Hi there, I’m Tyler, and this is my story about how I fell in love with Thailand
I was born in a small town in Belgium and lived there for 18 years. During that time, I went on vacation a few times with my parents. Mostly to neighboring countries like Germany, France, The Netherlands, Austria, and even Denmark once! I was so happy and excited, wasn’t it for the 10-17h drive to most places! Because my parents had a small Peugeot and Renault car so driving long distances in those wasn’t always comfortable. The hotels we stayed in were mostly 3-4 star hotels. As a kid, you don’t care much anyway cause you just want to find a place to run and play.
But as I grew up and got older, I wanted to discover more cultural and exotic experiences. I got interested in Thailand when I met my first Thai girlfriend in secondary school at age 14. Since my mom had never traveled by plane and my dad had been there already, going there wasn’t an option yet. But all of this changed a few months after I turned 18. One day a friend asked me to join him on a trip to Thailand. I was so excited! I will finally get on an airplane! I will finally travel to a faraway exotic paradise stuffed with palm trees, white-sand beaches, and beautiful girls! So I did.
When I arrived here, everything felt awesome! The scorching heat felt like an oven. The crazy taxi drivers yelling at me to get a customer was a bit surprising as well, but understandable. One of them took me to Pattaya, my final destination. Upon arrival, I fell in love almost immediately. Look at that skyline! Those tall buildings, the long boulevard next to the ocean surrounded by palm trees called ‘Beach road.’ Everything felt amazing! And the night hadn’t even started yet!
Later that day, I had an evening stroll around walking street and found a nice lady dressed in red looking at me. So I decided to have a talk with her. We ended up in my room, and a few days later, she became my girlfriend. The following weeks we visited many places together, took a trip to her family, and went to Bangkok as well. Everything felt like a dream, totally unreal. A few weeks earlier, I was living at my mom’s house, and now I’m living the dream, baby!
My excitement and’ winning streak’ quickly ended when I discovered that ‘obviously’ nothing is what it seems in Thailand. I broke up with my girlfriend, went back to live with my mom, and started studying again. Despite some bad experiences, I still couldn’t stop thinking about Thailand cause this was the first time in my life I actually felt ‘alive’!
Two years passed by, and I hadn’t returned yet. I had visited Morocco and Cuba. I had made some city trips in Europe, but I hadn’t come back to Thailand. So I decided to come back and travel around the country to visit all the places I hadn’t been to before. So I stayed a few weeks in Bangkok, went to Phuket and Chiang Mai, and visited Cambodia as well.
When I turned 23, I started to make some money through trading and decided to take a trip around the world. I’ve visited as many as 40 countries across five continents. But I could never find a country that would give me the same feeling as I’ve experienced that first time when I came to Thailand. So I came back.
I rented a condo in Pattaya, stayed there for a few months while reaping the fruits of my trading gains. It was awesome! I was living back in the tropics, experienced hot weather every day, had a nice view of the ocean and lots of palm trees around me (for some reason, they make me feel at ease). But in the end, I had to go back home to take care of some bureaucratic issues.
A few months had passed, another cold winter in Europe went by. I was really tired of it. So I made plans to come back to Thailand and stay forever (or as long as my visa doesn’t expire). I decided to move to Bangkok because I had the feeling that Pattaya was a bit boring for people my age, and I wanted to experience the big city lifestyle! I live happily here in Bangkok until now and don’t have any plans to go back to Belgium.
Cheers to Thailand!