Two days ago, I was in Thailand. I'd boarded a plane on Jan. 14 to attend a media tour being held by Thailand's Ministry of Investment. It was a surreal experience and I think having gone changed my outlook for the better.
I'd been to Asia once before -- in June 2011 -- for a similar trip. I flew to Tawain amid a thunderstorm in the States only to get to Taiwan in time to greet a typhoon. I didn't speak the language nor did I understand the writing well enough to know what I could have eaten. I lost 5 pounds in 5 days due to my Baked Lays and water diet (the only packaging I could recognize).
I was curious to go to Thailand once I'd received the invitation. I knew this country as both the land of Buddha and the country that will throw your ass in prison should you hold anything that even looks like a drug. I was equal parts mystified and petrified.
I was flying to Thailand by myself and meeting a group of journalists there. I didn't know who they were, where they were from or if they'd be anything like me. I also didn't know the language or much else about the culture. Two days before I was due to leave, a suspected terrorist had been arrested because of a plot to bomb touristy places like those I was visiting. Needless to say, I was ready to come home before I'd already left.
Getting to my final destination wasn't as much of a problem as I'd worried about and I soon met 11 other media folk like me that were to be my trip mates for the next 5 days.
We stayed in gorgeous hotel rooms and ate wonderful food -- correction -- other people ate wonderful food. My delicate stomach could barely handle the paypaya 'slaw' so I was on the rice and chicken diet for most of the trip.
My trip mates also enjoyed a lot of Thailand's exotic night life. I went out a few times to be a team player, but usually came back to the hotel earlier (than most of the group's 1 a.m.) and drank water (instead of beer). Needless to say I was the opposite of Hangover 2.
At the midway point in the trip, I was sitting on my hotel bed, scratching the 100 ginormous mosquito bites I'd gotten, reading my book about Finding Your Own North Star. I was at a point where I was should have been identifying emotional blockages and bad feelings I could get past, yet all I could come up with was peace and contentment.
I sat there in a bit of an awe-struck state. Wasn't it me who -- not too long ago -- was struggling with figuring out who I was? Wasn't it me who felt lonely in my own home? Didn't I just spend the latter half of 2011 stuck in a pity rut because I'd felt like I'd become a shell of my former self? Here I was covered in mosquito bites, scratching myself into oblivion in a city where I could have been out partying it up with people who I could have tried to turn into my new BFFs and I was in my room, peacefully contemplating how far I'd come in such a short time.
At the risk of sounding like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, I want to end this post by saying the trip was soothing for my soul. Even when my computer fried on Day 1 of the trip, my body looked like that of a leper and I was sick as dog from Thai food, I've tried to practice each day the mantra: peace lies within. It's funny but in the two days I've been back, I've noticed how much calmer I feel inside and out.
I'm sure there will be plenty of things that may try to throw me off of this Buddhist wisdom but for now, I'm just going to sit, reflect and Om.


