‘I go through a can of hairspray a week’: The humid reality of expat life in Asia

Another day, another press release from a travel company indicating our collective love for travelling around Asia. Typically influenced by the strong Aussie dollar – and perhaps a few hit shows on streaming services – data from the likes of Webjet, Skyscanner and Booking.com reveals we’re not only obsessed with Indonesia and Japan, but now South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines as well.

For some of us, however, a move to Asia can be a one-way ticket. According to the latest Overseas Migration report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 219,000 of us left Australia within the 2022 - 2023 financial year to create a new life overseas – 94,000 of these Australian citizens.

What does it take to pack up your life back home and create a new life in Asia? Three women who’ve done just that share their stories.

“The world suddenly opened up”

Genevieve Maslin, 29, sales assistant

Genevieve Maslin: “You’re hanging out with expats from every corner of the globe.”

“Until I met my boyfriend Jamie, I guess you could say I had a very Sydney-centric life. I lived in the eastern suburbs and worked for a luxury charter yacht company, where it wasn’t unusual for customers to drop a cool million on a weekly rental. I enjoyed the work, but I wasn’t closed off to the idea of adventure elsewhere.

When my cousin introduced me to Jamie, a Scottish financier, before a holiday to Hong Kong, I was intrigued, but there was no real ‘your life is about to change forever’ moment. We stayed in touch as friends initially, but when his two-week visit to my home in Australia turned into nine, our relationship moved into turbocharge mode and after a year of dating long distance, I moved over there in early 2023.

I’d always wanted to live overseas, but I could never quite summon up the courage to do it on my own. Since Jamie had been living and working in Hong Kong for a decade before we met, he already had a great apartment for us to live in together and a solid circle of supportive friends within Hong Kong’s expat community.

My work history in the luxury sector also placed me in good stead locally; I secured a job within two weeks of moving and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was, although I think the ease of integration probably had something to do with the timing. My move came at a time when Hong Kong had just reopened after three years of tight Covid restrictions, and they were eagerly welcoming new blood.

The first thing I noticed about moving to Asia is just how much your world opens up. Weekends escaping Sydney up and down the coast have been replaced with visits to Vietnam or the Philippines, and you’re hanging out with expats from every corner of the globe who are full of new stories, new customs and so much fun.

Hong Kong is also almost entirely signed in both English and Chinese, so day-to-day life is easy and the career opportunities plentiful; I now work for a bespoke luxury jeweller, which I love. Are there any downsides? It’s an incredibly expensive city, and the constant humidity means I go through a can of hairspray a week.

When people think of Hong Kong, they tend to think of these bright and shiny skyscrapers, but the things I love most are away from the city. I always recommend heading out to the islands for a hike and then enjoying the beaches, which are dotted with plenty of great restaurants specialising in local cuisine. I always refer to it as the South China Riviera, with Deep Water Bay and Tai Long Wan coming in strong as my favourites. Will we eventually leave Hong Kong? Maybe, but we’re not in any rush.”

“Nothing can really prepare you”

Elizabeth Benn, 55, tour operator

Elizabeth Benn: “I can still remember someone asking, ‘Where in Africa is Mongolia, exactly?’”

“If you’d have asked me where Mongolia was, even just a few years before my husband and I packed up our kids [then aged 11 to four] and moved there, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you. Until that point, we were living a typical suburban life. My husband Murray owned an IT business and I worked part-time as a social worker/counsellor at a university.

We believed we would go and live overseas at some stage, and when we heard about the plight of the countryside people in Mongolia, with massive unemployment and resulting pressure to move to the capital city to try to find work, we thought we might be able to make a difference.

After a couple of reconnaissance visits, we packed up everything in 2010 and moved to Tsetserleg, a provincial town seven hours’ west of the capital, Ulaanbaatar. People thought we were crazy; our children’s teachers were concerned, and we got our fair share of funny comments. I can still remember someone asking me, ‘Where in Africa is Mongolia, exactly?’

Nothing can really prepare you for life here. In the lead-up to the move, we watched movies and documentaries to get a feel for the country and its people, but the first few months – if not years – were quite challenging.

We took over a guest house and bakery, but not being able to speak the local language in a place where English is almost non-existent was tough, as was home-schooling all four children. As there were no international schools in the countryside. On the flipside, our children thrived in the wide open spaces and over time, we’ve all mastered – to varying degrees – Mongolian, which is one of the most difficult languages to learn.

Watching local tourism change and develop over the years has been interesting. When we first took over our business, we’d only ever see really mad adventurers keen to explore places way off the beaten track, or groups of doctors doing field work for the likes of Doctors Without Borders. Now we’re seeing every kind of traveller, from tour groups and solo travellers preferring a softer style of tourism to those travelling around the world on motorbikes.

The change in our town to meet the demand has been enormous, with many cafes, hotels and guest houses popping up all over the place. Our business, Fairfield, is also growing in line with demand, now offering a range of activities led by locals, from horse tours to home stays with nomadic families and Gobi Desert adventures. In doing so, we’re offering stable employment to those who’ve welcomed us so warmly.

Our children all had to move back to Australia for university and work as they turned 18, and it’s tough being here without them. One day, I see myself owning a house overlooking the water – the ocean is what I miss the most about life in Australia – but we don’t know when that will happen. We’ve been here for 14 years but sometimes it still feels as though we’re only just getting started.”

“The local hospitality is above and beyond”

Nikola Errington, 42, Senior Protection Officer

Nikola Errington: “We have a beautiful house near the hills where the monkeys visit every day.”

“I moved to Asia as soon as I graduated from uni to work in a law firm in Japan – a fun destination, but the work was intense and incredibly corporate.

Even though I put in three years, my lifelong interest in social justice was calling me and after a little travel throughout the continent, I found work with the Jesuit Refugee Service, an amazing NGO in Cambodia, where I provided legal assistance for many Rohingya who were living there at the time and processing asylum cases.

A career with UNHCR followed. My first placement with them in 2012 was in Somalia, which at the time was battling the after-effects of drought, such as internal displacement across the country, and was still receiving asylum-seekers from Ethiopia. I then did placements in Myanmar and Thailand, and in 2018 took some time off to have my baby, Sam.

In 2021, I was reassigned to Pakistan, where Sam and I now live. Pakistan has long been a generous host country for Afghan refugees, supporting some three million despite the country’s own challenges, and while the operation here has been relatively stable for 40 years, I couldn’t have predicted what was about to unfold not long after I made the move. Suddenly, we were seeing people being airlifted out of Kabul and arriving traumatised by what they’d experienced.

It’s difficult for these people – women in particular – to get by in Pakistan, but we do our best to ensure they are protected, and that the Pakistani communities are also supported. I think the issues facing refugees, asylum seekers and stateless people are complex and not well understood; most people want to be able to live in their own countries and have somewhere to belong to, but sometimes it becomes impossible.

My job with UNHCR has been hugely rewarding. Although there have been challenges living and working in Pakistan, I have found the local hospitality to be above and beyond anything I’ve experienced before. Life here is colourful and loud, and its people warm and welcoming. We have a beautiful house near the hills where the monkeys come and visit every day, a nanny who helps us out, school and friends nearby.

I’ve loved my time here but after three years in Pakistan, Sam and I are in the process of moving back to Australia, so I can give him an Australian upbringing. I’m not ruling out a return to Asia – living and working here makes a lot of sense for many Australians – but my focus, for the time being, is on getting our Australian accents back.”

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