June 6th, 2007 - The Flight Home
How can you summarise the cumulative emotions of a year and a half abroad so that others may understand and relate to the experiences? To be completely honest, it’s impossible. I can say that it has changed me, made me a bigger person, swelled my soul and fed my mind to the point of sheer bliss, and that would be true, but the definite feeling I experienced on the flight home from the South Pacific was one of sleepless exhaustion.
Throughout the flight and two transfers through Seoul and Atlanta, I read my book without really absorbing a page, watched movies without really comprehending the dialogue, and was completely numb. It was just too much.
On January 10th, 2006 I embarked on my adventures, and have survived some pretty impressive situations that demanded strength and perseverance. All of a sudden, that strength was gone and I felt completely vulnerable. I had said goodbye to my soul mate and she has moved on, I have met countless friends from all over the world, met beautiful girls have fallen in love, had one night stands, explored the major cities of the East coast, surfed some of the best waves, held a baby koala and been bitten by a poisonous spider, discovered paradise on Lord Howe Island and swam with some of the most interesting marine life on planet earth, trekked through jungles of northern Queensland, earned my divemaster and explored shipwrecks, ate delicious food and experienced new cultures, meditated in thousand year-old temples…All of these things were running through my head and suddenly, the one question, the ultimate question, struck me like a bolt of lightening: Was it all worth it?
Even though I knew the answer was a definite and confident YES, I thought about it for a while, and considered what could have been, what I have sacrificed, and weighed it against the genuine experience that I had accomplished. I believe that we are guided by forces, energy, visions and voices; our sense of intuition and our destiny will never let us down as long as we trust it. Letting go of the world I knew, my friends, my family and everything I knew was difficult because there was no turning back to what was. The future always looked exciting to me, but now more than ever I have confidence to accomplish anything I want to, and have the faith necessary to make it come true, regardless of the sacrifices I must make and the hardships I must endure.
In the end, when I stepped out into the terminal and gave my mother a big hug and kiss, I knew I was glad to be home. On the other hand, I also knew it wouldn’t be for long. Already, the sea beacons me back.
June 5th, 2007 - Bangkok, Vietnam
As our last day in Bangkok, we were determined to get one final taste of the city and decided to walk around the Royal Palace and walk to China Town. In the morning I let Dan sleep in and I worked on updating some pictures and wrote some of my diary. At around noon we had some yoghurt and muesli and then headed east towards the temple.
It was a hot day like every other in Bangkok, and once we entered the palace we were met by many armed guards holding machine guns. Although mainly for show, the sight of a guard holding a machine gun has always perturbed me. Straight-laced, we walked through the palace gates and joined the queue to pay. Unfortunately, I had no more money to spend and the price was actually pretty expensive. We had our share of palaces and temples so we decided to opt out of this one and just go explore some more of the city by foot, something that’s absolutely free.
We walked a fair distance and came upon the huge reclining Buddha in one of the temples by the river, had a peek inside (so to avoid paying the whole entry price), and continued on trying to find China Town. We ended up walking through some amazing street markets filled with DVD’s, electronics of all kinds, and hardware supplies. At one point, the police walked by and a few of the tables selling illegal DVD’s quickly packed up their goods and hid them; it was pretty funny to watch them scramble!
Hot and sweaty after a full day of walking around Bangkok, I decided it was time for me to head back and relax; my flight was at 1am and I wanted to reflect and meditate in Thailand before heading off on a 30 hour flight back to Canada. I took the long way home and ended up getting completely lost. In the area that I was in there were no Westerners and it was interesting to see all of the Thai’s going about their daily routine in the city. There were thousands of food stalls, motorbike mechanics, gift shops, jewelry stores and lots of other different shops along the way. Around 5pm I gave up the walk and hailed a taxi.
That evening I sat around and about a million memories flashed through my brain and I couldn’t help but feel absolutely thankful for every moment I experienced in SE Asia. Dan and I have seen more of Asia in two months than many people see in their lifetimes, if ever. We had a chicken sandwich at the far end of Khaosan Rd., and while we were eating I couldn’t help but feel a great sense of pride that we had accomplished everything that we set out to do. It’s very satisfying to know that I set goals months ago and have worked hard to accomplish those goals exactly how I envisioned them. The absolute feeling of elation continues to give me the faith to press on.
I caught the bus to the airport at 10pm, and Dan helped me with my bags and saw me off. After two months with seeing Dan everyday, it was strange to say goodbye. As for Dan, he has once again proven his friendship to me and we have had some pretty amazing experiences together. I know deep down inside that there will be more adventures together and that I will know him and cherish his friendship until the day we die and return to the universe as music.
June 4th, 2007 - Hanoi, Vietnam
We woke up early this morning and hired a motorbike to STA Travel where our flight tickets to Bangkok were being held for us. We picked them up right as they opened and still had enough time for a free breakfast before heading off to the airport.
The flight to Bangkok was a short couple of hours, and once we landed we took the bus to Khaosan Rd. We are definitely creatures of habit; we decided to go back to At Home guesthouse, the same place that we stayed the last couple of times we were in Bangkok.
For the rest of the afternoon we walked around Bangkok, and took in the Grand Palace (although we just explored the perimeter), the giant reclining Buddha, and China town. I left Dan later in the afternoon because my new flip flops were giving me massive blisters, but ended up getting lost and had to take a taxi back to the hotel; despite the blisters, I ended up wandering around for an hour or so before hailing down the cab.
Back at the hotel I wrote some e-mails and updated my blog, and got cleaned up for my last night in Thailand. We got a bite to eat on Khaosan Rd., had a few drinks, and got a cab to the Thai kick boxing stadium. Once at the stadium we realised it was a little bit out of our budgets so we immediately hailed another cab and got him to drop us off at Patpong, the notoriously sleazy part of Bangkok where anything goes, including all sorts of sexual debauchery. There are some really good markets down the street and our intention was to get some gifts and see what Patpong was all about.
After shopping for a few hours, we managed a few good bargains. Elated from our success, we sat down at one of the many bars along the side of the market. In the middle of most of the street-side bars about 20 Thai girls were dancing on the stage behind the bar. There were seriously about 100 different bars, some more raunchy than others, but all with open prostitution. It was really quite sad, so we left and headed back to Khoasan for a couple more drinks and some crickets from the street vendor; yummy!
