Avisala!
I would have wanted a proper retrospection post, but it would take a lot of time and I wanted to post something on the first day of the year. Although 2023 is my year of firsts, like my first international travel and my first failure to summit a mountain, I realized it was an exhausting year for me. It's been more than three years since I started to focus my life on travels and Hive, but I was really beaten this year. Nevertheless, I can still say that, overall, 2023 has never been short of awesomeness.
For the highlight of 2023, I chose both my visit to Nong Nooch Botanical Garden and Elephant Jungle Sanctuary in Pattaya, Thailand. Both became the culmination of our 11-day visit to three countries, namely Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. I haven't even started editing the photos yet, but I'll surely post about them soon.
As a certified plant and animal lover, those two attractions are really close to my heart. I remember I was just watching my favourite channel that's related to plants on YouTube, and one time she featured Nong Nooch Botanical Garden. Since then, I have been amazed by the immense private collection of almost all tropical indoor plants. Seeing those collections firsthand was an experience. It was @thestrollingmind who witnessed my fascination with those plant collections. I never even dreamed of visiting Nong Nooch Botanical Garden this year. I thought I might be able to visit, but maybe once I get older. I guess the universe has just a way of granting your desires.
As for Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, do I have to elucidate further how fascinated I was with those gentle giants? To be able to feed them and interact with them without any presence of fences and chains is another experience I'll never forget. It was overwhelming to think how they can easily trample us, and yet we have subjugated them for as long as human history. For me, just in their mere presence was a grounding experience. I'll talk more about them in a separate post.
So, I'm looking forward to 2024 with a lot of booked travels and, of course, a lot of anxiety about how will I be able to fund those travels.
Happy New Year, everyone!