Q1. Where did you move to and when?

I moved back to the UK after being interviewed by phone to York In the UK. I returned in February 2009.

Q2. How long did you work in Thailand?

I worked in Thailand from 1999 until 2009. Both my kids were born here and I still have a house in Nonthaburi.

Q3. What was your main reason for moving?

My main reason for moving was to get a job with a liveable salary. At that time teachers employed by the British Council were limited to about 4 years as the BC was on charitable status with the Thai authorities. I'd done 4 years and about 5 or 6 months on rolling temporary contract.

When I looked for work elsewhere the salary was half what I'd been earning locally and no pound sterling supplement paid to the UK. Shock to the system to say the least. I notice that the advertised salaries have not changed in the last 5 or 6 years either.

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

I can buy from a selection of reasonably priced cheeses and drinkable wine is available from about 300 baht a bottle. Everything else is on a par. Oh, and bread in the UK has no sugar in it. Look at the label of the cake you bought today labelled as bread and you will see it contains between 5-12% sugar. Why? Flour is imported and therefore expensive, sugar grows everywhere and is promoted by the government.

I wonder if the hospitals are prepared for the explosion in type 2 diabetes that it will bring in few years.

Q5. What do you miss about life in Thailand?

Certainly not the beaches or the shopping malls. They lost what little sparkle they had for me after a couple of years. Nothing really, it frustrates me more than pulls me to it.

As another escapee put it - any country that needs to tell you it's amazing can't really be that amazing.

I have the immigration stamps of more than 70 countries in my passports and Thailand doesn't figure in the top ten of either 'favourites' or 'never agains'. It's just a country between Cambodia and Burma.

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

Thailand certainly draws the newly qualified. Use it to get some experience. As others have said it is not likely to be helpful if you want to make a career out of TEFL. See it more as a few rungs on the ladder.

Q7. Any plans to return to Thailand one day?

I'm writing this from my parents-in-law's house in Kanchanaburi. I've taught a few lessons in the local primary school on a volunteer basis. For the next few weeks I'm going to keep things ticking over with a few IELTS preparation intensive courses in Bangkok.

I'm here because my wife runs an education agency in the UK and we introduce Thai students to schools, colleges and universities in the UK and offer home-stay tuition too. I'm going back to the UK at the end of August to teach a Chinese girl at home. She is studying on a master's course in the UK in October and needs some EAP first.

Q8. Anything else you'd like to add?

I suppose I could return here and 'work from home' I work for the British Council marking exams and do more than 50% of my work online using Skype anyway so location is not really an issue.

While I'm here 'on holiday' I've helped online students with essays and dissertations and they have had no idea where I was working on them.