21 January
Today is my charity day so I got up at 5.30am and took the train to Chachoengsao. I was going to teach at a temple school called Wat Saam Lom.

The one hour journey cost 12 baht and the railway carriage was from probably 50 years ago with wooden seats and paneling. It was very nice.

Pi Nun picked me up from the train station in Chacheongsao and drove me to the school. It was a lovely rural place by the Bang Pakong river. The school was an old style wooden building with massive teak floorboards. The students were aged between four and twelve years old and were from poor backgrounds, mostly farmers and fishermen.

I taught two hours before lunch and then another hour after lunch. Then it was time to catch the only air conditioned train back to Bangkok at two in the afternoon.

When I got back to Bangkok, I met the Essex Boy at Pi Baby’s café. He was unshaven and his eyes were bloodshot. He looked exhausted.

“Hi Essex Boy, how are you?” I asked.

“Oh hi Ben! How are I? That’s a good question!” he grinned. “Well, I’m just come back from the rave at Bang Na. You know what? The last couple of days have just been like full on. I’m been to Cambodia, to Bang Na, my mate just left at four this morning… You know what? I think I’ve only had two hours sleep in forty-eight hours. I’ve been doing so much partying and that much sleep..”

And he held up his finger and thumb and indicated a small space between them.

“But Bang Na was good,” he continued. “Lots of beautiful women, good music, plenty of booze. In fact, good class of people. You know, there were Thais, Luke Krung, some good young farang girls, people who’d been abroad and whatever. You know, people who knew what was going on.”