When I arrived in Thailand I had just spent two years working in Japan and was kind of bewildered at having left. The plan was to travel, but I quickly realized that my passion is cultural anthropology so needed a base.

The first week in Spicythai transpired it to be the place. I felt like I belonged, was part of the team, and it simply just made sense.
I asked Noom what he thought about me working at the hostel and he said that would be cool (weird – why would a foreigner want to help, and not just chill?) but cool nevertheless, only problem, I had to ask Pong – and he was somewhere in Vietnam.

Three weeks later Ha Long bay, island in the middle of nowhere, typhoon coming, the last 15 foreigners in the region after the evacuation, I pop the question to Pong, and he say’s ‘yeah I’ve been thinking about getting people to do that kind of thing for some time’ Great minds and all that.

Some months later I’m leaving Thailand, and feeling bewildered again! The experiences that I had there still permeate throughout my life, 3.5 years later! I am teaching now and often manage to talk about my distant spicy family – and every time I do I find myself filled with great pride and nostalgia. I can’t wait to get back.