet, exactly where, exactly when; we have nothing prepared, not much saved, but we’re going!

We even did one trial family trip to Azerbaijan (in April), to the land of my ancestors (on my father’s side). The whole family by air and 15 days on the move; every two days we lived somewhere else and traveled across almost all of Azerbaijan. And the children were thrilled. They said it was the best vacation ever. And I was more certain that they would handle it even on a longer journey.

And how long are we going for? I don’t know. We said to ourselves: at most nine months. But if someone really can’t handle it, we’ll return even after a month. We don’t want anyone to have a nervous breakdown. But we hope we’ll last longer ;)

I hope our children gain a different perspective on the world through this experience. They’ll step out of our small Slovakia box (or just Bratislava), experience a different environment, a different culture, dare to communicate more, and see both the positives and negatives of other places in the world.

I welcome both positive and negative experiences. It’s all part of a formative chapter. At the same time, I realize that Slovakia is amazing and that we are incredibly lucky in where we live. But it seems to me that as Slovaks (including my closest surroundings), we don’t realize this enough and often let ourselves be influenced by media propaganda that we’re doing terribly — often the worst in Europe, and sometimes even in the world. Therefore, I hope that after returning, our family will better realize what we have at home and that it should be appreciated (and live a more positive and happier life).