In the taxi to the hotel, I was glued to the window like a child watching planes take off for the first time, eyes wide open, sparkling with wonder. I was paying attention to everything. Absolutely everything.
I watched the cars go by, the motorbikes weaving between the lanes, the landscapes we drove through, the dense and chaotic traffic that somehow formed a strange kind of harmony.
And in the middle of this fascinated observation, a question came to me: Could I drive here? Just switching sides of the road — driving on the left in Thailand when I had come from Germany — was enough to throw me off.
But despite everything, one thought kept echoing in my head: I made it. A dream come true. I did it. Here I am, finally in Thailand.
After a few kilometers, the driver suddenly parked right next to a 7-Eleven. He turned to me and, in broken English, asked me to wait two minutes. And inside, I smiled. If only he knew what he had just done…
He had left me in front of a 7-Eleven. The store I had heard so much about, an almost mythical place for travelers — and one I still didn’t understand: why was a simple chain of convenience stores so famous here?
I got out and, without thinking, rushed inside. I grabbed two viral drinks I had seen on TikTok. Yes, I was prepared for this trip — almost too prepared. I had spent months gathering information, advice, tips. Anything that could be useful, anything that could make this trip even stronger, even more complete.
After that unexpected 7-Eleven stop, we got back on the road to the hotel. I sank into the back seat, beautiful landscapes rolling past the window, and I couldn’t stop smiling.
The ride lasted about an hour. An hour of discovery. An hour of wonder. An hour that already announced what was coming: this trip was going to be unique.
— Rogers