Month: September 2014

So we have done it, we are here in Thailand after selling up and leaving the UK for want of a better lifestyle.. We left on the 5 September with our bags rammed to the seams and 3 flights ahead of us.. The thought of the 15 hour+ flight wasn’t particularly appealing but knowing we were planning not to return for a long time was.. We flew from Manchester to Amsterdam then Amsterdam to Bangkok then onto Phuket.. When we arrived at Amsterdam that niggling last splurge took over and we upgraded to Business class for the 11 hour 40 minute journey to Bangkok – probably in the top 5 of best decisions I have made in my life 😉

We arrived at our hotel we had booked for the first 3 weeks, http://www.monaburiboutiqueresort.com and felt like we had entered into a peaceful and tranquil world – Bob & Mona instantly made us feel at home and as they had been given the tip it was our 7th Wedding Anniversary, they had decorated our room and bought us a gift – this is why we love Thailand and the people who live here (and Murray of course!)

The hotel is lovely, not too far from the bars and shops but far enough not to hear the night’s activities if you want to get a good nights sleep.

We slept for a couple of hours as we had friends arriving later that night and knew we would be partying to celebrate both us leaving and our anniversary so thought we had better get some Zzz’s in as we had no idea what time we would be crawling to bed later.  I must admit the first 10 days seem all a bit of a blur, with the late night parties and the fact we still couldn’t believe we weren’t on holiday, we said an emotional farewell to the lads as they jumped on the mini bus to take them to the airport for their flight back to Newcastle – I cried with laughter for those 10 days especially the morning after a night out when Connor said he could start piecing the night together after showing me the tattoo he couldn’t remember having done.. Hilarious..

So with the lads gone, Jon and I needed to get our grown up heads on and start looking for somewhere to live and also to sort a work permit for Jon to be able to teach Scuba Diving.  When we arrived, we met up with Andy and Sally from http://www.andyscubadiving.com who Jon and I had learnt to dive with last year – they had been a real inspiration to us last year and encouraged us to get out of the ‘rat’ race in the UK.  We feel blessed that they have taken us under their wing and are helping us get started with our new life in Thailand – thanks so much you two, we appreciate everything you are doing for us 😉

We’re now on day 14 and we’ve found our home for the next 6 months.. It’s out in the sticks away from the tourist areas and just beautiful – big enough for us to settle until we decide whether we move on next year or stay in Thailand depending on Jon’s diving work.. Our plan was to only stay in Thailand till May 15 then to move onto the Philippines as we want to experience as much of the world as we can whilst we are still young (ish)..

We move in officially on 1 October but have already been given the keys so we can start to move stuff in and buy the bits and pieces we need to set up home..

We keep having to remind ourselves we are not on holiday so have to watch the pennies until we have a steady income which is challenging as we have both been used to never having to particularly worry about spending money.  This is a whole new ball game to us but I must admit when you start seeing your hard-earned savings dwindling away pretty quickly it doesn’t take long to pull your reins in..  That’s the serious bit out of the way for now 😉

All I can say is I feel settled already and knew the rest of our lives wasn’t to be spent in the UK, not sure where we’ll end up but I have my best buddy/soul mate/husband with me and know we will be just fine..