Aging with company

March has nearly passed, and as it draws to a close my birthday draws nearer.

On March 25 I will celebrate my 22nd birthday and until yesterday I wasn’t sure if it would be a solitary celebration. But I’ve met three fellow travelers and for the next weeks, until I leave on a sail boat to Indonesia, I anticipate sticking with this group.

Mael, a 26-year-old French man, Soulki, his 24-year-old Korean girlfriend, and Ramy, their 23-year-old French friend, and I are attacking Thailand together. And I will have companion ship when I celebrate my birth-anniversary.

I first met Ramy because he was my neighbor in On On Hotel, where I was staying in Phuket. Mael and Soulki, being a couple, could afford a better room elsewhere.

The four of us congregated in the lobby of On On Hotel, and having been in Phuket three days, I knew my way around enough to act as a guide for their first night in town. We went to the night market, where we ate from street vendors, feasted on sea-food and pad Thai noodles, and poked in and out of shops.

I guess it was a good night because three days later, after having spent one night among the infamous “lady-boys” (gay Thai men who dress up like women) in Padang, which is the party area of Phuket, and hiking through the jungles of one of the world’s oldest rainforests in Koa Sok, we are about to travel 8 hours on a night ferry to Ko Tao.

They are a great trio to be with because we share similar traveling styles—cheap and off the beaten path wherever possible, but this is the first time I’ve traveled with a group since I left Katie and Brian back in New Zealand, nearly three months ago. (I did reconnect with them in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but we only stayed one night all together in a hostel before I left for the Cameron Highlands.) And there are benefits and restrictions to being with others.

I don’t have as much freedom, and I have to compromise my plans. But in return for these small disadvantages, I’ve made three new friends, can go places at night, and I have someone to share this experience with.

What a great way to grow older.