Old Friends ( Thailand 2006/2007 )

Dragon, survivor of the severe battering of too many psychotic mini bus rides on visa runs in and out of Malaysia from Phuket. He later retired to a tree in the front yard of our little house in Thalang...



Off Bang Tao, being watched over by a man in control - Tania with Ben & Susie
(our housemates in Thalang. Their bathroom was a disaster!
Glad we had our own... !)

Leo from Patong, my cartoon dog (half cat?!) character I created for an English teaching prac. His form drew looks of incredulous uncertainty. I almost fell over laughing but the students weren't equally amused. (I thought they'd love him...)
If memory serves me correctly not the first time i'd gotten carried away with drawing before the more pressing aspects of lesson preparation! Lately my energy has been channeled into teaching surfing - with more constructive results!

"My mate Tony" from Yorkshire, promotional guru/master of cards and smokescreens. (There are no gays in Yorkshire!!...) If you're ever short on curious ideas for business ventures he can certainly give you some! Tania, Suzie, Melissa (L to R) . Unwinding during uncle Ted's English teaching course.


John, Moon, Tania and other street smart party goers.


Another proud, mad Yorkshire man downing a beverage... [On Soi Eric, Banghla Rd Patong.]
Matt (front), Melissa (back turned) - a lovely and exceptionally intelligent, highly academic English couple who ran rings around the rest of us trainee teachers; Tania and John.
The Thai girl whose name I forget was snatched up by a farang (westerner) from our teaching school, a nice guy from the States who took her home to New York to cruise around in his Porsche.

Exercising minds. There's another great(?) game involving driving nails into a section of log with the end of a small pick. Actually pretty tricky. It basically revolves around cunning Thai bar girls playing on the desire of western men, betting against them in friendly competition then beating the men hands down to be bought more drinks from the bar! Possibly followed later in the night by other friendly play behind closed doors. If the male customer is easily tempted and as is often the case a bit past his prime, a savvy bar girl doesn't have to work too hard for her money, in a manner of speaking.


Tasty bugs! A westerner reportedly had some big dark beetles over drinks with a few friends and fell down dead shortly after. (Apparently for some locals that may have been have been the funniest thing that happened all week... )


TEFL graduation gathering in a Reggae style bar on the hillside out of Kat Noi. (L to R :)
Matt, Melissa, John, Trine, Shan, Suzy, Ted (sorry not the best shot Uncle Ted!) , Tania.

View from the bar


A slightly rough/obscured TEFL graduation photo.
Matt, Melissa, Ted, John, Tania, Suzy, Arran, Trine, Ben