femme farang: Is this love?

Damon came to visit me for three glorious weeks. He left this afternoon and I have been brooding ever since. It is a rainy evening in Bangkok and I am holed up in my little studio with ice cream watching COPS while the other AYADS are partying God knows where.

We spent most of the time he was here living large at fancy pantalones hotels and restaurants. I didn't manage to drag him to Jim Thompson though.

A common example of a pretty display at one of the many restaurants at the Intercontinental.

Hi Chicken!

For the ladies: check out this sweet little silk dress from Ipa Nima in Hanoi. I like the fetching pocket on the side. I am posting this photo to make myself feel better after all the ones of me looking scummy in elephant land. On this night, we went to a restaurant on the 61st floor of Banyan Tree Hotel. It was open air and had breathtaking views of Bangers.

Damo trying to remain calm at Vertigo restaurant at Banyan Tree Hotel.

High tea at the Shangri-La.

Our awesome hotel room at Bandara Resort and Spa in Koh Samui.

Our remote resort on a remote island called Koh Tao, the snorkelling and diving mecca of Thailand. We spent a lot of the day snorkelling in that water.

Damon and me on the boat to the foreigners' clinic to get cream for my fleas (don't ask). It seems I can't go anywhere without getting bitten by crazy bugs. I'm getting good at self-medicating though. I love antihistamines!

The view from our bed.

Our little cabin.

We had to climb 124 steps to our cabin from the beach - not for the faint hearted.

About 70 steps up.

The restaurant where we spent a lot of time playing cards, eating and getting to know the local Thai staff.

That's about all about that. Oh, and Damon proposed to me on the beach at Koh Samui. Needless to say, I happily accepted. Now I can spend my weekends in Bangkok learning about jewellery and having a dress made. I will keep you posted on developments.

Now he has gone home and life goes on for now. I am planning a visa run to Cambodia in July with my trusty travel pal, Jaqueline, and maybe Avi if we can con him into coming. Asia cup is coming up, which means matches between Australia and Iraq and Australia and Thailand. I don't particularly care for sport but I felt compelled to represent, and it only costs about $8 to go. I have been doing a lot of representing of late, being the only aussie at work. I am constantly teasing my British supervisor for Britain's crappy beaches and anything I can really. He is a good sport.

I am in between work projects at the moment, having cleared things up before Damon and I went away. I have finished doing the research for the Africa global monitoring reports and I suspect I will now have to edit them. I have learned a lot in the process and my confidence was boosted when I was able to conduct legal research in French for the Benin, Mauritius and Cote d'Ivoire reports. I am also going to be developing a newsletter with some more in-depth articles from contributors in our global network on the ongoing battle to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The next batch of AYADs arrive in Bangkok in late July, so that should be interesting. I am told there are quite a few from Canberra so I am curious to see if I know any of them. As usual, females are over-represented - maybe they are better at writing applications?