Why Thailand is Now My Home

I moved to Thailand to teach English four years ago. Initially intending to stay for a year, I'm often surprised I've been here so long and that I'm not planning on leaving. Sure, Thailand is a great country, it's beautiful, it's exotic, and it's interesting. But what is it about Thailand that keeps somebody like me - a 45 year old single, female, British-American writer and artist - so entrapped and enamored of the place?

I've thought long and hard about this question and it seems to all boils down to this. The happiness of the Thai people, the lack of complaining and whining often exhibited by people in Western countries, the sheer joy to be alive that most Thais have, and the relaxed attitude that makes life in Thailand so wonderful.

Before coming to Thailand, I moved from England to America and lived there for 20-plus years. I must admit, even though it had its good points and although my parents love it there, I never settled, didn't really want to live there, and breathed an enormous sigh of relief when that plane took off for Thailand and I was free of it. I remember touching down in Bangkok and thinking "Now my life begins". Kind of sad for a then 41 year old woman huh?

The first few months in Bangkok were tricky of course. Settling down to a new culture, attempting to learn a very difficult tonal language with an alphabet I couldn't read, and dealing with the traffic and terrible pollution of Bangkok were trying. Also frustrating was the "mai bpen rai" attitude of the Thais - mai bpen rai means "never mind" and Thais 'never mind'about everything. Nothing is done in a rush, nothing is really a problem, nothing is bad enough to worry about and, as a Westerner with a Western mindset, sometimes I could have quite cheerfully killed everybody in Thailand and caught the next plane back to the US!