In recent months, some kind of medium-term plan has emerged around my trip.
I didn’t plan it, life just brought it.
Then it changed. And that’s good.
The next year
I talked to several Hungarian friends about them possibly visiting me. I would rather have this be an excellent world view for them, within the framework of which we meet.
I have also been hiking with two of my friends for years. Separately, because they don’t know each other. These joint vacations fell into the category of the price paid for my new lifestyle.
One of them and I planned to meet in Singapore in mid-August so that this nice practice wouldn’t be interrupted.
Accordingly, I saw the following plan in front of me until the end of the year.
Two weeks in Singapore in August. It’s an – supposedly – expensive country, so I only planned the time together there. Since Malaysia is right next to it, it seemed logical that I would go there. From there, I planned to visit Cambodia. Then Thailand would follow. This route drew a visible route on the map until about the end of the year.
However, life intervened. The US-Iran war would affect the trip, so in the end we were left with the fact that it was now uncertain to carry out this trip from Hungary. We canceled the meeting.
All circumstances must be taken into account during such long-distance trips. My friend’s safety and the planability of the trip are more important than the selfish interest of meeting. So I had no bad feelings about this decision.
However, I immediately redrawn my plans as soon as we discussed this.
Vietnam
I have a visa in Vietnam until September 16th, so I will stay here and see more places.
Cambodia
However, at the end of my planned Vietnam itinerary, I will be very close to Cambodia, so I will go there from here.
A 30-day visa is available there, so I don’t plan on spending more time there for now. We’ll see. If it comes up, I will see what kind of extension options there are. According to current plans, I will be in this country until mid-October.
I met a Canadian friend on the island of Koh Samui. He left the island shortly after me and has been living in Cambodia ever since. When we last spoke, he told me that he bought a small boat, which he started converting into a houseboat. He wants to live on it.
So it is possible that I will live on a boat for a while in Cambodia. We will see about that too, when the time comes.
Thailand
I want to go back to Thailand from here.
I have three goals for myself.
I mentioned Björn Natthiko Lindeblad’s book “I Might Be Wrong” on my blog. In this book, the author mentioned a Buddhist forest temple where he spent a lot of time. If not 10, then maybe 5 days I would like to live in this temple. So if I go back to Thailand, this will probably be my first stop.
Friends I met on Koh Samui regularly say that they are waiting for me to come back. Last week, two of them asked when I would go again. I would also like to see the company again. So I think I will spend two weeks there. What a synchronicity that yesterday my friend who gave me accommodation for 3 months wrote to me that “you know that a room is always waiting here.” I really enjoyed reading this.
The island of Koh Pangan is a few kilometers from Koh Samui. I saw it every day walking on the beach. In the past few months, I have met many people and heard many stories about the atmosphere there. This has awakened in me the desire to spend some time there.
If I plan to spend, say, six weeks on these locations, I will see Thailand by the end of November. I will find out how I am doing with the visa and the exact plan will be formed later.
India
India is a magnet for me. It attracts.
I plan to live there for 4-5-6 months at the moment. Assuming that we will see.
It would be good to include Nepal in this.
So now I have an idea that covers several months, you could even call it a plan.
I feel like I don’t need plans for the long term now.
The next two months
I asked my Belarusian friend to recommend some places here in Vietnam that I should visit. The guy is really smart. He wrote me a 9-city itinerary.
I started working on this list yesterday afternoon. It was timely, because I left Ninh-Binh this morning. It was still good to know where I was going.
I showed the list to the AI. I asked him to skip his usual answer, not to tell me what feelings I might have there and how the given place was related to my trip. To strictly list the attractions in the 9 cities.
Looking at the list, I felt that I didn’t need to worry about the next two months. I just had to go through it.
Then I asked the AI to put the cities in order so that I could move in a straight line. It turned out that my friend had described the settlements in order. 1800 kilometers in a straight line. That’s what awaits me in the next two months.
Finally, I asked the AI to make a plan for how many days to spend in which city. The two parameters I gave it were today’s date with the first city and the expiration date of the visa.
I was not surprised by its answer. “If your goal is not to tick off as many places as possible, but to have time to work, rent a motorbike, write, make videos, and experience the places, then I think it’s worth choosing a more relaxed pace. I’ll give you the plan so that you have 6 days in reserve if you want to go somewhere else or stay somewhere longer.”
I didn’t have to add anything to this plan. So now the following cities are waiting for me:
- Phong Nha
- Huế
- Da Nang (+ from here trip to Hội Anba)
- Quy Nhơn
- Nha Trang
- Đà Lạt
- Mũi Né
- Vũng Tàu
- Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)
It sounds a plan.
Phong Nha
I am now 377 kilometers from Ninh-Binh. My sleeper bus left at ten in the morning.
I spent 8 hours miserable on this vehicle.
By the time I arrived, I had two thoughts.
One is that there are not many things in my life that I don’t like. But the sleeper bus is at the top of that list.
My other thought is that the sleeper bus is an invention of the devil and was created to remind people who have made peace with the world of suffering.
Next time, I will think about walking these 377 kilometers rather than atoning for my sins on such a vehicle.
My accommodation is luxurious, though. I have a bed in a six-bed dormitory. All alone, at least.
Now that’s good.
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