Southeast Asia (Nov 2018)

Departure - Nov 15, 2018. I’m from Australia, and I’ve never been to Southeast Asia. Unbelievable, right? Despite a yearning desire to see the world I was too awkward to travel alone in my late teens, then I was a young married mum, then I moved to Canada — all before the age of 25 — and Southeast Asia was suddenly too far away, and too expensive, for our little family.

But now my kids are grown, and I’m finally heading to Southeast Asia. I’ve built my itinerary around a few items on my bucket list: the Yi Peng festival in Thailand, cycling the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, and visiting my brother in Singapore. I’m jittery with excitement.

I meet a fellow traveler at the airport and he tells me he didn’t like Singapore: “It’s too expensive if you want to go, you know, where the white people go.” I tell him I can’t wait to eat where the locals eat. (I should also have told him he’s a narrow-minded prick.)

In 18 hours I’ll be in Bangkok. My mission: buy a sarong and find some good Thai street food. Beyond that, who knows what I’ll discover?