So Thailand was fun. It was my vacation within vacation – the time I could spend with my family and forget about my personal goals (yei to procrastination!).
This trip was a good contrast to my Hawaii trip where on the second day after swimming nonstop for 2 hours I got really sick and sunburned. I was glued to my bed for the next couple days and had too much time on my hands. Of course I spent that time the best I could – doubting my decisions since kindergarten. Those philosophical thoughts were fueled by the fever and constant coughing.
But you know, I think was lucky to get sick in Hawaii. I mean it was probably the most expensive cold I’ve ever had, but at least it happened while I was still in America where I know how to get the cold meh-dicine and familiar food. I can’t imagine begging myself to take what would be my best guess as Thai cold medicine and topping it off with the Thai street food. That’d be some adventure.
I thought that it will be a while before I get sick or sunburned again since I learned my lesson and stuff. Two weeks didn’t pass before I got an even worse sunburn, so I doubt that I really learned anything.. But at least, in the breaks between sneezing and coughing I was able to to do some hiking, walking around the beaches and just enjoying the view. And it was amazing!
Thailand, however, was gorgeous on whole another level. And I’m not just talking about the beautiful wild nature, tuktuk rides, ancient temples, the fishes and the clear waters with rocking boats. The biggest treasure of the Thailand is the people – they are sweet and cheerful creating this bubble of happiness around them. As we spent a couple weeks there I felt like my worries and stress were dissolving in the clear waters and the smiles of happy locals.
Our trip didn’t go without adventures though.
Watch your step expectations
The moment my sister stepped off the plane, she sensed that something was off. She is an architect who works with the building norms every day, and her eyes see the norms before she even wants them to. So she noticed that the stairs were different, the safety norms around bridges were different (or more like non-existent), and pretty much everything else looked just a little bit off. We all looked at it and laughed it off. We didn’t know that it will turn out to be one of the most dangerous things about Thailand (at least for us).
I think roughly 3 days into our trip I tripped over my pants and fell. Yeah.. It was as graceful as it sounds. I painted the ground with my knees and my phone decided to go face-down too. My pride blamed it on the uneven surface and the darkness. But it doesn’t change the fact that I tripped over my pants.
For the rest of the trip I was going crazy with the crazy-slow phone I had to buy to be able to survive here (Millennials.. ), and scaring people at the beaches with my colorful knees. My sister, who kept noticing the dangerous bridges, stairs, buildings, sidewalks was so worried after I tripped over on an even road (it wasn’t even!) that she didn’t let me make my own tea. I mean that is after she laughed her face off. In the next few days she was trying to do most of the stuff for me, and I received the best 5-star service on my vacation.
That’s until we switched places when she fell. No, not on an even surface like me (though it wasn’t even!) , but on stairs. She made a crazy salto where it seemed like she managed to touch the stairs with every part of her body and land on her side. She laid there without moving for what seemed to be the longest split second of my life, and then jumped up, dusted off her hands and just kept walking as if nothing happened. Her pride murmured something about stairs norms or something. I couldn’t hear it over the screams in my head. She magically didn’t break anything and ended up having only a couple bruises. I keep replaying that salto in my head and wondering how could she not break anything?! Maybe it’s the bubble of happiness that the locals create that catches people in their fall.
A few days after Vika’s salto, we witnessed another tourist falling backwards onto the asphalt, hitting her head and her leg. She probably had a minor concussion (I’m not a doctor to say anything for sure, but the bump on her head was huge), and a bruise on her leg, but for someone who fell backwards and hit her head against the asphalt (!) she was really lucky.
This got me thinking – the place is probably safer for kids than adults. Kids are constantly warned to be careful, and since a puddle might end up being as dangerous as a crooked sidewalk for them, there is no need to be in a more cautious head-space than they already are. Adults, on the other hand, even if they try might not be able to change their ways. Adults’ brains are adjusted, set for certain expectations from the place they come from. We’ve walked those stairs so many times, that we don’t even need to think about it. By now it’s become a habit. Of course we try to be more careful in new places, but it’s the times that we are the least alert – tired or on autopilot – when we are the most vulnerable to these types of danger.
Mosquitoes
I know, every travel page/blog/video has already talked about it, but just stay with me for a second. I have read all of those pages/blogs/videos about traveling to Thailand (well.. not ALL of them), but it still caught me by surprise. Mosquitoes are remorseless. No creams/oils/repellents helped to keep them away. They kept biting us constantly. Even in the face – one morning I woke up with one brow much bigger than the other one.
Before the actual trip, I was expecting to use the mosquito repellent every day and get a bite once in a while, but oh was I wrong. We were pouring the spray onto ourselves non-stop to the point that we were almost ready to be eaten alive rather than having to smell that Citronella oil ever again.
Some time ago I saw a documentary on a great wildebeest migration that happens every year in Africa. Animals travel thousands of miles following the rain that nurtures their pastures. One of the minor reasons that the animals have to keep moving all the time is the ever-biting irritating vicious mosquitoes. It felt like some of those mosquitoes found their way to Thailand, thought that we are the lost wilderbeast, and tried to help us find the greenlands of Tanzania by biting our butts off.
I never thought that my next fitbit badge would be earned by running away from mosquitoes.
With all the fun we had together, we didn’t notice the time pass and soon we were all headed to our own destinations – to continue with our lives. I’m excited to see what trouble I’ll get myself into next, but I’ll try to draw on my experience and avoid sunburning, falling, and wearing overly long pants.
Chasing Phantom 