Long distance /expat dating?

Life as an expat doesn't present the best dating opportunities. It's all cool at first but after a while you realise how little you have in common and with the locals and just long for something familiar. And let me just say that I hate the word expat but I guess it gives a clearer idea of the situation, ie not necessarily permanent, international environment, glitzy European city.So there is a guy (27m) from my (28f) side of the world (still far apart but we share culture language and mentality) that came to see me recently. We've been friends with benefits for 5+ years whenever we were both single and passing through common ground. But after this visit I just fell suddenly head over heels. I told him, and he felt the same (and always has, and has been waiting for me to get here), but, what are we supposed to do about it?? We're both a bit too jaded for an LDR, too embroiled in our careers to be able to give them up to move just yet, and have no countries in common for working permits anyway. But we kind of forecasted a loose 3-5 year plan that we can take steps toward so that we can be together in the end.The problem is, what do I do in the meantime?? We didn't bother with exclusively, but I can't bring myself to kiss or seriously date another guy because I'm thinking of him. Abundance mentality makes me feel crappy, for him, for myself, for the guy on the other side of the date, I feel like I'm past that at this point of my life.But he's not a great communicator, never has been, at any distance. I don't take it personally - his friends and family that I've met always alluded to the same complaint. He's just a free/active spirit and doesn't live on his phone (and I love that about him!). And he works on a contract with a ton of travel between a handful of super boring towns so he doesn't give himself much downtime from work. But the time difference of 8hrs is already an obstacle, we never Skype, only write long messages about plans for the next visit once or twice a week. When he does write it's always genuine and reassuring. He offers to fly me to him or spends 24hrs in transit just one way to get to me. I know he's solid (and I'm honestly not worried about other girls, I know what we have would trump whatever nights he could spend with someone else). But it's the time in between I can't stand.How do I get through this? Should I? I'm used to getting a lot of attention but now I shut it down because I only want it from him. I don't view this as a bad thing but how do I stop relying on his attention to feel validated? And am I wasting my time by shutting myself off from dating until I'm ~32 when we might be able to make this work?Would love to hear from people who had similar situations. Long distance dating NOT relationships, because relationships come with a different set of rules.