The rain and wind and fog spritzing the train windows told me that it was the perfect day to be leaving Seattle.
The train might not have been the perfect way to do it, however. I like a nice train ride and I like Vancouver BC, which was the train’s destination, but my ultimate destination was Bangkok, and a midnight flight after a long day shuffling around on Amtrak and SkyTrain to get to YVR was starting to seem like a mis-step, even if it saved me a couple hundred bucks on airfare.
I knew almost as soon as I got back from Thailand last winter that I was going to go back again this year. I had a fantastic time there and could see no upside to sitting around on a chilly, damp boat for four or five months waiting for the mild spring winds to return to Puget Sound again.
My only regret is that I didn’t book the ticket for November instead of waiting for January–two significant Puget Sound snowfalls and a lot of rain, wind, and ice drove it home for me between Halloween and New Year and I was more than ready to be gone again by the time January rolled around.
I hadn’t gotten in much sailing over the summer anyway, which made boat living even less appealing than usual. Juggling several different real estate transactions had kept me tied alongside but for one daysail on Zia (and that out on a Sound covered in smoke from the fires that burned inland for most of the summer season). I made some good trips on other people’s boats but it wasn’t the lazy summer sailing season on the Salish Sea that I had looked forward to.
I’m looking forward to that again next summer, and hopefully it will be realized this time, but in the immediate future, I’m looking forward to sunshine and swimming and delicious, cheap street food in enchanting soi’s and alleys. There are temples to see and rivers to tour.
At the same time, I’m worried that this year won’t live up to last year. Maybe it was all just new and amazing the first time, and I’ll be less enthralled this time around.
I haven’t heard back from my AirBnb host for a couple of days, either, which doesn’t ease my mind about whether or not I’ll even have a place to stay when I get there.
I am one-bagging it again, cramming three or four months worth of traveling into a waterproof 25ish-liter bag, the same one I cart around Seattle from day to day. I feel like I’ve got my packing list optimized this time–the bag is less full and lighter than last year, even though I’m carrying some extras for friends with me this time around.
I’ve been looking forward to what I found to be a period of clarity and productivity that I experienced there last year, but maybe that was a moment of unique time and space, too. I have more to be distracted by there now–my friend Maxx moved to Bangkok last year, and I’ve been in touch with my friend Monica there ever since I left… I booked a condo again in the building next to hers, so I’ll probably see her quite a lot again.
None of these things are anything to complain about–in fact, they make it even more enjoyable–but the distractions I have been confounded with here in Seattle may not be as far removed from Bangkok as I remember from last year.
It won’t just be Thailand this time around, either. Maxx and I have already booked a short trip to Vietnam (he hasn’t visited it yet, either). And I haven’t booked a return ticket yet–I plan for at least two months in Bangkok, but I’m also thinking I’ll spend at least one more month somewhere else in Southeast Asia. Vietnam if it’s amazing, perhaps; Taiwan or Malaysia, maybe.
And for some bizarre reason, I’ve been fixated for the past few months on an entirely un-Asian detour: a walking tour of the West Highland Way in Scotland. It’s not exactly on the direct route home, but then, since I’m already halfway around the world, it’s not really out of the way, either. Spring is supposed to be a great time for the hike. So I may come home via Europe.
It’s a long itinerary, even if it’s not exactly settled, and you’d think I’d be more excited than I am at the moment. Whether it’s just feeling worn down from the past month of getting things ready for me to be gone (and I am only hoping that all that actually happened–I can’t help but feel that much was missed in the run-up to my departure) or something more foreboding, I’m mostly just hoping to get this leg of the trip out of the way and to try to regroup when I arrive.
Preferably in the pool.