You’ll Never Walk Alone

Having returned from a 3 month sojourn in France I have now finally resolved the eternal question of whether to sell up in Europe and sever what remaining ties I have left, or to purchase somewhere in France when I sell my London property, so at least
I had a base to return to.

Having already gone through the physical and financial stages here in Thailand, severing one’s emotional roots for me has been the hardest decision to make of my life, and right up even to my return to England I was still fighting
against all rational reasons why I should not proceed, and then like a ray of light it hit me. The answer to my dilemma was simple, in the event that my girlfriend refused to join me in the future, or that we split up, or God forbid that anything
happen to her, would I want to return to France alone?

In a nutshell the resounding answer that came back was a definite NO. This is I would say the biggest difference of living in Thailand or the west you are never alone, sure albeit for all the wrong reasons, but there's no denying it
you are simply never alone here, the opposite is much more the case, whereby you are spending all your time beating off the girls like flies.

Three months isn't too long a time to be away, but I cannot believe the rate of construction and development that has taken place here in Phuket during my absence, it's as if the island has suddenly gone into over drive. Even before
I returned I was questioning whether I would want to carry on living here, but now with the advent of the Central Festival opening this week the traffic congestion in the centre of the island is horrendous.

That Joni Mitchell song keeps coming up with the lyrics "Paid paradise to up a parking lot". Two areas of bars in Patong have closed – one just off the beach road in a small Soi and the second in the Expat Hotel Soi, where The Blue Moon Bar will be surely missed by many. A classical short time bar in the best possible taste, catering for afternoon matinees, it was the epitome of what a salubrious bar should be. A third area of bars for closure is also rumoured on Sawatdeerak Road.

Finally a profound thought came to me the other night, that during my lifetime I have ended up with women by default and not by design. My subconscious has over ridden my conscious, whereby I have been attracted to those not for their positive features but the fact that they don't have all the negative values that I associated with most women, by that I mean non threatening as far as the financial stakes are concerned.

So at the end of the day I strongly advise you take your wife for a long holiday at least prior to making any decisions about moving away from Thailand. In retrospect our European trip proved a disaster, as my girlfriend hated the weather, cuisine and drink, lack of Thai television, and was certainly not interested in mixing with any new Farangs. For me just the lack of being able to go out at any time and eat cheap food was something I sorely missed, where we were even if you wanted to go to the nearest pizza restaurant you had to book – unreal.

Stickman's thoughts:

There is no doubt in my mind that the decision to leave Thailand after having stayed here for a while would be much more difficult than the decision to leave the West and move to Thailand in the first place.