galmc2Report

When we travelled 10 years ago my goal for that trip was to experience as much as possible. This led to the “just say yes” mantra I often trotted out. For this trip, my goal is to be present. To focus on where I am and what I am doing, not what’s coming or what may be happening back home. For Heather it’s about people. Taking the time to engage and hopefully connect with other travellers or locals as we make our way around. This has led both to interesting chats (both brief and longer)and also times where we have been the beneficiaries of a little help.

Sometimes it’s a brief chat, like this morning at the Niras Coffee Shop when I heard a woman at the next table use the word “Squamish” correctly.

Sometimes it’s daily chats about our respective days, as we would have with Aji and Hannah at the Santay Bar in Gili Air,

Sometimes it’s a transactional basis, like yesterday when we arrived in Bangkok after being on a bus for 8 hours. We’re tired after a long ride, and now it’s stinky hot in a rough looking neighborhood. We were approached by a driver and negotiated a rate to get to the hostel (note- it’s always a good idea to ask where you are staying and how much it should cost to get there). Once we got to his cab it wouldn’t start, so we retreated back to what we thought was the taxi line. Cue a somewhat long wait for any movement in the taxi line, a sweltering environment and two tired travellers, and we were starting to try and figure out another way. When presto, the cab driver rematerializes with a working vehicle. Issues of commerce aside, we were appreciative that he came back to find us and get us on our way to the hostel.

Sometimes it’s an incidental meeting, like in Sukhothai. After checking in at our guest house, we headed for food and found an interesting looking place on the Main Street that had a bunch of people in it. After sitting down, we were engaged pretty quickly by an English expat wearing very colourful clothing. Turns out he was the owner of the restaurant and had been in Sukhothai a few years. He shared stories of how he ended up there, what it was like during Covid, and gave us the lowdown on seeing the local community come out before sunrise to provide the monks with food. He also gave us tips for a sunrise photo. Unfortunately the photo didn’t work, but the monks tip led to a fascinating morning.

Sometimes it’s the Sukhothai guest house owner, upon learning that we needed to go to the “new city” to catch the Bangkok bus, informing us that she was assigning a different family member to take us all the way to the ticket office to make sure we got on the bus without a challenge.

Sometimes it’s the lady at the local highly rated restaurant in Koh Lanta who had some sway with the staff and explained to them it was better to seat us than continue to hold onto an empty table for others who were probably never coming. Even after chatting with her we’re not sure whether she actually owns the place or not.

Sometimes it’s the service agent working the night shift at the airport who decides to take pity on two travellers and issue them a voucher for a comfortable hotel room stay (including meals), rather than sticking to the exact letter of a policy and consigning them to a potential sleepless night in the airport.

And sometimes it’s just a few minutes of connecting with others to hear their stories of travel duration, places visited, common ground and where’s home.

What this trip is reminding me is that it’s not just the activities and the sights. It’s the people too.