About

สวัสดีครับ - Sawatdee Khrap!

That’s “hello!” in Thai.

I’m an American expat living on Phuket island in southern Thailand with my lovely wife - Tim (a Thai nickname meaning “ruby) - and her seven-year-old son, Alexander. She also has a daughter and granddaughter living in Bang Pa-In (just south of Ayutthaya) and extended family in Lamphun Province near Chiang Mai).

I currently teach Reading and English as a Second Language (ESL) at a private school in Tambon Vichit. In my free time I enjoy traveling around the island taking photos and trying to learn all I can about Thai customs and history.

I’d like to explain the name that I’ve given to this particular blog, Baan Jochim Phuket (บ้าน โย้ค้ำ ภูเก็ต). Baan is Thai for “house” or “village. Jochim (pronounced “yo-kim”) is my German surname after Saint Joachim (father of the Virgin Mary). And, Phuket (pronounced close to “poo-get”) is where I live. It’s similar to calling one’s home Casa de Jochim back in New Mexico (where I lived before moving to Thailand) and one sees a great number of homes, guesthouses, etc. named Baan something or another around here.

I plan to use this blog - at least for now - as a complement to my main blog at Goodnight Phuket. As I write this, the Thai government is blocking the entire Blogspot domain so I can’t access Goodnight Phuket although I can still post entries there (and those outside of Thailand can read it) so I’ll be duplicating some posts between the two blogs. I also plan to include more content on the current political situation, customs and holidays as well as things I find interesting about Thai history or religion.

I also plan to develop a travel guide to Phuket. Goodnight Phuket has always included my discoveries of lesser-known attractions on the island away from the main tourist beaches. I plan to share more of my findings on Baan Jochim Phuket along with practical information such as location (using a satellite map, see sample below), operating hours, admission costs, etc. There’s plenty to see and do locally that just doesn’t seem to get mentioned in the guide books or tourist web sites.

As my interests do tend to run all over the map, this blog will once again reflect that but with a more exclusively Thai concentration than Goodnight Phuket (where I’ll continue to detail the day-to-day “little events” of my family and teaching life).

I hope you enjoy my new blog and I look forward to searching out interesting topics to include here.

–Mark Jochim
27 May 2007