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1. Lady-boys- I love lady-boys, they fascinate me. There was a group of them sitting having dinner and drinks in On Nut night market in Bangkok on the first night I arrived back.  I have been out with a few and they are so much fun although they can be bitchy and some of them you just cannot tell that they used to be female- some of them are absolutely stunning but some of them have sorry tales to tell- when sometimes their family disown them because of who they want to be. It’s very sad. I watched a DVD- Beautiful Boxer- about a Thai boy, Nong Toom, who did Muay Thai boxing to pay for his operations to become female, he was accused of defiling the masculinity of Thai kick-boxing  but persevered in following his dreams and now she is a successful business woman, running a boxing camp in Pranburi, Thailand and teaching Muay Thai and aerobics to children.

   

   2. Street Dogs- Oh my god they are such a pain in the ass. Most of these dogs are owned by families who let them out at night, and they go around in packs and it is sometimes very intimidating when they won’t let you pass. I remember once I was walking back to the house I was staying, and after some little yappy pup tried snapping at my heels, he watched until I got back to the house and no longer on his territory. When I first moved into my house, in Surin, the dogs would bark and bark because they did not know me but after a while they got used to my smell and left me alone. For this reason they are actually quite good guard dogs because they bark if they don’t know someone walking around near your home.

3. Don’t “wai” kids when they “wai” you- In Thailand the accustomed greeting (if you enter a home or work or even a restaurant, is for people to “wai”; which is when both palms are pressed together, as in a prayer fashion, and the head is bowed slightly. There are rules though and most Thai people forgive Westerners the fact that we do not know what these rules are.  If you “wai” your parents, grandparents, or a monk the tips of the fingers should be touching between your eyes; a friend you would have your fingertips at the tip of the nose; if someone younger “wais” an older person then the older person does not return the gesture. When I got back to Surin we went to a local bar for a beer and said hello to the owner who had a child in the back. As the child should have she greeted me in the traditional way and I returned it- I just got carried away because I was all excited at being back in Surin.

4. Staring- Oh how Thais love to stare, especially when you are in a non-touristy place, such as Surin, where I am based for a few weeks. They don’t mean anything by it, they are genuinely interested in seeing a foreign woman in their midst. I remember living here and was doing my weekly shop and this whole family spotted me and stared and I thought “for God’s sake what are you lot staring at now?” So I waved and was treated to the most wonderful smiles and enthusiastic waving. It made me laugh and really made my day.

5. Wonderful Smiles- Thailand is known as The Land of Smiles and believe me it is true (apart from the moody immigration officers at the airport). Everywhere you go if you smile you get the most wonderful smiles back and if you ingratiate yourself into their culture a little by speaking to them and making friends, you will be rewarded with ever-lasting memories. I have so many friends here- people in bars and restaurants, people in schools, people that I have met once or twice- when I lived in Surin I went to a restaurant only once in a three year period, and on arrival back here, some two years later, the lady remembered me. It is such a nice feeling.

6. Friendly People- As no.5 but everywhere you go you will find Thais a friendly bunch of people. You only have to walk down the street and say “sawadee ka” (Hello) and they will say it back to you. On my daily run around the park they say “hi” and engage me in conversation about where I’m from, what I’m doing here, what my name is. It’s so easy to talk to them and become friends with some of them.

7. Chicken Balls (on sticks) – Any market has these and they are delicious. You can get chicken, pork, beef and prawns and these are skewered onto a stick which are then deep fried so they cook and served in a plastic bag with a little bag of chilli sauce. Delicious and so cheap, about 10 BHT each (around 1p).

8. Ants- Ants are everywhere, in the kitchen, in your bed, in your cup of tea, in your food. Tiny ones that don’t bite- they are so small they won’t do you any harm but they do get everywhere but after a while you just tend to ignore them even when you see hundreds of them marching in a line towards a piece of food that you have maybe left out after lunch. They love sweet things, so things like sugar have to be kept in the fridge because, even if the sugar is in a sealed container, the little rascals still find a way in. Then there are the large red ants that also march around outside on their daily business but these ones are aggressive and if you annoy them they will give you a nasty bite.

9. XL clothes- Being someone who likes to keep fit and (tries) to watch what I am eating and drinking I still have a few unwanted pounds here and there but it pains me to buy XL clothes when I am normally around a 12/14 but living in an Asian country one has to put up with certain things, and as Thais are generally smaller the clothes are made smaller. So XL it is then!

10. Taking alcohol into bars/clubs-This I love. Certain clubs and bars, especially in places like Surin, will allow you to bring your own bottle of vodka, whiskey or whatever you want (sometimes you have to pay a corkage fee), so you only pay for whatever mixers you have- which makes for a cheaper night out if you are on a budget. I found out the other day that at a couple of regular hangout places, here in Surin, the staff will let you keep a bottle behind the bar (even putting your name on it), so that every time you go there you only have to buy the mixers.

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My treasure is my best friend Kelly. We spent so much time together over the past two years, we always have a great time whether we are chilling watching TV or a movie or out on the town having a few wines together. Our Thursday sessions out and about were the best times. She is beautiful, funny, kind and great fun to be around. My little treasure MWAH  😉

Knowing someone in the country you are visiting has its benefits. My Sri Lankan friend, Pubudu, had already taken us around Colombo for the day and he had taken me to a beach side restaurant for dinner. You get to go to places that you wouldn’t normally go to simply because you don’t know the places exist.

So on the last Friday of our trip we arranged to have a night out in Colombo with Pubbs and his friends. We got a tuk-tuk to meet Pubbs at his work place and then we drove to Floor by O- a bar in Colombo’s district 7.

It is 1000 LKR (around 5 GBP) to get in, although ladies get in free. The entrance fee is taken off the bill at the end of the night and we found out that the reason they do this is because people were coming in and not buying anything.

It was quite busy when we got there so we had to sit outside on the pool terrace. We met up with Pubbs’ friends, Nuwan and Kurt, had a few drinks and dinner and then went inside to soak up some Sri Lankan atmosphere.

It is quite a small club but it was very busy, the music was banging and they had a band playing as well. Everyone was dancing and enjoying their Friday evening- while we watched what was going on from the bar until I found myself jigging along to “Achy Breaky Heart” (there is a first for everything, believe me!)

We left there around 11pm and went to another bar- Margarita Blue Retro Pub- which is located in the Galadari Hotel. Much plusher than the previous one with more of an older crowd, great music again with a band playing and great views from the garden terrace.

It is such a pleasure meeting new friends- Nuwan was great fun to be around- he was a great dancer (he told us he had dancing lessons but then his friends added only for ONE DAY, which made us all laugh). Having had a few too many drinks we left around 1am and got a tuk-tuk back to Mount Lavinia.

We had a great time with the guys- I can’t thank them enough for showing us a bit more of Colombo at night, and to Pubbs for being our designated driver (he was sick so not drinking) and being very patient with us all getting drunk around him.

So having been very lazy for the first week, apart from going to Colombo and gate-crashing a party we decided to visit Galle. Galle is located on the east coast and is Sri Lanka’s fourth largest city and in the centre lies the Fort- the old Dutch quarter. Surrounding the Fort is a series of bastions which were used for coastal defence during the seventeenth century when the Dutch invaded and captured the town from the Portuguese.

We had befriended two people from Norwich- Jane and Brunty (so named because his nickname was Brontosaurus, being quite a big bloke)-and so we decided to share the cost of a van and driver and head south for the day.

We left around 8.30am and arrived in Galle around midday- on the way passing through Beruwala (where I had stayed some twenty years ago), Bentota, and Hikkaduwa (Sri Lanka’s original hippy destination).

We had lunch at the first place we spotted- Mama’s Roof Cafe. A beautiful little place with a roof top restaurant overlooking the red brick roofs and the mosques and churches to the sea. We had a typical Sri Lankan lunch, which consisted of a meat dish- either fish or chicken-with an assortment of side dishes-dhal, ladies fingers, jack fruit and sour mango. It was delicious, washed down with a couple of Lion beers.

Then we went to visit the jungle beach with Silva (our guide for the day) and our driver. About 15 minutes outside of Galle we drove down very narrow little streets with stalls either side where you can buy anything from paintings to clothing-typically tourist stuff. The beach itself was indeed in the middle of the jungle and was situated in a beautiful little bay and as you can imagine the sand was golden and the sea was brilliant blue. It was beautiful but it didn’t have the local charm of Mount Lavinia-where there are less tourists and much less busy.

Back at the Fort we walked around the ramparts, which protect Galle’s Fort from ever becoming victim to modernisation. There are a number of beautiful little streets with little cafes and shops, which make for a very pleasurable way to pass a few hours. You can enter the Fort through the main gate and the three fortifications here- the Sun, Moon and Star bastions-protected the area from attack by land.

There is a pathway that leads you over the ramparts and you can walk all around the Fort. The bastions are huge and have different names- Zwart (Black); Ackersloot; Aurora; Point Utrecht; Triton; Neptune; Clippenberg and Aeolus.  The latter bastions give beautiful views across the town and you can see that the walls are formed of coral which were dragged into place by slaves.

We left Galle around 5 o’clock and made our way back to Mount Lavinia happy that we had decided to have a day out. Galle is a beautiful place and if you are into architecture, a relaxed atmosphere and a bit of history then this is well worth a visit. I for one will be going back there when I return to Sri Lanka.

Having left my Mum and Dad at Heathrow I arrived, some 10 hours later, skipping ahead in time 5 and a half hours, at my destination- Mount Lavinia, on the beautiful island of Sri Lanka. I had been to Sri Lanka twenty odd years ago when I got married for the first time but things change right? So leaving Bandaranaike airport the taxi took the new express way towards Colombo. I had arranged for the hotel to pick me up but when I got there, there was no-one waiting so had to take a taxi which was OK  and I arrived safely enough, but I could see in the mirror that the drivers eyes were drooping and he was nearly falling asleep. I said “Hey, you falling asleep?” “No, no, no  ma’am am OK” was the reply, but I wasn’t taking any chances so talked about nothing in particular for the rest of the way.

Mount Lavinia is on the west coast about an hour from the airport and when you arrive in a new place your first impressions are not always the best ones. It basically looked like there was nothing there apart from the local shops, houses and people. The hotel- Ranveli Beach Resort- looked smaller than it did in the photographs I had seen, and they failed to take a picture of the huge derelict building at the back AND there is a railway line that separates the hotel from the beach.  I knew about the railway track because I had been reading the reviews on Trip Adviser and there were mixed opinions about it. I have no problems with the many trains passing by- it adds to the charm of this little suburb, especially when you see all the locals hanging out of the doors on the way to wherever they are going.

Back to the hotel-it is a lovely little place. The room is basic with no hot water but that doesn’t matter when you have been out in the heat all day, although it hasn’t been that hot since I have been here. The staff are absolutely wonderful and are happy to help with whatever you need.

I arrived safe and sound to a big hug from my good friend Mark, who I know from living in Surin in Thailand. I dropped my bags in my room and we wandered along the beach and spent the next few hours catching up over a few beers and we managed to find the best red wine in Asia I have ever had. And the food… it is amazing…quite spicy but so very tasty.

I felt rubbish when I first got there- I had a throat infection anyway and the jet lag didn’t help plus my ears were blocked from the pressure of descending on the plane. So the next day I slept until the afternoon and just chilled out around the pool.

In the evening I met up with my Sri Lankan friend, Pubudu (Pubbs). He took me to a couple of bars-one of them you would never guess it was there because when we arrived it was pitch black and there appeared to be nothing across the railway track-but on the beach side was Buba Beach Bar and there we sat with no light apart from a candle on the table, the waves of the Indian Ocean lapping onto the beach eating devilled chicken and nasi goreng for dinner washed down by a few cold Lion beers.

The next day Pubbs took us for a day out in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital. Because of the traffic, which is completely crazy, (as in most Asian cities there are no rules on the road, cars, motorcycles and tuk-tuks all competing for road space) we took the coastal road into the city. There is no central area to Colombo- there are high rise modern office blocks intermingled with run down shops and houses.

There are the tell-tale signs of Sri Lanka’s colonial past in the form of beautiful buildings with their colonnade balconies and terra-cotta tiled roofs. Different religions are evident as well, with Muslim mosques and Hindu and Buddhist temples. We made our way to Slave Island- so named because of the some four thousand African slaves that worked in the city. It is not actually an island but surrounded by Beira Lake and, in the seventeenth century, this lake was filled with crocodiles by the Dutch to stop the slaves from escaping.

We visited Gangaramaya Temple which is one of Colombo’s most important shrines. There are collections of Thai Buddhas, Chinese Bodhisattvas, and Hindu deities, there is a bo tree in the middle with prayer flags on the branches, and there is a room with an odd selection of items- such as watches, jewellery and a couple of vintage cars parked outside.

A short walk away, situated on Beira Lake is Seema Malaka another important Buddhist Temple- this one is used for the inauguration of monks.  Interestingly it was designed by a Sri Lankan architect but paid for by a Colombo Muslim, who had fallen out with his fellow Muslims and decided to get his own back by investing in this Buddhist shrine. The temple is flanked by rows of Thai Buddhas which make for an interesting photo opportunity with the modern day buildings in the background.

There is a small island in the middle of the lake which can be reached over a bridge. Mark and I wandered round and I wondered why Pubbs hadn’t followed us but I found out later that he was embarrassed because this is the place that young Sri Lankans come to spend time with each other away from the prying eyes of parents-all around there were young couples smooching under umbrellas or lying under the shade of the trees.  We agreed that this sort of behaviour makes a welcome change from the somewhat garishness of the west.

We had a lunch of Sri Lankan curry and on the way back we visited the independence monument which was built in 1948 to commemorate when power passed from the British to the United National Party until the leadership of Don Stephen Senanayake.

The next couple of days we just chilled around the hotel and didn’t really venture that far. We had big plans of going here and there but four days in we were just happy to chill and relax.  And one of the things that I love about being in a different country is that random things happen and you find yourself in situations that wouldn’t necessarily happen at home. One of those things happened when we hadn’t gone very far during the day and we had literally crossed the railway tracks to a restaurant, not five seconds away. We had dinner at the bar and were talking to a guy from Boston who had just arrived from Austria. I noticed a bar which was playing loud music and it seemed to be quite busy, so after dinner we decided to check it out. We stumbled into a private party for the employees of Singer who had come together for their end of year party, or something like that. Well as someone who likes Asian guys I was loving it (a few beers had been consumed) but I have never had so much attention in the space of one hour.  I was dancing and had about ten lads all around me all asking me to dance and trying to pull me onto the dance floor. The guys were harmless but I was glad Mark was with me, the guys were a little overpowering to say the least! We got free beer and when we went to sit down because we were exhausted with all the Sri Lankan dancing, the manager came over and asked us whether the guys were behaving themselves.  So having befriended a couple of new people we left them to it. We saw them the next day at breakfast as they were staying in our hotel and they were a lot quieter than they had been the previous evening!

So one week has passed since I left the UK and my family and friends. I miss them all but this is the start of a new chapter in my life and I can’t wait to turn the next few pages.

My last entry before leaving the UK…the next time I post will be from sunny Sri Lanka 😉

I have never contemplated poetry before but this attempt has been made for my family: 😉

An Ode to The Folks

After two years at home

It’s time once more

To leave the sunny Shire

 

But please don’t be sad

Cos I am glad

To leave,

I need to breathe

In the land that I love so much.

 

Mum and Roy are full of joy

That I am leaving them once more,

Two years have passed, they are aghast,

It was only supposed to be a year.

 

I have had a special time living with my folks

I just hope

They know how much.

 

We have shared a lot of fun and laughter,

Even though Mum shouts at her eldest daughter

-hang the washing out- no not that way

-do the ironing- turn the trousers inside out

-clean your room-

-you make too much noise

And there is a whole lot more,

But I adore

The time that we have had.

 

I thank you so much for putting me up,

Or putting up with me!

Thanks for the wine

Thanks for the gin

Thanks for the family shenanigans

 

My family- wherever I am

You are never far away

You are my all and I love you all

There are no words to say.

 

My sisters and brothers,

Like you there are no others.

Have seen Trev twice, it might be thrice

But glad I saw you at all!

 

As the song goes:

Am leaving on a jet plane,

Don’t know when I’ll be back again.

So be happy and no tears,

And let my last 3 days be full of cheers!

In 2011 I decided that I was going to return to the UK for a while. I had re-started my Open University degree and as I had been away for nearly three years I would have had to start paying overseas fees, which were more than double, so I guessed that it would be cheaper for me to finish it in the UK.

Another reason was that owed money on a credit card and had been sending money home but that was barely paying the interest each month (I worked out that I had paid of about £40 in one year), so I guessed that I would be able to pay this off easier if I went home. I also had a house that I rented out and I did not want the hassle of owning a house so I decided to go home to sell it. And I would be able to save money in order to return to Thailand debt and house free with money in the bank.

So I reluctantly left Thailand in December 2011 and arrived home for the next twelve months. I had a plan of paying off debts in six months and saving for six months but thinking back that was not really realistic as I wouldn’t have been able to get much enjoyment out of my stay. So nearly two years later I am still here and getting ready to fly the nest once more.

I cannot believe where the time has gone. I have been home for two years!  Time flies so fast it is positively scary! But I have ten days to go and I cannot wait to get back to the place that I love to begin a new chapter in my life and spread my wings once more.

My time at home has been great. I have been able to spend time with family and friends and do the things that I set out to do- my degree is complete, my house is sold, my credit card is (almost) paid off and I am saving as much as I can before leaving on 27^th January 2014.

I have been living with my parents since being home and can’t thank them enough for putting me up (or putting up with me I think they would jokingly say). The time I have spent with them has been precious and I have loved every minute of living with them (I hope they will say the same!) We have had a lot of laughs and I have been told off for not tidying up, not ironing the clothes properly, not being as quiet as I could be in the mornings when I leave for work, not hanging the washing out in the correct (Mum) way- You know normal things that parents get onto their children about.

Because I have been saving I have also turned into some sort of recluse, preferring to stay in rather than going out all the time. I haven’t seen my friends as much as I would have liked but they (I hope) understand. People have said I have changed (I used to be a bit of a party animal and out all the time and believe me the party animal is lurking just under the surface) but I haven’t changed, I am still the same person, it’s just that I have different priorities now and some things have got to be sacrificed for the greater good. The greater good being travelling and settling abroad again.

Don’t get me wrong I love the UK- my family and friends are there- and I would never give up my British passport to settle in a new country (Thailand does not have dual nationality like some countries, so if you become a citizen there you would have to give up your British passport) but it is just so expensive here and everyone seems to be rushing around going from one place to another all the time. Having lived in Thailand for three years made me realise that I want a slower pace of life and a less expensive one. I am not interested in all the possessions that I used to have, I don’t want to own a house, I don’t want an expensive car- I want to be able to wake up every day with the sun on my back and immerse myself in a culture that is so very different to my own. People ask me what it is I love about Thailand and I tell them it is everything about it- the people, the culture, the weather, the beautiful (and not so beautiful) sights you see every day.

So thanks for having me back everyone I really do love you and will miss you all for different reasons but my new chapter awaits and I cannot wait to start it.

My brothers and sisters 😉