When we told you that Santa reads the blog, it was no joke. Courtesy of the man in the red suit's frequent flyer miles, in less than a week, I am boarding a plane to Singapore and then traveling around Southeast Asia for the next two weeks. I still kind of don't believe it's true.
I was last in this neck of the woods with Grace way back in 2009. She was finishing up a show in Shanghai and I was looking for an excuse to quit my job. We figured the logical answer to both of those life events was for us to meet up in Bangkok. In the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we made our way around Thailand and Indonesia mostly on the recommendations of fellow travelers and friendly folks who lived in the region. This is my ideal way to travel - a completely open itinerary. The drawback to this method is you need a good chunk of time to do it. As I have attempted to be a responsible adult who pays bills, saves towards retirement, and maintains a job for more than one year at a time, the ability to go off on adventures for an extended period of time is greatly diminished.
This is not to say that I haven't had some pretty epic trips this past year. It's just that they have all required a hefty amount of pre-planning, and scheduling, and we must make it here by this day at this time, and etc. When there is all this forethought into a holiday, I can get distracted by the supposed-to-dos and forget that what I am in the midst of in that moment is most important. Or even worse, I begin to dream up alternative scenarios. Why do I do that? Granted nothing ever goes as planned. Case in point: during #deathbysouthwest, we were not supposed to ride horses out of the Havasu Falls, spend a night in Las Vegas, or hang out at a hot spring in Colorado.
Still my wanderlust craves a little less rigidness and a little more flying by the seat of one's pants. With this in mind, I'll soon set out for two weeks of minimal pre-planning adventuring. I arrive in Singapore on Wednesday, fly to Siem Reap on Thursday and from there who knows where I will end up.
note:
- these photos are from grace's and my trip to thailand and indonesia in 2009. in order of appearance, they are the following places:
1-4: ko phi phi don, thailand - yes, everyone and their mother goes here but it is for good reason. beautiful, cheap places to stay on the beach and an island that you can explore by foot or boat. i recommend both.
5-11: mount bromo, indonesia - on a whim we ended up watching the sunrise over this active volcano and even stayed around to ascend the crater. bring warm clothing. we froze until the sun decided to make an appearance.
12-18: bangkok, chiang mai, and somewhere between chiang mai and pai, thailand - we met that group of ragtag motorbikers 2 days before that picture was taken. we all intended to make it to pai but ended up going to a hot spring instead (i know. i have an addiction.)
19-22: gili islands, indonesia - these islands off the coast of lombock have no electricity or vehicles. my dream spot. minus a run in with a snake. don't worry - we (the snake and i) were both equally upset by the incident. the gentleman holding up the tee runs a hostel (funny homestay - he's awesome) and also has a drinking club. that tee is their official club wear.