Hello again!
Midterm season at Thammasat University is now officially over, which means time to pack up my bags and start traveling again! It’s crazy to think that my time in Thailand is almost over – what started as a ten-month adventure has now become a little over two months. So I’m pretty much over here trying to pack as much as I can in the time that I have left. It’s funny, when I first arrived in Thailand, I naively thought that I had all the time in the world, and that I would be able to see everything I wanted to and so much more. Perspective changes a lot of things!
So far, I have three back-to-back trips planned in the coming weeks. I will be heading up to Northern Thailand into the town of Pai, where I will be spending the days leading up to the Songkran festival. Everybody that I have ever talked to about Pai had nothing but good things to say about it, so I am most certainly excited! Plus, the weather up in the north is much better than the weather over here in Bangkok right now – the heat is really starting to kick in! I can only imagine how bad it is going to be when April comes around, it’s supposed to be the worst month when it comes to that.
But after Pai, I am going to come back to Bangkok to attend a few classes (never skip class!) before flying back up to a little province called Nan. What is Nan? I honestly have zero idea, but it’s a place that looks cool from the little research I did about it, so I’m just going to go up there and see what it’s about. Supposedly, there’s this cool mountain that you can go camping at, and on a clear night, you can see the Milky Way. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I can’t wait to check it out! There’s supposed to also be really good food, which is always a plus!
And then after that, I am heading off to Malaysia for five nights. I previously thought that my trip to Laos would be my last out-of-country trip, but apparently not! I’m super excited for this trip, and although I am spending so much less time in the country than I would want to, I think I have narrowed down my itinerary to a handful of spots that I would really like to see, taste, and explore.
After eight months of traveling, I’ve come to the conclusion that the best way to explore a place is to just go out there and do it. Don’t really plan (I mean, plan, but only the basic essentials) and see where the road takes you. So far, it’s been working out for me, and I think it’s one of the most important lessons that I have learned from this study abroad experience.
So yeah, that’s what my life looks like for the next couple of weeks. I can’t wait to share my experiences with you as I go through them! It’s going to be amazing, I can already tell! And even if it isn’t, at least I will walk away with a good story or two!
Best,
Jae