Jun 10, 2013

6 months abroad, where did the time go?

I have been traveling basically since October, it's June and I am on my way home to continue the next step of my adventure. Selling my house and everything I own, basically to become a nomad. I've decided I want to skip winter entirely. Thailand is pretty awesome, cheap and has great food. I can teach English there for 6 months of winter and then I plan to head to Italy where I will enjoy the decent climate of spring and fall! I plan to buy a property on the coast, something small I can invest in, an apartment I can rent out when I am overseas. Then over the summer I will stay with my parents. Yup it's pretty backwards, I moved out as soon as I finished high school, bought a house and now I'm selling it so I can move in with my parent into the basement. Haha... I'll be the 40 year old single person living in her parents basement, how cool is that!
I dunno, I think it's a small sacrifice. Plus, I love my mom, we haven't spent much time together in the past as I moved out young to the big city. My dad may not be so keen, but oh well. I love him too.

I've also had a lot of time alone to think on the traveling leg of my journey... Milan to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Toronto, Toronto to Calgary... I had to go through customs in Toronto and claim Doger. It was chaos, and they made me pay 33$ for a form that hd the same information as Dogers pawsport... Fuckers. Now my bank account is totally strapped. Meh. I lost my international drivers license at check in as well, son of a gun.. 40$ and I can get a new one before I leave Canada next time.
So here I sit, on my Air Canada flight from YYZ to YYC and Doger is quietly stuffed away in his bag,

And I'm reviewing the last month or six slowly but everything is so blurry. It passed by so fast... I only have 3 months before I go back to Italy, I have to get my shift together!
I pretty much spent 30 days drunk on prosecco. I ate delicious pasta every day. I ended my time in Italy with a pizza in Milan, I didn't buy ANYTHING because I knew I'd be back soon, and I have not a penny left in the bank only a few hundred euros and baht in cash. I didn't buy gifts or souvenirs, kinda feel bad but oh well. New Years was non existent in northern Thailand, I fear that Xmas will be the same as its a Christian holiday and 93% of Thais are Buddhist! Maybe I can sneak over to Italy without Doger, scoop up an upgrade and enjoy Xmas in a very catholic country! That could be fun! I did so much while I was away. I went to Koh Tao and got my rescue diver certificate and I plan to get my DMT next time! I spent 15 days and thoroughly enjoyed it. I had flown in to Koh Samui where my Italian friends were staying and I ended up doing a 5 day detox (cleansing juice fast with other internal cleansing things...) and then met up with Angelino and Fabri from Levanto. We had fun picking out the lady boys from the women, and talked about Italy.
After I said my goodbyes to my friends I went to Koh Tao with my 10kg of dive gear and a smile on my face. I ended up doing the course and a couple fun dives, but spent lots of time drinking and relaxing. I made new friends and discovered the Koh Tao pub crawl, 3 days a week and free the 3rd time around, I've already gone 4 times!

I really enjoy the atmosphere of Koh Tao, and I'll always go back to dive.
I also decided to go back a second time, dragging my sweet naive mahout with me as he'd never left Chiang Mai and my Gf in Bangkok decided her mew Farang boyfriend was more important and beneficial to spend time with (we had initially planned to go to Koh Tao together, instead she met up with her boyfriend and another guy and I spent two weeks alone. We haven't spoken since.) the second time around I only did fun dives as I didn't have the money for the DMT course. I usually dive with Pheonix divers but I've noticed they are getting popular fast because they have slightly better pricing than other places, so I might switch to someone smaller for a more intimate classroom environment. I heard from a couple if people that Ban's Dive Resort (one if the more famous places thanks to lonely planet and travel sites) throws giant groups together and pushes them through so fast that other dive centers won't hire them! Ouch. A class of 35 DMT's? How can you learn anything!
Anyways....
I left Koh Tao and headed right back to Chiang Mai. Back to Mae Taeng.., my quiet little hiding spot.
I didn't have much time before I skipped off to Vietnam (other blog post about that.)
I was only in Vietnam 16 days. And when I came back, I went right back to Koh Tao! Had a blast dragging along a Thai person, as truly they are more foreign than Farang in the islands!
Time passed so quickly. Songran came and went, the heat of 37-40°C drove me insane. I slept a lot. Drank beer. Ate rice. Bplaa grapong. Chillies.
Honestly I could care less if I don't see rice again the next few months

My brain is fried. Time to go home.

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