My experience in Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok was amazing, the sights, the smells, the sounds, everything is absolutely amazing! I never thought I would find myself visiting Southeast Asia until I met a girl online from Bangkok, Thailand. We met through a dating service and at first I questioned whether or not I would ever make the 8,000 mile journey to Bangkok. I had grown up eating Thai food but never really thought much of the country. We ended up talking for almost 2 years before I booked a flight to visit her in April 2025. I spent many hours researching hotels, studying maps of Bangkok, and trying to make it the best trip for the both of us. We not only spent time' in Thailand but Singapore and Hong Kong as well. I think my favorite city has to be Bangkok, since it is her hometown and where she grew up. I also met her entire family and shared many meals with her family over the 21 days I spent in Southeast Asia. I was very nervous for this trip as I had never left the USA before but if it wasn't for this girl I don't think I would be able to reflect on anything this way in life. When I find myself alone I constantly visualize myself spending the rest of my life in Thailand and selling everything I own in the USA. Something about a peaceful life in the small village of Nong Khaem, a small suburb outside of the bustling city of Bangkok is so appealing and something I constantly dream of having.
Most of my first few days in Southeast Asia were spent in the heart of Thailand. I visited many of the local malls as well as eating some of the street foods being careful to not get food poisoning. My girlfriend always told me I had nothing to worry about but there was always a part of me that did not want to ruin the next 3 weeks of vacation with food poisioning. One of my favorite things in Thailand was 7/11. It may be something we also appreciate here but the 7/11 in Thailand was much larger and had a much greater variety of foods and items. In fact, here is a map of 7/11's in Thailand via Reddit. There is even an area with 2 7/11's next to one another. I also enjoyed spending timne with a completely different culture than my own. Now that I am back in the USA, I feel a lot more accepting and miss being around Asian culture more than anything I have before. I live a pretty specific lifestyle in the USA not spending a lot of time going out or interacting with many other people than my 3 close friends and coworkers. I feel that after spending time in a completely different culture my so called "lobster shell" has broken and I feel much more comfortable interacting with others and getting out of the house. I also brought home hundreds of stories, photos, memories, and most of all the experience of actually meeting someone in a long distance relationship. I had been looking into dating outside of the USA for a while, and actually communicated with quite a few girls from overseas but never actually met someone that I felt a genuine connection with. Most of the time one person would just stop responding (usually not me) and it would end there. Chutima (my girlfriend) and I instantly started video calling every night and spending a lot of my day and her night texting. At the time, I was working the night shift and this would allow me to communicate throughout the time differences as we were basically on the same schedule. I hope to continue our relationship for many years forward and cannot wait to find out the results of her visa