Asia

Published on October 6th, 2013

15

I’m BAAAAACK! (from Nepal, Borneo and Brunei)

dawn-on-river-borneo

Yup, the TravelnLass is still alive. Nope, she hasn’t slipped off the Planet into an abyss, nor been carried off by headhunters to some secret jungle lair in Borneo. After 6 weeks on the lam I’ve landed safe and sound here in (my new “home”) Chiang Mai, Thailand.

But I have to say – I’m just so darn thrilled to be quietly stationary again – no need to rise at the crack of dawn to catch a flight, or cruise a crocodile infested river – I’m simply taking a little time to regroup and do… NOTH.ING.

Indeed, you might say I’m a tad burnt-out. I’ve often said that – as a traveler, I’m a sprinter, not a marathoner. And 6 weeks of dashing to ‘n fro – though filled with amazing and profoundly exhilarating experiences – is pretty much my limit. I honestly don’t understand how some folks manage to stay on the trail for months, sometimes years on end. It’s not so much the physical effort of bouncing from place to place every few days and living out of a backpack that gets to me. But rather – I simply o.d. on all the new sights and experiences, and after awhile they all start to blur together. I mean, it’s all well and good to lose track of the day of the week or even what month it is – but when I momentarily forget which COUNTRY I’m in, well… it’s time to settle down again and get a grip.

And that’s precisely what I’m doing here now in Chiang Mai. Taking some much needed quiet time to slow down, regroup, and savor the many memories I just gathered in three new and unique corners of the globe.

monastery-ceiling

Ceiling of Namo Buddha – the monastery where I rose at 5 am for morning prayers with the monks (yawn!)

I have quite a long list of posts in mind to slowly unravel my many adventures over the past six weeks (like… over-nighting at a remote monastery, getting a tattoo, and pushing a rickshaw to the airport in Nepal, along with eating a raw oyster the size of a DINNER PLATE and tracking down Pigmy elephants in Borneo). But it will likely take me several weeks to wade through my 1,500+ images (including 36 video clips) and peck the many tales floating through my brain, so please be patient and do stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I’ve also much to ponder and do as I settle here in Thailand. Unfortunately, the visa situation here is a bit dicier than I’d grown use to in Vietnam. I’m presently on but a 30 day, non-extendable tourist visa, and still need to pick up my extra bags that I left in Saigon (including my nice BIG 17” laptop with my bff graphic software for editing photos), so will likely kill two-birds by flying to HCMC at month’s end to grab both baggage and a bit more generous Thai visa from the embassy there. That plus, look into the EFL teach ops here (which I’m assured are plentiful with my credentials), along with … just begin to explore this lovely city of Chiang Mai and sample its legendary street food.

MORE TravelnLass:  Time Out for Dreaming...

In short, plenty to keep me busy. So I shall begin to get to it now, and leave you with an even dozen of  stray images that I’ve gathered over the past weeks (bearing in mind that I have only my bitty netbook here to edit with and precious little in the way of photo editing software.)

Oh, and do feel free – in fact, consider yourself earnestly encouraged to drop a comment below so that… now that you know I’M BACK – I’d surely likewise love to know that YOU’RE BACK and out there somewhere reading my blather, yes?
 

(Click on any of the thumbnails to start the slide show…)


About the Author

Off-the-beaten-path travel is my passion,and I’ve always lived life “like-a-kid-in-a-candy-store” – eager to sample as many flavors as I can. Indeed, my life motto has long been: This ain’t a dress rehearsal, folks!



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Four Letter Nerd

Blather? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

A belated welcome back to you, TNL. Take your time sorting through the tri-national words and images. I understand as I’ve yet to start sorting my trip which ended 2 days ago. Your posts are worth the wait.

Four Letter Nerd

> Any suggestions?

Yes, try again because I replaced the WordPress RSS feed with Feedburner which includes a Feedly chicklet.

I also deleted the empty blog at Blogger. Thanks for the reminder. Also added a Contact Form to the WordPress blog. Should have done that long ago.

Four Letter Nerd

I arrive on Wednesday for (mumble) months. Rendezvous TBD, after which we can blog wildly differing accounts of it. 😉

Four Letter Nerd

I enjoy self deprecating humor and use it myself. Only reason I included the blather bit is I thought you might be a fan of The Princess Bride.

I’ll look at the RSS problem tonight.

Four Letter Nerd

Oops. The link looks just like text. Here is the naked link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-b7RmmMJeo

Hogga

welcome back

Ruth Elisabeth

Welcome back!

Sounds like your travels have been immense (can’t wait to read your posts as you get to them) and you’ve earnt a break! I totally know when you mean about the short sprint style travelling – and then putting down some roots in a longer, expat stay.

Ruth Elisabeth

Vietnam has a special pull doesn’t it? I’m sure I’ll spend time there again. Just because you’ve left, it doesn’t mean you can’t return in the future!

As for me, I’m happy nearer home back in Europe for the time being. Next week is the start of a French immersion trip!

Paul

Welcome back! Did you do any geocaching out there? (I’m heading over to read your logs in a few minutes.)

So have you moved out of Vietnam permanently?

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  • Welcome

    Off-the-beaten-path travel is my passion, and I’ve always lived life “like a kid in a candy store” – eager to sample as many flavors as I can. Indeed, my life motto has long been:

    This ain’t a dress rehearsal, folks!

    And in that spirit, after years of running my own adventure travel company, and flitting off to far-away places every chance I got… Read more about me…

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