Surprises in Thailand: Reunions, Lanterns and a Trip to the ER

I was thinking back to the first time I landed in Thailand in 2021 and how it felt like I’d been teleported to a different dimension. Everything felt so foreign, different, and a bit overwhelming. This time, my third visit, it was like coming home. I knew how to use the metro in Bangkok after my flight. I could speak in Thai with the sweet woman checking me into my hostel. I knew the streets, I knew my favorite restaurants; the sounds and smells almost felt nostalgic. Thailand stole a huge piece of my heart and it feels like a pilgrimage to keep coming back here. 

The main reason for my visit to Thailand is to get my medical exam for my New Zealand working holiday visa application. It’s $700 less to get this exam done in Bangkok vs Minneapolis, plus I was already in Nepal, Thailand is just a skip over. I booked the medical appointment right after my arrival and was able to apply for my visa right away, but this process could take weeks. Because Thailand is so familiar to me, I planned to lay low, save as much as I can and get some work done. But the travel bug is strong and there are some places in Thailand I haven’t been to yet, so of course I had to check them out. 

I only spent 2 nights in Bangkok at my favorite hostel, The Yard ,then I got on a $20 (1.5 hour) flight to Krabi, southern Thailand. I stayed in Ao Nang, a touristy but beautiful beach village, for just a night. My mission was to go to Railay beach - which is only accessible by boat. 

The best way I’ve heard Thailand described is “the land of convenience”. I’ve also gotten to the point of traveling where I know that outside of the US and Europe you can truly fly by the seat of your pants. I book hostels the day of. I knew that I needed to take a boat to Railay, but there was no need to book it in advance. I had a slow morning, a $4 breakfast, got some work done, packed up my backpack and headed for the beach. Wooden long tail boats lined the Ao Nang beach. I asked “Tao Rai (how much) to Railay?” Negotiated the price and minutes later I walked through the shallow water to the small wooden boat that took me 20 minutes down the coast to Railay beach. As we approached the sea was engulfed by giant limestone cliffs, my neck hurt by trying to find the top of them. 

I got to Railay beach and walked through a trial of monkeys that lead to the only hostel in this area. I checked in, they brought me up to my bungalow that was filled with bunk beds and I made myself at home. At this point I wasn’t sure how long I’d stay here but I already knew there was a lot to explore. It rained quite a bit while I was on Railay but I used the afternoon rain as an excuse to get some work done, this was great. I also had to get some of Chiang Mai’s street food.

I was really alone, in my full solo traveler mode and loved it. I brought myself to the beach collected sea shells and even found a hidden cove. I was a mermaid. I bought a fresh coconut to drink and had lunch at a small family owned restaurant. 

Railay beach is known for its world class rock climbing. I couldn’t pass this up. I booked a half day climb with a local guide and was randomly paired with with a sweet girl from Argentina who has been living in New Zealand and will return again around the same time I’ll be back! We made plans to go climbing together when we’re both back in New Zealand. 

I’ve only rock climbed a handful of times but always get such a trill out of it. It’s not easy, and there’s a lot of trust involved. Our instructor brought me on some of the hardest routes I’ve ever been on. He was a good coach, very direct and guided me up the rock face in his stern Thai way. I pushed myself to the point where I actually fell, I missed my grip and completely slipped off the rock, the rope caught me and I’m just dangling there like a puppet. Does anyone else laugh when they’re terrified? I found myself just giggling as I hung off the rock face, then I decided I might as well take in the view and I look behind me to see crystal clear blue water, palm trees, wooden long tail boats and the stunning limestone cliffs. 

I was in need for some girl time and the universe put the sweetest and most fun girls in my hostel dorm, Olive and Caitlyn from the UK. I honestly forgot it was Halloween, I’m back into that state where I don’t really know what day or even what month it is. Our hostel put on a Halloween party and we said why not, let’s see what costumes we can throw together from whatever we have in our backpacks. We were pirates and honestly I think we pulled it off pretty well. This was the night that I met Peter from Australia, the snake enthusiast. More on him in a bit. 

I’ve written about this before and I try to be really open about this side of myself because I know I’m not alone in carrying massive grief through my life. It’s gotten better with time but there are moments where it hits me like a damn wall. It was reaching midnight on Halloween, after many shenanigans. Something flipped in me all the sudden where I missed my dad more than I could handle. Maybe it was because I knew he’d love to be where I am right now, with such an interesting crowd, making the most of the night. I tried to ignore this feeling, stuff it in the back of my mind but when it reached midnight I decided to call it a night. Peter asked if I wanted to go look for bioluminescence in the sea because they should be visible at this time. A part of me, behind all of this heaviness, wanted to go, that’s something I would never turn down, but I couldn’t get myself to do it. This is when I knew I needed a good think, alone. I wasn’t myself. I left the group and headed up to my room. 

I sat on the little balcony that overlooks the island, listened to the sounds of the jungle and noticed that the moon is a crescent, but the section that was illuminated was at the bottom of the moon, a 90 degree difference from how we see it in the northern hemisphere. I was curled up in a little ball, not ready for sleep, just staring at the crescent and wondering why it looks this way. I was trying to remember what my dad taught me about the angle of the moon and the way the light from the sun hits it, how different areas of the world cast different shadows depending on your perspective. I was deep in thought. Suddenly I hear someone say “are you okay?” At first I ignored it but then I realized they were talking to me. I look over and there is this random guy sitting on the balcony next to mine, also looking at the moon. I told him I was okay, just looking at the sky. He said “why do you think the moon looks like that”, it was like he read my mind. We didn’t even introduce ourselves, but this guy must be as much of a space nerd as I was raised to be. We had a long conversation about the galaxy, orbits, how planets rotate on different tilts, perspective, the science behind it all. In this conversation I felt a glimmer of my dad. He always finds me when I need him the most. After a pause in our chat I decided it was time for bed, feeling a bit better. I meet so many “side” characters traveling. Most of the time they stay side characters, a quick connection with a stranger I will probably forget the major details of over time, but significant nonetheless less. I’ll remember how they made me feel and how they popped up when I needed them the most. But from time to time these characters become friends; and that’s what happened with the next role in my book. 

Peter, the Australian bioluminescence guy and I realized that we’re both heading to the same exact accommodation in Ao Nang, a longtail boat ride away from Railay beach. We decided we’ll take the boat together and had some time to kill before the next departure so we went kayaking for a bit. Peter had done this before and showed me an incredible route through a limestone cave. We talked about animals mostly. Scuba diving stories. Bulls in India. Encounters with monkeys. Snakes in Indonesia. Crocs in Australia. Sharks in New Zealand. We could go back and forth with stories forever probably, Peter is well traveled. I never even asked him what he does for a living or what his life is like in Australia. 

We got on the long tail boat which became quite the adventure. I wish I took photos but I was terrified to drop my phone in the sea. The Thai people that own this wooden boat taxi service don’t care if it’s raining or where the tide is. They’ll run as long as there’s daylight. In the rain we walked waist deep into the water, climbed into the longtail boat and cruised past the limestone cliffs to Ao Nang. The boat stopped about 30 feet away from a steep concrete ledge that leads up to a road. Not a beach. The driver gestured for us to get out. The water was stagnant, brown and deep. I knew this was going to be a mission. In my bikini, I carried my backpack (which had my iPad, camera, important documents etc) in it above my head. The water was almost chest high. The bottom of this suspicious water was complete muck that went up to my knees. I managed to get myself to the concrete slope and went back to grab other’s bags while being attacked by mosquitos. There was one very suspicious bite that I’ll get back to in a bit. 

Peter and I got a Tuktuk to our bungalows in Ao Nang. Peter is really into finding different critters when he travels. He’ll look up a biologist in the area and ask if they can take him on a night trek to look for snakes, lizards, and in this case: scorpions. I asked Peter to come to my bungalow to tell me what he saw when he returned back from this expedition in the jungle. When Peter came back we sat on my porch and he showed me pictures of the scorpions, snakes and lizards he found. Suddenly that conversation turned into stories after stories. We didn’t leave that porch for almost 9 HOURS. I’m not kidding. Why is it that some strangers are so easy to talk to? We talked until the sun came up and we were no longer strangers. I got to learn that Peter travels the world as an acrobat for Cirquee du Solei and is a professional stunt double. He’s been in Thor, Planet of the Apes and will be in the new Street fighter movie that comes out next year. He’s friends with famous actors, directors and doctors. He lived in Vegas for years and now he’s all over the world. It’s funny how you could spend a whole day with someone and never know something like this about them. Peter is a humble guy though and his love for gymnastics and nature is pretty cool. Surprisingly, even with our very different careers, we have an unbelievable amount of similarities and coincidences in our lives. The sun could’ve waited 9 more hours to rise and I think we would’ve kept sharing stories. What a cool character. What a cool new friend. Peter flew to Australia that morning and I slept until the sun was about to set, so I ran to the beach to get one last glimpse of daylight and shared this view with some monkey friends.

My next destination in Thailand was Chiang Mai, in the north. Without planning it, just like when I went to Nepal and India, I happened to be in Thailand for their festival of light too. Both the Loy Krathong and Yi Peng festivals were happening in Chiang Mai and I couldn’t miss it. I’ve always dreamed of seeing the thousands of lanterns released during this festival.

Loy Krathong and Yi Peng are two different but connected festivals of light in Thailand, and they usually happen around the same time. Loy Krathong is the water festival. People craft small boats called krathongs from banana leaves, decorate them with candles, incense and flowers, then release them into rivers and lakes as a symbolic way of letting go of bad luck, past worries and anything they want to leave behind. Yi Peng is the sky festival that is celebrated mostly in northern Thailand, especially Chiang Mai. Instead of floating offerings on water, people light paper lanterns and release them into the night sky, sending up wishes for good fortune. The sky fills with thousands of warm glowing lanterns while the water below shimmers with floating krathongs, a sight to see. 

I went to the festival with my friend Lauren, from Germany, who I met in Thailand two years ago! We both happened to be back at the same time and decided we’d celebrate together. So cool. The opening ceremony starting with a boxing match, of course, then we were given beautiful Loy Krathong to place into the river. You’re supposed to put a part of your body like a nail clipping or some hair into the Krathong before you place it into the water, this is so that the blessings go straight to you. 

When we got the lanterns, I didn’t expect them to be this giant. It takes about 5 minutes for the lanterns to be filled with enough hot air before they begin to rise on their own into the sky. I let go of three lanterns and made a wish on each one then I watched it join thousands of other wishes until I couldn’t see the light anymore. The monks were chanting Buddhist mantras over the temple speakers and I kept having this magical feeling of “how in the world did I end up here, right now”. 

I didn’t know it at the time, but the lantern festival would be my peak in Thailand. A steep downward slope was ahead. That evening we got back to the hostel and I felt like I was getting a fever. Hot and cold all night. I kept hoping I would wake up and magically feel healthy because in two days I had scheduled a trip to go to Laos on a “slow boat”. I woke up in the morning and couldn’t open my eyes. There was so much pain behind my eyes, my fever was high and I had a rash all over my body. I put the clues together and realized that these were symptoms of Dengue fever. Shit. I called my travel insurance company and they told me to go directly to the ER.

I had a weird mosquito bite on my arm from the wooden boat ride from Railay beach but I just thought it was a bad bite. Mosquitos have a one-way and very clingy relationship to me no matter where I am in the world. Believe it or not but the hospitals in Thailand are 100x more clean, efficient, and kind than any hospital I’ve been to in the US. I told the sweet nurse my symptoms, they did a blood test… lo and behold it came back positive for Dengue. 

I learned that Dengue fever is a mosquito borne viral illness that is rare but present in many tropical and subtropical regions, including Southeast Asia. It is spread through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito, the same ones that tend to bite during the day. There is no specific cure for dengue, and most cases are mild but can become severe. The doctor said I’ll probably feel pretty bad for a couple of weeks, I’ll need to rest a lot and make sure I’m hydrated. This is one of those things where you never imagine it would happen to you until it does. 

I canceled my trip to Laos and booked myself a room in the cheapest guesthouse I could find. I ended up spending a whole week at this little place tucked away in the outskirts of Chiang Mai. It was $12 a night and included breakfast in the morning. The owners didn’t speak a lick of English but with my small Thai vocabulary and google translate I explained to them that I have a virus. They were so sweet and took good care of me. 

I spent the next week mostly sleeping. Dengue is such a weird virus, like nothing I had before, because I would randomly get spikes of energy and think I’m healed, go out to do something like get some food or go for a walk, and within 20 minutes I’d be unable to keep my eyes open. This was definitely a low point in my travels. I didn’t even have enough energy to read my book let alone work on my business or make plans for what I’ll do after I get over this virus (at one point I had enough energy to stream a Vikings game and it made me feel worse). All l I could do was make the best out of the situation. When I felt good I’d go and chat with some of the guests. I ordered food in when I had an appetite. I was lonely, not just alone, for the first time in a long time. I wanted to go home and be with my mom. I think no matter what age we are; when you’re sick you want your mom. It’s human nature. 

I was bummed out because there was so much more I wanted to do, like take a boat to Laos, do the motorcycle loop to Mae Hong, and most importantly: visit my friends in the village I used to teach in. They’re like family to me and it broke my heart that I wouldn’t be able to see them, especially when I have no idea when I’ll be back in Thailand again. Dengue fever was out of my control. What can ya do? It’s tough to accept these things sometimes. I guess this is a part of traveling long term. But what happened next made me think that there’s gotta be a God. 

So one of my best friends from Si Satchanali, the village I taught English in back in 2021, is Mok. Mok was one of the few people that spoke English where I lived and we would hang out with our other friend nicknamed “apple”. These two saved my sanity while I lived in Thailand. They were actually my only friends besides my coworkers. We’d go on late night adventures to find spicy noodles and sing Taylor swift in Mok’s car. I got to know Mok’s parents pretty well and they would invite me over for dinner weekly, always giving me a bag of rose apples from their tree (my favorite). I messaged Mok and Apple when I first found out about the Dengue to let them know that I won’t be able to make it down to Si Satchanali on this Thailand visit. This crushed me. 

3 days before my flight to New Zealand I began to feel better. Slowly. I moved out of the guesthouse in Chiang Mai and into a hostel for some social interaction. My extroverted self was suffering. I’m tapping through instagram stories and I see that Mok posted a picture of him in Chiang Mai?! I call him, ask if he’s in Chaing Mai and he says yes! He spontaneously came to visit some friends that he hasn’t seen in almost 6 years. He thought I had already left for NZ days before. He didn’t even know I was in Chiang Mai to begin with. What a special coincidence. He instantly came to me, picked me up and we did what we always do: find the spiciest noodle spot. 

Mok and I have one of those friendships where no matter how much time passes whenever we see each other we pick up right where we left off. We laughed a lot and caught up, soon Mok will be an English teacher in Sukhothai and he asked me 100 times when I’m getting married so he can have an invite to Minnesota. This was the most unexpected surprise. I got to see a bit of Si Satchanali before I left Thailand and it filled my heart completely. 

I had one night in Bangkok before my flight to New Zealand. I needed to make the best of it, especially because I felt so much better post-dengue. This Thailand trip ended up being the trip of meeting up with old friends: Lauren from the last time I was in Thailand, Niall because he lives here, Mok, and Nina! I met Nina over two years ago when I first started backpacking in Madrid. Nina is half Thai, half Scottish and lives in Bangkok. We met up for a drink at a local spot that plays live music. It was so fun to catch up and hear all about her travels after I saw her in Madrid. Nina traveled for a whole year total and made it literally around the entire world. 

Nina had to work early in the morning so she took off and I decided I’d stay for a bit on my own. This was my Anthony Bourdain moment. An old Thai band playing classic Thai songs from the 70s and 80s, a beer, and being the only white and English speaking person in the place. I clapped along and clinked glasses with the locals. The band played ‘Country Roads’ just for me, we all stood up and sang, spun each other around and I couldn’t think of a better way to wrap up Thailand.  

Now as I write this I’m on a plane to Auckland. My visa was accepted! I’m excited but my nerves are a bit high. There’s some kind of lesson in the works right now because all of my plans for New Zealand have fallen through, completely out of my control. First of all, I had a job secured at a coffee shop in Raglan, the sweet surf town I lived in last year, but the coffee shop had to close down right before high season. I also had a shared house secured with some friends, but with a change in plans two of my friends had to drop out of the lease, meaning we lost the house. Not having a place to stay or a job right when high season is coming in New Zealand feels like a recipe for disaster. I’ve been warned about this. This isn’t like south east Asia where I can find a place to stay, last minute, for $8 a night. Plus, I managed to lose BOTH of my debit cards in an ATM in Bangkok right before my flight. I’m having a stroke of bad luck. Also, I lost my power bank and all of my charging cords. Whoever put a curse on me needs to back off. So I’m going to arrive to New Zealand cashless, homeless, and jobless with some lingering dengue. The only way I can look at this without spiraling is as another adventure. It’s funny how you can make plans and then they all fall apart, even if it’s not your own doing. I’m excited to let you know how I settle in and handle this next “adventure”. I’ll be okay and make the best of it. A lot of good people are always looking out for me. I need to remember that. I’m frequently told by loved ones, acquaintances and even strangers at home that they’re praying for me. I honestly think I can feel when this happens. I’m really not “solo” Han, I’m a collection of all of your support and love from across the world. You’re like my suit of armor or my compass. Remembering this as I enter the unknown.