Coming home. Somehow.

Coming home; what a beautiful and at the same time terrifying feeling. After six months of wandering through Southeast Asia, sleeping on sometimes uncomfortable sometimes horrible beds, eating hell of a lot of rice and meeting great and crazy people I’m back home. Back in Switzerland where the contrast to those loud and dirty streets, beautiful beaches and smiling people couldn’t be any bigger (There are also friendly people in Switzerland. Well sometimes. xD) 

Now sitting at a table, in a room without ants, cockroaches and spiders, drinking a tea which costs more than a dinner in Cambodia I can’t help but thinking of my amazing time on the road. Like experiencing the famous Full Moon party on Koh Phangan and driving hours every day on a motorbike only to eat at our favourite food court...

Namaste, bitches! :P

...getting a bamboo tattoo, surviving a drunken Tuktuk driver in Phnom Penh (miss you Hilla) and feeling like Lara Croft in the temples of Angkor (and getting up far too early, right Orestis? xD)

Meditating in Angkor Wat

...waking up with a snow-white beach and turquoise water right in front of my bed...

Make sure you visit Koh Rong Sanloem once in your life (it's in Cambodia)

...leading several pub crawls in Siem Reap and drinking more than enough (no comment, Oz xD), chillling two days on a slow boat and enjoying the breathtaking nature of Laos, going crazy while tubing in Vang Vieng (and drowning my new mobile phone. Well done, Ari), spending a week on 4000 islands doing absolutely nothing and visiting the most beautiful waterfall I’ve ever seen in Luang Prabang...

Kuang Si waterfall - don't miss!!

...bowling in the middle of the night with the craziest and most amazing person (miss you Lily), hiking for two days under a merciless sun and eating the best lunch ever on the floor served on a big banana leaf...

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Northern Laos

...playing with the cutest girl in a Hmong village and attending a motorbike lesson in Pai (yes, as responsible Swiss girl I simply had to do it the right way)...

Meet my epic scooter teacher from Pai, Thailand

...dancing on the streets with my best (glad to have you closer now Vicky), SCUBA diving for the very first time on Ko Tao and art-hunting in beautiful Georgetown in Malaysia...

Georgetown, "Children on the Swing" (and me xD)

...spending one night in the middle of nowhere in "Baluran National Park" surrounded by thousands of monkeys (thanks for being there with me Anna),  playing beer pong on Gili Trawangan (up for a revenge, Serkan?) and exploring Bali's beautiful temples...

Tanah Lot (visit during high tide!)

...traveling 42 hours in tons of different mode of transport only to safe on 50 bucks for a flight ticket (probably not our best idea ever, Julian xD), seeing the famous Komodo dragons in Flores (Big dragons. Huge dragons. No I wasn’t afraid. Not at all.) and enjoying the most beautiful view point ever on Rinca Island...

Rinca Island, Flores

I could go on and on with my memories and I’m very grateful for them. One quote from Miriam Adeney sticks in my mind since the moment I disembarked the plane in Zurich: "You will never feel completely home again, because part of your heart always will be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place." So true.

Now back home I should organize my life, being adult they say. But how can you find your way back into this serious and grumpy society? People look at me in a strange way when they realise that I’m 25 without a job, a longterm boyfriend and an own flat. I should plan my life, they say. But I'm not like I that. I’m very grateful for how privileged I am for being born and raised in Switzerland, for having the best family I could wish for and for having enjoyed a good education. I think we owe this world to do something with our possibilities, to see the world, to meet people from other cultures and to realize even more how gifted we are with our lives. I will settle in a way, don't worry but I won’t stop traveling, I won’t stop dreaming. Ever.

(Allright, this got a bit philosphical but I hope you got my point)

Love,

Ari

About monks and monkeys

Sawadee-kah

Imagine: you are lying on the beach, listening to the breaking waves, digging your feet deep into the sand and feeling the sun on your skin. Suddenly you hear something or someone searching your bag! You turn around – ready to fight the thief – and find yourself eye in eye with a monkey staring at you and pulling your camera out of the bag. I hissed at him, showed my teeth and started to scream while grabbing the strap of my camera. I pulled as hard as I could. You can steal my food, you can even steal my money but for Christ's sake don't you dare touching my camera! Vicky who’s sleeping next to me on the beach startled, grabbed the nearest branch and started to fight the monkey. We both screamed like crazy and the monster disappeared…

…and then I woke up, pressing my backpack to my chest, looking around, expecting one of those hairy creatures sitting in front of me. But there was none, I was in the night bus to Bangkok, next to me my dreaming friend Vicky. My heart was still racing; I was ready to fight. The sad thing about the story? It wasn’t a dream, it was more of memory as it actually happened on Koh Lanta while we visited the National Park on the island.

And yeah, I must confess, since this incident I can't speak well of monkey's ‘cause they did not only try to steal my camera one of them even jumped on my back when I left the National Park. He just fell off a tree, can you imagine how scary that was?? That has affected me for life. So please don’t talk about “cute” monkeys in my presence, 'cause I may start to scream and fight you with a branch.

Anyway, that's some time ago. Since then, Vicky and I had great adventures (positive and negative ones):

- Observing and making fun of annoying couples

- Dancing to live music on the beach (or on the streets)

- Surviving a mosquito-attack on my humble ass (fun for Vicky, not much fun for me)

- Killing a huge cockroach trapped in our mosquito net (where I almost lost my thumbnail; sending an evil eye to Vicky)

- Spending New Years Eve on Koh PhiPhi with thousands of people (I swear the island was about to sink)

- Traveling in a local bus in Phuket

- Getting upgraded to a double bed room with aircon (‘cause we're awesome)

- Surviving an annoying roommate in Khao Lak (her stupidity knew no bounds)

...and finally organizing the trip back to Bangkok in a night bus.

The last part seems to be quite easy, right? You couldn’t be more wrong. Two days before departure I booked two tickets from Khao Lak to Bangkok with the bus at my favourite tourist office. D-day came, we showed up at the office and there it started: “Helloooo miss, me try to call youuu free times. You don’t knooow? Bus not coming because heavy raaaain. Soorryyyy.” NO, I don’t know!! It would have been to easy if it worked out like planned, I mean it’s Thailand. So we made a new deal: a taxi to the next bus station where another night bus leaves at around the same time. One hour later we found ourselves squeezed in between some Chinese tourists with their trolleys and shiny watches, locals staring at us like we were aliens and a monk who panicked when we sat close to him. But as I learned in my intercultural courses women shouldn’t talk to monks or be near them. Out of respect I tried to sit a bit further which was quite a challenge as the bus station was bursting at the seams. Which was our bus? What time should it show up? We were lost. So we waited and waited and waited, helplessly staring on our bus ticket when the monk suddenly started talking to us. Whaaaat? He’s going on the same bus to Bangkok and we can just follow him, he knows which of those dozens of buses is ours. By looking at his brandnew Samsung smartphone (which was in a way better shape than mine) I guess he must be a pretty modern monk. xD

So we followed his wavy orange appearance (pretty useful in a crowded place), I felt so important. Even more important when we found out that we were upgraded to VIP Bus. Whoopwhoop! Better seats and snacks in the seat pocket, Mama I’m home. 4 hours after departure, we were sleeping like babies, the bus suddenly stopped,  all the lights came to bright and the monk translated the Thai-Lady’s shrill announcement. Something about a 20 minute break and food. Food? Let’s go. We were pushed into a big hall with small stone tables. Everything was organised and we were advised to sit down, immediately. Yes, mam’! Some other people joined our table and not even two minutes later food appeared: currys, steamed rice, vegetables and some other indefinable things. I tried a small spoonful of the yellow curry… “HOLY CRAP!” Oh my god, I really shouted it out loud. The man next to me started to laugh and the old chinese lady on the other side of the table wished the ground would swallow her up. Well done, Ari. I looked at Vicky and we started to laugh. So funny how things can fall together. In one moment you are lying on the beach and in the other you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, eating spicy Thai food with people you’ve never seen before and having a chat with a monk. Life is unpredictable!

It was 5 am when we arrived in Bangkok. Of course with thousands of others. It was quite a fight to get to a taxi and find our lovely apartment with the cosiest bed I’ve ever slept in (many thanks to JJ who was hosting us).

Well this holiday is one for the books. Highfive, Vicky!

Goodbyeee, I'm off to new adventures! (Cambodia is waiting...)

Ari