If you’ve been following me so far, I just want to say thank you! You are a trooper, if not some sort of masochist for following a wayward middle-aged man stumble his way through Southeast Asia. I applaud you and your commitment to this thread and am humbled that you have decided to continue on this journey with me. So, in order to get everyone up to speed a little faster, I’m going to try posting a couple of days a week.

When I last posted, I had just arrived in Thailand; having cleared customs, exchanged my dollars to baht, and bought my first cup of coffee since leaving the United States. Everything up to this point has been good and I’ve been able to navigate around Asia pretty well. However, at some point, things inevitably become more complicated and it helps to have a partner on the ground. After all, airports are airports and when it comes to landing in a big city on a continent that speaks a different language, it can make things a little more challenging to get your bearings. Enter XploreAsia. Hiring a recruiter to help with this part of the journey is worth every penny. XploreAsia has the process down. At Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, a man was holding a sign with my name on it, making me feel like a rock star! (Sorry folks, no picture here.) I was finally in Asia, ready to live and work here for several months! It felt surreal, like I had teleported to a different planet. So far, Thailand is amazing! The sights, sounds, smells, and busy people at the airport were everything and it was glourious chaos! If the first sunrise over Asia during my flight felt like being born out of darkness and into the light, then arriving in Thailand felt fresh and new.

This also the first time I get to meet some of my travel companions who came from all over the globe to be here. My travel companions for the ride to Hua Hin include one other American, a nice British guy, and two polite, young Canadians. I’m clearly the oldest in the group, but it was wonderful to share this international experience with them. We all had different backgrounds, yet we found ourselves in Thailand growing, learning, and evolving together. We quickly became friends during our time in Hua Hin. What resonated with me were our personal reasons for coming to Thailand. Each of our motivations were unique, but they were not uncommon. We were all on our own paths of discovery and enjoying sharing our life stories that led us here.

I digress. The team at XploreAsia organized airport pickup to take me and some fellow participants to Hua Hin for our week long cultural orientation and a refresher course on teaching English. However, I must mention that the taxi ride from Bangkok to Hua Hin, which took nearly three hours, was an experience in cultural orientation by itself.; just look at the van’s interior!

This moment has some cultural gravity to it, but me being me, I couldn’t help but to recall a line from Monty Python’s Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook skit where the guy says, “my hovercraft is full of eels… do you want to come back to my place, bouncy, bouncy.”

As the oldest in the group, it’s clear that nobody else will understand the reference (maybe the Brit would, but I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to ruin the magic.) However, I am amusing myself and at the end of the day, that’s all that really matters.

As we were enjoying our time together, the driver told us he was stopping for a break. We all got out and went into the 7-11 at the stop. If you don’t know, 7-11 is very popular in Asia. They are everywhere, and they sell everything.

The stop at this 7-11 gave me my first real Thai cultural moment that I didn’t expect or was emotionally prepared for. I was too busy being amazed by the things, despite really just needing some water and a couple of Tylenol. I paid the cashier for my order, and when she gave me my change, some of the coins rolled off the receipt and scattered on the floor. As an American, it is often customary for the customer to apologize to the cashier in such a situation and tell them it’s not their fault (which it isn’t). So, like any good American, I said sorry to the clerk and started to lean over to pick up the coins off the floor. Before I could finish apologizing, a little boy appeared out of thin air, gathered my coins, handed them to me, bowed politely with his little wai (said like “why”), and ran back to his parents. I was really touched by that act. As a foreigner, I didn’t know how to respond, especially being 6’2″, very pale, and not small, even by American standards. In America, no one would do that, especially for a foreigner. But here was a little boy who came over to help me because that’s just how Thai people are. I was humbled by the experience. I hope that little boy’s parents are proud of him!

That moment has stayed with me throughout my time here so far. Ultimately, I think this experience changed me in some fundamental ways that I haven’t fully realized yet. However, a shape of this profound interaction is starting to present itself, and it largely involves getting older. In America, we don’t celebrate growing older. American society tries hard to stay young, often to the point that youth is fetishized at the cost of not being prepared for aging. I mean, we have entire songs about how “the good die young.” Yet, there is something beautiful about being recognized as an elder. We’ve lost something in the US about aging that I hope we will find again one day; getting old is not so bad. Aging helps us come to terms with our mortality and that we still have a place in the broader world. I hope one day American culture will embrace aging and celebrate getting older instead of dreading it to the point of denying its existence. I think fewer men would suffer from the proverbial midlife crisis that we all inevitably experience.

Getting back on track, after this profound exchange in the most common of places, we all get back into our chariot and continue our trek to Hua Hin. My companions and I talk for a few more minutes, but soon fall into silence. Nobody has talked about it, but I think everyone had some kind of cultural experience at that store that we are all quietly contemplating on the remainder of our trek. Eventually, we arrive at the Tanawit Hotel in Hua Hin. I was grateful to be out of the van and finally going up to my room. To save money, I opted to live the week with a roommate, and as good fortune would have it, my roomie for the week was the British guy I rode down with from Bangkok.

I finally changed into some shorts and headed back down to the lobby where XploreAsia meets us with our itinerary for the week. However, before heading off to bed for the night, I am really hungry and so are my new friends on this most grand of adventures! So, we all head off to the night market, where we feast and celebrate our arrival in Thailand. Later, when I get back to the hotel room, I drift off to sleep with the AC on and the surreal dreams of being here. Tomorrow starts a new day! For now, I am content. Until next time, please take care of yourself, look out for each other, and stay curious.