The past two months traveling in Southeast Asia was everything I wanted and more. The past few months have been jam-packed with so many experiences. I gained so much more confidence in my values and who I want to be. It's been a rewarding and quite spontaneous few months, and I'm infinitely grateful I got to be a part of this journey and have the rare privilege to share these experiences with a great friend.
There are no crazy travel updates since we haven't been biking, but it's been an extremely amusing and random couple of weeks. In Bangkok, my dad's coworker's younger brother (I know so random), Keng took us around the city. It turns out Keng is a big businessman, and he took the week trying to make me into his US business partner. He took me to his construction sites, friends' startup offices, and his shopping mall based off UTC in Irvine 🤣. I got exposed to a completely different side of Thailand, which was seriously so interesting. Thank you so much, Keng, for taking care of me throughout my whole time in Thailand!!
I spent the last week in Koh Tao, an island in the Bay of Thailand, to go scuba diving!!! As some of you may know, I had a phase where I wanted to quit engineering and switch careers to be a marine biologist. That ship has long set sailed LOL, but I'm still extremely fascinated by the ocean 😗. The fact that we can explore and see an alien world underneath us is so exciting. I had so much fun diving, but a guide told me Koh Tao is a 6/10 in the grand scheme of diving sites. Then WTF is a 10/10 location!?!? Apparently, Egypt, Australia, and Mexico have some mind-blowing sites to see.
I got this advice some time ago — curiosity and travel are the best education that brings the most joy and insight into the purpose of our existence.
Living by this belief for the past two months, I've found it to be extremely true - although I have a revision to the advice.
Experiences that you can't fathom can always be found in the most unexpected of places while you travel. Valuable insights are discovered daily when the status quo of your life is shattered when living a completely different life. Curiosity also fuels your decisions and will make you encounter people or situations that you'll never forget.
So the takeaway is to go travel more? Not quite. I stand by the belief that curiosity and accepting anything you learn (cultures, stories, opinions, or different ways of life) is the best education that brings the most joy and insight into the purpose of our lives. Traveling just happens to be the easiest way to physically and mentally exercise that muscle. In addition, being able to forgive and not be judgmental is also nice for life. #BUDDHA
I still have so many places I'd want to visit and see myself. However, amid this adventure, I've always come to the same conclusion that I don't need to be a world traveler or keep chasing crazy ventures to be happy. If anything, traveling like this over the past 2 months (not even that long lol) has made me yearn for building a community and fostering the relationships I have with my friends, family, and partner. I find it funny and ironic that chasing after an extravagant adventure like this brought me to desire the way my life was before I embarked on this venture.
And that's the finale for Southeast Asia! All these posts end up becoming so dramatic, though I think these are share-worthy thoughts lol. It's more like a therapy board for me than travel updates. I'm unsure of what will come after this, but I have a feeling things will work out! Thanks for always leaving such nice comments :D
FYI Grammarly is goated for revising everything. 🤣