Here I go again!

So, here I am- gate 34, terminal 3, London Heathrow Airport. I'm heading back to Thailand for one last adventure before I come home to England and finally submit to the fact that I am now a full fledged, cant argue it anymore, grown up. My flight, TG917, will take me directly to Bangkok, it will be a long ass 11 hours and 35 minutes in cattle class- theres not much I wouldn't do for a seat in business class!  

My plan always was to return to Thailand, but I hadn't thought it would be this soon, I have been home from my last trip for less than 3 months- 80 days to be exact.  When I came home on May 6th, my plan was to work hard, save hard and head back out to the Land of Smiles at the end of this year.. That all changed one morning when I woke up at 3am; for some reason I picked up my phone and clicked on the Facebook app... A few minutes earlier 'Phangan Animal Care', the animal welfare centre on Koh Phangan, had uploaded a poster advertising for a new member of support staff. This was perfect for me, a job that I have experience in, on my favorite island.  On my last visit to Thailand I spent a month volunteering at the animal welfare centre on Koh Lanta. At home I work as a freelance horse groom and pet sitter.  I applied for the job there and then.  A couple of weeks later I had an interview via Skype, 5 days later the job was mine!  That was three weeks ago, in those three weeks I have wrapped up my life in the UK, all of my possessions have been sold, given away or put into storage- much to the discust of a few members of my friends and family.

So here are the facts;

▪ I'm on a seriously tight budget- nothing new there.

▪ I will be gone for 6-12 months

▪ I'm slightly nervous, a little scared and still not entirely sure that I am doing the right thing- not much I can do about that now, unless I have a 'this plane doent have a left falangi!!' moment, I'm now on board the Beast to the East, and the doors are closed.

Dispite my tight budget, I have booked a nice hotel to stay in tomorrow night in Bangkok- no oven rooms on this trip- a line has to be drawn somewhere! I am hoping to get a ticket for the over night train to Surat Thani for the next day. I need to be on Koh Phangan by Monday, although that may not go to plan as Wednesday is the world famous Full Moon Party- 30000 people all trying to get to the island at once tends to make getting a ticket for the train/ bus/ boat a bit of an issue.

So I here I go, off an another adventure, I am flying with Thai Airways for the first time, so far the 'what to do in an emergency' video has been played three times and there's a not so confidence giving banging coming from underneath the aircraft... Did I mention I hate flying?!  One thing I love about this experience so far is the Thai people, Thai's as a whole are the most friendly, welcoming and accommodating breed of people I have ever dealt with, to step aboard an aircraft and be greated with the wai and a 'swadeekai' made me smile when I wasn't feeling great, it reminded me of why I'm here and why I'm doing what I am.

Here's to Thailand, my favourite place... Let see what you've got!