Friends on the road: saying goodbye too soon
“It was really great meeting you. Have a safe flight!”
Meeting people is an awesome part of living in a busy city like Chiang Mai. But I've lost count of how many times I've said goodbye to people, because Chiang Mai is also a very transient city. Saying farewell becomes inevitable when you're living for a while in a city full of travelers just passing through.
‘Goodbye’ takes on a different dynamic when you're settled somewhere rather than travelling. You've got adventuring to take the edge off leaving new friends when you’re on the move. Because I'm living here, I've got work and a crappy deflated feeling the next day. There's still wine to take the edge off and no doubt I'm learning valuable life lessons about letting go, but, bleh!
Usually it's fine; that short-lived travel-friendship.
It's fun, we explore new stuff together and even adventures that I've been on a hundred times seem fresher when seen through the eyes of someone who's doing it for the first time. I've experienced some of the highlights of my life with travel friends. When it's time for them to leave, you part ways and know that you'll remember time spent together fondly. The goodbye is sad, but you’re both content with knowing that maybe you'll bump into one another again somewhere in the world.
But did you ever make friends with or meet someone who you really wanted to know for more than a fleeting while?
Sometimes people just connect. You're living here for now, and, fuck. They're only staying for a couple of months, two weeks, a day, with no real plan except one to leave soon.
That goodbye sucks.
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