At exactly 18:00, I pulled myself off the mat in the lobby and headed to my bunk to crawl into my air conditioned bed. As soon as my wristband released the door lock with a beep, a gust of cool breeze reached my face. The air felt like ice after a hot burn. I was so happy to finally get to rest up from the few days of running my body down to zero. I climbed up the ladder to my bunk and just as my head hit the pillow a foreign voice called hello from behind the dr...

The bittersweet part of backpacking is saying goodbye to the people that you just shared a living space with twenty-four hours a day for X amount of days. I said goodbye to everyone at Lub D Hostel and waved down a cab outside. I would be switching districts today and staying in Old Bangkok in the Banglampoo District near Khao San Road. Once I got in the cab I asked for a taxi meter only and made sure I said the address in Thai so that he would think I knew wher...

I opened my eyes to the tall cement ceiling above me and realized I wasn't in my apartment- I was in Thailand. I sat up on my bunk and looked around to all the other sleeping bodies in bunks around me. After turning on my phone and it reading the screen: August 3rd, I was too excited to sleep any longer. I climbed down my bunk and headed downstairs for breakfast. I found Michael sitting at the bar so joined him and ordered a croissant and coffee. A few minutes ...

I rolled out of bed after only three hours of sleep. I was careful not to wake up David on the bunk below as I crawled down the ladder. I tried to fall into a deep sleep but struggled with all the time change it was 2pm PST back at home. I decided to go the market and buy some clothes since I had nothing to wear. I got directions from Pete and Attom at the front desk. They have been very sweet and helpful upon my check in. They told me it was just two rights to ...

I arrived to LAX ahead of schedule. It still hadn't truly hit me that I was going to Thailand until the shuttle driver asked what me what airline I was flying. In that moment, it sank in. I was traveling alone to Bangkok for two weeks.The driver pulled up to the curb, handed me my bag and wished me a safe trip. I walked into the airport and had to make a decision. I was several hours early for my flight just to be safe and was now starving. My flight didn't depar...