Thailand
I am back home in the states after my 3+month long trip in Thailand. For this post I will list some differences between Thailand and the US I noticed, discuss Thai food, and lastly share the not so great times I had while traveling.
Differences:
-Remove your shoes before entering buildings/rooms, especially before entering temples.
-Thai greeting-wai. If someone wais you, you wai back.
-Some toilets I encountered were pit toilets
-While in a movie theater, before the movie starts, there is a specific time when you stand up in honor of the King.
-They use toilet paper or facial tissue for napkins at restaurants.
-Traffic is chaotic with scooters weaving through cars
-Temples shoot off fireworks often, sometimes early in the mornings.
These are just a few interesting differences I noticed from my time spent in Thailand.
Food:
I struggled with finding food to eat while in Thailand. Since Thailand is a Buddhist country I expected there to be lots of vegetarian food because I thought Buddhists were vegetarian. However, this was not the case. There was meat in everything, and usually meat was cheaper than other foods. This lead to me eating more western foods at the beginning. Finding something for me to eat was a daily struggle and became an inconvenience. Thai food is also really spicy and there were some meals that were too hot to even enjoy. I came away with not really liking much Thai food, with a few exceptions. As a vegetarian, my go-to meals were fried rice and pad thai. I learned how to say "no chicken, no pork, no beef" in Thai, as I had to say that whenever I ordered food.
On a happier note, they have lots of fresh fruit there. Fruit juices and smoothies can be found anywhere, and usually for not much more than a dollar. I'll miss getting an avocado, mango, & banana smoothie at the night bazaar.
I also found some great desserts there. I was skeptical of the mango & sticky rice because I'm not a huge rice fan and don't like coconut, but once I had it I was hooked. It became one of my favorite dishes.
I also love the dessert rotee. It's fried dough with sweetned condensed milk on it and you can get it with egg, cheese, nutella, or whatever. I liked it with banana inside. It's super sweet.
Here's a video of a street vendor making rotee.
Here's some pictures of food found at markets and around Thailand...
Things don't always go smoothly:
One issue I have with social media is that it doesn't show a true representation of our lives. I personally struggle with comparing myself and my life to others that I see on social media. I become envious of other people's lives or aspects of their lives that they have and I do not. I find myself wishing I was somewhere other than where I am or desiring something and after awhile this makes me feel negative about myself. This happens because people usually only post about the great things happening in their life. So us as viewers think their lives must be perfect, making it easy to envy them. However, this is not the case, people usually don't post about the negative things going on in their life, so it gives off an unrealistic view. I have to remind myself that I am different and I have different goals for my life and I can't compare myself to someone else who is on a different path than me.
My posts of me traveling might incite envy from others, but I want it to be known that I have struggles too. SO, in hopes of being transparent, I want to share some struggles I had while traveling to show that traveling and adventuring isn't all good times and sometimes things went wrong or just sucked.
-Traveling: long hours on buses, trains, and planes. One example, our bus ride from Bangkok to catch the ferry was the worst. 17 hours in a small, uncomfortable confined space, it was super cold, I couldn't sleep, and the bus made so many noises I thought things were breaking inside every time we turned. Definitely not glamorous at all.
-Finding food to eat. I already explained how difficult this was above. I think we take for granted having access to good food that we enjoy. So when you're put into a situation where you literally can't find anything to eat at a restaurant after a long day, like I did, I just kinda broke down. I felt homesick and just wanted something to eat that didn't have meat in it. Is that so much to ask?! (Meat eaters might not understand this dilemma, but I've experienced the same in the states.) There were many times when I just ate fries for dinner.
-I was sick on and off for the first 2 months. I pride myself in not getting sick, but something about traveling and being there made me constantly sick. I had a sore throat for weeks and ended up going to a clinic to get medicine. I figured the sore throat might be caused by all the car exhaust while riding on the scooter. I also had a bad cold that lasted a week and stopped me from training muay thai. Then I got sick again when we went to Vietnam. I couldn't taste the food for the whole time I was there.
-Loneliness. After Brentwood left I was pretty sad. I was alone in a foreign country thousands of miles from friends and family. I had to transition from being dependent on someone to being by myself and independent again. Having Brentwood with me made things easier and run smoother and without him things became more difficult and stressful. It's a whole different experience traveling when you have a partner than when you're solo. Plus, I just felt happier when he was there, being able to share in experiences together, so when he was gone it was up to me again to make myself happy and that took awhile.
-3 weeks while I was in Chiang Mai I didn't do much. As I waited for the meditation retreat, I rented a room and just lived. I didn't really do anything exciting, some days I only left the guesthouse to go out for dinner.
Again, I wanted to share these not-so-great travel moments with you to show that traveling isn't always as romantic as it might seem. And that my life isn't perfect. Don't let social media fool you, neither is anybody else's, so comparing yourself to others is a waste of time. Go and do you.
Next: Announcements!
Differences:
-Remove your shoes before entering buildings/rooms, especially before entering temples.
 |
| Shoes outside a temple |
 |
| Ronald McDonald wai-ing |
-They use toilet paper or facial tissue for napkins at restaurants.
-Traffic is chaotic with scooters weaving through cars
-Temples shoot off fireworks often, sometimes early in the mornings.
These are just a few interesting differences I noticed from my time spent in Thailand.
Food:
I struggled with finding food to eat while in Thailand. Since Thailand is a Buddhist country I expected there to be lots of vegetarian food because I thought Buddhists were vegetarian. However, this was not the case. There was meat in everything, and usually meat was cheaper than other foods. This lead to me eating more western foods at the beginning. Finding something for me to eat was a daily struggle and became an inconvenience. Thai food is also really spicy and there were some meals that were too hot to even enjoy. I came away with not really liking much Thai food, with a few exceptions. As a vegetarian, my go-to meals were fried rice and pad thai. I learned how to say "no chicken, no pork, no beef" in Thai, as I had to say that whenever I ordered food.
On a happier note, they have lots of fresh fruit there. Fruit juices and smoothies can be found anywhere, and usually for not much more than a dollar. I'll miss getting an avocado, mango, & banana smoothie at the night bazaar.
I also found some great desserts there. I was skeptical of the mango & sticky rice because I'm not a huge rice fan and don't like coconut, but once I had it I was hooked. It became one of my favorite dishes.
 |
| Mango & sticky rice with coconut milk |
 |
| Banana rotee |
Here's some pictures of food found at markets and around Thailand...
 |
| Pineapple Fried Rice |
 |
| Pad Thai with shrimp |
 |
| Noodle dish I liked |
 |
| Fried Insects-I did not try |
Things don't always go smoothly:
One issue I have with social media is that it doesn't show a true representation of our lives. I personally struggle with comparing myself and my life to others that I see on social media. I become envious of other people's lives or aspects of their lives that they have and I do not. I find myself wishing I was somewhere other than where I am or desiring something and after awhile this makes me feel negative about myself. This happens because people usually only post about the great things happening in their life. So us as viewers think their lives must be perfect, making it easy to envy them. However, this is not the case, people usually don't post about the negative things going on in their life, so it gives off an unrealistic view. I have to remind myself that I am different and I have different goals for my life and I can't compare myself to someone else who is on a different path than me.
My posts of me traveling might incite envy from others, but I want it to be known that I have struggles too. SO, in hopes of being transparent, I want to share some struggles I had while traveling to show that traveling and adventuring isn't all good times and sometimes things went wrong or just sucked.
-Traveling: long hours on buses, trains, and planes. One example, our bus ride from Bangkok to catch the ferry was the worst. 17 hours in a small, uncomfortable confined space, it was super cold, I couldn't sleep, and the bus made so many noises I thought things were breaking inside every time we turned. Definitely not glamorous at all.
-Finding food to eat. I already explained how difficult this was above. I think we take for granted having access to good food that we enjoy. So when you're put into a situation where you literally can't find anything to eat at a restaurant after a long day, like I did, I just kinda broke down. I felt homesick and just wanted something to eat that didn't have meat in it. Is that so much to ask?! (Meat eaters might not understand this dilemma, but I've experienced the same in the states.) There were many times when I just ate fries for dinner.
-I was sick on and off for the first 2 months. I pride myself in not getting sick, but something about traveling and being there made me constantly sick. I had a sore throat for weeks and ended up going to a clinic to get medicine. I figured the sore throat might be caused by all the car exhaust while riding on the scooter. I also had a bad cold that lasted a week and stopped me from training muay thai. Then I got sick again when we went to Vietnam. I couldn't taste the food for the whole time I was there.
-Loneliness. After Brentwood left I was pretty sad. I was alone in a foreign country thousands of miles from friends and family. I had to transition from being dependent on someone to being by myself and independent again. Having Brentwood with me made things easier and run smoother and without him things became more difficult and stressful. It's a whole different experience traveling when you have a partner than when you're solo. Plus, I just felt happier when he was there, being able to share in experiences together, so when he was gone it was up to me again to make myself happy and that took awhile.
-3 weeks while I was in Chiang Mai I didn't do much. As I waited for the meditation retreat, I rented a room and just lived. I didn't really do anything exciting, some days I only left the guesthouse to go out for dinner.
Again, I wanted to share these not-so-great travel moments with you to show that traveling isn't always as romantic as it might seem. And that my life isn't perfect. Don't let social media fool you, neither is anybody else's, so comparing yourself to others is a waste of time. Go and do you.
Next: Announcements!