Ramblings From Krabi

This trip has been incredible, and there is no way I can sum it up in a blog entry. Cambodia was unlike any place I've ever seen; Siem Reap the incredible temples of Angkor,Three year old girls who's first few words are probably "postcards 10 for 1 dollar" in five different languages...Dinners with tuk tuk drivers in front of humble homes. Watching the tuk tuk driver get drunk on homemade rice wine and slowly watch his personality morph before our eyes. 14 hour border crossings, shitty bus rides, sketchy hostels, getting thoroughly ripped off and loving it. Endless bus rides through fields and shacks. Phnom Penh: the eerie silence and energy of a school-turned-torture center 30 years ago during the Khmer Rouge regime. The realization that every Cambodian you meet has some relation to one of the 2 million people who were killed, A local free hospital being told that it's facilities, which save hundreds of lives, are too high tech for the economic realities of Cambodia...Like I said, I've never been anywhere like Cambodia, and it completely blew my mind.

And just like that, I was flown out to Bangkok and then to the south of Thailand for a week of incredible beaches, snorkeling, white sands, and Thai New Years. Thai New Years is celebrated like no other new years. Streets turn into the Water war of all Water Wars, and anything is fair game. Supersoakers, buckets, and hoses are in full force, and Patong Beach in Phuket is unreal. Motos and pickups pile people on and drive up and down the beach pouring buckets and super soakers at each other, while others wait alongside the road fully equipped to attack. After the festivities, we hitched a pickup and a 20 minute drive took one full hour and by the end, the pickup was filled with water and we were drenched and covered in white powder and loving it.

I can't possibly describe all the experiences I've had here. The amazing people I've met. The eerie energy of Cambodia followed by the postcard island, limestone, white beaches of Thailand, and the impact the juxtaposition of these two opposite experiences created. There's just no way to put it all into one simple blog post. All I can say is that it's been incredible and will happily provide more ramblings in person.

The trip is nearly over. My semester is nearly over. I sit here in Krabi and have time to just pause for a bit and let some of this soak in. I spent a great deal of the semester expecting to stick around Southeast Asia for the summer. Then I seriously considered following some of the most passionate AIESECERS I've met and learning a bit from them in Australia. I've thought into this a lot, and realized that right now, I really need time to process everything that's happened this semester, and a whole lot has happened...

I need to be in a place where I feel grounded. I need to be doing something where I feel like I am directly impacting at least other people, even in a simple way. I need to be with friends who are inspiring, ambitious, and supportive. I need to be away from Madison. And I need to let myself saturate all this before plunging into whatever comes next.

So, on June 10th I fly into NYC, and plan on doing volunteer work there for the greater chunk of the summer.

I'm not sad to be going back to the US soon. I'm actually inspired. I'm inspired by everything I've seen here. By people I've met... In Hong Kong, at AXLDS, on my trips. Right now, I'm incredibly blown away by a few amazing leaders back in the US, who are stepping up in a huge way and steering the direction of an organization we've all invested so much into.

One more month of Hong Kong, and then it's time to step up...I'm ready for it.