And you're living it!

So, it’s been almost a month that I’ve been in Thailand and thus far my expectations have been blown and it was nothing like I could have imaged, from every angle.

My time so far has been spent volunteering in a rural village bánh nhân kem in the province of Phang Nga. The community is very small and most of the foreigners who come through the small village are simply the volunteers. Needless to say, I’m not playing tourist here, but being immersed in culture.

Quickly I’ve become forced friends with my bunkmates – a combination of living in close quarters and traveling with a purpose (aka volunteering) seems to create relationships rather fast. During the week w are heads down and tails up prepping for classes, teaching classes and cleaning but our weekends are given back to us and I’ve tried to take advantage of my free time. I promise to devote a post from a volunteer perspective, but this one’s dedicated to the lifestyle.

A hop, skip and jump away from our village, which is more like an hour walk, a 30 minuet local bus ride and six very sweaty white people ended up in a livelier town called Khao Lak where we spent two days and a night. The first day started off with torrential rain which left us with no other option than to begin our afternoon playing pool and drinking Singha Beer at an expat pub. The night ended at an Asian Club, where we danced to the beat of foreign tunes in a sea of very contacty Asian girls. It was an adventure all on its own.

It’s always a bit messy solo traveling with a group of people, and honestly it’s hard to sometimes make decisions for yourself or decisions as a group. I was reminded by another female volunteer about this concept as we couldn’t, for the life of us, find two boys in the group. The girl said that they probably just went home and I said that I couldn’t believe they would just leave us to which her response was Kirstin, they’re not those kind of boys. We found them walking home twenty mins ahead of us.

In turn, I had to remind a different girl, who has perhaps had a bit too much spirits and too many cigarettes, that traveling solo in a developing country means that no one really has your back. Don’t get me wrong, eighty percent of my decisions are made on the vibes of strangers and my gut instinct. Most travellers I’ve met are helpful and decent people, but ultimately, traveling alone means that the only person you have to rely on is yourself. Daily I learn how capable I am and that I’m braver than I ever knew.

After sleeping at the Highway Backpackers Hostel (they weren’t kidding about the Highway part), some bed sharing and resorting to using a towel as a blanket (apparently cheap hostels don’t include blankets), we began our day eating an American breakfast and then heading to the Khao Lak-Lam Ru National Park and trekked our way up to the Ton Chong Fa Waterfall. The scenery was beautiful. The rainforest was lush providing coverage from the sun and for three hours we spend our time making our way to the different levels (hiking in our bathing suites, naturally) and enjoying a break from heat and humidity. We refuelled ourselves by hitting up the Night Market eating local Pad Thai and trying the various sweets, opting out of tasting the fried bugs.

After a bus ride with a dreamy diver from Switzerland we concluded our night we a campfire on the beach with the rest of the volunteers.

Within the last few weeks I’ve quite often reminded myself smiling and thinking, holy shit Kirstin, it’s happening, your traveling in Thailand and it’s everything you wanted in more.

HAPPY

Kirstin

Surround yourself with the dreamers, the doers, the believers and the thinkers.