I pointed to a place randomly on the world map – Chiangmai. By thenI even didn’t know where is it (since I’ve never travelled solo especially travel to a foreign land). I booked the flight immediately and right after applied for a one month Visa. I didn’t want to tell my mom from the beginning because I know she might not allow me to go. I started to pack my bags late in the night without getting her attention. Three days before departure I told her about my decision. Of course she was very surprised but I insist on going for this trip. For the first time travelling solo, I packed so many things that I thought it’s needed. And I booked a villa on Airbnb for a month, is really the dream of my house – own garden with nice terrace, the whole villa in glass, swimming pool, away from the center. “I definitely can stay for a month and maybe is not enough, but is a very good start for my solo-travelling trip.”
Touched down in Chiangmai airport, exotic smells all over me, no one knows me and I don’t
know any of them. We are all the passengers and our path might not cross ever.
Isn’t it what I want?
I have this whole month to figure out. No plans, not exact destination, no hurry, just enjoy and relax. I do believe my travel path is already well arranged and I just need to wait for it to happen in the exact moment. The villa is located near Nimmana road, very quiet but meanwhile easy for me to move around. Right after I landed and arrived in the center, I found a random place to enjoy my first Pad Thai in Thailand, it taste like heaven, and everyone is just so nice to me. The manager of the villa came to pick me up, welcome with a big smile on the face. Introduce every single thing that I might need. Everything seems so familiar to me even though everything just fresh to me.
I woke up naturally the other day, normally I don’t need breakfast especially if I have to go to work. Look, hey I am in Chiangmai, I searched on Instagram before and this Ristr8to is perfect for my morning coffee. I still can’t believe the photos on Instagram suddenly became reality but in different forms – I am here.
Instead of using GPS on the mobile, I got a paper map. I love to feel the ink and the paper in my hand even though is not easy for me, we are used to the digital world, sometimes is hard for us to step back and try to live backwards. It was burning hot even it was in February, I stopped for fresh juice many times under this “South east Asian heat”.
Since I was not staying in the hostel and it was very difficult for me to meet interesting people, I downloaded Tinder, well, I wasn’t trying to search something in particular, I just wanted to meet person in real.
Darren from the UK, he asked me to meet up for breakfast, (well, insteadof asking me out for a drink, breakfast sounds good to me). He came with his scooter to pick me up and we spent almost the whole day together. It was nice to have company when you are in a foreign land. He’s a digital nomad who has been living in Chiangmai for awhile, as a fresh travel beginner, I got inspired from Darren, it makes me not wanting to go back home and keep traveling while starting business online. See, that’s what I meant, we don’t have to plan everything in advance, you just have to open for possibilities and when the moment comes, I hope you have the courage to take it.
Having Darren in the city makes my journey somehow easier, he knows where to go, what to do and if there are any events happening in the city. We went partying together till the morning and dance like nobody is watching. We are both interested in spiritual this kind of stuff, and it makes easier for us to communicate and understand each other.
There was a pool party organized by Le Meridien, and of course I signedup for it, (When you are travelling alone, you don’t want to miss a thing. It turned out to be one of my best pool parties till now. Under the hit of Chiangmai around 40 degree, I can’t help myself but start drinking – way too much even I couldn’t remember to get changed, so I went on a tuk tuk in my bikini and barefoot with a big black plastic bag on my shoulder (keys, dress, shoes, passport and my wallet). There was this gentleman Nicolas, he was just trying to offer me help, I shout at him instead “go away, you just want something from me and I am obliviously not that kind of person you are looking for, I am fine and I am able to go home by myself”. I was kind of tipsy but I managed to direct to the tuk tuk driver my way back home.
Next morning I woke up in my sofa with of course only bikini and the door wide open.
Luckily I didn’t lose anything, so I fresh up a bit and went out for a brunch. Then I went on Instagram to check on the party of yesterday, so I search for Le Meriden and I found out Nicolas. He seemed to be familiar to me what I just don’t remember if I spoke to him last night or not, and here comes my private message “Bonjour Nicolas, I hope you are doing great and enjoyed the party, quick question, have we met at the party yesterday?”. Few hours later I got his reply “Hey you, of course I remember you but you almost called me an asshole while I was just trying to help last night, cause I saw you a bit drunk”. All those memories just went fast in my head, and yes, I remember of course petty well.
“Hey Nicolas, I do apologize for my behavior last night, let’s catch up for a coffee some day, I am staying in Chiangmai for one more week”.
See how the dots are just connected with each tiny little pieces, you wouldn’t even thought about it at the beginning – that’s the beauty of unknow and the magic of “go with the flow”.
“What are you doing everyday in Chiangmai?”
“Nothing precisely but wandering around the city.”
Late brunch, smoothies in the afternoon, street food and enjoying musicin Night Bazaar then head to “Zoe in Yellow etc. That’s pretty much of my day and night, and repeat for a month. When you are traveling alone, it’s always easier to make decisions based on your daily mood, if I don’t feel like going out, I just stay in and do nothing; When I don’t feel like going back home, I just stay up partying all night, simple as it is. No pressure and stay peace with myself.
If it’s really meant to be, it will find its way back eventually, I was taking a random walk the other day around Mueang area, and I found this meditation center Wat Suan Dok, for a fresh beginner like me, I don’t want to go completely extreme for the first time, and this center is perfect for me, a two day meditation retreat workshop.
I signed up for a two-day course and that’s how I met Myrte from Netherlands. Two new beginner and we became roommates, we both eat quite a lot, and the happiest moment of the day is the time for our meal. This retreat is not that strict as Vipassana of course, so we are still allowed to talk and keep our phone with us – eventually this is just a very first trial experience for both of us, we woke up early at 5am for morning chanting and food offering to the monks. It made us think, we are used to take but not often used to give. Actually we all should’ve give something back to our society from time to time, it’s a circle and we are in it no matter what.
Walking meditation is very new to us, not only you will have to focus on your breath but only your steps, at the beginning I just couldn’t it do it together, if I tried to focus on my breath then I forgot how to walk like normal, and when I tried to focus on my steps then somehow I felt like I couldn’t breath anymore. It’s definitely a process, a long way to go but we are glad to at least make the first step. Going back to the city center after this 2-day retreat, we actually felt different, even though we were not in complete silence – I mean yes we did talk to each other but in a minimum way. In this retreat, we have around 30 students coming from all over the world, but yet gathering together in one meditation hall, respect and support each other. Each of us has its own purpose towards the same subject, just because of this, the world became more beautiful, not like only looking at the mirror anymore. For traveler like us, we are not happy to keep things stay always the same, we would like to change from time to time, to expand our mind and look into the future but also travel into the past, you are not who you are today without your past experiences.
Travelling is not a competition, yes, I did stayed in Thailand for a month, and only in Chiangmai, not even go to Pai for the first month – So?
Pai,Koh Lipa, Krabi and other places in Thailand are just beautiful, I traveled quite often after my first trip.
I tried my first discover scuba diving in Koh Lipe, first solo kayak experience which I
risk not being able to come back to the island and flow all my way to Langkawi, running 3am at the beach, pushed by 5 street dogs up to the hills and in the end they escort me back to my resort;
The world is huge, meanwhile, the circle is very small, back in Koh Lipe – very small island, I booked a resort to celebrate my birthday. After very exhausted kayak experience, I was just
chilling and walking along the beach, then I met this familiar faces, Giulia and Matthias – An Italian couple I know back in Guangzhou.
“Ciao Giulia,no way! How longhave you been here and how long you will stay?”
Definitely not every journey requires a certain destination, you just got to discover along the whole way. We ended up drinking the whole day – Ginger Mojito and lots of Chang Beer afterwards, we went to see Putu – A gentleman who owns a bar in Koh Lipe, he’s a very cool person and we spent more time together the following days and chasing sunsets and of course over beers.
The conversation never ends while you are at the ocean front, your mind flows just like the cloud, the wind, and the sea. It brings you to another world – A true “Wanderland”. You don’t remember days but moments.
After couple of trips in Thailand, I start chasing sunrises and sunsets by putting on the speaker
“Sunset lovers”.I went back to Changmai for Songkran festival, you just don’t get dry for three complete days, I do think I have a thing with Italians, - Michael from Como, he was downstairs my building and pouring ice-cold water on each people passing by. It was quite cool in Changmai that time and ice-cold water was just sucked. “If you want to start with the game? Okay I would definitely follow.” We chased people who was trying to escape and we invited those who doesn’t want to join the game at the very beginning. I still remember there’s a young Chinese couple with big luggage – obviously they are going to catch a flight or just landed, but me and Michael don’t care, we welcome them with a huge bucket of ice-cold water and it has literally with ice in it. They were screaming and start getting mad, but in the end, they took our bucket and said “Game time, when in Chiangmai, we just have to follow the traditions, let’s do this.” Then of course we ended up at “Zoe in Yellow” later in the night, with Darren, Michael and few Italian we met during his chaotic festival period.
Life is short, if I don’t enjoy now, when should it be?
I could really live in Chiangmai – peaceful yet charming.
Who knows, maybe in the coming years I will get my own Villa here.
Again, I want to emphasize travel is not a competition, it’s af eeling that comes randomly depends on your current mood.
If it only allows to summarize Thailand in one word, it would be “comfort.”
Short but powerful because comfort is one of the essential elements in life.
You just can’t explain your feeling over one paragraph, that’s a whole damn chapter on going.
Long story short, not bad for my first solo trip and definitely there will be more in the coming chapters.
“When you changed the way you looked at things, those things you looked at changes” – a great summary yet beginning for my following chapters.
You’ve got to understand and experience life in a complete different angle.
