Thailand ended on some good notes. Good food, good people, some of my favorite spontaneous conversations I’ve had, and mostly relaxed activities outside of one day diving on Koh Lanta.
Before I started my trip, I got connected with Lindsay, a friend of a friend from the States who’s been living in Thailand for the last three years. She gave me a whole multi week itinerary of recommendations, and most of my time down here has just been following along with that, which has worked out very well. Once I got to Phuket, we were able to connect over breakfast which was a great time chatting about travel, life changes and much more. Having someone on the ground where I’m going has been so helpful from a planning perspective. It’s also always nice hanging out with people from the US as there aren’t as many Americans as I expected there to be out here. Big thanks to Mike for hooking me up in Thailand!
I didn’t do as good a job of taking pictures this week of the actual activities I did. So instead, enjoy an array of beach & viewpoint photos scattered throughout this newsletter.
LOCATIONS
- Krabi, Thailand (Nov 26 – Nov 29)
- Phuket, Thailand (Nov 29 – Dec 1)
- Koh Lanta, Thailand (Dec 1 – Dec 4)
- Koh Lipe, Thailand (Dec 4 – Dec 5)
ACTIVITIES
Ton Mai Spa
I’m not a spa person. I’ve never been to one, and it’s always seemed like an expensive way to relax. But when Lindsay told me about Ton Mai, I was intrigued. After she said the price was less than six USD, I was sold on giving it a shot.
Spas down here in Thailand are much more focused around intentional health and wellness rather than simply relaxing. There’s a three-step thermotherapy routine at this spa that consists of a dry sauna for 10-15 minutes, then a quick dip in an ice bath, then at least 20 minutes of just relaxing sitting in a lounge chair or in the pool. You repeat the whole thing at minimum of three times to get the maximum benefits.
Thermotherapy is a tradition dating back 2000 years that has a number of physical and mental health benefits. I’m not going to put a whole big list in here, but if you want more details, you can check out Ton Mai’s description on their website here.
I could definitely get used to doing this on the regular. The shock of the ice bath after the sauna really felt like it cleared out my system and my time spent sitting beside the pool between rounds was very relaxing. My mind felt clear and alert, and it was a good time of intentionally not putting anything in front of my face. Can’t say I’ve felt any tangible lasting impacts, but if nothing else, it was fun to try out.
Koh Lanta Overview
Within the first two hours of arriving on Koh Lanta, I met someone from Oregon and someone from Idaho (completely independently of one another. These are the closest people to home that I’ve met outside of three others from Seattle and it was crazy meeting them so close to one another.
I spent one day diving in Koh Lanta, and one day exploring the island by scooter.
My dive day here out to Koh Haa had my favorite dives so far. The visibility was amazing. The first dive had a lot of firsts for me in seeing things underwater. I saw lionfish, probably a dozen Moray eels (several swimming around too which was way cool), some tiny cleaner shrimp, a banded sea krait (which I found out after surfacing is apparently ten times more poisonous than a rattlesnake. Thankfully I kept my distance from this guy) and a massive mussel. And I found Nemo swimming in his anemone! Big childhood memory unlock there.
The second dive had a much stronger current, and the marine life was a lot of the same but not quite as diverse.
On my scooter day, I drove around a good chunk of the island. There’s one main road that runs the West side of the island, one that runs the East and a few that connect them together. You can get from top to bottom in an hour or less. I went over to Old Town Lanta, which I really enjoyed. It was less touristy than a lot of places I’ve been and the docks had a cool vibe with restaurants on piers sticking out over the water. Lots of small islands fill in the view out towards sea. There was a random shipwreck close to the shore with no description whatsoever, and it just so happened that when I was there an eagle was perched at the top of the mast. Kinda cool.
After grabbing some lunch I went over to a beautiful beach called Nui Bay (this week’s cover photo) and relaxed for the afternoon. The beach is tucked away with perfect sand, and although it wasn’t empty, it was definitely the quietest beach I’ve been to which I appreciated.
Joe’s Texas BBQ
Koh Lanta is a sleepy place. I mentioned that there’s pretty much four main roads. All the rest is restaurants lining the roads, and resorts tucked away near the beaches. All the bars I saw in the evenings were dead. All that to say, there’s not a whole lot happening.
When I saw the sign for Joe’s Texas BBQ, I cringed a bit. My honest initial reaction was this was some bad “try to be western” bbq spot and I had no interest in going outside of seeing how far away from Texas BBQ this would be.
The next day on my dive I ended up talking to someone who had been the night before. He told me that the guy who runs it is actually named Joe and is actually from Austin, Texas and that the meat was bomb. I quickly became very intrigued about now going. Reviews on google were stellar.
I went, and boy oh boy it was some good bbq. My sandwich was a combination of pork belly and pulled pork and it just melted in my mouth. The homemade bbq sauce was a nice tangy touch to the meat. To complete the whole experience, Joe’s the kind of guy that walks around to each and every table, checking in with customers to ask how the food was and make sure they’re having a good time. All in all, fantastic spot. If you ever find yourself in Koh Lanta and Joe’s still around, give his bbq a go.
Once again, I missed the food photo. So here you get some more long tail boats from the pier at Old Town Lanta.
Koh Lipe Walk
Koh Lipe is 2.5 km from East to West and 1.5 km from North to South. I’ve never stayed on an island this small in my life. I was only here for a day, and all I really wanted to do was walk around the island. In two hours of casual meandering along the road and the beach, I’d covered pretty much the entire circumference of the island. Crazy.
The beaches are so sandy, the water is incredibly clear, and longtail boats are scattered throughout to take people out to surrounding islands or on snorkeling excursions. I also saw a monkey climbing through the trees as I was walking around. If I had more time, I would have loved to do some snorkeling or diving. I met some friends who had gone diving there and they said it was killer. Next time.
Randomly at a coffee shop, a guy started talking to me and shared that this was his second time in Koh Lipe, the first time being several years ago. He showed me some pictures from his first trip and pictures from this one at the same spots, and it’s wild how much the tiny little island has been developed for tourists.
REFLECTIONS
On Writing Out Frustrations
This past week I had a day where an interaction with someone didn’t go quite the way I hoped it would. I had expectations of what it would look like, and those expectations were not met. The rest of the day I couldn’t stop spinning in my head, repeating the conversation and making up stories about unspoken implications. It wasn’t much fun and I couldn’t enjoy everything else that was in front of me.
By the time the evening rolled around, I was tired of thinking about it. The talk I was having in my head wasn’t productive and all it did was make me more upset than I really should have been over the situation. Something had to give. I needed to figure out why I was spinning and stop.
There’s no shortage of nice views and places to sit down here, so I found a hammock overlooking a beach, laid down, and started writing out all my thoughts. I started by writing down all the details I could remember of the interaction. After I had those down, I moved onto what my frustrations were with the situation and the stories that I was making up in my head over words unspoken. For each frustration I kept asking myself “why?”, as I’ve learned that usually I’m not actually upset about what I think I’m upset about.
Eventually I got to the root of what was upsetting me, and it was buried four or five levels down from where I started. Once I got there, everything made sense and my brain clicked. I was able to take a step back and look at the root from a more balanced perspective instead of a purely emotionally driven one. I walked back some of the negative stories that I was telling myself. Turns out I was making a lot of assumptions about how the other person viewed me which didn’t have much grounding.
Often times when we get frustrated it’s because a piece of our identity is being attacked. Maybe it’s feeling like no one listens to us and our words aren’t valuable. Maybe it’s someone pointing out a sore spot that we’re already aware of and trying to grow in. Maybe it’s someone micromanaging and making us feel like they don’t trust us. For me, this one situation had blown all the way up to a part of me believing “All the people I want to spend time with don’t want to spend time with me.” And yes, I use the word all intentionally. Oof. That’s a gnarly statement to hold on to, and it’s also a completely false one. But when the root was hidden, it was easier to believe the story I was telling myself because I had no way of combatting the lie at the core. It was only after I identified that lie that I could remind myself it wasn’t true.
There’s two main points I want to communicate through this.
- Writing out frustrations clears my head as my thoughts and feelings now have a home where I can always find them. Try it out next time you’re upset, or your mind is racing and you can’t slow it down.
- Be willing to dig. Don’t settle for the generic “That thing that person did/said hurt my feelings”. Ask why. Then ask why again. Keep going. Once you hit the root, you’ll know. It’ll hit different than the previous answers. As you do this over time, you might notice some patterns of where you end up. That’s a decent indicator that there might be something there to investigate further with a friend or mentor. I hope you uncover some lies you’ve been holding onto that you’re able to find freedom from.
On Having Things to Look Forward To
The day before I left on my trip, I grabbed lunch with a friend who did a similar trip last year to pick his brain. At one point, he was sharing how he made a few friends in one city and they all traveled the same route together for the next few weeks.
This got me excited about having the same type of experience, and at the same time, I had to temper my expectations as this was in no way guaranteed to happen. Over the weeks, I slowly began to feel like this wasn’t going to happen for me as the people I was meeting I got along with were all going different directions. Combine this with the sentiments I’ve expressed the last few weeks around missing home and hard days where motivation to do much is low, and I was in a bit of a rut. Looking forward was tough, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to do a whole year of this.
Last week I mentioned that ideas had been thrown out of being able to finally link up with friends again. In the last few days, these ideas have materialized into much more concrete plans, and it’s got me very excited for the next month.
- I get to spend a couple days in Bali with two friends I’ve made next week.
- I get to spend Christmas in Singapore with a good friend from college (Josh Yap for those to whom that name means something!) and his family. I’m feeling very, very grateful for this one.
- I’ll be back with the same friends from Bali for New Years Eve down in Sydney.
- I somehow stumbled myself into a 3-4 day backpacking trip in the Australian Alps with Fin (my bike mechanic friend I met from down there) and several of his friends. This one isn’t totally solidified yet, but it looks like it’s happening.
- Fin’s also going to take me on a few rides around Sydney and I’m SO stoked to be back on a bike for a few days.
My mood and outlook on this trip have dramatically changed as these plans have locked into place. I share this as I think this can have a major impact on our day to day lives as well. Having concrete things to look forward to helps carry us through seasons where life feels monotonous or hard. It gives us hope. And it doesn’t have to be big. It can anything from catching up with a friend you haven’t seen in a long time, to a concert, to a Saturday day trip or treat-yo-self day, to a longer vacation or trip.
It’s easy to skip over these and get caught in the daily routine, and then it becomes all too easy to get burnt out if this isn’t done proactively. I’d encourage you to intentionally build in some activities that are special or that you’re really excited about on a regular cadence so that you always have something to look forward to.
BLOG POSTS
Nothing new in writing this week, but I finally got Thailand highlight photos put together! You can check them out here.
NEXT UP
I crossed over into Malaysia a few days ago. I started on the island of Langkawi and just arrived in Penang tonight. I have an unreal number of food recommendations (thanks Marcus!) and a contact from a ministry in the area (thanks Kelsey!) so the plan is to prioritize eating a ton of good food, go to church for the first time on this trip, and fill in the rest of my time with a bit of exploration.
It’s a short stay in Malaysia, and after that I’ll head down to Bali until I pop back up to Singapore to hang out with Josh for Christmas. I have a decent idea of what I’m going to do in Bali, but I’m always open to recommendations if you’ve got any!
As always, if you know anyone that you think would be interested in anything I’m writing about, I’d ask that you consider sharing this with them.
Thanks for being here. Talk to you next week.
– Trevor