Bangkok has her now……

I guess it was devastatingly pretty photos like this one that first sparked my interest in Thailand a few years back. (Admittedly not my photo but I’m not there yet! There will be originals to come.) How can you not want to experience a view so amazing? After my first trip to Asia, almost 10 years ago now, I was hooked. It was my first trip overseas and I guess I figured go big or go home, lets go to China. Following that I did a couple of stints in Western Europe and in between a few short trips to Costa Rica and the Caribbean.

I’ve been on few different types of trips. When I went to China I went with a company called eftours which is a student travel company that has super cheap prices and is mostly all inclusive. So if you are a student, look it up! Amazing deals. My trip was only $3000.00 including all flights, transport, hotels and meals!!

Then I was off to Europe about a year later. I did a study abroad program with my university, FAU in Florence. It was just amazing. Possibly the time of my life. Had a sweet apartment provided by the school as my home base to travel all around by train on the weekends. So I have to say if you are considering a study abroad, DO IT! I swear you won’t regret it.

These two trips vary greatly structure wise. With EFTours we had a schedule to follow with very little time to explore on your own. Which for how young I was and how foreign China is it was a perfect fit for me. My study abroad and the following months spent wandering Europe by plane and train was pretty much a free for all. We did whatever we felt like, which was well, awesome. I also feel that as a westerner it is much easier to navigate Europe on your own than Asia. So I think that a trip that has elements of both styles will be best for my next trip to Asia. A little wiser and more experienced now I don’t t think I need quite so much structure but still, considering I don’t speak or read the languages over there I will still be in need of some direction.

In my furious online research of traveling to Thailand I came across Intrepid Travel which has a million great trips that I want to take available. I also think that the tour structure will suit me perfectly for a few reasons. It is guided but you can choose to opt out of anything and they take care of all your accommodation and overland travel arrangements and you also have free time available to explore on your own. In addition many of the travelers are solo, so I can go alone and have new friends to make when I get there.

Since I am currently not working, I had been searching for a new job but the task just seemed so daunting considering I don’t know what I want to do. Do I just take any job just to have a job and then just hate it? In my frustration my web surfing wandered to Intrepid Travel website. In one of those hasty travel moments I booked a trip, Bangkok to Bali. My reasoning is since I’m not working I might as well go on a nice big trip and try to figure some things out along the way, right? Sounds like a plan to me, so I will be leaving from Ft Lauderdale airport at 7 AM on August 9th and arrive in Bangkok two days later, (the flights will be long for sure). Hopefully by the time I return I will have some clue of what I should do or most likely I won’t have any more clues but at least I will have been to Thailand.