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Published: January 1st 2024
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Taking on Another Long Haul Flight. Just Days After the Last Long Haul Flight. I do not know how we managed it, when I was sleeping ten hours a day just to recover my energy from the previous South American travel adventures that significantly challenged my typically resilient constitution, but manage it we did. After a twenty hour transit returning from South America on December 15th, fourteen days later, on December 29th, we embarked upon our overseas journey back to Thailand. Three connecting flights and thirty three hours later, we arrived Bangkok on the afternoon of December 31st, Bangkok time. Somehow, after indulging in an afternoon nap, we found enough energy to stay up well past midnight and enjoy some of the New Year’s Eve activities in our neighbourhood.
These included discovering a new neighbourhood funky bar / restaurant / music venue, which pretty much summarized what we have come to love most about Thailand. The venue was a tiny, kind of hole-in-the-wall place along the river that would go completely unnoticed during the day, but at night its rustic decor took on a new ambiance created by a few lights, a completely unmatched assortment of seating arrangements, some
pretty good local folk jazz musicians competing with a hip-hop band performing literally feet away right next door, and a very laid-back vibe that was punctuated by the owner’s dog who kind of belonged in the midst of all the action. The crowd was primarily a collection of locals of all ages, as well as a handful of international, non-descript tourists like ourselves. Everyone and everything was totally casual. The only thing missing, perhaps, was the sand floor, but we were not, as it were, on a beach. Not yet. Eventually we wandered elsewhere and indulged in some street food that included delicious pad thai and some banana mango pancakes, then stayed up late enough, along with the crowds who had gathered, to watch the fireworks around Bangkok’s iconic Rama VIII Bridge.
Doubt is very disabling. Believing in yourself is not always easy, especially when you are feeling like there is absolutely nothing left in the tank to propel you towards your objective; to keep you going wherever it is you need to go, to get done whatever you need to do. Which is precisely why the smallest words of kindness, of encouragement, coming from another, are so invaluable
when one is feeling depleted. And we all, at times, feel depleted. Perhaps this too is a fitting mantra for this trip - that the replenishing of one’s energy is not a selfish endeavour, if the objective is to ultimately share that energy with others in like acts of kindness. Nor is the gathering of different cultural perspectives and insights a purely self fulfilling endeavour. For this is, in deed, how we grow together; and this is what most gives meaning to our travels.
We are very excited and grateful for the opportunities that await us to do just that, as we set out to explore further some of the immense energy that is Bangkok, then return to the island life we have come to love on Koh Phangan, and later on the islands of Indonesia.
Thank you for your interest in our travels and philosophical musings.
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