Was Voldemort a Savvy Traveler?

After being out of the USA only a little over a week, I’ve come to the conclusion that I am Voldemort’s clumsy cousin, accidentally leaving pieces of my soul behind everywhere I travel (For those of you who don’t know, Voldemort left chunks of soul all over the globe in his quest to become invincible).

I’m serious! In ten days of travel, I lost my personal debit card, face lotion, face wash, a single sock, three hair ties, 200 Baht, my pajama pants, and somehow found my mother’s credit card. At first it was kind of funny, but now I’m starting to think I might have a ‘losing’ problem. You might be thinking ‘Wow, this chick is some clueless traveler!’ and you wouldn’t be wrong. This is my first trip to Asia and boy, does it sure show! Oh, my name is Sienna by the way. Clearly, I’m not very experienced in this whole blog thing either.

Besides the whole ‘lost my debit card’ thing, this vacation has turned out quite splendidly. Thailand is a beautiful country and I know I only grazed the surface in the ten days I was here. I’m not sure who the audience on this page is, but I’m assuming you’d like to see some of our photos, so I’m gonna stick a few of in. Don’t worry if your jaw drops, mine did too.

Golden Mount Temple in Bangkok! Real shiny lookin’

first legal drink & first sunset in Bangkok! bucket list = shrinking

 

Molly and Nate looking out over Nam Pha Pa Yai camp! Good thing you can’t see our sweat lol

a model butterfly at the free butterfly garden in Lumphini Park

Ok, now that you’ve seen the cool photos and heard the Voldemort comparison, you’re probably wondering why you’re still reading yet another millennia’s “thrilling” travel blog. Don’t worry, I won’t care if you click off the page right now, but stick around and you just might get to hear one of those infamous face-palm Sienna travel stories that is sure to leave yourself in stitches.

One good story from my travels so far was my friend and I’s attempt to get to this remote jungle climbing camp via public transportation (LOL, I know). We began this day long journey by riding a train to this small town three hours north of Bangkok. From the station, we slowly waddled our way in the sweltering heat to a small bus stop outside of a large temple. Molly and Nate (my two travel buddies) plopped down besides me on the bench and we began to wait for this elusive bus. About one hour into our wait we saw a bus arrive and we were ENTHRALLED. We attempted to get on but it was very full and the driver didn’t look like he wanted more passengers on board. ‘Oh well, we’ll catch the next one’ I thought. One hour after the first attempt, I heard a bus rumbling towards us and I excitedly leapt up and declared, “We’re getting on that sucker whether its full or not!” Turns out it was a bus for factory workers in a nearby facility, and they had no interest in taking tourists to some jungle camp. Disheartened, we fell back to our stoops in the hot afternoon sun, hungry and tired of travel. Just when we least expected help, the Buddhist monk sitting next to us took pity and dialed up the camp we were going to (Monks know everything I guess) and told them to send a taxi. Thanks to that monk’s kind heart, we got a taxi ride and made it out of the blistering heat moments before an emotional meltdown.

After hopping onto this pickup truck/taxi car, the skies rapidly clouded and started to downpour rain on us shortly out of town. We all start laughing because in that situation what can you do? You’re traveling at 60 MPH down the highway in a thunderstorm and suddenly nothing else matters. We laughed and yelped and smiled during the whole bumpy 20 KM ride to the camp.

OK, enough story time, I know! Time to get on with the rest of this blog thing. Basically, I am writing this bad boy now because tomorrow I will embark on a semester of study abroad in the city of Siem Reap, Cambodia and I wanted to make a post about the ten days I spent in Thailand! I hope you all (if any of you readers are left), enjoyed the post and I hope you are ready for many more to come!

4 thoughts on “Was Voldemort a Savvy Traveler?

  1. The best part of traveling often happens in the moments we didn’t plan. They make the best stories anyway! Great first blog Sienna, happy travels!

    • Thanks, JoAnne! You’re right, the best part of traveling are all the unknown and crazy things that can happen haha! Hope you are well in VA.

  2. Loved your blog, Sienna. Keep writing. I’ll go along wherever you go. Stay well..Love, I remember Papas loved Bangkok.

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