00ff00.com

It’s been almost five years since I came to Thailand and I’ve finally grown sick of it. The things I miss have become more important, and the things I used to find exotic or endearing I now find irritating. I want to buy a house, grow some vegetables and live somewhere clean.

I made a list of the things I was looking for in a city last summer and polled my friends. A few friends suggested Portland, Oregon. I remember loving Oregon while on the US cross country trip I took, so I gave it another try this summer and still loved it. So it’s final – I’m moving out there!

Here was my list, in case you’re interested:

Requirements for a City

• liberal, intelligent and worldly people
• green city
• bike friendly
• not too cold
• interesting music scene
• good beer
• inexpensive and fresh fruits & vegetables
• food people
• reasonable drug laws
• fast internet
• decent public transportation
• non-smoking city laws
• not super expensive
• friendly & happy people
• does not have to be large
• does not have to be English speaking

Now that I’ve decided I’m going to leave, things are a bit bittersweet. I have been eating at my favorite veggie restaurant daily, and trying to acquire all the recipes I can before I go. I’ve also been doing a lot of thinking about Thailand. I’ve been compiling a list of things I’ll miss and things I won’t miss. I’ll share that with you all too:

Things I’ll miss

• the rainy season
• the food
• orchids blooming everywhere
• how inexpensive some things are
• the beach and ocean
• soi animals
• my friends
• geckos: both jing jok and tookay
• vegetables & fruit
• thunderstorms and night rains
• big crazy tropical plants
• noisy birds
• Thai temples
• Thai trains
• artist kids
• night markets
• street food
• water gardens
• water taxis and klongs
• Suan Phai veggie restaurant
• the cleanliness of the bts, malls, houses
• Kanchanaburi
• night swims and phosphorescence
• Koh Samet
• $1 lunches
• dingy, delicious roadside country restaurants
• spices, herbs
• mango season
• elephants
• amazing clouds
• frogs
• cats with broken tails
• ginger, my apartment cat
• having so many international friends
• speaking Thai
• how nice people are

Things I won’t miss

• lack of good taste & style
• clackity high heeled shoes. everwhere
• the heat
• people staring at me
• “you speak Thai so well”
• lack of forethought and sense
• the politics
• the pollution
• plastic whistles
• skeevy taxi drivers
• Thai beer
• lack of sidewalks and difficulty walking
• lack of stuff to do other than shopping
• those scary garden ornaments
• lack of care for the environment
• mosquitoes
• sand flies
• dual pricing
• strict gender roles
• Thai music and the same fucking 5 songs over and over
• THE VOLUME OF EVERYTHING!!!
• crossing the road
• Thai walking speed and lack of spatial awareness
• taxis and motorbike taxis honking at me all the time
• people not getting out of the way for ambulances
• the Ministry of Culture deciding what websites I can and can’t look at
• corruption
• no screens on windows. hello, dengue?
• attack umbrellas at eye level
• hovering store clerks
• ditsy Chulalongkorn University accents
• loose sidewalk tiles in the rain
• traffic
• little pink napkins which disintegrate when wet
• wet stinky bathrooms
• kamikaze bus drivers
• fire ants
• commercials on the skytrain
• constant construction and the resulting dust
• sexpats

I love lists. And I’m excited about trading the heat for some rain.