Thailand - Why do I live there

     After my first night in Pattaya, Thailand where I met a woman on a blind date arranged by one of my best friends, I sat in bed and I remembered the details of the night before. We had started at The Pig and Whistle, where I was staying in Soi 7th The pig is a beautiful, quiet, peaceful, air-conditioned oasis of calm in a street, one of the liveliest is the loudest and busiest streets in Pattaya.

     We went out into the soi and into a stream of people not unlikethat a queue position for a football game, except that all the women were dressed in bikinis. We had one of these outdoor bars, where my friend had a surprise waiting for me to rely on. His girlfriend at a time, and I knew nothing about a friend of hers who wanted to meet me. The four of us had dallied one hours before the thirty yards to beach road. Transport is a triple on the Beach Road, so we took a taxi baht north with the tide and got out two or threeMiles away shortly before the Walking Street, the most well-known street in Pattaya.

We had gone in a complex of bars and had a randomly after. Only then I realized that the
bars were all the way around a Muay Thai boxing ring, where the fighting was continuous and free, although expected to foreigners that they will donate a prize to the winner of each bout, 20-100 baht is enough .

     We stayed for an hour and went to Walking Street to eat. We ate in a seafoodSpecialist restaurant, which has a dock or pier as a dining area. The food was incredible and the atmosphere was romantic with the moon reflecting on the ocean and atmospheric lighting.

I do not think I had a chance in the real world, I fell for my wonderful day, night, and I saw them every day for the rest of my 30 days vacation. We had a great time and if I had to go, I decided to find out whether I could live in Thailand. I went home and worked out that if I care, and asome things went in my favor, I would do best there is for ten years to live.

Six weeks later, I returned to Thailand, and Joy met me at the airport. Nothing had changed between us, and we go on a bus with her family in northern Thailand. We slept in a room that abandoned her brother for us and everyone made me very welcome. Joy's family lives in a traditional teak house on stilts, and all lived and slept in a room in the builttraditional manner, with the exception of Joy's brother, who had built an extension, because he hoped to marry soon.

     I love this town and still live there now, five years later. Joy and I are married and have our own house - a traditional, European-, concrete-block bungalow not five yards from Joy's mother, who is a wonderful mother-in-law. Her family seem what it was a big step to come to me here alone, and are determined to be there for me when I need help to understand,like my own family in Britain would. The mission at hand is to learn Thai as no one else in the village, next to my wife who speaks English.