My first hotel breakfast here took me right back to the hotel I was staying at in 2017. It’s so odd to be transported right back to another time…

It’s been a week now. At the moment I’m sitting by the pool at the hotel. The feelings are just as they were in 2017, when I was in Thailand the last time. It’s humid and the sights and sounds are the same.

I haven’t taken the time to update my blog post while here so I thought I’d change that now. It’s been an eye-opening experience in a lot of ways. Experiencing the everyday life of the people here has taught me a lot about the Thai mentality, and about myself. To see how society works has been fascinating. And when you realise that tourism provides a lot of work, I can’t imagine how damaging the pandemic must have been. The main shopping mall in Patong is still not open, for example. And a lot of things are so cheap here, and so tasty! I ordered a Thai pancake (roti) with mango and Nutella a few days ago at a market, and it cost me 50 baht. That’s basically 15 Swedish kronor, or €1,50. I gave the woman who made it double that – and that is still cheap!

Visiting Phi Phi Island the other day was a great experience. It was a day trip that I booked through my hotel. I was picked up early in the morning, after breakfast, and the shuttle made a few more hotel stops along the before we left for the experience centre. When we got there we met our guide, nicknamed “Tom Cruise”; he was a comedian and knew how to make us laugh through out the day. I was trying to figure out where the nickname came from, if it was because he worked with cruise trips or if he looked like him … I never got around to asking him about it. We saw the sights, experienced the heavenly beaches and swam with colourful fishes. The coolest one I saw was black, yellow and white. It made me think of the NHL hockey team, Pittsburgh Penguins. “Tom Cruise” made us all laugh when we arrived at Monkey Island and he said, “Okay every monkey, we are here. Sorry, I mean everybody!”

I even got to play drums on stage with a band at a club a few days back. That was super fun. I’ve now played drums in three continents; I can go to heaven content now.

The Thai mentality isn’t like any other culture I’ve experienced. Through the years I’ve travelled a lot and been blessed enough to experience a lot of different countries and cultures, and the culture here is lighter than a lot of other places. 

Maybe this is why a lot of Europeans come here. The Thai don’t seem to be that bothered in general, about anything. They do their thing, go to work, laugh and don’t seem to worry about stuff. The tour guide I mentioned above is just one example. And Thai friends I have since before have been a little bit like that too: nothing is that serious and nothing is bad enough to worry about for too long. There is something to laugh at all the time, and I’m wired like this too. If you’ve seen what I post on Instagram – and the way I write here – you’ve probably realised this. We all need to laugh more and be a little lighter. After all, life isn’t that serious. Let’s laugh everyday, live more and give more. 

Song of the day: Maroon 5 – This Love