The journey to Thailand and Cambodia had started from a simple phrase Shipra must have said a few years ago: You should visit me when I am in Bangkok!

A few years later, it was that…her classmates from grad school and other friends assembled together to travel overseas. Somehow 2 weeks to spend in countries that nobody had visited before (except for Jake) relying on our Lonely Planet guidebooks and Shipra’s knowledge. Somehow it all survived.

What was your favorite moment, I was asked when I came back.

It was funny because the night before I left…I was chatting with Geeta until I fell asleep and while she was trying to will time away before her 6 am flight. Idly, I asked, “What was your top 5 favorite moments of the last 2 weeks?”

Immediately, she said “Ko Lanta. Then Cambodia.”

I laughed, knowing why. I hesitated knowing that my own answers were atypical of most visitors to paradise. Perhaps it was growing up in California (albeit the Bay Area) with easy access to pools, beaches, Florida and LA. Perhaps it was my growing love of the urban cities in my early twenties…or that simply I was interested and curious about people. Not at all how nature affected me like when the heat in Arizona evaded any appreciation of Grand Canyon and the pervasive boredom in Hawaii. As I grew older, taking photos took precedent almost as if capturing landscapes to show people later that I was in a place, but not necessarily enjoying it.

“The first real day in Bangkok,” I said. “When Jeff and I woke up early—around 6 am. We walked down a street without knowing where we going—just that I wanted a hair cut. I had found a market in Lonely Planet, but didn’t know how to get there. We went into an area where we didn’t see a single person that spoke English for more than an hour—surrounded by every day Bangkok life of insects as food and busy people getting groceries for the day. That was my favorite moment.”

I later did include the “private island” moment when we had lunch after kayaking—an island with sand where your feet would sink, but not sink far. Where the water was cool on one side of the island and on the other side of the island—only 30 feet wide—the water was like a sauna. The island where shells were abundant and whole. And for more than an hour, it felt like we were truly lost in paradise.