Day 9: Taken for Granted

My 9th day in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was August 11th, my second Sunday since my arrival. I started the day at 5 am, my usual move. I checked my clothes that I had left hanging on the balcony since the day before. Some fell on the floor, it reminded me that it was not just rainy season, but also a bit windy. I went back inside, and I turned on the TV but everything was still in Thai. I switched channel by channel until I found music-streaming channel that plays English songs, "finally!" I sighed.

I made myself a cup of coffee and I started to wonder what I was going to eat for breakfast that morning. I opened the fridge, and voila, I had nothing. I opened the Google Maps App on my phone to look for the nearest restaurants, but everything was either in Thai or still closed. I was reaching a dead end. Then I remembered that I could order something through Grab App. I opened the app and I scrolled down to check the available vendors, but still, everything came up in Thai, or something that was insanely expensive.

That morning, I realized that something was missing. It took me a week to draw conclusion that I was missing the freedom. It was freedom that I longed. Freedom to be able to go wherever I wanted riding my bike, as well as freedom to communicate with other people freely, without language barrier. For the whole week, I have traveled and communicated with limitation due to distance and language constraint. I started to miss having that small talk with the seller of the grocery store in my hometown. I started to miss that conversation that I used to have with food seller near my home university.

I started to miss all those small things that I used to take for granted.