Stuck in the city of angels

I spent my final weeks as a traveller training in Muay Thai on the beautiful island of Koh Phangan, and indulging in the Full Moon and psychedelic jungle parties that the island is renowned for

The last Country on my list of places to visit became a whole new adventure. I essentially got seduced by visits to Teak wood houses, bare-foot/shoes off living and the amazing food at all hours that is Thailand.

As a tall Black woman, with a rapidly expanding afro I garner looks and curiosity everywhere I go and here is no exception. For me too, being in the presence of an overwhelmingly Asian population majority took some getting used to.

After two weeks of indulgent living, courtesy of a friend my last six months of backpacker hardships were too easily erased and I need to bring myself back to down to earth. I robotically headed down to Khao San road (well a more upmarket street in that vicinity) as all travellers do, to have a peak at this legendary backpacker haunt and managed to escape fairly lightly from dark thoughts that were heavily amplified by Garland’s ‘The Beach’ novel, and a bad mushroom trip.

Once multi-tasking capabilities, such as the eating with a fork and spoon technique whilst routinely checking my room for Geko lizards and snakes were perfected , I felt there was no reason why I couldn’t step up to the further challenge of making a job application, which proved to be easier than it sounds when your still in traveller mode. Believe me, once you have reached the depths of a complete loss of the English language (for me this began in South America and only got worse from there) and replaced it with grunts, smiles and attempts at the host language, applying for a job is a horrifyingly uphill struggle.

After the application I spent my final weeks as a traveller training in Muay Thai on the beautiful island of Koh Phangan, and indulging in the Full Moon and psychedelic jungle parties that the island is renowned for. The former provided me with strength and inner calm that the latter obviously couldn’t provide (no need for me to spell it out right?). But what the hell! – It’s all good.

So what have I learned from this experience?

• That it can be both freeing and lonely to travel, but that some of the best experiences you can have are when you decide to ‘go-it-alone’.
• The path of a writer is a difficult one to choose, but one that I feel far more confident in navigating after this experience.
• That my love affair with strong, alpha males and females seems to have no intention of ending any time soon. I’m still searching for the right one, but it’s a great journey.
• That it’s much easier to forge on and travel than it is to decide exactly where my old life is and where I should return to. Be it the North or South of England, at this present moment I have no clue and as such, am still marooned in South East Asia.
• That more that anything I dearly miss the simplicity of island living and hope to head back soon.

(cue Cass hobbling off into the sunset, supported by walking stick after dislocating left ankle…yes readers this actually happened…its true!)