Lessons Learned in Southeast Asia (Part I)

It's been almost two months since I returned from Southeast Asia. Maybe this post should've come sooner as I've not only returned to Europe, but have also moved further west and am currently in the United States. In any case, an epic adventure such as six months in an exotic corner of our planet requires time to fully digest, and while I'm still processing it all, I've had the time to come to some conclusions and extrapolate items and lessons learned during my time in the tropics. Here are a select few of them, in no particular order.

A picture of a red car in Penang, Malaysia because, hey, why not?

I'm Not A Beach Person (But I Love Being Out At Sea)

One of the big draws of Southeast Asia are the thousands of miles of fabulous beaches. From Thailand's numerous “Koh's” to Indonesia's sea-front playgrounds and the thousands of islands that make up the Philippines, we were never really that far from a gorgeous plot of sand shoring up crystal blue waters (except in Laos; that country is the definition of land-locked). That being said, I could never bring myself to spend more than 30 minutes sitting on one.

It's an amazing beach in Moalboal, the Philippines, but just don't expect me
to hang out there for too long, unless I'm waiting to go diving, like when
I took this picture.

I felt this before I went on this trip. Every time I would go on vacation to the beach, I could never sit still. I would always either be playing in the sand or swimming in the water. This was confirmed with full effect during my time in Southeast Asia. Almost without question, every time Nathalie and I were presented with an opportunity to go sit on the beach or go exploring, we would choose the latter. Maybe it's a lack of patience, maybe it's a short attention span, but in either case, we never once took a day to sit on the beach doing nothing.

Don't get me wrong though, I still very much love the sea. On top of the stunning vistas made possible by the rising and setting of the sun on the water-bound horizon, I realized that I'm happily at peace when out at sea. As you've probably read (and should if you haven't), Nathalie and I spent a lot of our time scuba diving. This meant that when we weren't in the sea, we were on boats traversing it. My heart would always smile and my mood would always improve each time I'd get out in the water, with the wind and sun in my face, and cruise. While I haven't figured out what my future holds, I would be delighted if the sea is a part of it.

Free Time Is My Enemy (AKA: Staying Busy is Good For the Gringo)

On that note, I learned that free time is my enemy. Whenever I would have downtime lasting more than a few hours, I would get stressed. Maybe it's because I couldn't unwind, or maybe it's because I haven't figured out how to turn my mind off without feeling guilty about 'not being productive.' But whatever the case, I plain didn't like doing nothing. As long as I was busy, I was happy. Speaking of which...

I Love To Write

I reconnected with my fondness of writing. I alluded to this in the "about me" section: throughout my previous job, my writing was limited to the constraints of non-native business English (I swear to God, if I hear someone tell me “please be advised that yadi-yadi-yada” or that they will “explain me something” I'm going to lose it; and to my coworker, you know I went over this). This meant that I had to limit my sentences in both length and vocabulary. I was forced to lean on simplish bullet points instead of eloquent paragraphs to express either a situation or my thoughts. However meritorious and beneficial this style of writing is to the day-to-day business world of international banking, it certainly made me feel constrained in one of my natural abilities.

This blog, however, has not only re-ignited my affinity to write, but it has also greatly improved both my expressive capability and perspicacity. It was also sort of a God-send as it gave me an activity to do in the aforementioned free-time. I'm hoping and indeed aiming for a greater use of my writing skills in my next job (feel free to drop me a line if you know of anyone looking for a writer).

Lessons In Different Health Care Systems

The definition of our trip was redefined not even 72 hours in by an unfortunate dental emergency. As many of you read, three days into our first stay in Bangkok, I had one of my teeth try to eject itself from my mouth. The resulting analysis, by a Thai Periodontist who had studied extensively in the United States, was that not only would I need to have a root canal but also a double crown on two of my molars. During my ordeal, which took nearly six weeks to complete, I not only learned about the Thai healthcare system, but also about the shortcomings of the Belgian one (at least in terms of oral care) and how the two stacked up against the American one I grew up with.

These are my crowns.  There are many like them, but these ones are mine.

health care in my native United States has been a hot button issue for years. Having spent the majority of my adult life in Belgium which, in comparison, has 'universal' health care, I've been able to draw first-hand experience to compare the two. I'm not going to wade deeply into how the systems stack up against each other, however, I will say this: where the American one needs to continue to close the gaps that force patients to choose between life-saving treatments and bankruptcy, the Belgian system should do more to allow a greater variation in reimbursable materials that are available at the dentists' disposal.

Long story short, the root cause of my dental crises was the usage of filling material meant for front teeth being used on my molars. This meant that it would a) breakdown quicker due to the heavy use molars get during eating and b) left microscopic gaps for bacteria to leak into the roots. I'll probably expand on this topic in greater detail (here's a spoiler, I'm going to need yet another crown thanks to this shortcoming), but it was eye-opening to have a first hand experience in different systems. This will only help me to make a throughout and constructive critique of the different ways we manage our health.

Doing It The Cheap Way Isn't Always The Best Way

During this year off from work, Nathalie and I were on a budget. We had our 11 kg/25 lbs backpacks and that was it. Unlike most backpackers, however, we had a decent chunk of savings set aside for this trip. Before we left on our trip we researched the various ways to travel. The Lonely Planet was our bible (although looking back on it, that was a bit of a waste for our proposes), and travel forums our best friends. We were flooded with articles about how easy and cheap it was to get around Southeast Asia. However, not three weeks into our trip we learned a valuable lesson: the cheapest way isn't always the best way.

8 hours of this is definitely no bueno

Where young backpackers and perma-hippies are short on cash and hard-nosed about getting from A to B by the absolute cheapest means possible, for us, at least, it wasn't always the best. Our first major excursion out of Bangkok was to Koh Lanta. We decided to live up to the backpacker spirit and take an overnight bus from the capital to the southern port town of Krabi. Hey, it was only 10 bucks to go 600 miles/1000 km and we were on a VIP Bus with “luxury seating.” What could be so bad about that? As it turns out, everything. I slept a grand total of 45 minutes, the person behind me was a well-oiled fart machine and the “luxury seating” was literally a pain in my ass. It took us 24 hours to get from Bangkok to Koh Lanta. Between the bus, the 5 mile/8 km walk (pro-tip: never trust anyone backpacking without a data connection to give you directions), and the three hour ferry ride, we spent around 45 EUR/50 USD to get to where we were going. For a mere 10 EUR more, we could've taken an hour-long flight and reduced our journey time by 18 hours!

Armed with this powerful lesson, Nathalie and I adapted our travel research methods to make sure that not only was our mode of transport cost effective but time effective too. It wasn't worth the pain, discomfort and marital bickering to make life superfluously difficult on ourselves. We set a rule that if we had to choose between more than four hours on a bus and paying a bit more for a flight, we would take the plane. On that note:

I Think I Have Flying Down To An Art

As of the time of this writing, Nathalie and I have flown somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 flights so far this year (here's a fun fact: I'm writing this while on a flight from Nashville to San Francisco). I'm not exactly a stranger to being on an airplane, but getting on one every 10 days certainly teaches you the finer details about how to travel the skies. From check-ins, to choosing seats, to boarding the plane, to even moving around mid-flight, I have it down to an art . Expect a “travel pro-tip” article on this in the near future.

I'm sure more lessons and observations will follow as time goes on. As they pile up, I'll continue to jot them down and post them here. Thanks for taking the time for reading. If you've had similar experiences, please feel free to share below!