Thailand

I can’t believe it’s over. Tomorrow I have one last final and then I will dispose of my school uniform and get out of Bangkok. Well, I’ll try to at least. This weekend is the beginning of the Thai New Year, Songkran. This festival started as a way to wash away negativity and purify yourself for the new year. Traditionally the Thai’s have done this by marking themselves and each other with white paint and pouring water on each other and cleaning their Buddha statues. This external cleansing represents the internal cleansing of the mind as preparation to make a fresh beginning. With the Thai people’s love of a good time and the fact that this festival comes at the hottest part of the year, turning this tradition into a country wide water fight was a seemless transition. For about a week everything and everybody will be drenched with jasmine scented water and white paint. This is going to make travelling interesting. But let me get back to my original goal, thoughts on the semester.

What have I learned? Would I recommend this to other students? What would I do differently? 

I’ve learned to trust my instincts. Again. It seems that is a lesson I keep repeating. As any traveller knows, when you arrive in a new place it is easy to get overwhelmed by the new culture and the jet lag. My best advice for this is just to go with it. Get over whelmed, there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact that overwhelmed feeling is part of what draws me to travel. But when you’re done being overwhelmed drink some water, take a nap, when you wake up take a few deep breaths and then follow your instincts. Read your guidebook, decide what you want to do and don’t let what other people are doing change your plans. The first weekend I was here I went to an island because everyone else was. The island was beautiful but looking back the trip is not one that I would have done without outside influence and it wasn’t particularly culturally enriching, just expensive. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be flexible. Sometimes an opportunity comes along and you have to snag it, but without some prior reflection on your intentions it is easy to blur the difference between snagging once in a lifetime opportunities and getting pulled along into silly detours.

Don’t be dumb! I saw a lot of travellers partying too hard. I’m not going to say don’t drink, just don’t be dumb. Drunkenness makes getting ripped off, losing your wallet/passport, getting lost, or getting a hangover more likely. Being hungover, broke, and stressed out is no way to spend your time in a tropical place, or any place.

Would I recommend this to other students? Absolutely. Way too many college students are stressed out about graduating right away so that they can start paying off student loans. I realize that financial issues are a serious obstacle for many people. I wouldn’t have been able to do this semester without the scholarships that I got from Gilman International, USAC, and MTU. So while I can appreciate the burden of a tight budget I can also say with sincerity that money stress is only an excuse. The fact that doing a semester abroad often puts students off their schedule for graduation is great reason to do one, or two.  From what I’ve seen, once you get out of school and into a career it only gets harder to take time off for travel. So why not take time off to travel while you’re still in school? Maybe during your trip you’ll make some self discoveries or have some life-changing insights. What better time than while you’re still uncommitted and young enough to change?

What would I do differently? I would have gone on every single one of the school field trips, even though there was an annoying tour guide and it made me feel like a tool to shuffle around in a big group. Those trips are already paid for and they take care of transportation and meals for you. When you miss these field trips you spend more of your own money and then if you want to see what you missed during the field trip you have to pay for it yourself, so it makes a difference in your budget. This is really a minor detail but I feel I owe prospective study abroaders something aside from the “make the best of it” and “keep your passport duct taped to your chest” advice.

Now that classes are over and my bond to Bangkok is only a matter of figuring out how to escape the impending water fight I am anxious to escape the pollution and the territory wars of the mangy dogs. (Yesterday during a morning run I had to take shelter from four mangy dogs in a telephone booth until the street vendors came to my rescue.) My plans are to find the next available seat on either bus, train, or plane headed south. There are hundreds of rock climbing routes, maybe thousands, that beckon me. I’m not coming home until my rope, harness and shoes are completely used up. Then I’ll resume life as a raft guide. Rough, I know, but somebody has to do it.

In more heart-breaking news, my camera is on a two week vacation with the Canon gods. New photos will be unavailable until we are reunited.