Q1. Where did you move to and when?

I moved back to the USA in 2013.

Q2. How long did you work in Thailand?

10 years including three years in an elementary school and five years at a university.

Q3. What was your main reason for moving?

Low salaries (no increases since 1990), increased stress, decreasing sanuk factor, increasing uptightness, and the fact that it's far better to be a classy hustler and bum in The USA than a stand-up tool pretending to be a teacher. Oh yes, and the suffocating heat that really hits a farang once they're not a young buck anymore. 35 years old usually.

Q4. What are the advantages of working where you are now compared to Thailand?

Easy. Live in your car, shower at fitness centers, do all these odd jobs for wealthy people that are easy, work in easy short term service jobs, save all your money, go to Thailand whenever you want. You can have lots of dates easily in the USA using dating apps. Of course, you'll have to have a bullshit story because women are all hustlers there too, but heavens if you haven't learned to hustle as an English teacher in Thailand for 10 years.

Q5. What do you miss about life in Thailand?

420 is very strong and cheap but this is offset by anti-human laws and a general alcoholic culture that glorifies stupidity. Thai girlfriends? I have a smoking hot Thai wife (who's cool as hell) and a large brood of leuk-kreung kids to look after. I go back and see them whenever I have money by hopping a China airlines barge - which as a bum in a wealthy area is quite often! I actually spend more time with my kids on Skype in the states than I did working seven days a week as a token western-looking face.

Q6. Would you advise a new teacher to seek work in Thailand or where you are now?

Do you have any self respect? Go be a teacher in Japan, Korea, Siberia, or just get an education degree and be a real teacher at home. Real teachers get paid well! Go anywhere but Thailand!

If you're a middle age victim of TEFL, suck it up and go live in a van in USA or Europe. Do odd jobs, work, make hundreds of dollars a day instead of tens. Enjoy a cool decent climate - it's easier to turn on heat than air-conditioning. You really want to make tens of dollars a day kissing arse to some cheap Thai boss? Also, its boring and stiflingly hot - unless you have a nice house in the country with a swimming pool to chill in.

Q7. Any plans to return to Thailand one day?

For holidays, of course. If one has a military pension, stay in Thailand forever but for god's sake, don't work there! It will suck your soul. You will become anemic and pathetic if you stay here as a long term farang (my opinion) and it's a fact that numerous teachers literally drop dead here from heart attacks. There are sixty-year olds who've lived here their whole lives and suddenly have no money, can't go home, and end up offing themselves

Q8. Anything else you'd like to add?

Thailand was a promising country back in 2002, but there are serious political/social problems. To me it appears that this area has been designated as a cheap human labor zone by the international bankers who run this planet.