So I flew back into Bangkok overnight.
While many things have changed over the last 2 months since I was last here (new apartment constructions underway, old favourite restaurants closed, a new hair trend of among Thai girls) I know from experience that within a few days it will feel like I never left, and that somehow the calendar just skipped from November 3rd to January 3rd. It’s the same going back to Melbourne - familiar places, people and routines quickly wash away the intervening period in the other place. It feels a little I’m alternating between parallel universes in which I’m both equally at home.
When I came to Bangkok in October after being away for 4 months the sense of the familiar was overwhelming, especially as I was staying in an apartment identical to my old one (as it’s in the same building), but not my old one - muscle memory allowed me to automatically turn lights on or off, or walk through the apartment in the dark, but it wasn’t my room. I felt like I was in the Truman Show. This time switching parallel universes has been much less weird, so I guess I’m getting used to it.
As always, it will be nice to see my BKK friends, although we’re all going to be extremely busy for the next few weeks, but hopefully we can fit in a few seafood dinners at the Uan Im shop in the local street market. For now, time to catch up on the sleep I didn’t get on the plane.