{"id":568,"date":"2022-12-12T02:19:26","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T02:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonsimmers.com\/words\/?p=568"},"modified":"2024-06-27T16:28:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T16:28:27","slug":"four-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jonsimmers.com\/words\/2022\/12\/four-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Months!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I am approaching the four month mark of this sabbatical, having departed dear Blighty back in August.\u00a0Originally I was to spend 5-7 weeks in Thailand, followed by Laos, Cambodia and would now be in Vietnam, however as I have mentioned previously my plan & route just sort of fell apart…<\/p>\n

So for my first 2 months I ended up focusing on the south west coast of Thailand from Khao Lak to Koh Kradan and several points in between. Finding myself in need of a change I headed to Cambodia and spent 30 days there seeing an awful lot of temples. I then returned to Thailand and spent time in the north, Chiang Mai & Pai mostly; somewhat typical and not what I planned, but hell most of this trip has been off plan!<\/p>\n

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As I said above through late October and most of November my time was spent in Cambodia; Mostly around Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor, with trips out to numerous far ranging temple complexes from the same era. Of course I gave time to other parts of that magnificent, yet scarred country. Feels stronger every time I visit, and still some how retains a sense of being on the “edge”.<\/p>\n

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At this point, I find myself looking at moving on to country number three. Laos. An often overlooked country by tourists – long term and vacationers alike – it is a country of jungle covered mountains, river valleys with the Mekong snaking throughout, stunning karst scenery and growing cities of all sizes. No matter what it’s there I am spending my Christmas. The first I have not been working in some industry or another for over 15 years.<\/p>\n

Four months & soon to be three countries into this trip and I can say, I have not felt this relaxed nor this at peace with myself for years. After having spent much of the past 7 years throwing myself into numerous management roles within the little retail store I helped operate; And while I could be volunteering with an NGO or diving off an island somewhere, or simply have stayed at my former employer & found a different role, taking this extended holiday<\/del> sabbatical has given me a new view on my career and indeed my life and how best to marry the two together.\u00a0 Once I am done out here of course!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am approaching the four month mark of this sabbatical, having departed dear Blighty back in August.\u00a0Originally I was to spend 5-7 weeks in Thailand, followed by Laos, Cambodia and would now be in Vietnam, however as I have mentioned previously my plan & route just sort of fell apart… So for my first 2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,10],"tags":[136,14,128],"class_list":["post-568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-travel","tag-pictures","tag-south-east-asia","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonsimmers.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonsimmers.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonsimmers.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonsimmers.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonsimmers.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/jonsimmers.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":627,"href":"http:\/\/jonsimmers.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions\/627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonsimmers.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonsimmers.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonsimmers.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}