What Do I Do?

This is hard, where do I start?

My name is Daniel I have a disease, and I think they call it Thai fever. I'm 29, nearly 30 and live in England, up until now I have done nothing with my life, no mortgage, no car just a motorbike. I work in construction, a journeyman digger driver working for anyone who pays the most money at the time. Anything from £20 – 25,000 a year.

I am not happy, like I said before I have a disease. I have been coming to Thailand 3 times a year for 2 years now, Bangkok, Ko Samet, Pattaya, and Phuket. My Thai speaking is nearly there by the way of lessons at my local Thai restaurant for the last 18 months. They are also trying to teach me to read but to be honest I don’t think this is ever going to happen.

The reason I came to Thailand is simple, I'm a you know what tourist. It started at 18 with all the boys going to a seaside resort on the west coast of England called Blackpool. Going for long weekends for booze and brothels. As we got a little older we got braver, Amsterdam, Osstend and Frankfurt were next. Not very cheap but we loved it. Then about four years ago we went to Prague in the Czech republic, beer and cheaper than anywhere we had been before. Then some of the boys started growing up and started having kids and mortgages. Our last trip to Prague there was only three of us, so we came up with a plan.

To get the boys back on board we started to organize a trip to Thailand, why Thailand you ask? The trip to end all trips! We had heard about Thailand being the place to go for seasoned mongers like us, if we were gonna bow down to life and grow up, then why not finish our wicked ways in Bangkok?

Only the lure of Bangkok wasn't enough for the rest of the boys so the same three went again, so we booked ten days in Bangers and found Nana plaza the first night. We took to it like ducks to water and couldn't believe you could get all night with a stunner for B3000, little did we know this was expensive and thought this was cheap when you would get 45 minutes in the dam for the same. I have learnt my lesson by now though. I'm not going in to details but you can imagine how much we enjoyed the trip. We honestly couldn't believe how we didn't come years before. This is where it gets tricky.

The day before we was due to leave I had an idea, I wasn't coming home yet. I asked the boys if they wanted to stay longer and they said no. It was very easy for me, I had finished the last job I was on one week before we left forBangkok but the other two had to go back to work, so I extended my flight by another two weeks at the cost of £100 and had the most amazing time.

Like I said before I I have been to Thailand six times now in the past two years, at Xmas Songkran and in the rainy season. I love it. I've had the bargirl bullshit, met some brilliant people – Aussies, Yanks even some great French. All I seem to do now is work for three to four months then go to Thailand for a month. What I'm thinking now is do I go to Thailand for good? Everything I do now in England is geared towards Thailand! I have very little savings, no mortgage or responsibilities.

Do I take a TEFL course and wing and prayer it in Bangers? Or go to Japan and teach English and earn more money and keep hopping over to Thailand? Stay in England and day dream of what might be? I have nothing really to stay here for, so what should I do? I know my reasons for going are bad, but I have absolutely nothing to lose, no career as such. In England I'm an average Joe, not Brad Pitt but not Freddy Kruger either. Like a lot of people I just make up the numbers, I don't want that, I want Thailand and everything she has to offer.

So do I come to Bangers with B200,000 and don't look back? I cant really screw my life up any more than it is? If it all goes wrong I can always come home and live with my brother for a bit.

I would really appreciate it if people would give me their opinion because I genuinely don't know what to do.

Maybe a wise Stick reader expat can give me some good advice about the realities of it all. Hopefully I can make my mind up soon, but to be honest I am finding it very hard.

Like I said before, my name is Daniel and I have a disease, I think it's called Thai fever.

Stickman's thoughts:

Living in Thailand and holidaying in Thailand are two different things. You are a naughty boy and there is no way you can do that sort of thing every night on a teacher's salary – or the hours a teacher keeps. I don't think living in Thailand is the best thing for you…