Kob Khun Ka Thailand
Well... I was hoping I would be able to blog periodically during my time in Thailand, but it turns out traveling by means of tuk tuk's, ferry's, long boat's, bus's (with no air conditioning), and crazy cab drivers, you really don't get much of an opportunity to do so. I'm also not accustomed to this lifestyle, let alone writing about it ( I'm sure that's evident in my grammatical errors, and random tangents... SQUIRREL). So, like everything else, I'm trying to adjust and make a commitment to myself to write more frequently. Disclaimer: I'm going off of 3 hours of sleep and am somewhat hungover. With that being said... this may not be the most compelling piece of literature, so bear with me, or save yourself and stop reading now.
From the get go Thailand started off on the perfectly wrong foot (no pun intended, as I'm still limping due to my paddle board injury). From a series of trial and errors, bathroom horror stories, more massages gone wrong, and inclement weather conditions, things could not have gone any worse, and to be honest, I loved every second of it!
When you stop setting expectations and structured itineraries, you allow for more flexibility and unplanned adventures. If you’re anything like me, sometimes you have to just tell your inner OCD to calm the fuck down and take a chill pill (or your own recreational perscription, no judgment). Allow things to fall into place, or fall a part… who the hell cares. Build your own bridge and get over it. Falling in and out of place are all relative to your approach and prespective. If you let yourself get down on things because they didn’t turn out the way you thought they would, you’re going to be disappointed every time. People always say things never go according to plan, right? So why do we hold ourselves to rigorous plans, only to find disappointment if it strays slightly off course? Learn to accept detours and create a new road (even if it’s made of gravel...and it's dusty...on a 100 degree day).
My girlfriend Lindsey and I traveled from Bali to Thailand with little to no plan (I recommend this, hence my previous post, "the no plan, plan"). Again, we had a list of locations we wanted to hit, and attractions we wanted to see, but it wasn't the end all be all if it didn't happen. What we did have, however, was Paul ( our crazy aussie tour guide who took us under his wing, #2yanksandanaussie). He came with us for the first few days, and in all honestly, had it not been for him we would of ended up on a deserted island, or stuck in Phuket with the lady men (p.s they are getting trickier to identify).
Paul was our saving grace, and I could not be more indebted to him for his kindness and guidance. If you ask what my favorite part of traveling is thus far (other than the obvious, not working and seeing the most beautiful places on the earth), it is meeting some of the most extraordinary people. My faith in human kindness has been somewhat renewed these past couple weeks because of people like Paul. So refreshing to meet such a thoughtful and caring man. He showed us the way of the "locals" and made us feel right at home. In this day and age it is rare to find such a person, and sadly enough we are too scared of people being crazy or having ulterior motives that we too often hold back from engaging in such relationships. The way I see it nowadays, call me stupid or naive ( I really don't care), someone you meet within 4 minutes can be just as honest or dishonest as someone who's been in your life for 4 or more years. Unfortunately, sometimes you just have to roll the dice and take a chance.
Some of my favorite memories from Thailand were actually the ones most would view as being a "shitty situation", and remember I've actually been shit on. At the risk of sounding cliche, I choose to see sunshine in storms and opportunities in obstacles. When it rains in Thailand (and it does in August), we danced in it! Don't wait for the storm to pass! Hell, we sometimes even bathed in it (you would too if you saw some of the showers). Sure we got confused, and very conconcerned looks from locals, but after a very convincing argument that rain dancing was perfectly normal in our culture we got some to join! When we booked our flight to the wrong city, we set out on foot and explored it (and got another violating massage). When we had no clue where we were staying next, we got dropped off at the closest bar with wifi (downed several cocktails), and had the manager put us in a Tuk Tuk to the closest available hotel. When we had take a 3 hour bus ride with no air conditioning, hung over, and convinced you’re going to die of heat exhaustion, you make friends with your fellow bus mates...misery loves company (40 to be exact).
Anyways you get the point and Thailand taught me that although its' landscape may be picture perfect, the experience doesn’t have to be. Everything is truly what you make of it. Everyone has their own journey. We are all "Same Same... but different".