South East Asia Accounts

As I write this I’m on the airplane which concludes my two and a half years in South East Asia. I know I have the “Asia bug” and I won’t be able stay away for too long; I already have plans to be back before the end of this year. After all, I feel I have only got a taste of it, or just seen the trailer. When I land back in Turkey I will have all these comparisons in my mind and I’ll perhaps blog those also but for now I’m still dealing with the separation from a loved one.


Asia has been very kind to me. I had no seriously bad incidents but quite a lot of good to great experiences. During the 875 days I spent there I visited 9 countries, crossed borders 22 times but visited embassies only 6 times. I like it when friends DON’T ask me about my favorite country, but of course I had my favorite locations. This time I had Penang in Malaysia as my base and because of that I spent 28% of my days, 247 days that is, in Malaysia. The other countries I spent time in are Thailand (196), Philippines (171), Indonesia (116), Taiwan (60), China (57), Cambodia (22), Laos (6) and Myanmar (15 minutes). Each of these places left its unique impressions on me and I left a bit of my heart in most of them.



Although I mostly rented rooms or bungalows, I also camped out for 111 days, stayed in friends’ houses for 34 days, stayed at monasteries or retreat centers for 33 days and slept in busses and trains for 25 nights. I drove 22 different motorbikes, 4 different bicycles and no four wheelers. I completed three courses and received certificates for them (CFQ qi gong (My), PADI open water diving (In), and Agama yoga first month (Th)). I did two meditation retreats (Th) and I’m happy to have been a part of three rainbow gathering seedcamps (Th, Ch, Tw).



I fell in love with Asian food and this led me to gain 16 kilos but I lost half of it already (I’m no longer skinny, mom). I went up 3 volcanoes, dived 14 times and visited 13 hot springs. I got bitten by a dog once (Th), got mysterious jungle fever twice (Th, Ph) and got my spare money stolen once (La). But I’m happy that these have been the only unfortunate events. Ah, and the 7 times I had a flat tire on the bike.

I guess I grew up a little when I was there and I can easily say that this change has been in a very positive direction and this surely has something to do with the places I’ve been and the people I’ve met. Now that I’m in Turkey I can see how special it was to be there, how soft and gentle, how diverse and nourishing the feeling of being there in Asia. I know I can’t be away for too long.

I’ll be back.

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If you didn't know how obsessed I am with numbers, now you do :)