Travel diary #1

FROM SRI LANKA TO THAILAND

A while back I made the game plan to spend a month working abroad. Thank god May-Britt was completely alright with the idea, and so here I am. Although she kindly asked me to limit the amount of travel stories because hey, not everyone is hanging out on some tropical island. Fair point, fair point, but luckily I was allowed to keep a travel diary for you guys once a week. So hereby my very first chapter.

The current date as I’m writing this is January 3rd and we’ve only merely entered the new year. After spending time in Sri Lanka, I continued along to Thailand and after a quick pit stop in Bangkok, I flew to the south of the country and after some boat trips and car rides, I ended up in Koh Libong. Thailand never really appealed to me because bus loads of hysterical tourists are not my cup of tea per se, but funny enough, Koh Libong is still rather undiscovered and only has a few hostels and resorts. And I’m currently hanging out in one of those resorts with about 30 other people. Read: incredibly relaxing.

This is where I celebrated New Years Eve, or wait, ‘celebrated’ probably isn’t the best way to describe it. More like, ‘it just happened’. There was a ‘gala dinner’ and a real Thai ‘show’ and all of it was so clumsy and somewhat pathetic but the clumsiness is what gave it its charm. At 00:00 three flares of firework were lit and I let a sky lantern float off into air and at about one thirty I found myself happy and a tad bit tipsy from all the gin tonics in my bed.

My days are filled with reading books by the pool or on the beach, and typing articles on those exact same beach beds, drinking white wine at lunch, beach strolls and heading to bed at decent hours. Seriously, I’m behaving like a granny and I have to admit it, I kind of like it.

On Saturday I rented a scooter and for the first time in my life, rode the thing all on my own. Ended up on a small trail heading towards a tiny little village and I somehow found myself in the middle of a Thai wedding where I was immediately invited to stay for lunch at an abandoned little beach. The island is about 40 square meters, has roughly 3500 inhabitants and it’s impossible to find any kind of ‘normal’ restaurant. You pretty much have to surrender yourself to you resort, but thank god my resort is some sort of heaven on Earth, and I am completely elated.

As I said, I’m currently writing this on a Sunday and am headed for my next destination the day after: Koh Lanta. It’s a lot bigger than where I currently am, and I sincerely hope I can avoid the bus loads of tourists .