Hi guys, sorry for the long hiatus, I'm sure you understand though. Things have been... well, weird lately. My life just gets so surreal sometimes, while other times reality hits me like a brick in the face.
I would have been back sooner, if I hadn't been traveling through Thailand for several weeks. Just that sentence alone is so strange to say for me. If things had made a turn for the better for Christophe (something I always counted on), I would probably have never gone to Thailand in my life. I usually steer away from anything remotely touristy, but my sister invited me and after all that has happened, I needed to get away for a while. Not that anything like that is even remotely possible. You flee to the other end of the world to escape the thought of hospitals and doctors and you end up in a place where people wear face masks (something I'm a little too familiar with) on the street and where the first person to really start a conversation with you while you're laying at a pool is of course, a doctor. Life's like that, I guess.
So yeah, Thailand... Thailand is strange, man. I guess I'm spoilt in the way that i believe that when someone comes to Belgium and asks anyone anything in English, you will most likely get a response in English that you can at least understand. It may not be perfect, but you'll have at least an idea of what they're saying. In Thailand, we stayed at hotels where the employees barely spoke English at all, and in touristy looking restaurants near Bangkok train station where they didn't understand the word 'bill'. We were thrown off buses in the middle of a journey and the only explanation we got was 'get off now' (and no we didn't do anything). But on the other hand, there is beautiful nature (although often crowded), lots of culture, and some of the hostel owners treated us like we were old friends. It's all extremes.
For me, the best part was when I found myself sitting in the neck of an elephant, riding through the woods, bading through rivers, to suddenly arrive at this plain where I could see the elephants before me walking in a perfect S-shape, with tall trees and mountains in the mist behind them. It was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen and I felt extremely lucky at that moment (another 'coincidence': my elephant's name was Lucky - all the other elephants had thai names) and at the same time so sad that Christophe couldn't be there to see and experience the same thing. Not that he would have ever sat on an elephant, I couldn't even get him on a horse. :)
So, good and bad. And the good is bad, and the bad is good. I'm not making any sense to you, am I? Well I can understand that. Lets just say: life is weird, people are weirder (I'm probably one of the weirdest) and there's no such thing as a coincidence.
PS: Oh yeah this was at sunrise at Koh Samui. I tried swimming there... Nearly drowned. :p
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