Terry's TrekThe funky Si Lom subway station, which is apparently not to be confused with the street it’s on, usually spelled Silom in English.
After 14 months at my university, and about two years total in Thailand, it's time to move on. I never really intended to stay here long, just enough to get a real taste of a foreign culture, as opposed to just traveling through. It's been a pretty difficult experience for me, since things are done differently here. I'm glad I had the chance to live and work here, though
I'm plotting a course through China, including Tibet. I'll hit China hard, then I'll be ready to come home, around the three year mark for my trek. First, I have to get rid of all the stuff I can't fit in my backpack (like the TV). It's sort of a weird reversal of what I went though before I originally left.
So, the Prime Minister finally assumed total control. Now he can arrest people for no reason, tap their phones, impose curfews, and censor the media. And the newspapers and blogs are full of letters from indignant farang complaining about the loss of personal freedoms in their country. Wait a second…
To all whining those foreigners living here: Do you have a Thai passport? No. I don’t care if you’re married to a Thai and have been living here for years, you’ll never get one and will always be a foreigner. Get a grip. It’s their country and they can do what they want. The Thai people elected this government with an overwhelming majority, and if they don’t like what the Prime Minister is doing, they can elect a new government.
EMERGENCY DECREE: PM takes absolute power
It's official. I turned in my work permit yesterday, and am now once again unemployed. I feel like I've made the right decision, and am ready, even eager, to go home. Working in Thailand has been difficult for me, since it takes a certain kind of person to be successful here, and I am not that kind of person.
I feel like I should have some kind of nice epilogue summarizing my experience here, but I don't really know what to write. Also, I am feeling overwhelmingly negative right now. That's why I stopped writing journal entries. I'm always irritated about something, so the entries had just become a litany of complaints. For me Thailand has become the Land of Scowls.
And that's unfair. There are a lot of good things about Thailand too. I need time to process my memories so that I can present the good along with the not so good.
So, maybe I'll write some more when I'm far away from this crazy place. For now, I'll just say that Thailand is a land of contradictions, and as much as I hate it, I love it, and am sure I will return some day.
But first, China beckons! That great, mysterious land with the red-hot economy that's supposed to take over the world is calling. At last I will fulfill my dream of visiting (the dream of working there is a few years off). This is the final leg of my trek. I'm gonna go all out, and see as much as I can of that massive country in two or three months.
Once I set out in a few weeks, this website should get going again with frequent journal entries and photos (especially if II buy a $500 camera before I leave). So stay tuned...
