There’s no one sorrier than me about abandoning this blog in the summer of 2011 and a new, though short-lived, one I started while living in Vietnam in 2012. That last one really hurt when I shut it down after only two months.
But enough about that regretful silence. I will get around to explaining that in bits and pieces as the days and weeks roll along here on The Noodle Curtain.
Back to the present! I am living in Bangkok now, coming full circle since my arrival in the Big Smoke in the fall of 2010 -- a new member of the retiree rolls. In that three-year stretch, I lived in BKK, then Phnom Penh, Cambodia and then on to the Mekong Delta for a few months with my then girlfriend who was from Vietnam’s Rice Basket.
After the breakup of our business and relationship, I fled to Thailand. My apologies but I landed in Pattaya, otherwise known as Sin City. It was just easy there. Lots of good food, cheap accommodation, lots of bars and an escape from the previous stressful Vietnam campaign.
I lost count of the number of times I considered resurrecting this blog. But I just didn’t have the inspiration but more especially the energy to rebuild this blog. Well, soon enough the real reason I didn’t have the energy was that I fell into the hands of a very nice Thai girl. She was my first ever Thai GF -- this despite nine plus years of travelling and living in Southeast Asia. Yeah, I was that picky. Seven days a week I was running errands for my GF’s restaurant, doing this and that and generally being a Good Boy. But that ended too after about 10 months.
Exit. Stage Bangkok!
This is my third attempt to live here. It has failed. My best friends in the world live here but I can’t abide by the intense living conditions and lifestyle here. Oh, yeah, it’s bloody expensive. And just last week the Thai government increased the alcohol tax again. Cry with me . . .
Since moving here last May, I was quite happy for a while, having needed to escape (abominable) Pattaya and the breakup of another business and personal relationship. Note to self: Never combine a new relationship with starting a new business! Wait a couple of years! It was no one’s fault really, but that’s for another time.
Now I have no attachments except my new-this-year iMac and my old faithful 5-year-old MacBook laptop. Oh, and my 42-inch LG LCD flatscreen TV. Oops, forgot my (recently discovered) fantastic Reebok shoes. Best ever walking shoes -- I love to walk. LOL.
Alas, I will leave Bangkok. There are two likely candidate locations: Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City. Or maybe I should just say, Cambodia and Vietnam. That gives me an out if I decide on neither city! It won’t be Thailand. Thailand is getting tired of foreign residents. Well, the feeling is mutual. That’s another topic for another day.
During these almost four months, I think I’ve been away more than I’ve been in my Bangkok apartment, spending a lot of time in Phnom Penh and, uh, Pattaya. Strange that. The farther away I went, the closer I felt to Sin City. OK, maybe it’s just that I couldn’t enjoy or relax in Bangkok. True.
This decision has got me thinking about all the lovely possibilities of my two favoured locations, Phnom Penh or Saigon (HCMC). I’ve been getting more and more enthused week by week, which seems to have tickled awake my brain’s blogging department. I’m feeling a growing inspiration to write, whereas Thailand leaves me cold. It’s been overdone anyway.
I remember when I wrote Nine Dragons Village (inactive now), the creative spirit was overflowing. I also started another blog for our bar/restaurant in the Delta. Two blogs at once and I felt I could write them forever. While The Noodle Curtain lasted three years, I knew it would end because my interest in the Thailand experience had faded away, evidenced by the two-week (and rising) intervals between posts in summer, 2011.
Nutshell: I’m alive and well. I’m back. I’m moving. I’m fired up.
PS: I will continue this blog here at The Noodle Curtain for a couple of months (since I’m still in Thailand and this was a mostly Thailand blog) until I move. That’s when I hope to start a new blog over at Wordpress.
Recent Comments