Day One Hundred Twenty Eight - There is no such thing as permanence.

I have been somewhat putting off this post for a while because I don't like to be the bearer of bad news. But really it is not bad, it is only change. As some of you may realize, most of you probably don't, there is no such thing as permanence. We live in a world that is constantly changing, always rearranging itself. It is important not to get too attached to any one thing lest when that object of our attachment disappears we should suffer because of it.

Why am I getting so philosophical? First of all, because I've been studying Buddhism a lot lately, as you may be able to tell by my opening paragraph. But the real reason is because my blog is about to change quite a bit. But first, I have something to tell you.

I'm going to Thailand on Friday.

I had a bit of a change of heart and instead of continuing to travel in Europe I want to change locales. I'm going to explore the southeast Asian region, ie. Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor. That's my wishlist at least, we'll see how far I actually get with it. I know some of those countries are a bit hard to even gain entrance to, like Burma for example.

Why does this entail a change in my blog? In preparation for this second leg of my journey I am downsizing my equipment. I am changing to a much smaller backpack, almost half the size, and discarding what I don't need. I've done a lot of honest thinking about what it is I need and my netbook has not made the cut. It's a wonderful luxury but it's just that, a luxury. It's heavy, relatively, fragile, and valuable. Three reasons I don't want to carry it with me. And without my netbook my blogging habits will change considerably. Not to mention this portion of my journey will be much more introspective and less about sharing my experiences with everyone. I will be periodically in internet cafes and I will try and update when possible. But I foresee less frequent and less in-depth posts in the future.

Initially this saddened me a bit. I have really enjoyed blogging for all of you and your encouraging words have been invaluable to me. But this is the path I find myself following and there is no reason to fight it. Needless to say, I will still be making copious notes in my notebook. There's always the time I have when I get home to share anything that you will miss out on.

I hope this post doesn't make me sound pretentious. And I want to reiterate that this is not the end of my blog. So keep checking back every now and then, I should have some really interesting things to share from this exciting part of the world that I'm going to.

Peace be with you,
Vance.