Last updated on November 20, by Shannon. During my years of world travel—since I have traveled and lived outside the U. If we backpack the world with an eye toward change and transformation , then there are places that facilitate that more than others. I flit away on side-trips for several seconds before jolting to the present. And with the nature of my ongoing travels, those thoughts eventually propel me back to Asia; I have spent weeks of my life in transit waiting for the giddy relief of stepping out of the airport and breathing in the scent of warm, sticky air tinted with deep-fried food, car exhaust, and possibilities.
I visited Thailand , Laos , and Cambodia on my first year traveling around the world , and I was captivated to the cadence of life. But friends , plans , and a trip itinerary that first year pushed me into motion and I left Southeast Asia for India after just two months backpacking the region. In subsequent years, I lived Chiang Mai for a time , and I fell in love with the city so much that when I decided to travel with my niece in , my thoughts immediately circled around the community and welcome I feel when I land in Southeast Asia.
Each time I returned, the culture gave me something I needed, something I craved in my soul, if that makes any sense. And as I spent more time in Southeast Asia—visiting Myanmar , Malaysia, and Bali , too—I found increasingly more things to love its understated charm. All these things are mere pieces of a whole that is hard to describe, and no single aspect pulled me back to Asia.
And so, to the extent that I have never really talked about the region in the broad sense—the dominant Buddhist religion, the modern and ancient temples , and how food integrates into life in a way foreign to my culture back home—I began to think about the bigger picture that drives me back to Southeast Asia countless times. Religion is one of those taboo topics for me on this site, and in my personal life if I am honest.
I went through a tough time figuring out where I sat in my soul with religion after he died, and my personality quirks necessitated that I find more possible answers to the big questions in life. How to other cultures handle death and the afterlife? Definite answers will never come, but I found new knowledge and belief systems that shifted my perspectives. We often have blinders on to the commonplace, to our familiar surroundings.
