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Letter from Thailand

Home, but not for long

Last update: Thursday, February 5, 2009, 16:05 | By: Robert Carry

My homebound flight cut into Dublin at an angle which gave me a great view of the city below. It looked as grey, damp and low-key as ever, but I couldn’t help but get excited, so much so that when the plane rolled to a stop and the seatbelt signs pinged off I jumped to my feet, retrieved my bag from the overhead locker and joined the queue to disembark knowing full well that the doors wouldn’t open for another 10 minutes.

‘The thoughts of leaving horrified me’

Last update: Thursday, January 29, 2009, 18:03 | By: Robert Carry

My farewell to Thailand was somewhat rushed in that I arrived in Bangkok from Cambodia a day-and-a-half before I had to fly home. I was shattered from my trip and dry retching at the thought of the long haul ahead, but was easily talked into a farewell piss-up by my fellow Irish ex-pat Chris, a gargantuan David James lookalike who grew up in my housing estate in Dublin and had been living in Thailand since his early 20s.

Behind the smiles

Last update: Thursday, January 22, 2009, 05:15 | By: Robert Carry

Looking around at Bangkok in the days before I flew home, I was struck by how different it appeared in comparison to when I arrived for the first time. Living in the Land of Smiles for the best part of a year had made me see it in an entirely different light.

Under siege

Last update: Thursday, January 15, 2009, 05:27 | By: Robert Carry

I arrived back in Thailand after my trip to Cambodia to find the country’s capital in turmoil. Before I left I had come across government buildings occupied by thousands of PAD (People’s Alliance for Democracy) protesters attempting to oust then prime minister Somchai Wongsawat, who they considered a stooge of his disgraced predecessor and former Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra. But things had since stepped up a gear.

A crying shame

Last update: Thursday, January 1, 2009, 07:23 | © Metro Éireann

Thailand and Cambodia have an unusual relationship. Cambodia’s years under the most destructive regime of modern times left it in the shadow of its more powerful, wealthier neighbour. But things were not always this way.

Wealthy milking Cambodia’s poor

Last update: Thursday, December 18, 2008, 15:32 | By: Robert Carry

I headed out of Phnom Penh towards Bangkok on a road backed up by a noisy convoy of cars, buses and flat-back trucks crammed with cheering, flag-waving Cambodians dressed in yellow. The country’s third ever democratic election was about to get underway.

Living the dream?

Last update: Thursday, December 11, 2008, 12:31 | By: Robert Carry

I was busy sweating uncomfortably on a gritty beachside deckchair in 30-odd degree heat in the emerging Cambodian beachside resort of Sihanoukville, when all of a sudden an idea occurred to me.