Just week before I started a trip I heard a song Beautiful Strangers by Kevin Morby. It really hit me. I was thinking about beautiful people I have around myself and how some of them were not so long ago just a strangers to me. I was listening the song every day on repeat. I think my neighbour couldnt be more happy when I finally left Slovenia. But actually this is the song which the most accurate ilustrate life and feelings happening to me in last month while traveling.
One of the best and also hardest part of traveling is meeting or better said leaving new people. I knew already before starting a trip this could be tricky.
I started this adventure just one month ago and I actually didn’t move so much but yet I meet so many nice, warm, funny and inspirational people. People I can without hesitation call friends. Of course this are not the same friendships as with people u know for quite some time and who u hear regularly.
And leaving some people “behind” although you don’t want to is not something happening just while traveling. There are also friendships that just stopped or better said, life has taken us different paths and we somehow lost contacts. Usually this are friends from school, faculty, work or from my time living in Rijeka or Krk. But whenever I think of them I remember them with warm feeling around the heart. And I think I will always remember our funny moments and the times we were there for each other. But meeting people abroad is some other kind of friendship.
I had that privileged I traveled a lot, I was on Erasmus student exchange and I worked abroad, by going to seminars, trainings or conferences. Among this traveling I met so many nice people. With some of them I had a feeling I knew them all my life or I could stay with them forever.
This is why I also made Facebook (and now also Instagram)… and although I was really against, now I am thankful to this platforms. Cause the truth is that with some of those people I stayed in contact because of it. That doesn’t mean we hear each other all the time, but still…we follow each other’s life, adventures, moods and news. I am really happy when I see they have a great time or worried when they don’t. And when we have an impulse to chat or contact each other we do. We visit each other or we make traveling plans together.
It’s so funny cause with some of them I haven’t spoken a lot or we haven’t seen each other for years, but love never left…it’s like it’s frozen in time and the moment we meet again was like nothing happened in between, we just suit together. And I want to point out that with most of them I can really talk, we know each other’s deepest thoughts, feelings and experiences…
Another crazy thing is that we meet each other friends and some of this people became my friends or my friends meet each other and they stay in contact. So I admit i was a bit emotional living Thailand and people I meet there wondering if we will ever meet again… but if I am honest my previous experiences show me nowadays it’s easy to meet or to stay in contact so with some of them I know I will. Actually we already have some plans for meeting in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Laos, Cambodia, Nepal… And the others will stay a irreplaceable piece in this adventures mosaic.
They should all know that this trip is amazing also or mostly because of them.
Those thoughts were written on a boat when I was living Ko Phayam and going to Siam Reap. I didn’t even imagine that I will see some of those people I wrote about, just a week or two later. And on the other hand, that I wont be able to meet with people I was planning and really hoping to see. But this is what spontaneous traveling looks like and what shitty corona thing is bringing.
By unplanned return to Bangkok I meet half of the people again and i was given some extra time to spend with them and i really appreciate it. So I can say that this is definitely one of the good thing in all this corona s***.
We continued to discover Bangkok and surrounding together, have long conversation among food and beers. We laugh and worry about covid-19, we comfort and support each other when feeling uncertain and anxious.
When I was leaving Bangkok again few days ago, nobody of us know, when this nightmare is going to finish and what future is bringing or when we will see each other but the only thing we somehow know is, we are there for each other, via all possible communication channels and if we all manage to prolong visa we will definitely see each other again.
Ergo dear friends … so long, farewell, adios, ciao, la kxn, tchau, adeus, au revoir and goodbye until we meet again.
