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Why I Now Live In Thailand
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After my first evening out in Pattaya, Thailand, when I met a lady on a blind date arranged by one of my best friends, I sat up in bed and I thought about the details of the evening before. We had started in The Pig and Whistle, where I was staying on Soi 7.
The Pig is a lovely, peaceful, tranquil, air-conditioned oasis of serenity in a street, which is one of the most raucous, noisiest and busiest streets in Pattaya.
We ventured outside into the soi (lane) and into a stream of people not dissimilar to that of a queue heading for a football match, except that all the women were dressed in bikinis. We had popped into one of those outdoor bars, where my friend had a surprise waiting for me.
His girlfriend of a time, whom I knew nothing about and a friend of hers who wanted to meet up with me. The four of us had dallied there an hour before wandering the thirty metres to Beach Road.
The traffic is one-way on Beach Road, so we took a Baht Taxi North (a pick-up truck) going with the flow and got off two or three kilometres further on just before Walking Street, which is the most famous street in Pattaya.
We had entered a complex of bars and sat in one at random. It was only then that I realized that the bars were all set out surrounding a Muay Thai boxing ring, where the fighting was continuous and free, although foreigners are expected to contribute a prize to the winner of every bout of 20-100 Baht ($1-$3).
We stayed there an hour and moved on to Walking Street to have a meal. We ate at a seafood specialist restaurant which has a pier or jetty as its dining region. The food was excellent and the mood was romantic with the moon mirrored on the sea and the atmospheric lighting.
I don't believe that I had a opportunity in reality, I fell for my beautiful date that night and I saw her each day for the rest of my 30 days vacation. We had a magnificent time and when I had to go, I resolved to find out if I could live in Thailand.
I went home and calculated, that if I was cautious and a couple of things fell in my favour, I would most likely have enough money to stay there for ten years.
Six weeks later, I flew back to Thailand and Joy was waiting for me at the airport. Nothing had altered between us and we took a bus to visit her family in northern Thailand.
We slept in a room that her brother had given up for us and everyone made me feel very comfortable. Joy's family live in a traditional teak home built on stilts and everybody lived and slept in one space in the traditional fashion, with the exception of Joy's brother, who had built an extension, because he was eager to be married soon.
I really like that village and still live there now, seven years later. Joy and I are married and have our own home - a traditional, European, concrete-block bungalow not five metres from Joy's mother, who is a fantastic mother-in-law.
Her family seem to appreciate what a big step it was for me to come here alone and are determined to be there for me, if I need help, like my own family in Wales would be. The task at hand is learning Thai as no one else in the village, except for my wife, can speak English.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a lot of subjects , but is currently concerned with Yoga Holidays and Yoga Retreats. If you want to know more about our Travel Blog, click a link.
Article submitted Thursday, November 24, 2011 & read 276 times.
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» left by HyunSoung Kim (174 days 15 hours ago.)
Owen! I didn't know you are living in Thailand! Very beautiful story! I am sure you are managing in there, because you are different there are disadvantages but also many advantages, I am also living in a foreign country where asians are rare, and when i was a child it was very difficult but when i had grown up now i can focus on the advantages more vividly. Thanks for sharing your personal story!
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» left by Owen Jones(195)
Hi,
How should I address you?
Where I live, there are six foreigners within a 25 km radius, but we rarely see each other. Sometimes on market day, 13 km from me.
I love it here and as you imply, there are strange effects when you stand out.
I just came back from a child's birthday party, where the kids couldn't stop staring and giggling; the ladies wanted to say hello but were shy and the men, most of whom I knew wanted to shake hands, although I knew that some of them had never shaken hands before, because here it is normal to 'waai' - the Buddhist greeting.
It was a lovely evening.
People put themselves out for a foreigner here, but I cannot imagine that it is like that in my country.
All the best,
Owen
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» left by HyunSoung Kim (171 days 8 hours ago.)
Hello,
HyunSoung or Soung is just fine, thanks.
Yes, i can imagine how it is, and it is more the better if people are nice, and i guess they are all nice there, especially because people with whom you share are more grown ups now, here sometimes kind people step in, and than it is fine to communicate, but sometimes more how should i say, uneducated? persons can appear, and than it is totally different, but we get used to everything.
It was good to realize that you live in a foreign land as me, please share more interesting articles about it!
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» left by Owen Jones(195)
OK, Soung.
I don't have any problems in the village with people.
However, 5-6 years ago, I was sitting in the village shop sharing a beer with my wife and someone came up and sat down with us.
I could see that he was a friend of my wife's so I offered him my glass.
He finished it.
Odd, I thought.
That happened once more.
I tried to wait for a gap in the conversation between him and my wife to ask her a question, but every time I started to speak, he spoke over me..
I let it go, but Neem, mu wife knew I was getting annoyed.
He stayed an hour, drank my beer, took over the table and never even said hello to me.
When he left, Neem said to me: "Not only white people have racists".
That was that.
Since then, I have been to his house 100 times and I am always made welcome.
I don't know whether Neem spoke tp him or he 'woke up'.
One day, all these silly problems will pass in the same way.
All the best,
Owen
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» left by Hilda Cang (174 days 9 hours ago.)
Have you been to KL ? Pattaya is a beautiful place. Language is a problem for most of us from Malaysia to Bangkok.
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» left by Owen Jones(195)
No, Hilda, I haven't.
I have only been to Cambodia (Kampucha) and Lao.
I still have to work for a living and so cannot travel as much as I would like.
My Thai wife is not a keen traveller in Asia anyway.
As far as Thai goes, it isolated Thais too, because there is no easy step to another language.
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