hi folks, it’s been a while. Hope you’re all keeping out of trouble, ho ho ho! There’s been a minor change of plan, one which will cause this particular mailing list, operating under this particular name, to become, at least temporarily, obsolete. In short: I’m abandoning the others and staying in Thailand. Well, that was the plan as of about 10 days ago. The plan has changed again since then. Ben P is going home cos he hasn’t got any money left and can’t be arsed to travel any more (not a word to Sarah though: it’s a surprise) and Ben G and Andrew are also going back to Bangkok for a while (one month at the moment).

Now the Whats, the Hows, The Wheres and, most importantly, the Whys: I’m staying cos I’ve fallen in love with Thailand, with Bangkok and with one of it’s residents (yes, she is female, I’ve checked). I’ll be staying in the flat she currently shares with her sister who is shortly (before the end of the month) moving out and going to live
with her boyfriend. I’ll be getting myself a job, a house, a car, a dog, a family and I won’t be getting carried away or anything. Well, I’ll settle for just the job if I have to. How long I stay here depends on many things including the nearby topography of my economic landscape (my salary) and how the bonds of affection are holding out between myself and my beloved (how I’m getting in with Ae (she’s the one)). I’m aiming to stay at least until june but then again, there’s no reason why I have to do even that. My only constraint is that I have a place at Manchester Uni starting in mid-September this year but if I was really having a good time and enjoying my IT related job, there’s no reason why I couldn’t defer my entry for another year, or two, or ten…. basically the world is my oyster and I hate oysters which is why I can’t be arsed to go and see it and I’m staying firmly in Bangkok where the pollution stops you from seeing most of the oyster and disguises the smell a little.

Now on to Mr. Pink here: Ben P.
I must say I entirely understand why he’s turning back. I think I would be severely tempted to do the same if I wasn’t already staying in Thailand. If my money had also run out to the extent his has, there would be very little decision-making to be done. Travelling is crap. It is. You stay in dingy little guest-houses and get ripped of at every twist and turn. You have to carry all your belongings around with you and endure terrible travelling conditions such as our 30.5 hour trip from BKK to KL via a combination of Taxi, Coach, Bus and Pick-up (incidentally, the pick-up part was the most comfortable) and that’s in Thailand/Malaysia which has some of the best busses around.
Anyway, I feel him.
Not like that.

Then there’s Mr Ging: Ben G.
He wants to go back to BKK but not to see his young Thai lady, just to be in BKK which, to be fair, is a very great city. You will not see a higher concentration of beautiful girls or flyovers anywhere else in the world. I’m also a little relieved that someone else is going back with me and also has to go through all the shit of getting visas, tickets, job, work-permit etc. with me.

Finally, Mr Green: Andrew.
Much of our discussion took place away from him because he’s ill and stayed in bed while we all went out to discover just how unexciting KL is. Between badly censored films we decided on our plan and then came home and said: oh, by the way, Ben’s going home and Ben’s going back to bkk; what do you want to do? I think his choice of going back to bkk isn’t too rushed though because he was talking of staying even before I thought about it but decided against it when I told him it wasn’t a very good idea (how things change).

So there you have it. The situation as it stands. We’re currently killing time between getting chucked out of our hotel that we’ve been threatening to check out of since we arrived cos the air-con didn’t work (don’t worry, we broke one of the beds and chucked all the gold bits of the other one out of the window before accidentally pouring
perfume and shampoo all over the floor - we got our money’s worth) and venturing, guns at the ready, into “little india” to find a hotel which is recommended in the Lonely Planet as being spacious and good value. We can only hope.

Next time I’ll be in contact I may well have added several Indianicides to my name,

‘Till then, take care of yourselves…

…and each other.