Moonin' Round Asia

If you haven't read the Koh Chang posting, that was put up earlier today and you should check that out before this one.

August 15th was a very sad day. We'd be flying out of Bangkok on the 16th and the trip of our lives had come to a conclusion. I get the chills even writing that now, 3 months afterwards. We packed up all of our belongings and boarded a 4 hour bus to take us back to Bangkok. The bus ride was actually easy. We’d been on so many bus/train/plane rides in the past 3 months that 4 hours on a crowded bus with shotty air conditioning now seemed like nothing at all. We arrived back in Bangkok with no incident and were dropped off at the bus terminal.

I thought I remembered the city well enough from the time we had been there 3 months earlier and thought the area we wanted to stay in was in an entirely different area than it was. I ended up booking a beautiful hotel, but the problem was it was about a 20 minute cab ride to get to the backpacker area where we wanted to hang out on that final night. We checked in to the hotel, got situated and cleaned up and went out for dinner. We decided on a place that Lonely Planet recommended highly. We chose it for it’s rating and for the fact that you didn’t have to be super dressed up in order to get in. We both selected fish entrees, very Thai style. When they came out, they were literally the entire fish, bones and all, covered in sauces, vegetables, other fishes, etc. We spent the next 45 minutes tearing these poor things apart. The food was delicious, but it was very messy and very filling and quite difficult to see when you really can’t see what part of the animal you’re eating.

We left dinner and went out for some drinks and entertainment that night – heading back to the hippy haven of the backpacker area. We had a few drinks, played some pool, listened to the same Thai guy singing Hotel California again and retired for the night knowing the next day would be a long one.

When we woke in the morning we wet out for one final meal in Thailand (ironically at an Australian Sports Bar) and got in our cab for the airport. It was a really strange feeling leaving. This wasn’t our home, but this lifestyle is the only one we’d known as a married couple. There’s no “home”; every day you pack up, get in a bus/train/plane/boat and head somewhere new and meet new people to talk to and hang out with. Getting home was going to be bitter sweet. While we were looking forward to getting a new place, settling in, seeing our families and friends, this was all really hard to leave.

We got to the airport and our flight was delayed for 2 hours. This really made things kind of interesting because we were flying Air India to Mumbai where we had 3 hour layover before flying from Mumbai direct to Newark, NJ. This delay meant that we only really had an hour to de-board one plane, board another and ensure our luggage made it with us! Fortunately, everything made it without issue. That second flight was, however, the longest flight of our lives. We flew direct for roughly 17 hours. We also ate nothing but Indian food the entire time, and they were generous with it. Needless to say, we had a strong curry smell when we landed in Newark.

It’s over… We made it. We really did it. We set out to have the trip of our lives and we did. I can honestly say that neither of us have a single regret about the trip (the scooter accident came close to regretful, but we’re going to give it a pass because we learned how stellar our healthcare is in this country. It also taught a great deal about pain/discomfort endurance!)

Some people get married and decide to buy a house immediately with the gifts their friends and families were so generous in giving them. Some people build a savings account that they know they’ll always be able to fall back on. These both have their merits and are fantastic ways to ensure long term livelihood. I think Molly and I have both learned that life is too short. You can’t count on your world staying exactly the way it is today and more importantly, as cliché as it sounds, you can’t take it with you. The experiences I’ve shared with the woman I love more than anything, the things we’ve learned, the people we’ve met… I wouldn’t trade that for anything. A lot of people asked me why we were doing this. Why would you leave the country for 3 months, particularly when I’d be coming back and looking for a job in the worst economic climate any of us have ever seen? It’s very simple really. You can only hear someone say, “I wish I had done this before…” so many times before it finally sinks in. Life isn’t about the treasures you’ve amassed; it’s about experiences and the people you can share those experiences with.

If you’re still reading, please take this seriously. If you’re lucky enough to be in a position to question everything you’ve worked towards and why you’ve done it; take a second to look around and ask yourself if this is all you’ve wanted out of life. Have all these years of school, following the status quo, working as hard as you can to get ahead…. Is that all you ever wanted?

Thanks for reading and supporting us all of this time. Good luck to everyone in whatever life has in store for you.