People think being alone makes you lonely, but I don't think that's true. Being surrounded by the wrong people is the loneliest thing in the world. – Kim Culbertson

It’s a Saturday night feast! Tonight a group of us have headed over to another guesthouse, Taileks, for a traditional family style Thai dinner. I was told this was the largest group they have served, since this it typically a weekly event for the guests as well as couchsurfers and other travelers. Moving aside the five tables and chairs since we have close to 40 people, they lay out bamboo mats as our makeshift table and cushion for the seating. As the room is bustling with conversation from one end to the other, we are sitting lined up facing each other as if this is a food challenge standoff. Soon dishes beginning coming out of the kitchen and it seems as though each dish is more amazing than the last. Khao kha mu, Khao khluk kapi, Khao mu krop, Khao phat, Khao phat kaeng khiao wan, and of course the well known traditional Pad Thai are just some of the delicious items on tonight’s menu. After everyone has eaten to the point of bursting, the conversation continues and I find myself talking with a group of American English teachers that are on break from their respective locations–China, Cambodia, Thailand, and one particular girl, Jo whom is teaching in Vietnam, strikes me as she has taken part in some video production and so we share our backgrounds as well as sharing how her boyfriend and my girlfriend are handling being halfway around the world for an extended period of time. As the night continues we engage in the typical travel formality of adding one another on Facebook and talk about checking out some new areas of the city since she is headed back to Ho Chi Minh, formerly and still known by the locals as Saigon, some time in the next few days. By the end of the night, I am still feeling the jet lag of traveling across 12 different time zones and decide to call it a night just after 10pm.

