Asian In Asia: 54 and 55

How is it already May?

I think I might end up starting every Asian In Asia wondering how time is moving so fast. But whenever I honestly think about how to recap the things that have been going on, I end up flabbergasted.

Over the past two months, I have turned 27, solo traveled to two different countries, put a deposit on a house in the city, and met up with three of my favorite bloggers.

And it’s only been 6 weeks since I last wrote.

The burning season is finally over this year and we are headed into the rainy season. No matter how much the power goes out on the mountain, I would trade thtis

If I’m being honest, March and April are some of the worst months to be in Chiang Mai. It’s constant air quality issues. It’s constant worrying if this is the month that will push your lungs over the edge. There were several weeks where I only barely moved just to try to minimize the amount of gross air I inhaled. To top it off, Chiang Mai spent weeks in the No. 1 spot with the worst air pollution in the world. Just, you know, to give you some perspective about mountain life.

The weekend of my birthday, the pollution was so bad that we actually cancelled school, something they have only attempted to do once before in the four years I’ve worked there.

HELLO THREE DAY WEEKEND.

I ended up buying a last minute ticket to Kuala Lumpur to do a little solo weekend before visiting Vietnam for three weeks. The main goal was to get used to using a tripod by myself and indulge in all of the food. So I took some pics, made some new friends and hated grew from the experience.

Solo traveling in Vietnam was a TRIP.

I ended up spending 17 days traveling south to north after a quick weekend in Hong Kong with one of my oldest friends. Now, I’m going to eventually write more about the experience, but let me tell you that it’s something that I think everyone should do at least once in their lifetime. I ended up getting sick halfway through (I think it was the flu) and then also had to deal with that all on my own.

It was one of the first times I had to do everything on my own from start to finish. I didn’t call my mom. I did go to the pharmacy. and I did eventually get better. But the diversion did cause me to have to drastically change my plans. So Vietnam is still on the list, and there are still quite a few places I want to go to.

So if anyone needs a travel buddy, I’m riiiiight here 😉

I have about 6 more weeks of school and I know they are going to just fly by. This is always how the end of the school year goes. Some of my favorite students are graduating and even more of my favorite coworkers are leaving for greener pastures. Goodbyes, while inevitable, never seem to get any easier. Rest assured I’ll be soaking up all the memories I can before June 15th.

On that note, until next month!

xo,
Ari

As always, here are some of my memories from the past 2 months.