laurie was here

A few days ago I woke up feeling particularly inspired and excited about life, so I biked over to REI to buy the pack I’ll use on my adventure.  I talked with a few associates, where I encountered yet another string of “so you don’t know how long you’ll be gone for?”-s and “you don’t even know which countries you’ll be visiting??”-s, which I’m getting more used to handling although my answers really haven’t changed much since I impulse-bought my plane ticket.  That said, I erred on the side of smaller (and prettier) and bought this beautiful Deuter pack which I promptly fell in love with and have been staring adoringly at ever since (if you click through that link check out the back suspension system, so hot).  Technically it’s classified as a “Weekend Trip Pack”, ha.

This was the first major purchase I made towards this trip since my ticket, and it got me excited all over again.  I stuffed the bag I had brought with me into it and biked home wearing it, barely feeling it on my back and wearing a grin that could hardly be contained on my face.  Like I had felt immediately after I bought my plane ticket, I knew right away this was the right choice.  This is basically going to be my home for the next 6 months or longer, and I couldn’t be more excited about the prospect.

Since I bought my one-way ticket to Thailand I’ve just been reveling in the excitement of leaving the country and being unemployed in San Francisco in the meantime.  It’s been an epic week and a half since I decided to do this, and I hadn’t done any actual planning for the trip itself.  

Yesterday my travel buddy Michelle came up ostensibly so that we could plan out more of our trip, and that basically consisted of us getting drinks and agreeing that we didn’t actually want to plan anything concrete beyond exploring Southeast Asia.  I feel like you tend to have the richest experiences when your schedule is flexible and you say yes to unexpected twists.  Both Michelle and I have experienced this firsthand when we’ve traveled before and it’s awesome that we’re both on the same page.

But since she did come up from San Jose on her day off, we felt we should do something productive, so we booked our first hostel to stay at when we arrive in Bangkok.  We got a 2-person private room at the New Road Guest House for 4 nights; we didn’t do a whole lot of research but it had generally good reviews and was in a good location close to the train.  The best part though, was when we got to confirm our reservation they required a 10% down payment, which in this case was just $3.66 USD.  For a private room for both of us, for FOUR NIGHTS.  Epic, just epic.  ”I got this bill,” Michelle laughed.  

I can’t wait to stretch out on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world with my $5 room while eating my dollar pad thai and drinking my dollar giant beer with the sun on my face and the water at my toes.  This trip is going to be amazing… anything less isn’t an option.