Caveman Passport 
A year-in-review reflection on Caveman Passport in 2025. Two trips, two approaches, and one recurring pattern — exploring why travel through Thailand and the Philippines no longer delivered what it once did, and what that revealed underneath.
Pattaya didn’t fail because of one cause or one group of tourists. The real story is economic: the middle of the market collapsed. This article explains why the old Pattaya worked, what changed, and why the experience can’t return.
The old Pattaya didn’t die in a single moment. It hollowed out slowly while the rest of the world went online. This is the story of how the internet quietly killed Pattaya’s old bar scene, moved desire to smartphones, and left a generation of men chasing a feeling that no longer exists.
Pattaya hasn’t disappeared—it’s just grown old in real time. This story traces how smartphones, education, and shifting economics ended the constant flow of young bar girls and left a city chasing its own past.
After every trip, I tell myself I’m done with Thailand. Yet a few quiet months at home and the pull returns. This is the story of that cycle — between peace and chaos, solitude and connection, reflection and desire. Why I Keep Leaving Home for Thailand — Between Two Worlds explores the internal barriers, awareness, and balance that keep many of us moving between both worlds.
Wherever you are, you long for the opposite. In Bangkok you crave calm; in Sussex you crave chaos. Travel Conflict explores that restless human loop — the swing between contentment and craving, peace and stimulation — and why the caveman brain ensures neither lasts for long.
After years of exploring Thailand’s darker edges, I decided to flip the script and look at what keeps pulling me back. From the warmth of the people to the rhythm of the weather, these are the simple positives — the pulls — that make Thailand feel like a second home.
At home, loneliness is the default. Abroad, the outlet is everywhere. That’s the Catch-22 of being single in places like Bangkok or Pattaya: you escape the void at home, but in doing so you make sure the void never goes away.
Three months planned, three weeks done. I went back to test whether Thailand could be a life, not just a holiday. Bangkok, Pattaya, temple resets, condo experiments, even the idea of hopping to the Philippines. What I found was clarity: it works as a vacation, it fails as a lifestyle.
Bangkok was always my comfort zone, my hub. But this time it wasn’t just another trip — it was an experiment in slow travel, in trying to live here rather than just pass through. What I found was a cycle of lust, regret, and repetition — a shadow self that only wakes up when I’m in this city.