For the past 9 or so weeks, Andy and I have been traveling. While it has certainly been nice to take a break from the working world, especially as we both had somewhat trying schedules back home, it has not been what either of us would consider a vacation.
A vacation, in my mind at least, conjures up images of relaxing getaways, spending money rather nonchalantly, and not particularly challenging oneself. That is far from what the vast majority of our trip has been. This is why I find myself a bit vexed now that we have entered vacation mode at the end of our travels.
Our island adventure on Ko Pha Ngan was planned at the start of the trip as a way to wind down after trying travels, a bridge between adventure and re-entering our lives in America. I think we may have started the wind-down a bit early though, as I find myself somewhat bored after a week on the beach, with another week to go before we head back to Bangkok and back home. I realize it sounds terrible to be complaining about being stuck on a beautiful beach on a Thai island and that many people would happily trade their wintry climes for a week on an island somewhere.
The issue is that this trip was a way of challenging myself and growing as a person (cheesy as that may sound) and I don't feel like I'm getting any of that from my time here. I'd rather be working toward something positive back in America, ideally having grown and employing what I've learned in these past several weeks. Working on my tan and paying too much for food and lodging (compared to the rest of our trip) just seems wasteful at this point.
The point of this post isn't to complain about my situation, though that seems to be what I've done. Rather, it's to hopefully demonstrate the difference between travel and vacation, at least as I see it, and to explain how my travels have made me less interested and less fulfilled by my current vacation. After everything Andy and I have seen and done, there's only so much pleasure we can get from seeing sweat-drenched aging stoners dancing goofily to trance music as the sun rises.
I'm ready for my next adventure.
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3 comments:
AOK
my advice is when on vacationmode to just try to be indulgent in ways that are bizarrre and non-bougie and specifically context-inspired as much as possible to where you can laugh off vomiting fuschia wine coolers and omelette baguettes after bodysurfing at 11am instead of feeling like a BoBo
-Larry P
yo LP-
I did have a Red Spy in your honor the other day. It tasted like freedom.
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