Its about that time when I have to make a decision about my permanent living situation.  I can stay where I am until the 23rd of this month, but I had hoped to move after four weeks into my own place.  I haven’t unpacked, I’ve done no decorating, and although its starting to feel like home here its still a long way from feeling like home.

There are several issues that I have to balance in making my decision:
Price
Access to a kitchen
Proximity to work
Hostable
Comfort

I love to cook and I’m not in love with the food here (yet). Getting a house gets me a kitchen which gets me anxiety-free meals.  This is a plus.  But, is buying and preparing food actually cheaper than eating at stands geared towards locals? My boss tells me that it is so I’ll just have to take her word for it.  I would love to learn to cook some Lao dishes, but I can see myself in the interim just buying veggies at the morning market, and then grilled meats on the street to eat for dinner.  The operations manager told me he’d show me where I could get super cheap breakfast of sticky rice and chicken and I’ve found a cheap place for lunch that doesn’t make my tummy hurt, so is a kitchen worth it?

I had heard that there is a possibility to share a house.  I love that option.  Only now, there isn’t anyone else looking to share their house. Or move into a house.  So it’d be just me alone.  Which I’m totally fine with except I’ve been shown some ridiculously large houses.  The first house I looked at had 5 bedrooms.  Way too much space for me!!  I don’t feel lonely (much) here, but if there were 4 empty rooms in my house I think it would feel that way. The second place I looked at had three.  I much preferred the layout and location of that house, but it was out of my price range.

I went to my boss’ house the other day for lunch and her place was so nice!  Even the view from her porch was unobstructed and you could see the mountains.  Its not that I want to be living in luxury, but I’ve learned from experience that home is the last place where you want to feel uncomfortable. I’d also love to get a place where I can host people or have at least one spare bedroom for if I had visitors or if there were interns or something coming to town that might need a place temporarily.

Today there is another place I’m going to look at, but I have to take a tuk-tuk to get there which already makes me think its not worth it if its that far away.  I do feel most alone, when looking for a place to live.  I think the reasons for me to get ripped off just keep stacking up: I’m a foreigner, I’m a woman, I don’t speak Lao, I have no male accompanying me, I don’t even know what questions I should be asking about the house.  Another downside to the house issue which is causing me stress is having to pay rent a year up front! I don’t know if this can be negotiated by place. Again, I’ve heard that it can, but it depends on the person renting out their place.  I wonder if I should just stay in guest houses until the opportunity comes up for me to share a house with someone.  But with the irregular way that expats come and go I could be living out of my suitcase for a year.  Even if there were expats that wanted to share a house, our budgets might not be the same.  But I’d really like a kitchen…Argh!! Thinking about this is making me sad so I’m going to stop.  But any *thoughts* for finding a place within a 5 minute bike ride of work, for $250-$300 a month, with a kitchen would be greatly appreciated.