Chillin killin bro!

One can choose to travel alone or with company. But actually no one travels alone because there's always company. That's the reason why I prefer taking off by myself and ending up with new people I meet on my way. Those people can be just other travellers with whom I've spent a few days or local hostel owners or what ever but meeting all these new people is always inspiring.

I started my Christmas holiday in Chiang Mai where we checked in to a familiar hostel with my Colombian friend Gio. The manager was a friend of mine from the last visit and we spent the first night watching how Thailand beat Malaysia in football, winning the southeast Asian championship. The party after the game was... Well, if I have to use words I will just say wild.

The next day we grouped together with Mathieu from Japan and Skye from South Africa. With all of us from literally four corners of the world we travelled to Pai, a small town northwest from Chiang Mai. Despite the fact that the place is totally taken over by backpackers, the atmosphere was relaxing and we didn't hear a single mainstream pop song in the bars. Instead there were live music and reggae playing, with a volume comfortable for having conversations.

The road from Chiang Mai to Pai have 762 curves. That's a driving pleasure!

But of course you can read about Pai from travel guides and go there by yourself so I'm not going to bullshit about it any more. As I mentioned we had an exceptional and spontaneously formed group of people. Skye was a girl from South Africa who had travelled/worked around the world for five years. Mathieu was a life experienced Japanese/French architect in his 30s. Gio was a hypersocial character who was really living in a world different from us. That world was full of friends instead of what we are used to call other people. And then there was me, just chillin 'n' killin like Gio would put it.

Besides of the internationality, the dynamics of the group made it special for me. We were all different and it worked together perfectly. Usually Gio made friends with just everyone while the three of us were just standing aside. Because that guy's social skills we got to hang out with some local rastas at campfire, jamming with a guitar and cajon, enjoying what they had to offer, for example campfire fried potatoes. We even started planning a new travelling blog with him, he would be the star who makes the contacts and gets us to interesting places while I would just observe and write. The name would be Chillin Killin.

While the Colombian starplayer was escalating with all the locals, me, Mathieu and Skye were having good times talking about everything. Skye had been to India so Thailand had nothing to do with extremity to her. She told me how the Indians are superlative scamming artists and how Bangkok was clean compared to Mumbai. She had chosen to live a moving life, settling to a country for work and then travel the money away before working in a different country again. That's a way of life to gain perspective to this globe. I got one of those "whoa, that's also possible"-moments once again.

Mathieu was a man with strong spirit of experience around him. Calm and quiet, still wise guy with whom I had some eye opening talks about life and the world. He was originally from Japan and we had so much fun comparing Finnish and Japanese people. We both do ski jumping, which is one of the stupidest sports ever. We love karaoke, and even though Japanese are doing it way better, the car tuning scene is strong in both countries. Both of the nations are very weird and for me Japanese are our Asian cousins.

The most important thing about travelling in group is not to travel in a group. Everyone just happens to be in the same place in the same time, willing to share the moment. If someone wants to drive a motorbike to Pai instead of taking a bus, there should be no debate. It's okay because everyone is actually doing their own trip, other travellers can be part of it but one should never try to convince other companions to do something they don't want themself. And that's the spirit of travelling. Even though Gio is a good friend from Bangkok I didn't ask him to join. We just happened to take the same trip.

It happens to me more often than before that I find myself hanging around with a bit older friends. I enjoy being the unexperienced padawan rather than the master showing the way. I believe learning is one of the biggest missions of life and it really helps to shut up for a while, listen and observe. Go out by yourself, meet new people and you can gain something. That's how you end up in the swing chair being the cool old man with amazing stories.