Run it back
I’m back in Bangkok and I’m not sure if this is where I was always meant to end up, or if it just happened.
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I left two years ago with a strange sense of having become familiar with the city, after having stayed there for a few short weeks. When I read what I wrote back then, I remember that I wanted to stress that all the small things seemed to matter more than the main events on a trip, but I didn’t know if it made any sense, or if it was just me trying to find meaning in the small things.
Now, two years later, these small things have become the only ones I seem to be able to connect to. I don’t remember precisely which museums or temples I visited, or in which restaurant I had my best meal. But I can confidently say that sights, smells, sounds, things like the texture of the road, the pace people walk at, the way the temperature drops after the sunset or how busy all the night markets are at the peak of the evening… all of these things are exactly the way I remember them.
I guess that’s what you get by staying in a new place for long enough. You create some kind of sensory map that just sticks with you, as the proof that you actually created a connection with this place. I still can’t call Bangkok home and will probably be a stranger here forever, but being here today feels less like visiting, and more like casually checking up on something I left behind. It’s a strange feeling.
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The last time I returned to Bangkok, it marked the end of a chapter. It was the final stop of the first half of my journey before heading somewhere entirely new. My next destination, Taipei, was far enough from here to feel like I was going somewhere actually outside of southeast Asia.
This time, coming back here feels like closing a much larger loop - one that I started two years ago, though for reasons I’m not ready to share with you here and now. All I can tell you is that I’ll be visiting and seeing a few other familiar places, as well as discovering new ones.
Let’s just go shall we?
