Epilogue
Trip Start
Mar 02, 2004
1
27
34
Trip End
Apr 02, 2005
Bangkok,
Thailand
Monday, January 10, 2005
Worse than my attire was the fact that my keys were in my backpack on Had Rin, and I now have no way of getting into my apartment. When I called work from Bangkok my boss said they'd get me an extra key, but the simple task of leaving a key in my mailbox proves too challenging, and when I get home there's nothing for me to do but stay the night at Tonia's place.
The post-vacation depression that I thought would hit me in Seoul didn't materialize, perhaps because I feel so strongly about going back to Thailand
Departure Lounge, Koh Samui Airport
. If I was impressed with Taiwan, then Thailand brought me to another universe, a place of beauty and depravity, a place to wander into the world you can only guess about when not there. Thailand is a special place unlike anything I've ever experienced, and like many say, it's a place you fall in love with. Like all good places Thailand changed me. Still this is a difficult thing to announce without sounding naive or flaky. It's like part of my circuitry was rewired there, and for now I can only feel that this is a good thing. Thailand taught me that it's the flow of things that's important, not the channel it follows. If all else fails, as long as your heart beats you're okay, and if it beats a little faster all the better.
After Thailand I know it's just a matter of time before I return to Asia. My time in Korea is almost at an end, and while I don't plan to teach here again I want to go to Thailand again, and didn't get to China or Vietnam this year. There's still so much to do and see. Asia is a very long and sumptuous menu.
I wasn't always sold on Thailand. It was one of the last countries in Asia I had considered going to, partly because of what I'd heard of the place, the debauchery, the depravity of it all. Clearly I was mistaken, for I found a place in that chaos to call my own, to dig myself in and find a middle ground between safety and madness.
Well before I went to Thailand the movie "The Beach" did nothing for my appreciation for the country. But after being there and watching the film again I recommend it for anyone wanting a visual sense of what I have been trying to put into words. While the story is nothing like my own it takes place in the gulf islands near Koh Pha Ngan and does show a part of Thailand that I saw; the Full Moon party, the drama of beach life, and the possibility of releasing yourself to the abandon of another world. Other than that you'll just have to experience it for yourself.
