Back To Basics

Every trip on every blog – and this is now my fourth – has begun with the pre-travel rundown. So here I am, a little more than four days before leaving setting up a new blog for the new journey ahead. Sure, I'll go to some familiar places and see several familiar people along the way. I'll do things I have done before and in some cases am very adept at doing. But everything will be different – except that it won't. Or will it?

Divorce – especially one I tried hard to prevent and didn't think was either necessary or a good idea – is confusing. We officially separated in late August and I'm still adjusting – and probably will be for a long time. So what is this time? How will it be? I don't know.

Ironically, one of my last posts in our 2019 visit to Thailand entitled Back To The Gypsy That I Was... was about my journey traveling and how that has changed with time. Here I am, getting ready to pack for three weeks in Southeast Asia – one week in each of Thailand, Singapore and Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. Indeed I am back to the gypsy that I was. Only it's really the Thai adage, Same Same But Different.

I had wanted to bring the kids along for this journey, but Emily wanted to keep the kids with her this Winter Break. This wasn't the hill to die on and I'm hopeful that we'll settle on a custody schedule that has us alternating Winter Break each year. Hopefully they can come on next year's winter adventure. They are a little sad not to be on this one….

Nonetheless, some personal time sounds good. Heading to my favorite, small Thai island with the most perfect white sand in the world works for me. I have been known to retreat to islands when needed. Ko Samet will do perfectly for right now. Samet and I are old friends and very little to do besides beach, swim, eat, drink, massage and for some – sex with a stranger on the beach and waking up in the sand in the morning next to said stranger. I'll bring yoga into my personal mix.

So the trip starts with the recharge in Thailand, moves into being social in Singapore where I'll be a groomsman in my friend Tony Cohen's wedding, and then to adventure where – joined by my cousin Jacob – I'll get to my long desired Borneo. After exploring Kuching I'll venture into the rainforest to meet Iban tribespeople and search for wild orangutans on one of the last two islands to still have them.

Thailand and Singapore are places of my heart – part of me and I have had many stays and journeys in each. Borneo will be new, exciting and hopefully fulfilling. A dream realized – and the first truly new place I'll have gone since the kids were born.

In a way this trip is a little like a wedding: something old, something new, something Borneo, something blue?

Whatever is ahead, I'm excited and ready for it. When it comes to trapsing through Southeast Asia, I feel pretty confident. I know what to pack, where to go, what to eat, what to do and even have a few people to do those things with. And undoubtedly some new people and orangutans to meet along the way.