This year has been a strange one for me in terms of travel plans, and it’s not about to get any less strange over the next few months. Shocking, I know!
I started the year off in Colombia, then made my way back to Washington state to spend time with my family. I played for a few days in New York City, got the most out of a layover in London, and touched down in mainland Europe for the very first time in Barcelona. I ended up in Greece during their financial meltdown (and it was lovely as ever) and have been working my way north through the Balkans ever since.
To recap: That’s 3 continents and 9 countries in just 7 months.
WHAT?!
It’s been a lot, even for me. I didn’t envision my first trip to Europe unfolding this way, but it did, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
From an outsider’s perspective, it might seem like all of this travel has happened smoothly and seamlessly, but I’ll let you in on a little secret–landing in Greece was about as far as my planning had gone. In other words, since the day I left that olive oasis behind nearly six weeks ago, I’ve pretty much just been going wherever the wind has blown me. Normally, I get a little stressed out in circumstances like this, when I don’t so much as know where I’ll be sleeping the following night. But this time around, much to my pleasant surprise, I’ve actually enjoyed every minute of it.
It’s almost as if I’m a freewheeling backpacker again–at least, in the sense that I have absolutely zero commitments and can stay in each place for as long or as little as I please. I can change my plans at the last minute, or I can join other travelers on their route if I so choose.
But something began gnawing at me not too long ago–this feeling that maybe, just maaayyybe, I should take control of my future a little bit and make some calculated decisions that will keep me moving in the direction of my goals.
The goals I’m talking about specifically? Continuing my journey toward blogging superstardom (heh, heh), seeing my family more often and nurturing the relationships that are most important to me, and building a lifestyle of sustainable location independence through freelance work and income from this blog.
And funnily enough, one solution came to me that could help me with all of my goals simultaneously.
My return to Thailand
That’s right, after two and a half years, I’m finally heading back to the Land of Smiles, and I couldn’t be more excited!
The reasons are threefold, and as I mentioned, they align pretty snugly with the goals I outlined above. For one, the next TBEX Conference will be held in Bangkok from October 15th-17th. You may recall I attended my first such travel blogging conference just a few months ago in Costa Brava, Spain. Well, it turned out to be an incredible experience that has done wonders for my blogging career, so keeping the momentum going by attending the next only felt natural. Not to mention a whole new slew of bloggers will be in attendance this time around, including my very good friend and mentor (and conference speaker!) Alex. How could I possibly turn that down?
The second reason has a bit to do with the sentiment I expressed last month about yearning for a sense of community. Now, I know a community won’t materialize overnight, which is why I thought my next best option might be to go spend some time with a friend who has been (and always will be) a part of my worldwide community, through high school, through our move to Thailand, and through years of international travel–my dive instructor BFF, Addy. There’s something so calming about the idea of spending time with someone who knows me so well, and I can’t wait for our long-overdue reunion. She’s based in Koh Tao (the same island Alex calls home-away-from-home), which is a place I only got to see briefly (like, two days brief) over New Year’s Eve of 2013. I’m looking forward to getting to know the island better with the help of friends who know it like the back of their freakishly similar-looking hands.
Last but certainly not least, being in Southeast Asia puts me in a good position to meet up with my family over one holiday or another on the island of Maui. Not only do we have a family-owned condo in Kihei that I haven’t visited since I was fifteen years old, but my mom has been toying with the idea of leaving behind Washington in favor of balmy Hawaii, so looking at rental properties would be an important part of the itinerary (between fresh pineapple breakfasts and afternoon mai tais, anyway).
But coming back to present day, I’m still in the Balkans, so here’s what I’ve got set in stone so far moving forward (Hawaii plans still pending):
Novi Sad, Serbia (Aug 3-6)
Vršac, Serbia (Aug 6-10)
Budapest, Hungary (Aug 10-14)
Kraków, Poland (Aug 14-?)
Warsaw, Poland (Aug ?-Sept 1)
Stockholm, Sweden (Sept 1-8)
Bangkok, Thailand (Sept 8-10)
Koh Tao, Thailand (Sept 10-?)
With the exception of Kraków and Warsaw, the dates I’ll be in each of these places are pretty much fixed due to reservations of one kind or another. And I’ll be in Thailand on a 90-day visa, so the latest I’d have to leave the country would be early December. I may travel around within the country to see friends in Chiang Mai or visit islands I’ve not yet explored, but I’m sure those details will work themselves out in due time.
If any of you will be traveling through these destinations at the same time as me, please let me know!
After Thailand is where things start to get fuzzy; if Hawaii actually does pan out, I may wind up back in Thailand to finish out the year, or I may end up somewhere else entirely. As ever, I can’t be 100% sure. But the appeal of Thailand (besides the beaches, having friends that live there, incredible spicy food, warm weather, amazing diving, need I go on??) as I continue to grow my freelance career is that it would allow me to live quite comfortably until it proves more fruitful. Not that I haven’t made exciting progress over the last couple of months, but I definitely still have a long way to go.
I hope you’ll come along for the ride as I discover lots of new places this summer and return to an old favorite. It’ll be interesting to see Thailand with fresh eyes this time around having changed in so many ways since arriving in my expat infancy back in 2011; I’m sure Thailand will be quite different from what I remember as well.
If you guys want to keep up with my adventures in raw, unedited real time, I’m finally getting my feet wet with Snapchat lately and would love for you to follow along (@lamochilera). I can’t promise anything super amazing in the beginning (I’m still a little camera shy) but as time goes on I hope to make them entertaining and maybe even informative at times! But mostly entertaining.
What are your summer travel plans? Any tips for the places I’m going? Leave me all your best suggestions in the comments!
