Well, in a sense my wife and I going abroad and getting stranded in Suriname several years ago was a good thing. For many years I had moved away from teaching English and was primarily running our mini cafe and teaching Khmer to foreigners in the evening, and even doing Khmer-foreigner conflict resolution and translation on the weekends. Even if we hadn't left Cambodia, all these business would've have slowly withered away. Now I'm back to square one, thinking about getting back into teaching English all over again, because even though the tourism industry is dead, there is zero competition for me here in the sticks near the Trat border with Thailand.
I can't imagine the hard hit Phuket has taken, and so far we've stayed away from traditionally touristic areas in Cambodia, honestly because I don't want to see all the shuttered businesses and economic depression in those places.
It's good that you are able to put a silver lining on that dark chapter in your life buddy. I can relate to wanting to be away from tourist areas which is why i live in a distant suburb of Chiang Mai far away from all the tourist attractions.
The shuttered businesses is truly tragic because 90% of them were small operations. The big companies of course were able to weather the storm and had government assistance in doing so. It's always the little guys who get screwed.
How long has it been since you last taught English? I do it now and wouldn't say I love it, but I don't hate it either.