How to leave...

[MikeJaah]

3.00am Back at the Omni. I am pouring the Mekhong cokes and my brown-skinned lovely is busying herself taking the Issan food out of the little plastic bags and on to plates. She has her post-coital towel wrapped around her as she sits cross-legged on the sofa and beckons me over with a smile. Charlies Angels is on the TV (again...) and I settle beside her for some mystery meat, depth charge noodles and twigs. We grab handfuls of sticky rice and munch contentedly. I lie back on the sofa and gaze at her hunched over the pungent food, nut-brown back against the perfect white of the hotel towel, damp sleek-black hair hinting at the curve of her neck and spine.

 

 

 

My plane back to London leaves in 9 hours.

 

 

 

I am happily drunk and haven't even thought of packing yet...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK. Some introductions. This is my first post after something like 2 years of silently lurking amongst this happy corner of the internet. I have been to Thailand four times now. This time my leaving is a mixture of sadness and contentment. The latter emotion is spurred by one simple fact; I have decided that Sometime soon it's going to be Tesco Lotus instead of Tesco, the Sky Train instead of the Tube and Siam Square instead of Leicester square. I am going to do it. Get out of graffiti ridden scowling London and place myself at the mercy of Krung Thep.

 

 

 

During my holiday I have wandered up Sukhumvit thinking "Can I really live here?". I have decided on my last day the answer is "Yes"....."Maybe"....."Well, stuff it; who knows?". I know that BKK means more to me that a holiday destination.

 

 

 

Some pursuasive memories as I sit here typing:

 

 

 

 

 

Visiting Wat Arun and kneeling in the temple whilst my Thai friend recited prayers in her mother tongue a few words at a time for me to follow and copy. I had absolutely no idea as to the meaning of what I was saying, but that didn't seem to matter one iota.

 

 

 

 

 

A stunning young Thai girl and her farrang husband in a restaurant with their baby. She is the epitome a loving, protective mother, proundly letting the waitresses coo over the child. One of the serving girls gently holds the baby in her arms. As I look over and catch her eye, the girl holding the baby smiles in a way I don't think I have ever seen before. "Smile" is too small a word. Her whole face and body radiate in a way that would make Cameron Diaz look like Albert Steptoe. Apologies for the Brit-centric reference, but I am sure you get the drift.

 

 

 

 

 

Getting stranded at a tiny beer bar and laughing with the girls when every time I made to pay the check bin a downpour would start, meaning that I would have to delay my plan to return to the hotel and instead order another Mekhong and coke. Each time this happened, one of the girls would perform a deep wai to the statue of Buddha high up on a ledge and tell me with a smile that "Buddha no want you pay check bin. Budda make rain for me".

 

 

 

 

 

OK, you got the idea. I am in post-holiday rose-tinted mode. But maybe you understand? Insignificant events....these draw me back.

 

 

 

Oh yes, I did the usual....Soi Cowboy, Nana disco, bar fines and forgetting those ubiqutous little names. Was the first night "Pon", "Gop" or "Oi"?? I even ventured to the Grace Coffee Shop. Twice. A vision of hell that I found curiously compelling.

 

 

 

So. I make my plans. I am a lawyer here in reality-land, but not the sort of lawyer who could get posted abroad on a fat expat package. I will email legal firms during the few months before I leave to see if I can pick up some work when I arrive. Nothing too fancy, perhaps some para-legal bits and pieces, or if needs be I can maybe try and get some corporate teaching gig. I have no teaching experience, but it seems this is not necessarily a hurdle to starting off. Hell, I don't want a cossetted country-club expense-package existence. I just want the means to get by on top of some investment income that I should have.

 

 

 

But I owe you guys. I don't think I would be so confident about moving if it wasn't for the reports I read (mainly from those of you living in BKK). I remember a thread a little while ago dealing with whether or not you expats were happy living in Thailand. Unless I remember incorrectly, the vast majority were and had no regrets. I am a big boy and know that there are always negatives. Everyone's experiece is different. But that straw poll spoke volumes to me.

 

 

 

 

 

8.30am. I am in the taxi and we leave Sukhumvit, gently rising up onto the expressway. Enormous, gaudy posters advertising mobile phones and skin cream plaster the sky-line. Pick-ups weighed down in the back with lounging Thai men scoot past. My friend tells me I stink of whisky and fusses over checking whether he has enough Baht to cover the airport departure tax. He is looking forward to getting back to London. I am making my plans....

[Guest]

The addiction strikes yet once again........

 

 

 

The true attraction is in all the seemingly small little stuff that combines to makes Thailand the LOS.

 

 

 

 

[thalenoi]

Great, welcome to the club with the bug.

 

 

 

I do enjoy your desciption of the city, on the expressway, in the wat, the restaurant with the mixed couple and their baby...

 

 

 

I normally live at walking distance from the sea in a from Buddha forgotten place because I would not dream living in Bankok.

 

 

 

10 day ago I went from Sai Tai Mai bus station to Panthip Plaza and to the airport. I still have the heat and smell of Bangkok in my nostrils. No, I don't like the city, but I miss her...

 

 

 

Whatever your dream looks like, it's nice to live here.

[spirit_of_town_hall]

Hi Mike,

 

 

 

Nice report, and good for you that your moving over, hope to tread that well trodden path myself in a year or two.

 

 

 

There a a reasonable number of law firms that have Farang lawyers working for them, as you would expect. Not all of them are the Slaughter and May's of this world, there are some smaller firms with British partners, a lot of the work the Farang lawyers do at these firms are prison visits and appeal processing for British people serving very long sentences or are charged with a capital offence.

 

 

 

The British Embassy have a list of Practices with Farang associates and Partners who act as "consultants", if you have any immigration law experience I know that there are consultants that help Thai people and others gain entry to the UK.

 

 

 

STH

 

 

 

 

[Goodthaigirl]

MikeJaah, (ääì¨ëÒ)

 

 

 

I enjoyed your post very much.

 

 

 

Please keep us posted on your big trip to Bkk.

 

 

 

GTG

[Sukhumvit]

If you're gonna do it wait until after October so you've got a year's practising certificate ahead of you in case things go belly up. At least you could come back and do some locum work w/out having to fork out whatever it costs for a pc (I think yesterday's Gazette said the price is going up to over £700).

 

 

 

If you want a law job then check out one of the lawyer search engines, I think there's one Martindale & something lawyer locator. Conveyancing may be useful if you got into flogging condos. Most of the law firms I've seen deal with company/commercial stuff. If you're in a high street practice then paralegal work may be possible. I think being on the ground helps rather than applying from a distance. Then again maybe you'd rather not have anything further to do with law.

 

 

 

Know what you mean about seeing the girl with the kid. I remember a pretty hard core bg hold a baby and she became a totally different person. She had a wall to wall smile and positively skipped over to me holding it. I still wonder what happened to her.

 

 

 

Plus, having come in early after a few post work scoops on a Friday night, the UK, (fab & groovy though it is), can get a little bland after a while. Gimme some somtam. Gimme some somtam.

[MikeJaah]

thanks to all for your replies!

 

 

 

I will start emailing firms a few months before I leave, and if I get a few nibbles, I'm off. If I don't get any nibbles, I'm off anyway. I guess it will be very unlikely for work to fall into my lap before I'm there....I may have to take a big risk, and my friends who have said that I am gambling too much may be right, but better a glorious failure than moderate success, right??

 

 

 

Suk - great tip about the pc. Hopefully, the timing will be right. I was out Friday night after work too, exactly (time difference allowing) one week after the scene described in the start of my post. Not a bad night, but extortionate prices, braying suits and Essex girls don't really match up to my little beer bar on Soi 4...! And don't even talk about the weather..........!

 

 

 

GTG - thanks for your comments. It was hard to post cold about matters so personal to me. The anonymity of the internet makes it easier, and the responses I have recieved have really encouraged me.

 

 

 

I will post again. In the meantime, I'm gonna see if I can get hold of some more Thai MP3s...Music is one of the things that REALLY takes me back! Somtam for the ears!

[spirit_of_town_hall]

Hi Mike,

 

 

 

I'd watch out for Good Thai Girl, I noticed her interest picked up, a lawyer moving to Bkk is a good prospect!!

 

 

 

STH

[Guest]

Mike;

 

 

 

Go for it! The worst you can do is fail. The best needs no explaining.

 

 

 

Know a good Scot lad who packed things up and moved there. He is teaching English now in a Thai school. Of course, the thought of Thai kids speaking English with a Glasgow accent just tickles the hell out of me.

 

 

 

I've spent many years traveling around the world and enjoying most of it except for gettting shot at in The Nam. All of this traveling taught me one truth. Home is where you hang your hat.

 

 

 

Looking forward to another post from you detailing your decision to leave Blighty and go to the Land of Smiles.

 

 

 

Take care my friend.

 

 

 

Paul

 

The Old Sarge

[MikeJaah]

Thanks for your kind words!

 

 

 

I sit here doing the 9-5 thing, counting the days till I can leave. As usual, it all comes down to finances, I want to clear my debts and have some decent savings before I make the leap. Actually, I am going to post now on careers and finances to see if some kind people can comment on my BKK budget....

 

 

 

I feel good having made the decision....not just gotta bide my time!