Monday 4 April 2011

You haven't seen the last of me, Thailand!


Things started off quite logically... but that didn't last very long


Thailand is probably my favourite country I've visited, and I probably had the best consistent six weeks of my life here. I'm a bit sad that it's over, really - if only there was some way I could go back...

What, like going back the same way I came out? Or getting a regularly scheduled cheap flight from anywhere in the world? Thanks to the dodgy and slightly annoying beauty of visa runs, I could have spent a lot longer in Thailand if I wanted to, but it feels like it's time to move on before I start to take it for granted. There's too much planet left to explore anyway, before I turn into my Nana and spend every summer holiday of my life in the same Devonshire harbour town without trying anything new.

I'm having too much fun here anyway - I miss the cynical bastard I used to know so well. Hopefully Malaysia will be a big pile of shit, but knowing my luck it'll end up being fantastic. Great.


So what's the plan?



An uncharacteristic level of planning
(three days in Chiang Mai)


The Plan is as thorough as ever, in that I (sort of) know where I'm living for the next three days. And that's it. I'm taking the bus from Krabi, Thailand to Penang, Malaysia and we'll see from there. I don't know an awful lot about Malaysia (about as much as I knew about Thailand when I first arrived - what a naive, delirious, incredibly handsome young nincompoop I was!) but I'm guessing it won't be a world away. Considering it's only a country away. And across the friendly border, rather than the other ones.

I'm not sure if continuing towards the equator as we advance perilously close to summer is really the best idea though.

Thailand taught me many things, including the beauty of day trips, which I've become a bit addicted to. Although I have more respect for people who arrange their own days out and use local transport to get around, sometimes it's just a hell of a lot more practical and time-saving to get in a bus with six other white people and get carted around the road well travelled.

Then again, many of my hectic day trips in Thailand towards the end were taken with an April 5th deadline hanging over my head, whereas I have a much more reasonable 90 days to fill/kill in Malaysia (let's aim for the first one). I've struck a more enjoyable work/fun balance in my life now too, and I'm no longer so easily swayed by the fickle affections of women, now that my plan to have a girl in every country is coming along nicely. In that there is now one. Only 195 to go!

See you in Penang! You should totally go to Thailand: look at all the fun I had.




Thailand route map


A Bangkok
B Cha Am
C Ban Krut
D Chumphon
E Koh Tao
F Koh Samui/Ang Thong
G Poipet (Cambodia)
H Chiang Mai
I Ayutthaya
J Krabi