Journey or Result?

Not only seeing the world, but meeting the people who make it up.

It has been amazing to see different parts of this beautiful floating rock we inhabit. But more than seeing things its meeting the people who live in it that has made this trip extremely special to me. As well as reflecting on the situations I have found myself in.

For example:

As I am sitting on the porch of a wooden cabin in the mists of rice paddies and the jungle as a mix between insects calling and Thai music blasts from the cabin across the way. A reality which would have never crossed my mind. And thats something I love about travelling is that your reality is constantly something you were unaware existed before, you are constantly expanding your map.

At guesthouse I stayed in in Chiang Mai I always had great talks with the German co-owner named Sid. He told me something important that day which has stuck with me since. As he was giving me a route to take on motorbike from one city to another and detailing all of the relics on the way he told me "but after you see a few waterfalls or caves they all blend together.  The relics are great to see throughout the day but its that one stand you stopped at along the way where you got the best piece of corn and conversation.  It's whats happening at the moment your riding through a town and the things you see. These are what make the trip memorable". This guy is obviously more about the journey then the end result and I liked that a lot.

On my journey I met a guy in a guesthouse where we were the only occupants and we chatted all night. He just finished his contract at one NGO working with healthcare for Burmese Karen refugees. He was telling me about all the interesting things in this town and I was captivated by all the NGO talk as it is something I am interested in and I have talked about so much in my INTL classes.
Next thing you know I was on a 7 hour truck ride around a mountain squeezed amongst 30 others and boxes of goodies in a truck thats faded capacity limit sticker read 15. It was the most unexpected, nauseating, eventful ride I could have asked for, and I wasn't asking for anything. Women breastfeeding their children,  people on the roof slingshoting trees, little kids holding enormous insects as pets, people's "cocks" for the upcoming fights this weekend etc. etc. Etc. And at the end of this ride I exchanged facebook info with one person on the ride. Everyone in the world has a facebook im convinced.

Today was the end of Buddhist lent and we woke up early and gave all the monks food in the pouring rain. Noodles for days!