30 People Who Left Third-World Countries Share What Surprised Them The Most About First-World Countries

To gain more insight on this topic, we reached out to U-Ming Lee, a writer originally from Malaysia who has experience living in and traveling to various other parts of the world. We were curious where he's living now and why he decided to leave Malaysia in the first place. "I'm back in Malaysia right now, although I've just returned from a 10-month stint in Bangkok, Thailand," U-Ming told Bored Panda. "I don't plan to be 'settled' in the conventional sense in the near future. I thought I would slow travel full-time in the next few years until I've figured out where (and how) to settle. But I've concluded that Malaysia is not the country I'd like to live in."

"Growing up in Malaysia, I was always an avid consumer of American and British media," U-Ming shared. "So, I've always been keenly aware that living in a developing country means that you will always get to have the latest 'stuff' after the trend's already died down elsewhere. When I was a kid, this meant that the latest consoles or games would only arrive six months to a year after they'd been released in the US. This was frustrating but not a deal-breaker."

What finally pushed U-Ming to decide to leave Malaysia was his father's diagnosis with cancer in 2017. "As his chemo treatments progressed, the nerves in his hands and feet were increasingly damaged. This greatly affected his quality of life, so I looked for ways to help him cope with his condition," he shared. "Ordinarily, families would look for occupational therapists to help the patient deal with his growing physical challenges and mental support services to cope with the emotional roller coaster. But in developing countries like Malaysia, these services are practically impossible to access, so whatever limited services exist are highly backlogged. The only thing my mum and I could do was to lend an ear."

"Towards the end of his life, as my dad's physical state deteriorated, we exhausted ourselves looking for hospice or palliative care services, hospital beds, and breathing support apparatus to keep my dad comfortable," U-Ming told Bored Panda. "Once again, this was way harder to access than it would have been in a developed country. I realised my dad suffered towards the end of his life because no resources were available to ease his suffering in my country. It didn't matter how much money one had, these resources are so rare that the vast majority of ordinary people will never be able to access them."

"So, my most potent reason for moving is the fear that, as I age (I'm 43 now), I face the growing risk of ending up suffering as my dad did."

We also asked U-Ming if he ever experienced intense culture shock when traveling or living in another country. "Besides Malaysia, I've lived in the UK, the Netherlands, Thailand and made short trips to the USA, China, Taiwan, France, and Spain," he told Bored Panda. "After my first extended trip, i.e., from Malaysia to the UK, surprisingly, I can't say I've ever experienced culture shock in a big way. Sure, there are little surprises, like how people in Spain have dinner late, or how you can't flush toilet paper down the toilet in most places in Thailand and Taiwan."

"But I've not had anything major, probably because I've always tried to understand the culture of the country I'm visiting as much as possible until I arrive there," U-Ming shared. "Of course, there are things I'll never fully understand, like the obsession with cricket in the UK or college football in the US," he added with a smile.

When it comes to misconceptions about developing and industrialized countries, U-Ming told us he could write an entire book on the topic! "The most obvious one is the misconception that people in developing countries live in trees, buffalo roam the unpaved streets, and everyone works in subsistence farming," he shared. "Of course, that misconception gets dispelled as soon as someone steps out the airplane."

"However, I think there is the tendency for people to go the complete other way and assume that, just because there are gleaming malls and modern public transportation in cities like Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, the developing countries are just the same as the industrialised countries," he added.

"This misconception leads influencers to promote living in developing countries as a gateway to an improved quality of life for a fraction of the cost in the industrialised world."

U-Ming added that there are a few caveats to the idea that living in a developing country can be an easy way to live luxuriously on low costs. "Things are frequently less expensive because they are poorer quality," he told Bored Panda. "Everyone knows that you can fill up on authentic street food in Bangkok for $2-3 a meal. But people don't always consider the compromises it takes to make it economical for the vendor to sell fried noodles for $2, e.g. the re-used oil, the processed meats that may be more filler than meat, the vegetables grown with pesticides banned in the West, and so on."

U-Ming explained that it is harder to be productive in a developing country as well. "Water and electricity cuts will be more frequent than one is used to in an industrialised country. The infrastructure is less well-developed and well-planned, so you will find yourself stuck in traffic congestion more than you're used to. Digital nomads working for clients in the West could find the time zone differences challenging to deal with. Individually, these sound like minor issues, but they add up over time."

"Some people will find it harder to make a living in a developing country," U-Ming explained. "A digital nomad friend who is a yoga teacher found it difficult to run her business in Chiang Mai, Thailand, because there weren't many locals who could afford her services. This is less of a problem for digital nomads who sell services that can be delivered completely online, for clients in the industrialised world. I've freelanced as a market researcher for more than a decade by producing research reports; naturally, all my clients have been from developed countries (the US, UK, and Japan)."

And when it comes to misconceptions he's observed about industrialized countries, U-Ming first noted that he writes about this from the perspective of someone from a developing country who lived in industrialised countries for 15 years. "People from developing countries view the industrialised world as the 'land of opportunity' where the roads are paved with gold."

"Naturally, this isn't the case," he added. "More precisely: Being an entrepreneur in the developed world is harder than in developing countries. You can't just set up a street food stall somewhere like London or Amsterdam and make a living that way. There are way more regulations and codes to comply with, and all manner of licenses and certificates you need to obtain before you can get started, unlike in the developing world."

"People in the developed world care about a lot of things," U-Ming noted. "There's a misconception that life in the developed countries is so structured that people are always busy. I've found that people in industrialised countries care about (or, at least, think about) issues like climate change, animal rights, or gender equality (for example) a lot more than in developing countries. This is not to say that people in developing countries don't think about these things - they do - but, by and large, most people are too occupied with day-to-day survival to spend much time and energy dealing with these broader issues."

Finally, we asked U-Ming if he has a favorite place in the world that he's lived in. "For me, this has undoubtedly got to be London, England, where I lived for 3 years," he shared. "The experience that speaks the most to me was getting on the London Underground and hearing 7 languages being spoken around me, none of which was English."

"The sheer diversity of people and cultures that I encountered daily in London for those three years permanently expanded my perspective of life and made me appreciative of vastly different perspectives," he told Bored Panda. "Living in London is probably what contributed the most to me not suffering from culture shocks whenever I move to a new country these days!"

If you'd like to hear more wise words from U-Ming Lee, be sure to check out his writing on Medium right here!