We made it! After a 9 hour layover in the dead of night and many long hours on two separate flights we arrived in Bangkok on Thursday morning.  Getting to the hostel was an adventure on its own.  The traffic within the city is absolutely wild.  I had to bite my tongue as we sat in a taxi and wove around cars, motorcycles, and ‘tuk tuks’ which is like a carriage, although powered with a small motor.  We sped into oncoming traffic many times.  Although, crazy enough, there are few accidents here.  Not a car has a single scratch on it that I have seen.  I think LA folks have a bit to learn about city driving.

We have crammed so much into the three days we have spent here, so I will go through a few of the notable activities.

We visited The Grand Palace, which is a series of Buddhist temples and buildings that the king and various political figures still use today.  The aesthetic detail of the temples was unreal, both inside and out.  Figurines, mosaics, timelines painted on the walls, and shrines were all over the grounds and incorporated within the architecture.  Brilliant colors surrounded us as we learned more about the religion and politics of this country

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After this we were hungry so we tried to find an authentic place to eat lunch.  We spied a kitchen on the bottom story of a massive building.  There were many people in uniforms milling around the building, but we didn’t think anything of it.  We walked down and tried to find a menu, or even prepared dishes in the kitchen (which is never in a different room than the dining area) we could point at and order from.  The chef looked at us funny and started laughing as we looked around and tried to figure out how to communicate what we wanted.  That is about the time we noticed that people were talking to each other through a steel fence.  It looked like we had found the Bangkok jail.  Everyone was laughing at this point, including us so we waved goodbye and found a normal restaurant to eat at, one that served to those not incarcerated.

Our Saturday evening was a little unconventional; we decided to participate in a guided meditation led by a Buddhist monk.  He spoke about Buddhism, the body and mind (body and mind, body and mind), and the world as he saw it.  He then showed us how to practice meditation while sitting and standing.  We meditated for an hour, which was a lot harder than I previously thought.  I fell asleep a couple of times while sitting and meditating…oops.  Each time the half hour began, the monk would leave the room, then return when it was time to switch methods.  At the end of the time, he revealed to us that he had been watching us the entire time through a camera mounted at the front of the class.  He laughed, and pointed out a few people who had given up on the pose half-way through.  All in all it was a great experience and has me interested in exercising my mind this way in the future.

We also took a Thai cooking course which has been my favorite activity by far.  We made 8 separate dishes, including a hummus made of pumpkin that was delicious! In between the 7th dish (papaya salad) and the dessert (mango sticky rice) we learned a traditional Thai style of dancing.  Hopefully we can go back to the states and recreate the awesome dishes we enjoyed.  My favorite is an Indian inspired dish called Massaman Curry.  The runner up was the Pad Thai, which had much more complex flavors than what is served in the west. (Papaya salad in the photo)

As I am writing this, we are sitting in the hostel lobby listening to the rain falling among the hum of different languages being spoken by people from all different places.  Lucky for us 95% of the folks we have met speak English, although I feel pretty lame that this is the only language I can speak.  Many are traveling by themselves, most have begun their adventures in Bangkok, and, all have been some of the nicest people I have ever spoken with.  I could definitely get used to this.

Until next time.  Thanks for reading!

Danielle

Yum

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While I was chatting with a friend I was questioned about my desire to quit my job, move out of my house in Santa Barbara, and go on this trip. A million reasons started flying through my head including: the money is sitting in my savings account, work is becoming less challenging, and the fact that I love Asian food. The question stopped me in my tracks. I almost felt as if I needed to justify my actions because I have it so great currently. Why was I dropping my life completely to heading into the unknown?

As of now, I would consider myself successful. I found a job right out of college. I am supporting the lifestyle I want within beautiful Santa Barbara County. I have the luxury of being able to explore wherever I want on the weekends. And it’s all been going great…except for the itchy feet syndrome. Some of you may know what I’m talking about. Others will think I am crazy. It started out as a slight tickle and has slowly crept up to inflict my brain. The “next trip” has been in the back of my mind ever since graduating at UCSB. The weekend excursions backpacking around California and even the epic out of state trips I have had the pleasure of being a part of (I have some awesome friends) have not been cutting it.

As luck would have it Grant, my lovely boyfriend, thought travelling in November would work perfectly with his schedule. November is the also time I hit the two year mark of working for the state, which is about where I wanted to be to leave anyway. The “what if” conversations morphed into “when is this happening” over the past couple of months. Cheap flights were found, and lo and behold, a date was set to fly into Bangkok on November 10, 2015.

So far we have covered:

• the who – Grant and myself
• what – adventure of a lifetime
• when – November 10^th
• where – Thailand and beyond
• how – airplane
• why – see above and below (and the reason for the rambling nature of this post)

The rest of the why: I need a challenge. I want to be uncomfortable. I am looking forward to getting lost in a county that I won’t be able to speak the language within. I am ready to LEAP outside my comfort zone. Maybe I won’t have a comfort zone after this trip is over. Who knows… What I do know is that we live on a big planet. One I have seen very little of. I know this trip will be a humbling experience that can open my eyes to different cultures and lifestyles. I love learning and the world is the ultimate classroom. Bring it on Asia!

Some questions you may have:

When are you arriving? We will touch down on lovely, humid Thai soil on November 12th.

Where else are you going besides Thailand? We have a flight scheduled into Vietnam on December 5th. Other than that, we will be travelling to as many countries as make sense. I want to get immersed into the culture as much as possible so we may be travelling between countries slowly. I also want to see as much as possible so certain times may go quickly as well. We will see how it goes once we are there and move on accordingly.

Why southeast Asia? Jungle trekking, serenity, climbing, food, elephants, chaos, diving, public transportation. Is there more we could ask for?

When are you getting back? At this point it is up in the air. We are thinking sometime between February and May. Yes I am trying my hand at NOT being a compulsive planner, thank you for noticing.

Do you have all your shots? Check. And pills for malaria.

Can we get into contact with you while you are over seas? We will not have working cell number. You can always reach me by personal email. We will have a texting app called What’sApp that you can also talk to us on. Reach out to me beforehand to snag the info.

Can I get a postcard from you? Yup! Give us an address and we will be sure to send out one along our travels.

We will be updating this blog throughout our trip for your enjoyment (as well as our mother’s sanity). Grant will handle informative posts about our aspect of the trip for everyone interested in logistics (how-to’s as well as where to go). I will be updating you about our personal experiences. We will both be taking tons of pictures and some of them will be uploaded here. I will send out a facebook notification when we update this site so you can stay in the loop. If anyone is interested in an email shoutout about a new post going out, subscribe to our blog on the left.

Thanks for reading

Danielle

The post New Beginnings appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

galleries we’ve put together.

The post A Selection of Photography appeared first on Quarter Life Excursion.

1. Purchase one way tickets
2. Get SCUBA certification
3. Learn a foreign language
4. Learn/improve haggling skills
5. Visit an elephant sanctuary
6. Sail in a different country
7. Set foot on an active volcano
8. Eat pad thai in Thailand
9. See a Mui Thai fight (Thailand)
10. Catch a local bus
11. Kayak to a beach destination
12. Camp on a random beach
13. Day-long nature trek in every country we visit
14. Speak with locals in every country we visit
15. Eat an insect
16. Explore the temples of Angkor (Cambodia)
17. Boulder in a new country
18. See the sun rise over Bagan (Myanmar)
19. Take a boat up Nam Ou (Laos)
20. Ride a motorbike
21. Take a tuk tuk (Thailand)

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