Manifesting Thailand: Ending Up Where You Belong

It never ceases to amaze me how ancient wisdom and philosophy get repackaged and presented as something new. My YouTube feed is full of sage advice from stoics, yogis, and Zen masters, all trying to help me help myself.

This new obsession with “manifesting” caught my attention recently. Can you really “think” something into existence? I remember this idea from 50 years ago when it was called “The Power of Positive Thinking,” but I’m sure it goes back further than that.

Do you have to try and manifest what you want? Did I get to where I am because I manifested it? Do we subconsciously manifest? I had a lot of questions.

How It All Started

In the early 1970s, my Uncle Jay was the coolest guy I knew. He was handsome, he had great hair, he wore nice clothes, and he drove a Corvette. To my cousin Freddy and me, he was Shaft, Superfly, and James Bond all rolled into one person. During the Vietnam War, he joined the US Air Force and was stationed at Utapao Air Base near Rayong, Thailand. He was an amateur photographer and used to send back hundreds of 35mm slides from photos he took during his tour of duty.

My cousin and I would load the slides into my grandmother’s carousel projector and watch the life-size slideshow on the basement wall right there in Lafayette, Indiana. Coconut trees, monkeys, cobras, pretty girls, and bonfires on the beach—it was like he was living in an adventure movie, and we were watching it.

Nothing Was Exotic Enough

In the late 1990s, I had a nice career and was stacking up all the stuff Americans like to spend their money on: big houses, fancy cars, expensive this and that. Travel became my main vice.

I’d lived overseas while serving in the US Air Force, so adapting to foreign environments was a familiar challenge. Because I lived in Florida, traveling to Central America and the Caribbean was a convenient flight lasting less than three hours. I visited Costa Rica many times. I almost fell in love in the Dominican Republic. And I made some good friends in Panama.

But none of these places felt exotic enough. I grew up in Florida. Panama City just seemed like Tampa. I didn’t realize how much Latin culture I’d grown up with until I started traveling the region.

I was inexplicably drawn to Asia. While in the military, I volunteered for assignments in Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines. I never got stationed in any of those places. Instead, I was assigned to a NATO base in Greece, so I really can’t complain. From there, I traveled all over southern Europe for three years, turning my cultural curiosity into a permanent case of wanderlust.

Completely Out of My Comfort Zone

Arriving in Bangkok: A 25-hour flight sparked the beginning of an adventure into the unknown.|©iStock/David_Bokuchava

What I craved was something completely out of my comfort zone. I wanted food I’d never tasted, a language I didn’t know a word of, and to experience a way of living that simply was not available back home. I looked on a globe to determine how far I could go without starting to come back. In July 1999, I boarded a Northwest Airlines flight to Bangkok, Thailand.

After 25 hours in a pressurized tube, I landed at the old Don Muang Airport around midnight. I stood at the luggage carousel for 45 minutes until I realized my suitcase hadn’t made the tight connection in Tokyo.

The polite young Thai man at the Northwest office asked where I was staying and wrote down the name of my hotel on a post-it note. “So sorry, sir, your bag will come to your hotel in the morning.” The “type A” American in me wanted to complain, fill out forms, and find out who the supervisor was. But for reasons I could not explain, I had complete confidence in this young man’s claim that my stuff would show up by morning. I thanked him and moved on.

After changing some money, I headed toward the big glass doors where I could see a taxi queue waiting in front of the airport. When the doors parted, and I stepped outside, a thick, steaming wave of sound and smell like I’d never experienced washed over me. Bangkok has a very distinct bouquet of joss sticks, diesel fumes, and dogshit. It was a little funky, but it smelled like Chanel No. 5 to me.

Bangkok Was Just Like I’d Dreamed It

Vibrant streets of Sukhumvit, Bangkok: A bustling hub of culture, color, and endless energy.|©iStock/tobiasjo

The ride to the hotel was like watching Blade Runner from the backseat of a taxi. Swarms of motorcycles whizzing by, sidewalks teeming with every type of person imaginable, piquant aromas wafting by from sizzling food carts. Bangkok was just like I’d dreamed it, only in Technicolor and with surround sound.

The next morning, I went down to the dining room for breakfast and marveled at the diversity of guests. I was not accustomed to seeing Sikh men wearing turbans, Muslim women in hijabs, and people eating fish for breakfast. I became keenly aware I wasn’t in Orlando anymore. After a light breakfast, I returned to my room to find all my clothes hung up in the closet and my suitcase stored under the bed, just as I somehow knew they would be.

Stepping out onto the footpath of Sukhumvit Road for the first time and soaking in the sights and sounds of a Monday morning in Bangkok made me drunk with sensory overload. Just being somewhere so radically different was exhilarating. I walked and walked for hours until I was hungry again.

An irresistible aroma drew me to a food cart attached to a motorcycle near the corner of Sukhumvit Road and Soi 22. I pointed to a picture of noodles with pork on the front of the cart. A huge city bus sat idling at the traffic light, and I saw my reflection in the glass doors.

I laughed aloud at the image of me squatting on a wobbly plastic stool under a raggedy umbrella, slurping down a bowl of spicy-as-hell noodles, and pressing a cold Beer Chang against my neck to cool down. Bangkok had bewitched, beguiled, and seduced me already. My homepage was reset.

Followed Several Paths

For Bart, Phuket was a leap into a new chapter of life.|©iStock/maddog99

Since arriving in Thailand 25 years ago, I’ve followed several paths that all seem to have just happened to cross mine. After six months in Bangkok, I moved to the island of Phuket and built four houses. I had never built any houses before, but I’d always wanted to try it. I stepped off the plane and acted like a real estate developer, so for a few years, I was one.

In 2009, someone said they thought I had a way with words and would make a good copywriter or journalist. I liked that idea, so I started writing for my friend’s real estate magazine in Pattaya. Since then, I’ve written hundreds of articles for dozens of clients. I had never written for money before, nor had I ever considered it. I just started acting like a writer, and now I am one. You can go to my website and see samples of my work. My first novel was published in 2021. Who knew?

In 2014, I met a guy at the gym who said he thought I’d be a good teacher and offered me a job. I’d never considered it, but it sounded like a cool gig, so I took a five-week course and got certified to teach English. For the next six years, I taught basic English to little kids. I taught test-taking skills to young adults. Ultimately, I taught Academic Writing for credit at a major university in Bangkok. I put on my teacher tie and schoolboy glasses and acted like a professor, so I was one. I still teach Chinese kids online.

Is This Manifesting?

I don’t know if this is what people mean when they say they “manifest” something. I don’t feel like I thought anything into existence. I saw interesting opportunities and took them. One of my favorite sayings is, “When you see the Good Luck Bus coming down the street, it’s still up to you to get on it.”

However, I must admit that I could definitely feel some kind of mystical gravity drawing me to and keeping me in Thailand. Once I arrived, I never thought I needed to be anywhere else. Even when I’ve taken trips back to visit friends and family in the US, I’m ready to come home to Thailand in about 10 days.

The question remains: Have I been finding these opportunities, or are they finding me? I feel like the Good Luck Bus has been following me around, and I keep getting on. Am I doing it, or am I just going with the flow?

Summer Afternoons in Indiana

Settled in Jomtien Beach, Bart has found peace and happiness in the place he’s always meant to be.|©iStock/stockinasia

Many people ask me how or why I chose to live in Thailand, and I have a pocketful of answers depending on how I feel that day. There are many things I love about this kooky country, so I’m a pretty chatty spokesperson for the Land of Smiles.

Recently, someone asked me a different question: “When did you first start thinking about living in Thailand?”

My mind time-traveled to those summer afternoons in Indiana more than 50 years ago. I remember eating popcorn, drinking Kool-Aid, and watching slide shows of my Uncle Jay’s adventures in Thailand. My cousin Freddy and I made a solemn promise to go there “when we grow up.” In 1999, I finally made it.

I realized that I’ve wanted to live in Thailand since I was ten years old. For the past 12 years, I’ve lived in Jomtien Beach, about 20 minutes from where my uncle was stationed.

I’m on that beach. I’m in that movie. I finally got to where I belong. It felt like the path of least resistance, but maybe I was manifesting it all along.