Well, as you may have guessed by now, the Journey I’m on is more a spiritual one than a physical one. Before I left in June, I’d decided to approach this trip differently to all the other trips I’ve ever made. I was gonna do this one following my heart and intuition entirely, every step of the way.
The week before I left, I hadn’t sorted anything out that you would usually do on such a big trip. I didn’t feel I needed to…..I felt everything was gonna be “cool like the Fonz”. I hadn’t had any vaccinations, hadn’t got any malaria tablets and hadn’t even looked at a map or any travel info connected to any place I was due to go to. I was happy to just get off the plane and just float wherever the flow took me and something was telling me I didn’t need to have any vaccinations anyway (infact, my intuition was warning me against pumping myself full of the shit produced by the pharmaceutical companies!!!!).
A few days before I left, I handed all my sports equipment back into the Leyton Orient FC office and started talking to my mate Trevor about South-East Asia. He’d done all the same shit before and I was asking him if he could recommend anywhere to stay and go in Bangkok, my first port of call. You should have seen his face when I told him I hadn’t got anything sorted……big intake of breath, followed by a big shake of his head and a disbelieving look in his eyes!!!! He looked really worried for me and no matter how much I reassured him that things would be cool, he insisted that I get some malaria tablets, have a typhoid jab and get myself a lonely planet. Then he drew me a map of the area just off of Kohsan Rd where I could get some budget accommodation. Sorted!!!!
After I left and said my goodbyes (Big ups to everyone at Leyton!!!:-) ), I took on board what he had to say and looked into getting myself medically sorted. I ended up getting Malodrone, the only anti-malarial I felt comfortable taking, and they cost me 180 notes!!! Still, I felt better with that then Larium. But my intuition was banging on about the typhoid thing so I didn’t bother…..if I die then its because I’ve chosen to….thats the way I look at life… and I only took a couple of the Malodrone tablets anyway!!!
When I eventually got to Bangkok, I saw a lonely planet on a stall and asked how much it was. The man said 450 and the woman said 500…..I said “He said 450”……she said “ok” giving her husband some evil eyes (my god, he was in trouble when they got home!!!!). I said “No….not ok….400”, she went “420”….I said “400”. She begrudgingly agreed and I could see they weren’t happy bunnies!!! As I walked back to my hotel I passed a 7/11 and saw coffees were only 10 bart each. Seeing as the stall holders looked like they were having a bad day I decided to buy them a coffee. So I ran back to the stall holders and asked if they’d like one. They said yes with confused expressions. 5 minutes later I returned, and they had some massive smiles on their faces. They were well chuffed and very thankful. There you go, I thought, they got their 420 in the nicest possibly way!
Later, as I walked passed the stall that evening, the guy clocked me and come running over with an ice cold bottle of freshly squeezed orange juice. He gave it to me and every time I walked passed after that (which was about 50 times a day!!!!) they always greeted me with big smiles and buckets of waves!!! Lovely Jubbley!!!!
But, the thing with that lonely planet was.…..as I was traveling, I discovered I was hardly using it!!! Everywhere I went I was being directed by “chance”, “luck” and “coincidence”. But I know theres no such thing as any of them! They’re all words used to distract you from the truth of whats going on. Everything that happens is what you create or whats been created for you. Those words are used as explanations of ignorance, and to use them is to dismiss the contemplation of what just happened? Why it happened? And most importantly……HOW IT HAPPENED!!!!!
So I sold it on, and developed my own personal lonely planet which comprised of scrap pieces of paper that people I met scribbled on with relevant information. Thanks for the first piece of paper Trev!!!!!!
You see, westerners live in a disconnected society and culture where the gift of life is conditioned into being seen as a risk. LIFES NOT A RISK!!!!! Not when you realize YOU’RE in control. All this bollocks is just creation of fear…..and some fuckers making a lot of money out of it!
Love and light,
Miller
P.S. Would you believe I’ve still got a box of the “Malarone” tablets in my First Aid Kit!!! They went out of date in 2009 though!!! 🙂
The Adventures of Miller 