The Four Stages of Falling in Love (with Thailand)

Whether you are a hopeless romantic or romantically hopeless, at one point of your life, you know how it feels like to be in love. Maybe it’s with a random stranger in a bus you exchanged glances with, maybe it’s with your best friend who has always been there for you no matter what or maybe it’s with a fictional character or a famous celebrity and any relationship can only take place in your imagination. Well, this is one of those love stories. Except, it’s not about a person. It’s about a place. This is a story about the four stages of falling in love, with Thailand.

1. Love at first sight
Think of this stage as the equivalent of two people walking in a hallway, preferably the girl is holding tons of books and anything droppable – drinks optional but preferable, then they bump into each other and the guy helps pick anything she drops and have this awkward (yet supposedly romantic) “look”. The stage where there is a big party yet your eyes go directly to that one person. That is exactly how I feel about Pad Thai.

I saw Pad Thai, and I knew I would never look at any other noodle the same way ever again. I had the chance to taste three magical Pad Thai in Thailand, here they are in order of love:

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The best Pad Thai I tasted goes to a Pad Thai food stall in the floating market in Damnoen Saduak. It’s situated across the road, not in the busy food court, priced at 60 Baht. Credit goes to @triptasty for this fantastic Pad Thai picture. The spices are perfectly blended, there is savoury goodness from the shrimp, crunch from the bean sprouts and the noodle was spicy but does not distract us from the true flavor of the Pad Thai.

How is it possible that this Pad Thai in a gas station tasted so good? Well, it is.

Those big prawns are a beauty, this Pad Thai in the food court of Siam Center is adjusted to a foreigner’s taste. Not as spicy (even though I ordered spicy!). I wish they used lime instead of lemon though, would have elevated the taste more.

2. Stalking
In an era where every possible information available is googleable, we are all guilty of this. Finding his random funny blog post and then trying to pretend you never knew his life story or perhaps going through his instagram feed and accidentally double-tapping on his post in 2015… DISASTER. *uninstall instagram* *burns phone* *jumps over a cliff*

I started gathering data comprehensively about Santorini Park, then the Swiss Sheep Farm and Khao Luang Cave, which I had the pleasure to see in person!

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My stalking partner, none other than Nona Hana from @triptasty, advanced our extensive analysis by discovering cute cafés like the Unicorn Café, Perhaps Rabbits and Chocolate Ville. Then before I knew it… I read some interesting Thailand facts:

• Bangkok’s full name is: Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit
• Or Tor Kor market is nominated by CNN and recommended by Gordon Ramsay as the spot to find the freshest quality product.
• There is this hip dessert spot called After You, serves shaved ice and is listed in the stock market. WOW.

Finding these fun facts is like finding out what your crush hobbies, zodiac or dreams are. You know the feeling right?

3. Denial
No I am not in love… Maybe I am, am I? I can’t be. No way. He loves me… He loves me not. I love him… I love him not. Please don’t be in love, don’t let this be love. WHYYYY. In Indonesia, there is a specific term for this, it is called galau, meaning being miserable or indecisive while listening to heartbreaking Adele type songs and pretending to look outside the window dramatically as if it is raining and you are the star of a music video.

This is the stage where you refuse to believe in love, which is what my previous post was about. How can you not be in love with a place this beautiful?

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4. Acceptance
Also known as the I-wish-I-was-there phase. You realize that there is nothing you can do but surrender to all the feels. Why is being in love with a place such a bad thing?  You fall in love with the variety of endless culinary adventures you can go to, no taste is like the other. You fall in love with the small details of the city like how polite the school kids were in the MRT when they were given a seat by a passenger. You fall in love with a place that somehow manages to retain the soul of the city through preserving culture and traditions that are not lost even when modernization occurs.

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But I can tell you one extremely annoying thing about being in love with Thailand: I end up always missing the place. It’s like Thailand stole a part of my heart and in return I get amazing memories to share with family and friends. A small price to pay, I’ll take the risk. When you constantly miss a place, the only thing you can think of is planning your next visit there. Create new memories and also visit your favourite places. But as they  say…

“Missing something is part of what makes it a good memory.”

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Written, Pic taken & Edited by: www.instagram.com/theannisasabran