Now that I’ve said tata (meaning bye in Hindi) to India, I am off to Thailand for the next leg of my journey in Asia. India was amazing despite the horrendous air pollution, open air toilets, stomach bug that I caught, and 6.4 earthquake. This will be a much less structured trip which at this point consists of me telling my mom that I’m going to Thailad and having her relay info to family in Bangkok and Chiang Mai and then passing on the news to me. Its quite vague, no idea where I will be going, where I will be staying, or how airport pickup logistics will work exactly. The last time I was in the country, I was 3 years old. My toddler impressions that I recall were spicy McDonalds chicken nuggets, soy sauce on McDonalds breakfast omlette, hot summer heat, grandma’s neighbor’s poodle eating chicken bones until the marrow cracked, being annoyed that the Disney shows are all in Thai on TV, having to take my shoes off at every temple, and being super jetlagged and pretty much sleeping during the day and up all night. I’m hoping that 2 decades will give me a more insightful experience haha.
Lots of thoughts run through my mind as I’m thinking about this upcoming trip. I’m told that with the exception of one or two relatives, most of my family in Thailand only speak Thai. Will my Thai come back to me? What exactly will I be doing? Most people that visit go to ride elephants and see the world famous beaches, I don’t particularly have any of that planned. Then my mind wanders off to think about how I could have easily grown up Thai in Thailand. It would have been a simple slight twist of fate; mom could have decided not to immigrate to the U.S. with my dad or been denied a visa in 1978. How different would my life have been if I was born and raised in Thailand? Would I have never raced racism like I did at a young age in Byram? Would my personality be completely different as would my life goals? Would America have been some faraway land my entire life just as Thailand was for me in reality?
I sleepingly drudge through the Indian TSA at the airport which funnily has a male and female line to reflect the privacy and separation of the sexes. When women are scanned, it is done in a curtained makeshift area after walking through the metal detector even though no clothes are removed. I resolve with the fact that I’ll find out soon enough what will happen when I arrive in Bangkok. Probably should have learned more Thai words or actually used the Rosetta Stone on my laptop. Also running on no sleep, here goes nothing!
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