Freedom in Thailand: How we escaped and built a bungalow and pool resort (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798476756835)

This book is about finding freedom in an unfree world and our story of how we escaped the restrictive UK and built a beautiful bungalow and swimming pool resort in Issan, Northeast Thailand. The sad thing is that most people in the western world actually believe they are free, but in reality, are trapped in the system and live week to week or month to month, with no ability to save money due to the horrendous rents, council tax and all the other bills and regulations one is caught up in.

After travelling the world several times in my lifetime, Thailand is probably one of the best and most freedom loving places I have ever lived and have now retired to. It's not for everyone as many people get culture shock when they come here for the first time and can't stand how the Thais think and get things done. And even after over 30 years of living in and out of Thailand, even I am still shocked at the things we see every time we venture out of our little paradise resort into clown-world. Like the many motorbikes driving the wrong way towards us on the inside lane, everyone wearing masks but no crash helmets and the crazy accidents they show on Thai TV every night, has to be seen to be believed. This is truly like living in the Twilight zone.

But Thailand also has is good side, fantastic scenery, nature, beaches, amazing food, the weather can be extreme but is still beautiful, five star hospitals, no waiting lists to see a doctor for anything as one can go private for very little money. Amazing shopping centres in Bangkok and Phuket but the most important thing,

is how FREE I feel compared to living in the UK.

A another good movie by Spielberg was, Joe Versus the Volcano and critics said it was his poor attempt at comedy, but they totally missed the underlying meaning of the movie. It stars Meg Ryan, Lloyd Bridges and Tom Hanks as guy that has a dead end office job, no future, just a boring mundane existence. He ends up at a doctors office and is diagnosed with "brain fog" a terminal illness. Unbeknown to him, the doctor lied as he worked for a very rich guy (I think was the owner of the company he worked for played by Lloyd Bridges) and owned a volcanic island in the South Pacific. And Tom Hanks accepts an offer to briefly "live like a king, die like a man", but to fulfil his agreement, he must willingly jump into the live volcano on the island of Waponi Woo in order to appease the volcano god.

I won't give the whole story away as it's a good movie to watch and quite funny in places, but very interesting when you understand what Spielberg was trying to put across. The scene and statement I loved the most and has stayed with me all my life and is as follows;

Tom Hanks was on his way to this remote tropical island with the rich man's daughter (Meg Ryan) on her beautiful sailing yacht... They were sitting on the deck one evening in the moonlight and watching the stars and the calm ocean when
Tom Hanks says something like,

"Wow, This is all so unbelievable, how you live your life, the yacht, travel and everything..."