Thailand is known for its beautiful palm-fringed beaches, warm blue water, humid tropical heat and many small, sweet islands. Europeans fly to Thailand when they want to escape the dreary cold of winter back home. However, Thailand is not the country that most people first associate with strength.
It wasn’t the first country I actively wanted to explore strength in either, but it was the first country where I actually did. Thailand is actually the land of smiles. There are delicious fruit shakes, variations of fried rice and impressively decorated temples. It is still very cheap and many things just seem so much simpler and more spontaneous there. That’s why it’s so easy for us Europeans to feel free and simply unwind. That was also my plan. But because I let my soul dangle there a little too much in 2019, everything turned out differently in 2023.
Following Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. and Theodore Roosevelt’s ‘start where you are, with what you have’, I started my first expedition in spring 2023, spontaneously and unexpectedly, in search of strength – in Thailand
I slowly realised what this place was. This ‘island of peace’, a refuge from the chaos, dust and hustle and bustle, specialised in Asian, mainly Japanese business travellers, who usually stayed here for weeks or longer – and worked. Correspondingly little […]
The road conditions had very quickly changed for the worse and the impression of northern Europe at the height of summer had now completely disappeared. The towns along the road were dusty, large and busy. The buildings, often up to 20 metres high, were now often in a desolate state […]
The incredible age of over 1000 years and the fact that it was supposed to be the largest tamarind tree in the world made this tree, in front of which I was standing, the perfect motif for me. Grinning and excited, I stand […]
I had a cosy, joyful feeling of freedom, individuality and a thirst for adventure. The time of beautiful beaches and palm trees was over, but I was very excited about the next five days in the interior, in the ‘real’ Thailand. However, I didn’t get too far into daydreaming […]
So now I was standing in front of the stairs with a good 15 macaque monkeys. Some of the monkeys had stopped frolicking in the meantime and were keeping an eye on me instead. Every movement was watched very closely. ‘Well, what must be done, must be done’ I said to myself with a sigh and […]
The small beach we were now heading for seemed rather unspectacular compared to the spots we had seen before and it took me a while to realise that this must be the beach at Big Tree Bay. Suddenly it changed […]
The scooter took a leap – and switched off. That sent a shiver down my spine: In all the euphoria, I had forgotten to refuel! In the rainforest, in the dark, on slippery, sometimes steep paths […]
I wiggled my feet and sipped my gin and tonic. The sea glistened behind the pool and several dark green rocky islands rose out of the Gulf of Thailand on the horizon. Suddenly it happens […]
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