Jet-setter Jones

I leave Thailand for Cambodia on Monday. I would rather move Christmas.

If it wasn’t for the fact I have a date with my beautiful friend for the festive season and beyond, I would be firmly set on staying in Thailand. I have fallen in love with this vibrant country and it’s people.

I feel like I have just found my feet and now I have to leave. And there’s so much I still have to see and do!

I need to make it to the Similan Islands. I want to walk on the secluded, off the beaten track beaches of the super far south Koh Lipe and Koh Mook. I have to camp in the Ang Thong Marine Park when the weather’s not so stormy. I need to swim with the phosphorescent plankton off of the shores of Koh Lanta or Phi Phi. I should probably tackle my fear of the sea and learn to scuba dive from Koh Tao.

I would spend a week in Khao Sok trekking the vast national park to get to tumbling waterfalls when I don’t have a broken toe. I want to go tomb raiding in the ruins of Lopburi with nothing but my camera and the vast population of monkeys for company.

I need to find a buddy with a moped and bike the Mae Hong loop (any takers?).

I will come back to Koh Phangan and walk the golden sandbar that connects Haad Mae to Koh Ma, spend a week doing yoga at Ashtanga and maybe revisit the full moon party just to see how much its changed in the past ten years.

A ten day silent retreat with Buddhist monks in Chiang Mai has made it onto my bucket list and hiring a studio for a week in Krabi to paint. I miss the smell of oil paint and the dry yet sticky feeling of my hands when I’ve been lost in a piece for too long.

I am getting a photograph of me, on a swing, over the beautiful, clear Andaman sea.

I think I could spend years in Thailand. Slowly travelling it’s vastly different regions from the mountains of the north, the ruins of the centre and the islands of the south; each so individual from the next.

One of my Krabi crew told me it is never goodbye, only see you later. And so, Thailand, this is not goodbye. Instead, only see you later.