In October 2001, my old schoolfriend (and brief college friend) Martin Pavion emigrated from the UK to Thailand. We kept in touch over the internet, and every couple of months he would tell me how great it was out there and how I should go and visit. After almost two years of nagging, I gave up and bought a return flight to Bangkok.

Although I’d already been to several European countries, as well as Canada and the US, I’d never really left the West. The cultural differences and contradictions were fascinating. The country itself was beautiful, and the people incredible.

While I had at first planned to spend the two weeks away from computers, I eventually gave in and wrote a blog entry each day for a previous (and now defunct) website. Here’s an edited compendium for anyone who is interested. Comments I’ve added since the time of writing are marked in square brackets, and emphasised [like this].