I'm back with another blog post that will briefly cover some of the incredible adventures and experiences that I've had over the last month as I continued my travels through Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.
I'll start by saying that Southeast Asia in general seems like it was essentially built for backpacking. From my experience this seems to be the best place in the world for backpackers. The people are extremely friendly, it's very easy to get around, and the prices are CHEAP. If I came to this part of the world at the beginning of my trip, I probably could've hung around here FOR A FEW YEARS. No joke, but of course there's a few other parts of the world to see too.
When I got back from Myanmar I got stuck in Bangkok for over two weeks. I don't know what it is about that place but it's one of my favorite cities in the world. I really can't give you any good specific reasons for it, but I met some great friends there and had an amazing time. I really found it difficult to leave. It was also really the first time I had gotten "stuck" anywhere, which can be a pretty common thing among long term travelers, but usually it's in beach towns or something like that. For me it was Bangkok, and I was okay with it.
Near the end of my long stay there one of the Thai friends I had made invited me into the countryside about an hour and a half outside Bangkok to meet with his mentor. His mentor is an older man in his mid-sixties who is a university professor and a well known local artist. He said it would be a good experience to meet him and talk to him about my travels/life in general, just to gain more insight from a more experienced person. I thought this was a really interesting invitation. From my experience growing up it was never common to befriend an older person simply to have good conversation about life experiences and try to learn a few things from them unless they were a relative or something. But my friend, Nut (who's my age) did just this and essentially looks up to this guy as a mentor. I thought that was a pretty cool thing, so I happily accepted.
So Nut, our friend Goop, and I headed out to the Nakhon Pathom province west of Bangkok to stay a night and become more wise. When we arrived we met Winai, the mentor, who also had a friend from Paris visiting. His friend, Gilles, was one of the smartest people I think I've ever met. Both of these men were very well educated and had been in academia most of their lives, and of course they spoke very good English. Gilles in particular spoke 9 languages! He also had 3 or 4 Bachelor's degrees, 2 or 3 Master's degrees, and I think 2 P.h.D's. Let's just say that after spending an evening with these guys over some Thai whiskey at a beautiful property I learned a few things about life and can say that this was definitely a great experience. We returned back to Bangkok the next day but I was so happy Nut invited me to do this, and I was more than ready to move on from Bangkok.
Once I convinced myself to finally leave Bangkok (and to avoid any visa issues) I headed to northern Thailand, up to Chiang Mai. I heard so many great things about this place from other tourists, claiming northern Thailand as their favorite part of the country, so I knew that this would be the next destination. I really liked Chiang Mai. It had a nice, smaller city feel to it. While there I also checked out the Muay Thai traditional Thai boxing and rented a motorbike to explore the rest of the city.
A quick stint in Chiang Mai led me to see the small town of Pai next. Pai is a very small town in the mountains about 4 hours from Chiang Mai, but a very popular destination for backpackers. However, to make things interesting I decided that it had been too long since I last hitchhiked in Myanmar, so I made sure I would give it a shot on my way to Pai.
So once I got outside of Chiang Mai I stood on the side of the road for maybe 30 seconds before a car pulled up and a white girl rolled the window down and said "you must be going to Pai!" I said, "Yes!" and they let me hitch a ride with them in their car. Pien (the Dutch girl) and Sam (her Swiss boyfriend) had rented a car in Chiang Mai and were on their way to Pai for a few days. The timing could not have been more perfect, and it was by far the quickest ride I've ever hitched. They were such a nice couple and had been to Pai a few times before which is where they first met a few years ago, so when we got there I hung out with them for a bit and they gave me the basic rundown of the small town.
I stayed in Pai for about 3 nights. It was a nice little place, however, it was overrun with backpackers and there were far more tourists than locals. But somehow it still managed to be a pretty great little town with a really nice atmosphere. While in Pai I sort of reached a point in my mind about my take on the travels so far. I was at a point where I was caring a bit less about "what there is to do" in a place and focusing more on "what I wanted to do." For example, in Pai just about everyone rents a motorbike and rides out to a couple of the nearby waterfalls, goes to the canyon view, the caves, etc. etc. But I didn't do any of those things. At first I was starting to contemplate if this was me "burning out" on my trip or not. After all, I was about 10 months into the trip and this was the point I had heard about most people wanting to go home and take a break from it all. But on the other hand, I simply saw this as me exercising my right to just do or not do what I wanted.
Just because there's something that everyone does or wants to do at a certain spot doesn't necessarily mean that you need to do it too. Traveling can be a very selfish activity, but it needs to be because it's about self-growth and experiences that you have in order to learn more about the world and yourself, to develop your own take on what life means to you. This might be getting a little deep for a short visit to little old Pai, but it got me thinking, and I was totally okay with not visiting the waterfalls or the canyon or whatever. So I left Pai, happy that I visited but also with new ideas in my mind on this travel mentality.
Since I had so much success in hitching a ride to Pai, I decided to do it the other way, too. Once I got a bit outside of town it took maybe the same or even less time to hitch my ride out. It was amazing. A pickup truck with a couple local Thais pulled up and picked me up straight away. They didn't really speak any English but that was okay, I just told them I was going to Chiang Mai and we figured it out. It looked like a brother and sister but they seemed really nice. The best part was I got to hop in the back of the truck and ride in the back of a pickup through the windy, mountainous roads of northern Thailand for about 4 hours. It was a great ride, and after spending a couple quick nights in Chiang Mai I decided to head further North to Chiang Rai on my way to Laos.
Again, with all this success hitchiking I wasn't gonna let up any time soon so I decided to hitch up to Chiang Rai as well. It was a bit more challenging, but I eventually worked my way up to a small town via small payments of truck-taxi-things and got a real ride the rest of the way. The guy that picked me up was funny and a little flamboyantly creepy, but he dropped me off at my hostel in Chiang Rai without a problem. A couple nights in Chiang Rai and then I'd be on my way to Laos. Highlights of Chiang Rai included the White Temple (which was honestly one of the coolest temples I think I've seen) and the Black House (which is a really cool outdoor museum of a collection of bones, skins, and various other animal remains and artworks).
After my quick stop in Chiang Rai, I planned to make my way to Laos and then hop on a slow boat and ride the Mekong River for a couple days en route to the next main destination: Luang Prabang.
I'll start by saying that Southeast Asia in general seems like it was essentially built for backpacking. From my experience this seems to be the best place in the world for backpackers. The people are extremely friendly, it's very easy to get around, and the prices are CHEAP. If I came to this part of the world at the beginning of my trip, I probably could've hung around here FOR A FEW YEARS. No joke, but of course there's a few other parts of the world to see too.
When I got back from Myanmar I got stuck in Bangkok for over two weeks. I don't know what it is about that place but it's one of my favorite cities in the world. I really can't give you any good specific reasons for it, but I met some great friends there and had an amazing time. I really found it difficult to leave. It was also really the first time I had gotten "stuck" anywhere, which can be a pretty common thing among long term travelers, but usually it's in beach towns or something like that. For me it was Bangkok, and I was okay with it.
So Nut, our friend Goop, and I headed out to the Nakhon Pathom province west of Bangkok to stay a night and become more wise. When we arrived we met Winai, the mentor, who also had a friend from Paris visiting. His friend, Gilles, was one of the smartest people I think I've ever met. Both of these men were very well educated and had been in academia most of their lives, and of course they spoke very good English. Gilles in particular spoke 9 languages! He also had 3 or 4 Bachelor's degrees, 2 or 3 Master's degrees, and I think 2 P.h.D's. Let's just say that after spending an evening with these guys over some Thai whiskey at a beautiful property I learned a few things about life and can say that this was definitely a great experience. We returned back to Bangkok the next day but I was so happy Nut invited me to do this, and I was more than ready to move on from Bangkok.
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| My friend, Nut, and I in Nakhon Pathom at his mentor's property. |
A quick stint in Chiang Mai led me to see the small town of Pai next. Pai is a very small town in the mountains about 4 hours from Chiang Mai, but a very popular destination for backpackers. However, to make things interesting I decided that it had been too long since I last hitchhiked in Myanmar, so I made sure I would give it a shot on my way to Pai.
So once I got outside of Chiang Mai I stood on the side of the road for maybe 30 seconds before a car pulled up and a white girl rolled the window down and said "you must be going to Pai!" I said, "Yes!" and they let me hitch a ride with them in their car. Pien (the Dutch girl) and Sam (her Swiss boyfriend) had rented a car in Chiang Mai and were on their way to Pai for a few days. The timing could not have been more perfect, and it was by far the quickest ride I've ever hitched. They were such a nice couple and had been to Pai a few times before which is where they first met a few years ago, so when we got there I hung out with them for a bit and they gave me the basic rundown of the small town.
I stayed in Pai for about 3 nights. It was a nice little place, however, it was overrun with backpackers and there were far more tourists than locals. But somehow it still managed to be a pretty great little town with a really nice atmosphere. While in Pai I sort of reached a point in my mind about my take on the travels so far. I was at a point where I was caring a bit less about "what there is to do" in a place and focusing more on "what I wanted to do." For example, in Pai just about everyone rents a motorbike and rides out to a couple of the nearby waterfalls, goes to the canyon view, the caves, etc. etc. But I didn't do any of those things. At first I was starting to contemplate if this was me "burning out" on my trip or not. After all, I was about 10 months into the trip and this was the point I had heard about most people wanting to go home and take a break from it all. But on the other hand, I simply saw this as me exercising my right to just do or not do what I wanted.
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| The beautiful rice fields of the Pai countryside |
Since I had so much success in hitching a ride to Pai, I decided to do it the other way, too. Once I got a bit outside of town it took maybe the same or even less time to hitch my ride out. It was amazing. A pickup truck with a couple local Thais pulled up and picked me up straight away. They didn't really speak any English but that was okay, I just told them I was going to Chiang Mai and we figured it out. It looked like a brother and sister but they seemed really nice. The best part was I got to hop in the back of the truck and ride in the back of a pickup through the windy, mountainous roads of northern Thailand for about 4 hours. It was a great ride, and after spending a couple quick nights in Chiang Mai I decided to head further North to Chiang Rai on my way to Laos.
Again, with all this success hitchiking I wasn't gonna let up any time soon so I decided to hitch up to Chiang Rai as well. It was a bit more challenging, but I eventually worked my way up to a small town via small payments of truck-taxi-things and got a real ride the rest of the way. The guy that picked me up was funny and a little flamboyantly creepy, but he dropped me off at my hostel in Chiang Rai without a problem. A couple nights in Chiang Rai and then I'd be on my way to Laos. Highlights of Chiang Rai included the White Temple (which was honestly one of the coolest temples I think I've seen) and the Black House (which is a really cool outdoor museum of a collection of bones, skins, and various other animal remains and artworks).
After my quick stop in Chiang Rai, I planned to make my way to Laos and then hop on a slow boat and ride the Mekong River for a couple days en route to the next main destination: Luang Prabang.
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