Travel Day 1080 – Kopan, Nepal to Bangkok, THAILAND
It was an Active Travel Day again, but after all the time in the monastery, being back on the road felt awfully strange…
Old School Airport in Kathmandu
In the end I spend about a full month at Kopan Monastery and I felt so comfortable and protected on the monastic compound that I actually never left. During the class we were asked not to step in front of the gates of the monastery in order to keep any outside distractions at the absolute bare minimum. But I actually liked my life without any worldly distractions so much, that I choose not to leave the monastery even after the course had ended…
Staying at Kopan Monastery was quite a special experience for me and I was more than happy to enjoy being secluded until the very last-minute. So obviously instead of going back to Thamel as I had done two years ago when I said Bye-Bye to Kopan for the first time and was heading to Bangkok as well, I rather took a taxi directly from the monastery to the airport. Luckily I could even share a ride with another monastery inmate of the last couple of weeks…
Super Modern Airport in Bangkok
So, not only was I able to save some coin on the ride to the airport, but I also had someone sitting next to me with whom I could share my experiences. It was actually plain mad to be back on the streets of Kathmandu with all the traffic, all the dust and all the noise. We both found ourselves in some sort of shock as we were honking our way through stop and go traffic down to the airport. Feeling completely overwhelmed by what was happening outside the tiny taxi, I could only think that it had been definitely the right decision to come to the monastery at the end of the Nepal trip and not at the beginning…
Actually one of our teachers who had just arrived from Dharamsala, had mentioned in the beginning what a really noise place Kopan Monastery was, while I personally, coming from busy Thamel, could only think how extremely peaceful and quiet everything appeared to me. I guess in the end it was all a matter of perception, but I was really grateful for not having to go back into Kathmandu any more at this point…
Futuristic Taxi with Video in Bangkok
Actually dealing with the old school Airport in Kathmandu, then dealing with the airport in Delhi and finally dealing with the super modern airport in Bangkok, was already the limit that I could handle and really I needed some time to rest and digest all my new impressions. I was certainly happy to be once more back in Bangkok but especially the ride in the futuristic taxi with video playing while the driver was shooting us through the city at night, just simply felt like I had accidentally been catapulted into some distant future and it would probably take me quite a while to get used to all of that…
But in any case, I was excited about the prospect of having nice Thai food again and I couldn’t wait to get up in the morning and start eating all the local, mouth-watering delicacies… : )
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