On my way to Laos

So I'm having a bit of a panic. I am just starting to realise how very little time I have to do all the things I want to do in South East Asia. 8 weeks to travel Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, then 8 weeks volunteering in Cambodia and then 6 weeks afterwards to fill in. It's not very long at all. I think it might be good to fly from Singapore to Phuket, have a few days on 'The Beach' and then on to Chiang Mai, Laos etc. etc. That sounds good to me. I'd prefer to focus on Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia first. And at only 40EUR per flight it's a bargain. We'll see closer to the time how it will take shape.

But just take Laos for example. I know little to nothing about the country and would have thought I'd only spend a week there. Now I change my mind after a brief Google and I have no idea how I am going to travel all these beautiful places in such a short space of time. I've been told by many that Laos has been their favorite out of the 4. I didn't realise they had been through so much. It's basically the world's most bombed country, with 2 billion tonnes of bombs having been dropped on the country in a couple of years. There's been a brutal, brutal civil war and many of the bombs dropped on the country did not explode nor have they been cleared. And yet the country still maintains it's soul.

On the sightseeing side of things, Laos also has ownership of the biggest waterfalls in all South East Asia, The Khone Papeng and home to the Plain of Jars, 3 sites of megolithic stone jars pottered around the landscape and more.

What I absolutely will not be doing in Laos is 'tubing' or engaging in the drunken tourist brigade floating down the Mekong river in a rubber ring being pulled into ramshackle bars along the banks. Ok, so I might float but I'm not drinking. Ok, I can't promise that either. Fuck.

This is bigger than me

Everything is under control. Only a couple of more weeks left in the country and I have mostly everything done or is scheduled to be done. Vaccinations underway, roommate found for my room, notice handed into work and flights booked.

Everything is under control. Nothing left to do but sit back and relax. 

I can’t relax. This is what happens when my brain has a couple of minutes to itself. It starts exploring everything that I should/could/would be doing in this and that circumstance. I’m only glad that I have most of my initial travel plans made and there isn’t too much room to change them all around.

Why would I change my plans? In the words of my parents, ‘Why would you give up a well paid job?’ Well, because I’m not happy. ‘Not being happy is hardly a reason to quit your job!’ I have to say they have a point in ‘these times of austerity’ around the world and starving babies in Africa. And so I’m wondering if I’m acting like a spoiled child wanting to quit school because it doesn’t thrill me out of bed every morning like it used to.

Nah it’s bigger than that. Fuck, the whole decision is bigger than me. I’m leaving in September to see what non-European parts of the world look like and I’m even doing a spot of volunteering for two months. I want my brain to reboot. I want to feel excited about the world and I want to do some things that actually seem like they matter.

At this point in time, my wandering brain has to bow down to the feeling that traveling from September onwards is something that I cannot say no to. Like I said, the decision is bigger than me now.  I have no idea what the output will be at the end of it but it’s bound to put some pep in my step.