I have booked three one-way flights: one to Singapore, one to Bali and one to Dili. I’ve handed in my notice and work and my last day of full-time employment in Thailand will be on August 26, not including a few vacation days that I will be cashing out. As if that’s not enough, I’ve also taken three-and-a-half days’ holiday this week (I’m sat at Indigo Pearl at the moment) – my first time off in more than a year, not including a couple of weekends in Bangkok.

This is my way of saying that I’m leaving. After a love affair with Thailand that has taught me a great deal about life, love work and the universe, it’s time to move on and try something new. I will, of course, return to Thailand, but my plan is to live elsewhere, unless a dream job presents itself.

It’s been a little more than a year since I arrived in Phuket. While I have enjoyed my time on the island, I have to admit that it just isn’t “me”. Something about the place, the people, the atmosphere just doesn’t grab me. I miss the big-city feel of Bangkok, but I don’t feel inspired to return to the City of Angels for anything more than a visit.

Most of my possessions will remain in Thailand along with about half of the money I possess, so I’m still tied to the country whether I like it or not.

As for my choice of destinations, Singapore is a brief stop on the way to Bali, where I will spend about a week relaxing, milling about and probably not blogging. My final destination is Dili. I can’t take the kudos for formulating the idea of moving to Dili, but at this stage in my life, I couldn’t see any reason not to go to Dili, much in the same vein as I couldn’t see any reason not to go to Bangkok three years ago.

As for what I will be doing in Dili, well, that’s something that will unravel once I arrive. I have touched base with two Dili-based publications and established a few contacts. I have also started contacting foreign publications and for some time my primary job will be to learn, make contacts and send a lot of emails while establishing myself in Dili.

Being unemployed will also give me a chance to study for my NCTJ qualification – something I’ve been unable to do in Phuket given my workload. To make ends meet in the meantime I will be blogging, writing and editing, which probably means I will grovel for people to send work my way.

I have a real challenge ahead of me, but I’ve never been so excited. My goal is to study and do as much credible work as I can. I plan to help out with the two publications I mentioned, although to what extent I won’t know until I arrive in Dili. There’s a lot of uncertainty at the moment.

I have all manner of things to do. I need a new laptop, new camera, new bag, a torch (apparently), some decent shoes and, sadly, real travel insurance to buy. So that’s me in a nutshell. For anyone in Bangkok, I’ll be visiting this weekend.

I should probably mention that I will keep blogging. My focus will shift, but this blog will become something new. It will form the basis of my initial work in Dili, so there will be a lot of changes. I won’t have as much to say about Thailand and, who knows, I may lose my entire readership, but there’s nothing I can do about that. There will be photos, videos (if Preya remembered to post my Flip cam) and stories.

So that’s me in a nutshell. I fly out on August 28.

Google is updating the toolbar PR display at the moment. I’ve gone back down to PR4. 2Bangkok has dropped to PR5 while Thai Blogs has gone up to PR5. Sajal Kayan went up to PR6. I haven’t noticed many other changes. The toolbar updates usually take a few days to complete. Nothing too much to worry about either way. Suitable bragging rights if you go up.

Well this sucks. As if One-Two-Go being delivered a standing eight-count wasn’t bad enough, Nok Air has reportedly thrown in the towel on its Bangkok-Phuket route, writes Chutima Sidasathian over at Phuket Wan. Flights from Bangkok to Chiang Rai, Ubon Ratchatanee and Krabi have also been axed. This is terrible news. It means that Air Asia is the only low-cost airline serving several of Thailand’s major destinations.

Phuket is a huge boon for tourism in Thailand, but with Nok Air and One-Two-Go out of the picture, you have to wonder what the effect will be.

From Phuket Wan:

A Nok Air spokeswoman blamed the cuts on oil prices and the general economic downturn.

This news comes a day after gasohol pump prices were cut by almost 5 baht a liter, while the price of diesel was slashed by 3.5 baht a liter. It was widely speculated that Nok Air was in trouble.

Air Asia is now in a prime position to jack up its prices on certain routes because it has no other airline to compete with.

There comes a point for most of expats when they realise that they’re not going home. I don’t know when it happened for me, but there must have been a point when I decided that I would spend most of the rest of my life outside of my home country. What is the difference between someone who travels and then returns home compared with someone who simply leaves, never to return?

This has been bothering me a little recently because I have a lot of friends in the UK who have traveled for extended periods, often multiple times, and I’ve always expected them to enjoy themselves so much that they don’t want to return home. But they do. They always return home and they always go back to how things were before they traveled.

As an expat, I don’t want to return to my home country because I see no reason to. I can work in any country I want and study if I need to. Although I am proud to be British, I’m not so attached to my place of birth that I want to stay there.

I didn’t always think this way, however. About four years ago, I had 800 pounds left of my overdraft and I was living in a house without paying any rent thanks to a dippy landlord who I don’t think ever realized I lived there. I planned to fly to Thailand and stay for as long as 800 pounds would last me, which I predicted would be about one month.

This was also the time of my life when I was kind of reckless. It took one moment of clarity to realize that I couldn’t be a student forever. I started working 60-hour weeks and saved some money. I then formulated my seven-month traveling plan, still intending to return home, but keeping in the back of my mind the thought that I might never go back. I told a few people that I might not be coming back and they just laughed at the idea. Everybody expected that I would return.

For several months after I arrived in Thailand, I sent mass emails back home, detailing my life and the things I had been up to. I hate receiving this type of email and I rarely read them, no matter whom they are from, but I wrote my own nonetheless. The number of people who replied to these emails gradually decreased over time and I eventually realized that the emails were pointless, even for me.

I think the moment I decided to stop sending those emails was the moment I knew I would not be going back. It’s a strange feeling, being out here while most of the people you grew up with are so far away. You lose touch with people and you start to wonder if they even remember you. I’m still in contact with people from the UK, but there are some whom you can’t help but drift apart from.

So here’s to life as an expat.

You know there’s something wrong with a cover story when its lede is: “The Nai Lert Park annual fair is taking a more fun-filled approach this year, and calling itself the Flower Carnival.” Well yes, that does sound fun. “To advertise the event organisers paraded naked models covered with orchids.” Apparently this is front-page news in Bangkok. It gets better. “Participants this year include leading flower arrangers and top business people.”

I often read Bangkok’s media publications and feel slightly miffed that editors want to break everything down into A-to-Zs, top 100s and Q&A interviews. They do nothing for me. But I digress. Stories about flower carnivals are up there among the least exciting ways you could run a front page.

I don’t want to give Daily Xpress too hard a time because I understand the enormous pressure the publication is under at the moment, but the whole set-up needs a kick up the ass. There was enormous potential to offer a high-quality publication, but it’s just not happening at the moment. I hope that Daily Xpress can come good and sort itself out.