I Come Alone – to Thailand
Michelle Coote has written a pair of travel books you might enjoy: I Come Alone: Travels in Thailand and India and Rickety Buses. After she escaped an unfulfilling, materialistic western lifestyle she found freedom on the open road. If you’re feeling stuck in your current situation Michelle Coote shows you, by personal example that there are other options available to live life. The insights she gains from seeing Thailand (where I live) and India through Australian eyes are well worth the price of the book. Her first encounter with poverty, in the form of a rickshaw driver, and her response to it are touching and genuine. And episodes like her attempts to check into a brothel – to the alarmed horror of the proprietor – ice the cake.
Volume 2 (so to speak), ‘Rickety Buses’ continues the adventure with return visits to both Thailand and India and I’ve reviewed it separately. Definitely read both and, for maximum fun, in order of creation. In Rickety Buses Michelle returns to Thailand and India, seasoned by her first encounters, and as game as ever for inevitable adventures. By this time she’s had time to study the countries’ exotic history and brings a depth of understanding that the rollicking style of first volume lacked. All the better for it, in my opinion. As her understanding grows, so does ours. I noticed a distinctly deeper response to the Bodh Gaya beggars in this volume. Where before they were colorful background, now they become fully human beings who demand her response. And respond she does.
You can look inside both books here.