Australia Academy

By Jake Vajarodaya

Editorial Review

"As a psychiatrist, putting myself in someone else's shoes has always been my routine. But this is more. It's like putting on his shoes plus his contact lenses so I could actually see and travel the world the way he did. Somehow, after reading this, I felt more connected to my patients than ever. Thank you, Jake, for sharing. Your story is far beyond what I expected. I personally think this should be a reading assignment for psychiatric residents."

Prof. Kamolvisa Techapoonpol, MD 

Head of Psychiatry Department 

Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at Vajira Hospital, Bangkok 

 

Dear readers,

 

As I already mentioned on the back of this book, I'm not using the name 'Dave Kardee' to hide anything. You will learn the full reason for my use of that name through this series of letters, which form a heartwarming, thought-provoking, and somewhat uncomfortable journey. These letters invite the reader to reflect on the importance of connection, empathy, and kindness in our lives.

 

I know that many people out there have faced even worse circumstances than I did. I know what it's like to be hurt by the people who are supposed to care for you. When I shouted for help, my voice was ignored. With that in mind, there is only one thing I can say to others now: never give up. You might not be doing your best right now, but you are doing your best based on what is available to you in the moment, and that's okay.

 

I want to encourage you to thrive and overcome all the challenges and obstacles you may face. I know that these challenges may seem so overwhelming that you feel like you're not going to make it. That said, this story is not going to be rosy, like The Fault in Our Stars. I mean, that book somehow made even cancer look like fun. 

 

It would be reckless and clumsy for me just to bash my mom, a justice system, a country, or anything else at this point since it will offer you no value for your time. We invest our time and take risks every day, so this book will show you how not to repeat the mistakes that I lived through. For the most part, these mistakes were made by others, my path chosen for me through a simple lack of basic due-diligence. 

 

My hope is that Australia Academy will resonate with anyone who has ever felt a sense of belonging and an unwavering commitment to exploring the complexities of the human experience. I wish for you to enjoy my work, learn, and vigorously climb to the top and into the future.

 

Sincerely yours,

Jake Vajarodaya

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jake Vajarodaya
• Release date: Jun 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9780998745268

Book preview

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Australia Academy | Based on a true story

Copyright © 2023 Jake Vajarodaya

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

No reproduction without permission.

First Published in June 2023 by QQ Ventures

www.AustraliaAcademy.com

QQ Ventures

4th Floor, Water Edge Building, Meridian Plaza,

Road Town, Tortola VG1110 BVI

Mailing address for legal & official matters:

c/o Royal Advocates International Ltd.

Unit 1904, 19FL, 283/97 Home Place Office Building

Sukhumvit 55, Bangkok 10110 Thailand

Any personal correspondence or comments,

here’s Jake’s email address:

[e-mail]

The names of some terrible people and places have been changed and/or omitted because the legal system as a whole never provides real justice or fairness, just manifests its illusions.

ISBN-13 : 978-0-9987452-6-8

E-Book format. Also available in Paperback

For Pupp

May your gentle soul and unfettered spirit rest in peace

after you were raped and tortured

in the Thai military conscription barracks.

I’ll never stop helping others to the best of my abilities

until the day I cross that bridge and meet you again.

dear readers

䷿

Dear readers,

As I already mentioned on the back of this book, I’m not using the name ‘Dave Kardee’ to hide anything. You will learn the full reason for my use of that name through this series of letters, which form a heartwarming, thought-provoking, and somewhat uncomfortable journey. These letters invite the reader to reflect on the importance of connection, empathy, and kindness in our lives.

I know that many people out there have faced even worse circumstances than I did. I know what it’s like to be hurt by the people who are supposed to care for you. When I shouted for help, my voice was ignored. With that in mind, there is only one thing I can say to others now: never give up. You might not be doing your best right now, but you are doing your best based on what is available to you in the moment, and that’s okay.

I want to encourage you to thrive and overcome all the challenges and obstacles you may face. I know that these challenges may seem so overwhelming that you feel like you’re not going to make it. That said, this story is not going to be rosy, like The Fault in Our Stars. I mean, that book somehow made even cancer look like fun.

It would be reckless and clumsy for me just to bash my mom, a justice system, a country, or anything else at this point since it will offer you no value for your time. We invest our time and take risks every day, so this book will show you how not to repeat the mistakes that I lived through. For the most part, these mistakes were made by others, my path chosen for me through a simple lack of basic due-diligence.

My hope is that Australia Academy will resonate with anyone who has ever felt a sense of belonging and an unwavering commitment to exploring the complexities of the human experience. I wish for you to enjoy my work, learn, and vigorously climb to the top and into the future.

Sincerely yours,

Jake Vajarodaya

letter one

䷪

Dear People in the Yellow House,

I feel like I owe you guys an explanation after all the crazy things I did. It was all unintentional, but it still probably annoyed you. The problem is that I’m a coward. I was a coward for so many years, but now I really need to get this out. I wouldn’t say you guys outright inspired me to do this. I’m not an ass-licker, after all. Maybe I’m just obsessed. Maybe it’s a bit of both. Let’s just say there is a fine line between inspiration and obsession that I’m flirting with right now.

Patrick, first of all, I wasn’t trying to hit on your daughter. I certainly wasn’t trying to hit on your wife, and I mean absolutely no harm to you and your family. I don’t know you well; after all, we never spent much time together, compared to the time I spent talking to the other members of your family. Still, I think that if we got to know each other a little better, we would have been great friends. The first time I talked to you, I thought you were just another typical white authoritarian, afraid-to-die-alone douche bag married to a Thai skank who had aspirations of being a rich, do-nothing wife. There are a lot of those around here. But I was wrong; you and Narm are a really cool couple. You’re both unpretentious, and very much in love.

If you want me to stay away from your family after you hear my story, that's fine. You can curse me out, anything, just please don’t disappear into silence. The only thing I hate more than getting horrible feedback is getting no feedback at all. We all need some sort of closure in our lives. I know I certainly do.

Narm, I’m really sorry I called you so many times. I often called you when I’d had too much to drink, because I was upset over all of the shit happening in my life. I will explain further in my other letters, so I hope you keep reading.

Before reading further, I’d like you to reset your perceptions a little. I know that you thought highly of me because of my dad’s family. That’s OK, but please keep in mind that I am not my family. I was once a kid, and just like any kid, I laughed, I cried, I smiled, I bled. Then, like everybody else, I grew up, I made mistakes, I got hurt, and sometimes, I lied. In short, please don’t judge me based solely on the picture-perfect image my family tries to project to the world. I’d prefer that you think of me as a somewhat faulty, imperfect human being.

Michael, I really miss you. I always enjoyed talking to you, and I think that you are a really nice guy. I still remember when your parents first bought that yellow house, and I saw you playing on the body board with your cousins. I remember jumping on the trampoline with you and almost breaking my neck when I fell off. That was a great time. To be clear, I knew you were only sixteen when I took you and your friends to that ping-pong show at a strip club in Bangkok. You just always seemed older, like you were only two or three years younger than me, but not five. Maybe when you are back in Thailand again, we could grab a beer, and I promise I won’t take you anywhere weird again unless you ask me to.

Tim and Bligh, I hope you guys had fun last August; I really did enjoy my time with both of you. It might have been a normal summer vacation to you, but for me, it was very different. I just didn’t know it at the time. If you are reading this, I miss you guys a lot. Remember when we were on that sofa-shaped banana boat, and Bligh was so worried about falling off and landing on a jellyfish? Most people would be scared of sharks or drowning, but Bligh, I like your somewhat-odd and very imaginative anxiety about jellyfish better.

Bligh, please stop reading now. Please don’t read any of the subsequent letters I’m going to write. This might not make sense now, but this story may make you feel sorry for me, and I can’t have that, because it wouldn’t be fair to you. I don’t mind if your parents or your siblings feel sorry for me, but not you, Bligh.

Ploy, we never really talked much. Actually, you were never really talkative at all, so much so that most of the neighbors didn’t even know your name. Most of them just called you the girl with big boobs. Even though I said shit like, I want to punch you, I didn’t really want to; I just went along with your brothers, that’s all. To be honest, I didn’t find you annoying. Well, maybe a little.

From what I observed, I think you have an intrinsically good heart. The things that aren’t right in this world easily upset you. Based on that, if your parents decide to go nuts over these letters, I hope that you will be the one who makes things better, or at least prevents your dad’s fist from finding its way to my face.

I didn’t do so well after you guys went back to England. I really wanted to tell you what went wrong, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it over the phone, like the countless calls that I made to Narm while I was drunk, and I couldn’t do it over Skype either, because I thought you guys were probably freaked out and didn’t want to chat with me anymore.

So before I begin, there are a few things I want you to know. I’m writing this without making any excuses. I’m not trying to gain your acceptance, but rather to make a plea. I’m going to pour my heart out because it is long overdue and I really need to move on. This is difficult though, because others have shit on my heart before, and that hurts. It makes it hard for me to trust people. But my gut tells me you guys won’t do that.

Or maybe I’m just trying to reach out,

reach out to someone,

DAVE

letter two

䷘

Dear People in the Yellow House,

I couldn’t sleep.

Hey, I’m still up, are you there?

Sorry to bother, hope you are not sleeping.

I have several Skype conversation windows open on my screen right now. I’ve never understood why people needed to sleep. Sure, it’s relaxing and all, but I’ve always had trouble falling asleep and staying asleep for the whole night. Any noise or odd smell will wake me right up, and then it always takes me forever to fall asleep again. If the typical person’s life expectancy is seventy-five years, and he or she spends one-third of their life sleeping, I would rather die at fifty and be awake my entire life.

•••

When I was a kid, I loved to wake up early to watch Doraemon, Dragon Ball Z and other Japanese anime shows, but I also just enjoyed having as much time at home during the weekends as possible.

My school wasn’t bad; it was actually one of the best schools in Bangkok, except for the lunches, which tasted like a party where everyone was throwing up. Most teachers were really nice throughout my primary school years, called Prathom One through Six in Thailand, but they, like every other Thai teacher in the 1990s, practiced corporal punishments if the students failed too many exams or disrespected adults. My parents preferred to punish misbehavior by giving time-outs or denying me a new toy I wanted. I have to admit, my parents were kind of cool.

Most parents, especially those of Chinese descent, were obsessed with how their kids performed in school. There were a few students who always got straight As, but that fact alone wasn’t enough for these parents. A few lobbied the teachers to reveal everyone’s overall ranking. The lobbying must have been successful, because after the final exams of the following semester, the teachers lined up all the students, and publicly announced the student who ranked the lowest. Then, they would continue to call out each student, moving through the ranks, up until the highest-ranking student. Like in the beauty pageants where the last one called is the winner. In retrospect, it was quite demeaning, but my friends and I didn’t really care. Regardless of our academic performance, we'd still all play catch during our lunch breaks. We didn’t see ourselves as competing with each other.

The students who had it worst were the ones with stay-at-home moms. The mothers would come to school two hours before they were supposed to pick up their kids to gossip with each other. If one of the mothers didn’t show up for a gossip session, the others would gossip about her child’s performance on the last exam. I was lucky; my mom didn’t have time for that kind of shit. She heard some of the gossip that went around about test scores and school rankings, but she didn’t really care. Unfortunately, this attitude wasn’t permanent.

We often took summer-long vacations to Europe or America, and sometimes we even went with my mom on her business meetings abroad. One time, on a flight to London, we were in a pretty empty business class cabin. The flight attendants gathered up blankets and set up a little tent in the galley for my sister and me, so we could do a little camping on the plane. This all might make you think that I was happy simply because my parents showered me with expensive trips, but, even if you take those trips out of the equation, I was still on top of the world simply because I really liked spending time with them.

When I was eight, my parents decided to buy a vacation home so we could spend time outside of Bangkok and away from the pollution during the weekends. First, we went to Hua Hin, the most popular beach town for Bangkokians to buy vacation homes. I remember my parents complaining about how excruciatingly expensive the houses there were. They wanted something that was truly beachfront, so they could sip a cup of coffee on the balcony while gazing at the sea in the morning. They couldn’t afford anything right on the beach in Hua Hin, however, so they didn’t end up buying there.

One day, my mom told me that Uncle Amorn, who is actually the brother of the man married to my biological aunt, had recommended an affordable place near a village called Pak Nam Pran. It was about half an hour’s drive further south from Hua Hin, so one weekend, we all drove there to take a look.

Once we got past Hua Hin, the road was even worse and dustier than it is today. We finally arrived at the site, I