my solo trip to chiang mai over the winter reminded me of why i love traveling: the people i meet and the stories they tell

1. a brief encounter with a digital nomad

it's 6.38pm and the sun is setting behind the old city walls as the public park comes to life. i am drawn to the exercise corner and ask if i can share the calisthenics rings. i know english will be a common language as i approach a man in his 30s with tattoos across his arms. he's from california but has been living in chiang mai for 7 years. he runs websites that list and compare different companies offering a software service. he misses in-n-out the most. i ask about the business model and he tells me about the life he can sustain here. it's slow-paced and it's what he wants. we don't talk much more, but it's a memorable first encounter with a digital nomad.

2. an eclectic mix on a tour

i'm on a minivan to doi inthanon, the highest mountain in thailand, with a group of 8 other strangers (i've found that long trips out from the city is often best done with travel tours). most notably, i am seated at lunch with a cheerful middle-aged man from austria, a towering and quiet man from florida who i would have imagined what a detective in a murder-mystery film set in the mid-west would be like, and a retiree from toronto who had emigrated from india. we had conversations about careers, where we've been to, and where we're off to next. i remember most vividly the retiree telling us his favorite memories while traveling, his career that allowed him to travel, how he likes to visit mountains because it reminded him of his hometown he left behind as a child, and the many more destinations he has planned in the coming months. i want to be like him when i grow up.

a waterfall close to doi inthanon

3. a few lessons from someone who quit their job

click-clack. even on travels i can't let go of the pressure to get some work done. a polish man in his late 20s(?) walks by the sofa in the hostel and tells another resident that they can meet at the rooftop; i inquire, and he guides me there. he asks where i'm from and my response confirms his suspicion as to why i'm on my laptop. work is a common thread between singapore and poland, especially so in tech. as the conversation gets deeper, he digs into my motivations for wanting to enter the industry he had just quit. work in big tech to get the experience, he says, but you'll likely want to quit and find something more fulfilling. he's doing that now, and finds that he's smiling more. among other things we talk about, like his belief in staying away from social media to be more present in life and reassuring me that it'll all be fine, he says something that shifts my perspective a little: the earlier you let go of wanting to retire your parents, the better it is for you; they probably never wanted that anyway.

4. a potential future-me sitting across me

i opted to take an overnight train from chaing mai to bangkok rather than the hour-and-a-half flight. cheaper and a rare experience, i thought. a girl in her 20s with a warm and tight-lipped smile sat across me. it's not her first time on a sleeper train, so she gives me a breakdown of how the beds will be set up later. she had just graduated from university in germany, and is now trying to figure out how to pivot into an industry she wants to work in. she's traveling across southeast asia to escape and wait out the cold winter, or until her funds run out. that's totally a path i could see myself being in somewhere in the near future.

the train station

5. a moment i keep coming back to

chiang mai's big sunday night market that was so well-planned had over-stimulated me with the endless food and merchandise stalls. i was ready to head back for the night as i finished up a bowl of khao soi, but a familiar chinese song (that i still struggle to remember the name of) drew me to the three kings monument. there, a row of buskers lined the walkway. two schoolgirls in their uniforms with guitars slung around them sang beautifully as a crowd built up. in front of them, a sign: money for school.

three kings monument

as i sit here now in my college in the united states, i keep thinking back to that moment. how much have i been neglecting the fact that i am so lucky to have the opportunity to study here on a scholarship, not having to worry at all about funding my education? i think back to how hard i worked and how badly i wanted this, but maybe that was wanting much more than i had any right to ask for. when i backpacked around europe, i was struggling to make a decision on whether to do university at home or abroad. when couchsurfing with college students, i asked for their opinions. many of whom studied abroad strongly encouraged me to, and i think that influenced and guided my decision. travel has opened up the world for me, not just because of the places i visit, but more so the people i meet along the way. be it our conversations or simply my observations, they've shaped my early 20s in some way. this trip, and specifically that moment, is a reminder i need.