The Final Month

Somehow I've made my way back to Bangkok yet again. It's hard to believe I decided to come back after my adventures down under, but I wanted to have one last 'hoorah' here before I finally head home.

I wanted to go back to Asia one more time, and since I don't have much money left to fully travel and explore a new place the way I'd like to, I thought it would be best to head back somewhere familiar that I can still have fun at while getting that exotic Asian experience. So Bangkok was calling my name and I'm really happy about my decision to spend my last month of the trip here.

Before coming back, I was able to book my flight in a way that allowed me to see Hong Kong for a day on a nice long layover. So I stopped in Hong Kong for a day, headed up Victoria Peak for a beautiful view of the city, and then met up with a friend (and SigEp brother) of mine who's living in nearby Shenzhen on mainland China. I will say that just from a quick observation and taste of Hong Kong it's a truly impressive and diverse place. Of course everywhere you go seems to be screaming business and money, but what blew me away the most was just how the heck they built this place on such an unfriendly landscape for building. Hong Kong is not really the flattest place in the world. In fact, it's quite hilly... and there's water everywhere. So don't ask me why or how they decided to build all of the amazing skyscrapers they have there, but it sure makes for an impressive skyline and view of the city.

Hong Kong selfie. Too hot to smile.

But alas, that's about the most I can write about Hong Kong after my quick trip there, and then it was back to that old familiar place: Bangkok. It felt good to be back, and I was already happy with my decision to return shortly after I arrived. To be honest, I don't have a ton of stories from this particular trip back to Bangkok. I've more or less just been enjoying my last days of the adventure, living and enjoying life in a foreign country as much as I can before heading back home.

However, one really interesting thing that I did this time around was take a little trip to northeast Thailand with my Ajahn (Thai for "teacher"). I first met my Ajahn through my first Thai friend I made during my first visit to Bangkok, and I briefly wrote about the first time I went to meet this old Thai wiseman in a previous blog post back in August. I was interested in paying him another visit now that I was back in town, so I contacted him and he invited me to join him in giving a guest lecture at a university in Nakhon Ratchasima, about 4 hours outside of Bangkok. He thought this would be a great opportunity for me to see parts of Thailand that I would never normally see as a tourist, and when he invited me to join him it was an easy invitation to accept.

So I met up with him the day before the lecture at his place in Nakhon Pathom, about 45 minutes outside of Bangkok, and we sipped some more Thai whiskey (as we did during my first visit) and talked about life and society. I was getting smarter by the sip, which is why I always enjoy making conversation with this guy. He's traveled the world, he's a successful artist, and he's been teaching in universities across Thailand for about 40 years, so he always brings a good perspective to the conversation.

It was good to be back, and the following morning we had a private mini bus take us straight to the Suranaree University of Technology in Nakhon Ratchasima. We arrived a bit early, which gave some of the students at the university time to show me around the campus and see what this place was all about. It was actually an impressively large campus, and it reminded me a lot of the traditional college campuses we have back home. There were the dorms, administration buildings, lecture halls, and various faculty buildings scattered around the area. I felt like I was back in school again, this time with no responsibility whatsoever, and it felt great.

Then it was time for the lecture, which was interesting in a comedic sort of way. We all made our way to a large lecture hall big enough to fit a few hundred students and my Ajahn proceeded to deliver his two hour lecture in Thai. It was funny, because here I was sitting front row in a giant lecture hall full of Thai university students listening to some guy who I came here with deliver a lecture for two hours about something in Thai while I was catching up with my journal, writing at my desk as if I was taking notes during the lecture. I thought it was pretty funny and found myself pausing and trying to put together where I was and how the heck I got myself into this situation. This is the beauty of long term travel. You just never know what kind of experiences the adventure will throw at you next.

Me and ajahn Winai. Just after he gave his lecture at Suranaree University of Technology. Thank you, ajahn!

So after what would have seemed like a very interesting lecture (if only I could understand more Thai) with plenty of power point slides and maps, we headed off to a local restaurant to get some dinner with my Ajahn and some of his colleagues from the university. We ate some of the local food and I must say, it was one of, if not the best meal that I had in Thailand. The food was great, the company was awesome, and after the meal we of course sipped on some whiskey and drank and talked the night away, sharing our cultural views and stories from our adventures through life. 

It was such a great experience, and after a great breakfast at our hotel and a couple random stops to a roadside attraction featuring really impressive scrap metal sculptures and yet another temple, we were back at my Ajahn's home in Nakhon Pathom and I was back in Bangkok the following day.

It was an awesome little 3 day trip and it was good to get out of Bangkok after a couple weeks of settling down. It's experiences like this that keep me going and keep this adventure interesting. Those kinds of things never get old.

Another highlight that I should probably briefly mention is the hotel party I decided to host before my departure. I have quite a few left over Hilton hotel points from my traveling during my old job, so what better way to use them up than throwing a pre-departure celebration party in a King Executive Suite at the Hilton in downtown Bangkok? Obviously don't need to go into too much detail here, but let's just say it was a huge success before getting the party shut down by management at 1am. But we took the party to the clubs after that and it was a great night. Thanks Hilton.

Doesn't get much better than Champagne in a hotel suite at the Hilton.

Other than that, I do want to mention one more thing that I've experienced in Bangkok that I haven't really anywhere else. Since I've been here for awhile now, over the course of about 4 different visits on this trip, I've actually been able to develop a social circle of friends here. This is not something that backpackers typically experience while traveling as you're never usually in one place long enough to meet some locals and hang out with them enough to actually develop a social group of friends. I think that it's really cool that I've actually been able to be part of a group of friends that live here, and even get caught up in some of the drama. It's a completely new experience for me and another experience of the adventure all the same. I'm glad I've been able to actually have the opportunity to experience something like this, and it's more or less been a great way to finish off the trip for me.

With that being said, I'm planning to come home very soon which is nearly impossible to fathom. I'm excited and scared at the same time, but at some point it's always good to get home and remind myself of some of the most important things in life: friends and family, the ones that helped me make this adventure possible to begin with. So here's to finishing off the last month strong and enjoying the final moments of what has become quite the adventure :)