Sa-wad-dee-kaa

I've been in Thailand for only 5 days and I've already experienced so many different things. In the Siam Culture week that I'm attending we went to see many temples including the monks in orange, huge gold Buddha statues, the ruin city Ayutthaya which is the old capital of Thailand, the local town and so much more.

 As expected, the food here is delicious and as it turns out, not that hard to make. In the cooking  class today me and my 23 fellow travelers prepared our own lunch consisting of a spicy papaya-carrot salad and fried rice noodles with tofu and vegetables. Yumm! 



Everyday I learn something new about the fascinating and beautiful religion Buddhism and I've really come to admire the Thais way of living and thinking.

"Everything happens for a reason"

On Tuesday we went to a floating market that was absolutely stunning. It reminds of a small version of Venice made of wooden shops, decks and bridges. There I had the chance to try out some of the sayings we had learned a few days ago in a short Thai lesson.

• Sa-wad-dee-kaa   -    Hello
• Taw-rai                -    How much?

• Lod-dai-mai        -    Can you discount?

Getting ready. Mentally and physically

In eight days it will be my turn. After seeing many of friends, and even my mom, leaving home to travel the world, or parts of it, it's finally time for me to say goodbye to my comfy life here in Zurich. I'm going to be gone for two whole months, spending 5 weeks doing volunteer work in a children's home in northern Thailand, 1 week with my boyfriend on the island Koh Samet and 2.5 weeks with my mom traveling through Vietnam. It will be the longest I've ever been away from home, and also the first time traveling all by myself, so naturally, I'd say I'm allowed to be nervous. Of course I can't wait for the big adventure, the highlight of my gap year, to begin. Yet I can't help being just a little bit frightened or stop my mind from panicking at the end of the day when my body is trying to fall asleep. 

Like always, lying in your bed is when one seems to get the most brilliant ideas, when your brain just won't shut up and keeps you from your beauty sleep. This is when I go through my mental packing list, imagine how it's going to be to meet all kinds of new people, getting to know a foreign culture, etc. It's really quite nerve-wracking. 

A part from preparing oneself mentally, there's lots to be done on the physical part (besides packing). I just had my last rabies shot out of three, which were spread over only the last eight days. My left arm is definitely fed up of being poked. In addition, I bought an insect spray for clothing to keep those nasty malaria- or other deadly-diseases-carrying mosquitos away. Also, I'm moisturizing my skin (almost) every day to keep the tan from the last Caribbean trip. That way I hope I won't blind the Thais completely when I walk around in short sleeves. Silly, but that's just me. 

16.01.2015, Zollikon