This is Thailand (T.I.T.) is a phrase sometimes used by expats or long-term visitors when talking about this unique country. Over the years, I’ve learnt for myself that nothing should surprise me about Thailand or the things I see or experience in my adopted homeland. Every now and again though, even I will do a double-take. On a recent visit to Ko Lanta I was walking along a quiet beach and saw a cluster of fishing boats along with all the associated paraphernalia. Nothing unusual in that, but then I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be an English flag amongst the floats and fishing baskets. Closer inspection revealed it to be a pair of England football (soccer) shorts although, much like the English football team, they had seen better days. They were now being used as a flag on one of the floats that marks where the fisherman’s basket is when out at sea. The colours were faded and the elastic was frayed, but the Three Lions and crest were still clearly visible. I know when Rupert Brooke wrote “…there’s some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England”, he certainly didn’t have in mind Ko Lanta and a small fishing community tucked away in the Andaman Sea, but the words seemed very apt to this particular Englishman in exile.
