'Legless in Thailand'

The never ending story

(The autobiography of a hermit in Thailand)

In loving memory of Pet (My 'Pink Diamond')

A true story of love, deceit and pain, both physical and emotional. Not a happy story, just things that have happened to me in the past few years. Many of the bad things that happened could have been avoided if I had looked at my life and my partner's motives objectively, but how many people look objectively at what they do when there are very strong emotional feelings driving you? I am 100% guilty of letting my heart rule my head.

This book is my autobiography, for most of my life I have been an engineering professional and also being an ex-military RAF Commissioned Officer I have been used to having a reasonably straight forward and practical outlook on life. The first main hiccup came in my life about 24 years ago, when, having recently left the British military, I was employed by a large multi-national organisation who sent me to Thailand to take care of a major government project here. Whilst I was in Thailand I met a girl whom I was very attracted to and I eventually married, so I moved to Thailand to live and be with her 22 years ago. The book only covers in depth the last 8 years of my life in the Far East because many unusual and unfortunate events happened to me during this particular period, that would change my life and my outlook on life forever. My book opens with a motoring accident that happened in 2001 and how this event affected my life not only physically, but after this almost fatal accident and loss of one leg to suddenly discover that the one person in the world that I loved and had pledged my heart, soul and future to already had another true love in her life 'MONEY'. The story tells you how I had to deal with this new revelation now being an amputee, disabled and in an emotional trauma, in a country where I had limited friends and no family to help me with any of my difficulties.

Many of the things that occur in this book are probably just what many people would loosely refer to as bad luck, but really many of the things that happened where due to me being 'blind' to my partner's true feelings and motives in our relationship, a relationship that I thought was 'perfect' and put my heart and soul into. I hope that the people who read my book can learn from the many mistakes that I made. Because it is an autobiography and the person living through it is still alive, unfortunately, the story continues with new situations still developing on a daily basis, so I cannot say that this story will ever have a happy ending even though that is what is still being sought after, the book just covers events in my life up to the date of publication. This book is on sale now and the one regret I have about it is the title. Yes as an amputee now, I am literally 'Legless in Thailand' but a more apt title for the story I now feel should have been 'Love at First Parasite' or 'Disabled in Body and Mind', but to me it will always be 'the autobiography of a fool' and my 'never ending story'

I do intend to write future editions to this book, because this true original story was written by me more than seven years ago now and many more out-of-the-ordinary things have happened to me within that period of time and continue to happen to me virtually on a daily basis, this is my never ending story in Thailand.

When I eventually realised exactly how I personally had been used and duped by this absolute bitch of a Thai woman named Noi, I finally confronted her and told her just how bad a person that I thought that she was and the reasons/facts why I thought that way. Noi just sat quietly and listened to my comments patiently and then with a slight smirk on her face she just casually turned to me, replied and said “You are a man so you do not understand at all, that all of the women in the world are the same as I am and have the same outlook, feelings on life and feelings for men that I do.” Well, if that is genuinely the true case of the matter, then I never want to have anything to do with any female anywhere, ever again. So much for this absolutely fictional state of being and supposedly true life partnership called love!

The main character in this book (Me) has a new outlook on life, he now tries to live up to:

“Always expect the worst thing that can happen in any given situation, because it surely will happen to me”

I am now writing my Asian Diaries on the internet and these will cover in depth everything that has happened to me in Asia over the years. At the moment I am writing about the first time that I came to Thailand and how that business trip eventually led up to the events in this book. They are much more detailed than the book itself and may provide readers of my book with some necessary background to understand the events in the book better.

This book is now dedicated to the memory of 'Phetchomphu' (Pink Diamond in Thai language). Pet is one of the characters in this story, who unfortunately, died just one month before this book was published and she was only 29 years old. She is still a main character in my new novel, because it is based in the past and she is still in my heart and mind. When Pet died, I lost the only true friend in the world who really knew me, understood me and was my confidant. I also lost the only person that I could ever have true feelings for again and who gave me hope again in life, that hope and my spirit for life died along with her.

10% of all 'author royalties' from this book shall be donated to help to take care of Pet's two young, now orphaned children.

I am now actively working on my next book 'Ex Post Facto', which follows on to 'Legless in Thailand' naturally to my way of thinking. Although my next book is fiction, it is still based around many of the same characters as the first book, but this time there is a Sci Fi twist to the story and a lot of imagination, still hoping for a good ending to my life story.

In December 2005 I was interviewed on a Bangkok radio station about my book, by a DJ (Kevin Wood) on a show named 'My Top Ten' that invited local interesting people to choose music and answer questions on the radio about themselves. I had sent Kevin a copy of my draft book prior to being invited to be on the radio and during the one hour on the radio, he asked me various questions 'on air' about my choice of music and about my book. At the end of the hour, Kevin stated that he liked my book and that it was a very good read, but he didn't like the title of the book 'Legless in Thailand', because he said that many people would just look at the title of the book and assume that it was just a book written by another drunken foreign tourist in Thailand that thought all of the bar girls here loved him and he then added that "It wasn't like that at all, it was a very good read and gripping from the beginning", to which I just jokingly replied that "It was a good read written by a good Reed"

and then we went off the air laughing at my remark.

I have written some true short stories which are now available on my website True short stories here

I shall be selling this book as an e-book directly from this website soon and the new e-book because it will be in HTML format and under my personal control, will be updated regularly and contain appropriate graphics and music to give more depth and feeling to the story, I shall also sign each copy with a personalised message to each of my readers - John McMiken

As a personal thank you to everyone that purchases my book, I have decided to open a new folder on my Legless in Thailand website called the LIT Club which will be in operation very shortly and everyone that has bought my book may register with me and will be given a webpage in this new folder where you can display any information about yourself that you would like to completely free of charge. I shall also answer any questions and give free information about Thailand for any of my registered book readers/purchasers. For anyone that is interested in this new LIT Club please email me at: litclub@reedinter.co.uk