You Know You’re in South East Asia When…
Yesterday we went out and about around Phuket to take some snaps of our home for the past month. We’ll be sad to leave here next week - but happy to return early next year. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the photos…
“Keep the birds, free the birds” for good luck apparently
“Care the nature, care the forest” (that’s what the signs say beside this ‘forest’)
“Pret-a-pray”, buy your own shrine for your home
Here the mopeds outnumber cars 10 to1…
…and each moped carries at least 5 people (yes, that is a toddler with a pair of pants on their head at the front - helmet anyone? - and a baby squashed in between the back passenger and little boy).
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Comments
What I find amazing is people live like this every day and live to have happy lives yet in North America this family would be condemned as being crazy, dysfunctional and expected to pay fines for this type of activity. We put too much stock in excessive bureaucracy I think.
I love how the girl on the back has a helmet, but the toddler just gets pants on his head.
And people freaked out when Britney drove with her kid on her lap!
Do you think we might be overly concerned about kids in the US or they are under concerned about kids in Thailand?
@sterling - We haven’t managed to check out muay thai boxing here yet altho I must admit, the idea doesn’t fill me with excitement 
It’s pretty big over here though and they parade the fighters of each village around on the back of pickup trucks. It’s quite a spectacle!
@Matt, @Christine - I must admit one of the things we’ve noticed and quite like is how much more relaxed things are in certain countries versus the UK/US/Europe. It’s almost a kind of “well, it’s up to them if they want to do that, they know the risks so we’ll just let everyone get on with it” type of attitude which I kind of like.
I don’t think it’s that they’re under-concerned with their kids in Thailand or anywhere else, it’s more a case of necessity - many people can’t afford cars and mopeds/sitting in the back of pickup trucks are often the cheapest way to get a whole family from A to B.
We have recently been inundated with offers for teaching abroad. It is amazing what happens when you tell just one person that you may be thinking of teaching in a foreign country.
We have narrowed it to somewhere in Asia but are not sure. I would love to be in Thailand but not Bankok.
How did you like Phuket? It looks like a good place. We have heard some bad stories about schools there, we would like to go somewhere safe with disciplined schools.
Any thoughts?
Sawadee - How much do you love SE Asia? It really is great. I would love to spend time in Cambodia helping out one of the hundreds of charities.
Muay Thai Boxing rocks. For a chick like me who is afraid of blood, I was the one yelling and screaming and loving every second of it. Gotta love the funky music that goes with the fighters too during their parades!
Does anyone have any links to some good sites realting to ‘portable businesses’? I have a couple of ideas, but would love some more.
Happy Travels, might see some of you in Phuket in October
Love the photos. I would love to visit a muay thai training camp and definitely want to checkout muay thai fights at a stadium. Sounds you like you had a wonderful month in Phuket.