Feels like a holiday

Well, I've been in Thailand for almost a week. It's been a fairly luxurious start so far! I met up with some relatives from Norway in a resort town called Hua Hin. It's supposedly the resort town for older Europeans - a place that's easy on the Thai! While we stayed in a beautiful house, in a "European" neighbourhood (aka, people with money), Hua Hin itself was a bit of a dive. Dirty, lots of wild dogs and okay food.

But I did have a lovely visit with Roger and Sonja for a few days and then went off on a 7 hour bus ride to Pattaya to meet up with their son, Stian, and his wife Noy (who is Thai) and their new baby Camilla.

We stayed in a quiet part of the city in a new hotel called Nova Gold. Open for only 2 months so far, they still have some kinks to work out i.e. how to keep the water in the shower and not flood the entire bathroom (and this is a high-end hotel!). But they have free internet and computers in every room... that was convenient.

While I've been eating fairly conservatively to slowly adapt to the food here, Noy, her friend, Gong (pronouced Goon) and I went out for Thai Noodle soup at a roadside food stand. It was sooo delicious and better yet my stomach didn't go crazy!!! Noy's friend was really sweet and offered for me to stay with her if I wanted to stay in Pattaya for a few more days. However I declined so i can get to Vietnam! So much for being spontaneous - haha!

I'm now back in Bangkok sorting out my Visa, Airplane and hotel for Hanoi. I'm so excited to go there. I will be in Vietnam for Tet - the lunar new year! Should very cool to see all of the celebrations.

I still feel like I'm on holiday. It hasn't sunk in that I will be away for so long! And winding down has been a challenge too... trying not to think about what I'm going to do when I get home.... ugh I wish I could turn that part of my brain off! Hopefully when I really start to explore new places I will start to enjoy the moment!!

More soon...

xoxo

PS. I'll post pictures soon! Once I figure out charging my computer.... mrrrrr.

FYI - Monica, I'm staying at the Asia Hotel. I was up on the roof top remember how I wanted to get every last bit of sun before we left for home! Haha.

What happened?

Welcome to my blog! I've never done this before so I really don't know how it's going to go but I guess we'll find out together!

I'm going to start with a little background on how I got to the point of quitting my job, selling my home and making the decision to travel for the next 8 months in 2010.

To make a potentially very long story short... I was unhappy with my job and wanted to make some major changes. The problem... I had (have) no idea how to do this and had a million excuses as to why not... I'm single, I need to financially support myself, I have a mortgage, I have no rainy-day savings, etc. So the answer - a time-out. Stop everything and take some time to think about what I want [to do next]. So I would quit my job, sell my house and and use the money I'd make on my townhouse to go traveling! What else, right?

This is how it happened... my parents came to visit me back in May and essentially gave me their blessing to quit my job (or do whatever it takes) to be happy. And yes, even at 34 having my parents blessing made making a big decision like this okay. So over the summer and endless conversations with my friends and family, I seriously contemplated what was next for me. By the end of August, I had decided. I would quit my job, sell my house and use the money I'd make on my house to travel in 2010 (well, so I thought... more on that later).

September rolled around and I hadn't told a soul in Toronto about my plans, but interestingly enough those close to me in Toronto could tell something was up with me. September came and went with some serious procrastination and well, not even additional savings to fund my future plans.

October came and I had called a realtor and started getting my townhouse ready to sell. I resigned from my job just before Thanksgiving weekend (even before I sold my place - yikes). I put my house on the market and it sold in 6 days! And, I got what I wanted for it - much more than I was anticipating. What a relief! Great, right!? Well, not so fast... During the closing I found out that the cancellation fee would soak up ALL of the profit (beyond realtor and lawyer fees) I was thinking I'd made on house. And when I say all I mean ALL. I literally made $50 on my initial investment. What's that? Two days in Thailand?! Awesome.

Surprisingly enough, I wasn't that upset when I found out. Actually, not upset at all. One, it was too late to do anything about it. Two, knowing the fee earlier may have stopped me from making a change. And three, a big lesson learned - FULLY UNDERSTAND EXACTLY WHAT YOUR MORTGAGE CANCELATION POLICY IS UPFRONT AND WHY IT IS WHAT IT IS. So now I know for next time. : )

So now what? I'm spending money that I was hoping not to spend and use when I got back. But I'm really okay with that. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am really excited about what's next... at last!

More soon...