Lesson 2: Don't rely on others

“Excuse me, do you know where the Wild Orchid Villa is?” I asked the taxi driver. “Yes, I take, very ni plac,” she murmured in her broken English and selling smile. After a long couple days of travelling, at midnight Thai time, I gladly hopped in ready to get my backpacks off and leave the airport behind. We drove through the night on a highway that could have been the 405 from the look of it, to an area where the streets were lined with plastic chairs, fried food and drunk tourists. They dropped me off, took the money and peaced out. As a approached the entrance I could tell some thing was wrong, but as I walked up and saw the rates, I realized I was at the White Orchid. Back downstairs, new cab, new man who looks at the address, and the name Wild Orchid, with confidence he can take me there. We loop around, passing statues, and empty streets until we arrive at the Royal Orchid. “No, no, no… This not it… Wild, Www-iiii—lllll—ddddddd,” I try to say. He starts rambling through the 2 teeth he has, frustrated, like it is my fault. I yell to one of the nearby tuk-tuk drivers, he comes over and tries to explain. We end up driving another hour, asking multiple tuk-tuk drivers, street vendors, and even clueless tourists, all not knowing, but sending us on a nice tour of Bangkok. At one point, I knew we were in the right area, so I started reading the signs and telling the driver where to go, we stopped at one more vendor before finally arriving at the Wild Orchid, with a mutual cheer and applause. I realized a lesson I’ve learned several times, people will tell you anything to get what they want. Even the next day walking around the city, when we would stop and ask for info, people would always tell us something, most of the time it was wrong so we’d just do whatever it was they wanted us to do at the moment. In life, when you’re vulnerable, when you need something you can’t supply on your own, you have to get those things from others who are usually trying to fill their own needs. Especially with all this new technology, excuse the old timey sound of that, we rely so much on it, that we become helpless with out it. We need to start trusting ourselves more, and doing things for ourselves, trying to figure it out, because others won’t always be able to give you the best answer or solution for you. Before I left many people told me not to go. They told me how unsafe it was here, that I’m running away from my life, that I should wait til I saved more money, that I’m too old to do this kind of thing. I know they were all just trying to help, the thing is, life doesn’t wait, and I knew I had to trust my gut and do what was right for my life. People can tell you where they think your life needs to go, but when you get there, you’ll end up at the White orchid or the Royal orchid or wherever it is that someone else thinks you want to be. It may take a while, but if you don’t give up and look at the signs life gives you along the way, eventually you will end up exactly where you want to be, or in my case, the Wild Orchid.