When 🎒 becomes 💼…
It’s been 22 years since I was backpacking down the Khao San Road in Bangkok in my faded shorts, torn t-shirt and reefer sandals, without a mobile phone (not invented) and ducking into an Internet cafe every week or so to post a disposable camera back home and email a message that I was still alive…
Going back to Bangkok next week for the first time in two decades is going to be a culture shock, but not in the traditional sense…
I spent three months soaking up the people and the country and its secret corners in the mountains of Changs Mai & Rai – being nipped by a dog which the owner said may have Rabies and spending the next 10 days being treated for post exposure, writing an explanation note for my family in case I was found dead…or in the jungle trying to pull off a leech which had lodge itself between my toes, before it sucked all the blood out of my foot…and then being left with a deep but tiny hole, or being stranded on an small island, rock climbing out of the sea, crossing the Mekhong river to Laos, tasting amazing food, or learning to make green curry and sticky rice…
This was a culture I know and love, but the shock may be in what will have changed in the 22 years since.
I guess I’ll find out!
I’ll be there for very different reasons this time around. (But once a backpacker, always a backpacker.)
I’m heading to EARCOS – a conference for schools in East Asia. I’m genuinely excited to be spreading the word of the AMC brand to schools in this beautiful region and also looking forward to visiting some top schools in the country after the conference finishes.
