So there I was, at age 51, travelling “alone” for the first time, on my very first overseas trip. It seemed weird at Melbourne airport, me in my shorts, t-shirt and small backpack being farewelled by my son (who was heading off to Turkey for some sort of solar eclipse party just a few days later; he didn’t know it then but a few days later he would be interrogated and strip-searched in Dubai - I blame the dreadlocks). I flew Thai Airways, leaving Melbourne at 1.15am. Arrived in Thailand at 6.30am local time and was immediately disoriented by the heat, the smell (not really bad, just different), the traffic etc. I made my way to the starting point hotel, the Viengtai, just around the corner from Khao San Road. It wasn’t the sort of place
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