I’m in Love…with Thailand

I just got home from my backpacking trip in Thailand, and I’m missing it already. Whenever I visit a new place, even if I love it, I usually don’t make plans on going back any time soon because I’d rather explore some new places that I’ve never seen before. Thailand is one of the few exceptions. I want to go back…right NOW. The food, the people, the culture, everything feels like home even though it’s so completely different from anything familiar to me. Being there, I felt so disconnected from the real world, which was such a good feeling. So few places make me completely forget about home yet feel like home at the same time.

I started out my trip solo. Which is always kind of scary at first. There’s always the thought in the back of your head: “What if I don’t meet anyone?”  ”What if I get lonely?”  But in all of my travels, it’s the times that I go by backpacking by myself that I meet the most people, and have the most amazing experiences. Backpacking solo gives you the opportunity to do exactly what you want to do without having to follow anyone else’s agenda. You’ll discover things you never knew about yourself. My first trip alone, a two month backpacking trip of Europe, was so rigidly planned out that I had things scheduled down to the very last minute. It seems like I have so rigidly planned my whole life out in this way; always so focused on one goal that I’m completely oblivious to other options, other opportunities. I regret this rigidity that I have structured my life under. Since I have started travelling, and from the experience of my first rigidly planned trip (which I ended up changing completely once I got to Europe), I have become much more flexible, opening my eyes to other options. Yes, there are certain obligations I have stringently set in my life, like school and career choices, that maybe I wish I wouldn’t have made looking back on things, but traveling has helped me to see that I can still pursue other goals, I’m still young, and I can still do what I love once I have finished my current obligations.

While traveling, many different people come into your life. People from all over the world. People with completely different views on life. People who you can be completely honest with because you know there’s a chance you might never see them again (ok maybe on Facebook). I’ve met many very successful people, people who had great jobs and a great education, who one day quit and sold everything they owned to travel the world for years with only a backpack. Others are like me, having obligations at home, not wanting to return, but knowing they will have to. Advice I get from these fellow travelers is some of the best and most insightful because its unbiased compared to the advice you would get from friends and family who will apply so many other variables they know about you to the advice they give.

Now that I’m back in the real world, which at times (if not all the time) is very stressful for me. Its calming to look back on my experiences while traveling and the people I have met. Even the most transient of relationships can make a lasting impact on your life, and the next trip, the next adventure, is something that is always there to look forward to, because you just never know what might happen or who you will meet.