I had originally decided to stay in China for another three weeks or so. But in the course of a single weekend a whole host of things came to a head, and I baled.
I have a long history of losing my mind in Guangzhou. Maybe I should have hung on in there for a little longer. But the idea of living in a democracy is much more appealing. Facebook works here, you can buy loads of English books and there are even English language newspapers.
I've only had a quick look round Bangkok, but I like a lot of what I see.
First impressions are that it's much cleaner than China, and much more friendly. Cars don't seem to have horns here. And there are less dangers, like those nightmare cyclists cycling the wrong way. It's still crowded, but not as insanely overcrowded as Guangzhou.
The food is much more varied here. Thai food looks much better than Chinese. And you don't seem to need to pick bones, stones and other rubbish out of your food here!
On the way from the airport the city looked more like Tokyo than anywhere else I've been so far. It looks nothing like China, that's for sure.
On the downside, it's definitely more expensive here than in Guangzhou. And I'm here in the rainy season so the weather can be a bit crazy.
Also we Brits don't appear to send our best and our brightest here. So I guess any younger and/or smart guys who come here will be huge hits on the local dating scene!
As for what Thailand has to offer... There's plenty of P4P here but I want to stay away from that and work on my game so I can find sexy beautiful women from real life. While sex is popular here, a lot of the foreigners here just like sitting in bars talking to women.
One thing that's surprised me is that tall Thai ladies are quite common.
While I think China has the most beautiful women on average, there are some absolutely stunning women here. Or are they women - who knows? People who've been here are right - the a few of the ladyboys are some of the most perfect women you will ever see!
I'm under no illusions about Thai women though. Back in 2009 I spent a whole month just reading Stickman Bangkok's readers submissions. And my uncle's had a few Thai gf's, but every time he goes back to the UK his women find new guys who can love them long time (well as long as they're in Thailand anyway).
Back to the present, and I met Rock and Falcon last night. We grabbed a beer and talked about all kinds of stuff. They certainly gave me a lot to think about.
While Rock and I waited for Falcon, we sat in the lobby of the Nana hotel. It was just great seeing guys walking in with all kinds of girls.
Also we indulged in a bit of sex tourism tourism - people watching is great here. I really do want to try and see what Chinese tourists do here.
I'll try and post some photos from the places I visit (well not THOSE kind of places). But as Rock says, everything has already been photographed here or written about. Even the "guy goes to Thai jail" niche is saturated by the looks of what's on offer in the bookstore! I've not really seen many people walking round with cameras anyway. It really feels like what goes on in Bangkok stays in Bangkok

If anyone else is here then it would be great to meet! I could see myself staying here for a year or so. I'll have a rummage around Google and see what options there are for me to work or study here. I think you'd have to have some sort of structure to your life here, or you'd end up sitting in a bar all day and night.