Some travel for an escape. Removing one's self from the quotidian routines of common life, even if for two weeks, can be refreshing to the extent that it offers a reset button. But for those that live abroad, I often find that the depth of escape is more profound. Having been living in Thailand for a few months now, and in addition to my time living in countries like China, I often find that people are trying to escape something.
For some people, that escape is from a drug and/or alcohol addiction. One of my Australian friends in China had been addicted to heroin before he decided to move to China to teach English there. Another Australian I met in Thailand seemed to be escaping a damaging alcohol dependency. I knew a couple of Americans in South Korea who seemed to have escaped coke.
Others might be escaping adulthood. Life abroad, especially in certain countries, allows people to extend their adolescence indefinitely. If they are teaching English, they may only have limited responsibilities, in part because the demands for foreign teachers abroad are generally much lower in a lot of contexts for a variety of reasons.
For others, the escape might be couched in politics — or, more extreme — conspiracy theories. I met a Native American in Thailand who seems to run the gamut: he seemed to be both anti-immigrant but also anti-cop. But a friend who had had some unpleasant interactions with him told me that he is also a Holocaust denier. No matter how extreme his belief in conspiracy theories is, he has repeatedly told me that he can no longer stomach living in the United States because "it's no longer the land of the free." More grounded than that, I met a woman at a metal festival in Norway who left the US after Trump was elected. She had actually gone through the process that most people just threaten. She was living happily in the Netherlands.
I am certainly not above the escape. I think one of the reasons why I have lived abroad for so much of my adult life is that I'm also trying to escape. What am I trying to escape? I think I'm trying to escape the rat race. I'm trying to escape living a "boring" life, which, to me, is the life that most people pursue. You know. Getting married, having children...settling down.
On a deeper level, I'm also trying to escape death — or, at least a death that I will regret. I don't want to lie on my deathbed thinking "I should have done this" or "I should have done that." I want to die having lived a fulfilling life. But when will I be fulfilled? Am I doomed to constantly seek novelty?
Whatever the case, I often think about this when meeting people who are living abroad. What's their story? How did they end up here? Were they escaping something? If so, what?
On Koh Phayam, I met two older farangs (the Thai word for "foreigners"). One was a 60-something German man named Jens who had been living on Koh Phayam for 17 years. Jens's stereotypical German personality came out in his rather stoic demeanor and dry-witted humor. I rented a motorbike from him, and, being used to my bike in Phetchabun with a rather measly engine, the Jens' bike had a bit more push when I revved it in a similar manner.
"Eaaaasy," he warned, still maintaining the rather laid-back attitude that island life cultivates — even for an uptight German.
His house was a makeshift bar and restaurant that was rather bare-bones in decor. A simple circular wooden table coupled with a wooden bench and plastic lawn chairs were the only pieces of furniture available. His dog, interminably seeking food scraps from the more generous restaurant patrons, smelled like a dump heap.
The other older farang I met was a man in his early 80s (and did not look like it) who was American by citizenship, but he had been born in Lithuania and had lived there until the breakout of World War II. He has now been living on Koh Phayam for 13 years. I did not get a complete picture of his story, but he did say that he had once owned and subsequently sold a liquor store in Las Vegas. We talked about traveling before and after smartphones. He said that, back in his early backpacking days, he always took transportation to the city center and then found the closest decent-looking hotel. The next day, he would walk around to find a cheaper hostel and to get a feel for the city.
For whatever reason, the conversation never steered in the direction of how Jens or the other older farang ended up staying on Koh Phayam. Both of them said that they were just backpacking around Thailand, but in both cases, they ended up staying. I did ask myself, "What were they escaping?"
Besides them, I met Gudrun and Christian, an Austrian couple who decided to pack up their things and travel for six months. It seems to be a luxury of Europeans to be able to quit their jobs, or at least take a sabbatical from their jobs, and backpack for six months. Not only would it not be financially feasible or employment practical for most Americans, but I think it would be culturally looked down upon for an American adult to leave their responsibilities for such a long period of time. Nope! You have two weeks of vacation and that's it! You must be working, or at least be productive, or else you're just a waste of space!
While Christian was able to work his IT job remotely while they were traveling, Gudrun had quit her accounting job in order to travel. When I asked her about it, she shrugged, "I'll just find another one when I get back." If I remember correctly, this was not the first time she had quit an accounting position in order to take a multi-month backpacking trip.
Finally, among the people that congregated around Jens's makeshift bar was another German who works throughout the year as an instructor in adventure sports: diving instructor, ski instructor, and something else that I can't quite recall. He then takes vacations between his contracts. According to him, the lifestyle didn't offer much in terms of job security or job benefits (retirement, healthcare, etc.), but for the time being, he preferred the excitement of working jobs that in of themselves were also adventures and would allow him significant time off to travel.
Again, I wondered what all of these people around me were trying to escape, if anything. I guess even a short vacation is an escape. It's a way to get away from your normal routines and explore someplace new. But what of the people who escape permanently? Is it escaping when you've moved somewhere for possibly the rest of your life? I guess it depends on what one was escaping from in the first place.
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