Reason #17 we should go to Thailand: We love to get lost

So I'll admit that I'm usually a girl who needs a plan. I keep a detailed schedule of my appointments and meetings for my job, and I like to have things planned out beforehand. To a certain extent, I'm also like this on vacation. I want to make sure that I get a chance to see everything I want to in the limited amount of time I have, and I do a lot of research ahead of time to plan each day of my trip around the sights I just have to see. But I also understand that part of the excitement of traveling is to throw that schedule away and just enjoy the moment and go wherever the day takes me. There is a joy in throwing away the map and getting lost.

When I studied in Seville, Spain, I often spent my afternoons purposefully getting lost. After I had lived in the city for a month, I was familiar with its layout and had a routine. I took a particular route to school each morning. I had a favorite cafe, a favorite book store, and a favorite heladeria. But I knew that there was so much more to the city that I hadn't been able to explore yet. It was time to shake things up. So a few times a week in the late afternoon, I set out. I would always start at the cathedral because the bell tower (called the La Giralda) was the tallest point in the city. Then I would set out in a different direction, wandering the narrow streets, entering stores I came across, and taking pictures of cathedrals and other historical landmarks I encountered. I knew that as long as I could see La Giralda, I wasn't really lost, and I could always find my way home before the dinner or meeting planned for that evening. It was through this method that I found some of my favorite parts of the city. I explored the old Jewish area of the city, discovered a convent that sold the best marmalade in Seville, and took pictures of sections of the old city wall and the remains of the Roman aqueduct. Because of my wandering explorations, by the time I left Seville at the end of the summer, I felt I really knew it. I had explored all the back corners and side streets that held the city's history.

While in Kyoto with Theo and my sister, we got lost a little less on purpose. The wonderfully comfortable but out of the way guest house we stayed in was a little hard to find at night in the dark, and we spent an evening wandering through Kyoto neighborhoods until we found our destination. While we were certainly happy to see our beds when we found our way back, we were never really angry about getting lost. We knew it was just part of the adventure. I also learned more about Japanese street signs that evening than I had ever considered before.

While we're in Chiang Mai, you can believe that I'll plan detailed itineraries so that we can visit all of the wonderful sights the city has to offer. But we'll build our schedule with the understanding that sometimes it's better to let the city lead the way. You never know what you might discover.