Moving To Bangkok

Moving To Bangkok

It is exactly one month today that I landed in Bangkok, and I have been wondering about how an adventure begins.  Does a planned trip count as an adventure?  Or is it rather a spur of the moment decision, where you grab an extra shirt and off you go on your horse, or car, or plane or boat?

Irrespective, I now find myself on an adventure of a lifetime. Moving to Bangkok was neither planned nor was it done on a whim, but it started as an idea that slowly bloomed from a seed that was dormant for about 10 years.  There were always 101 reasons why I should not pack up and leave home, always placing obstacles in my own path one way or another.

Then Cape Town started to become too small.  Living there left me tired, jaded and irritated with the prospect of nothing ahead of me. Nothing like losing hope and your essence to make your blood so thin, that you end up trusting nothing and no one.

The need for something different became like the need for breath. Just like I needed to breathe, I needed to see something different, smell something different, touch something different, do something different and more importantly be something different. I needed to reawaken the soul and reinvent the self, because what I became was no longer working and I was no longer happy.

So, I find myself living in Bangkok, Thailand, and loving every second of it.  I asked for different and have I received it in bucket loads (more on buckets later).  Bangkok is hot, humid, sticky, sweaty, smelly, grey, and noisy; and did I mention hot?  But also fantastic, amazing, awesome and inspiring.  They call New York the city that never sleeps, but the same can be said of Bangkok.

In a short space of time Bangkok has taught me much about myself, others, life, love and everything in between. In some cases the realization of life truths dawned on me like a flash. So what lessons have I learnt thus far?  For starters, there is no refuge if you regret and remorse – second guessing yourself only leads you into circles, no one can make you miserable unless you allow them to. Openness of heart and mind will allow you to see possibilities where others see doom.

Secondly, never let other people’s prejudice stop you from doing what you want, and never let them stop you from being you. Thirdly, it takes losses or losing everything to make you truly appreciate what was, and to make you truly grateful for what is. Moving here changed my perspective more than I could imagine. And finally (for now) there are no substitutes for family, friends, and people you love, or for anything you hold dear.

So from these few lessons, the advice I give myself these days… make mistakes and learn from them – if no lessons are learned then carry on. Get lost – be it in a city, yourself, in an idea or in a moment.  Laugh when all else has failed and never be afraid – cautious, but not afraid.

This past month has been dedicated to finding my “Thai” feet – no time for sightseeing or doing touristy things. I had to figure out all the where, what, when, why and more importantly the how.

Bangkok has proven to be a maze of contradictions, paradoxes and ironies. I learn every day and every day brings new and different.  I am learning the language, the culture, the city and more about the people, but yet, still find myself, dazed and confused or in awe.  I love the food, the people, the city, the chaos, the slow and steady, and more importantly I love the person I have become here. I read once that our life starts at the end of our comfort zone, and I can honestly say that I found that to be completely true, while I live here.