Last Blog Entry....maybe

Well, I've been meaning to sit down for awhile now and write one long "what does it all mean" entry to sum up the whole trip. Think I'll break it up into bite size pieces to make it easier on all of us. So here we go...

• Thailand Overall: Thailand is awesome and I will go back in a heartbeat if/when given the chance. You all should too. The culture is great, the people are super-friendly, the food is great, its cheap, the massages are universally awesome, many parts of the country are beautiful, English is widely spoken. What else do you need?

• Return to Normal: After 5 weeks, it was great to get home. Missed Katie (and Mocha and Zipper...) a bunch. And on my first night back, remembered how totally wonderful it is to sleep in my own bed. That said, I probably experienced more culture shock coming home than going to Thailand in the first place. The shock was just how quickly I was plopped in the middle of "normal" after having such a long adventure. On my first day back, there I was having breakfast with Katie, mowing the lawn, paying the bills, etc. It wasn't boring or anything thing bad, it was just so...normal! Like the 5 weeks I was gone was a dream and then I woke up and it was just the next day of my normal life. Hard to explain...

• Work Thoughts: The time off (if a trip with 10 dental visits and 3 hospital visits can be considered time off...) was just what I needed. I was really burnt out before I left and I had some fear (hope?) that the time off and the space would bring into clarity that it was time to make a move and force me to take the hard steps needed to do that. But the opposite occurred: the break let me forget about all the stupid little things that were bugging me and I re-entered work fairly easily and the afterglow of the trip seemed to stick fairly well. I expected to spend a good amount of time while in Thailand "soul searching" about what to do with my career, but in actuality I barely thought about it at all. And that was just what I needed. Not sure what my future career path will be, but for now I am in a much better place to be where I'm at and make the most of it.

• Thailand Work Thoughts: That said...I am certainly interested to see if any opportunities pop up with South East Asia Energy Efficiency group that I met with. Sounds like they will be looking for a "lighting expert" sometime in mid-2008. Its possible that expert could be me and if they want me, I will seriously consider it. At this point it is very unclear what that might mean. The job would probably be short term and possibly part-time and probably would involve lots of travel to Thailand, Vietnam, Loas, Indonesia, China, and India but probably would not require me to move to SE Asia. So, we will see what comes of that, if anything...

• Medical and Dental: Overall my dental and medical care was incredible. I would have no reservations doing something like this again if I need to and I'd have no problems recommending it to others. It was cheap, professional and easy. I'm sure you can get bad medical treatment anywhere, but that wasn't my experience. The remote-planning process is probably the hardest part as I certainly learned with my "complicated" dental situation. But aside from that, awesome. In many ways both the dental and medical stuff seemed more professional or at least more "patient focused" than anything I've experienced in the US. Nothing ever felt rushed. All my doctors/dentists seemed to have plenty of time for me and were happy to answer all my questions. They had plenty of medical assistants always. Much more than the US; I guess cheaper labor has advantages. Coming home and watching Sicko only added an exclamation point to what I had just experienced first hand.
  

• Thai Food: While I was happy to have "American Breakfast," I never got sick of Thai food. Even after getting sick. Twice...Most of the places I ate at had many other non-Thai options (Italian, American (i.e. hamburgers...), Japanese, even Mexican...) but I rarely ever ate anything but Thai food because it was so good and so cheap.
• Things that I really liked: street vendors selling grilled chicken and yummy little sausage things, vendors selling fresh squeezed orange juice for less than $1 a bottle.
• Things that surprised me: that fried chicken and fried rice seem to be a stapled in Thai food. You never see them in Thai restaurants here.
  
• Grossest thing I ate (aside from whatever made me horribly ill...): I ordered some fried chicken from a street vendor that was really good, was extra juicy and fatty. When about half way done, I realized it wasn't eating a chicken thigh, but was eating a whole bird of some type. Much smaller than a chicken. But what was it? Pigeon? I didn't eat another bite.
  
• What "American Food" I craved the most but couldn't get: Fat Tire beer.
• What Thai food I miss the most now: Tom Kai Gai soup.
  

Anyway, I think that's it. I really enjoyed writing the blog and getting all the feedback, comments and emails from y'all! It really made it feel like I wasn't alone and I think really played a big part in keeping me from getting lonely on my 5 weeks alone. So thanks! I had so much fun writing the blog that I'd totally like to keep doing it, but something tells me that the stories about my adventures around the office and the house just wouldn't be quite as compelling. If I come up with a great idea for a new blog I'll let you know. (How about "Laos Lighting Lab"?...). Until then, it's been a lot of fun sharing this with you....

-Erik