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Every time I feel down, I find myself thinking of those days that we spent in South-East Asia. But what is the reason behind that? I needed the idea of a target before that trip. Lucky me, my mother wanted to go on this adventure with my guidance. The trip started with great beach days in Phuket and the excitement of many possibilities that 35 days might bring to us. Our next stop was Khao Sok National Park, since we were on a budget we took local bus. We bought the tickets, waited a little longer than expected but we got on the bus. It was August, so rain didn’t come out of left field. A few hours later, turnboy was standing over us and trying to tell something. Suddenly, we found ourselves outside with our bags, we were trying to understand what was happening bleary-eyed. He put us into a tuk-tuk, we were on the road again. Apparently earth roads were damaged by heavy rain. You can’t control everything on the road, it comes with its own extras, sometimes fun adventures, sometimes full of concerns. After sunny days on the beach, we were finally in the middle of rainy forest part of the country. Local people were different, even the profile of tourists were whole another thing. We were going to stay at Mr.Kong’s bungalows. It was a family business. We ate delicious Thai food cooked by his mother during our stay. There were some shops nearby. Next step was to plan National Park visit. We chose a special tour which covers both day and night time. It made a lot of sense to me as an industrial engineering student who was trying to optimize every minute of the trip. Our guide came to our resort next day around 4pm. We had our colorful sandals on, but national park was not the right place for sandals. Mr.Kong gave us rubber shoes, as my mother took one of the shoes in her hand to put it on, a frog jumped out of it, not the ideal beginning of a hike. Our guide was standing and laughing at our chickened-out faces. Eventhough I can’t remember his name, I remember his face pretty clear. We were all pretty silent at the beginning. But actually he was better than most of my friends at English. He was born there, didn’t travel much. He learned all about park from his father. As we were walking, he pulled his notebook from his pocket to write down new Turkish words that he asked us. That’s also how he got so much better at English. We were the first Turkish people that he met. He was walking in front of us, you must have seen him, his eyes were checking every detail that he might get to show us. When we arrived next to the bourn, we stopped for dinner that he was going to prepare for us by using bamboo branch and leafs. He was a great cook, we had a full Thai dinner. Night walk was terrifying, it was all dark. There were leeches in the mud coming on our legs, big spiders, but also beautiful birds and butterflies. As the hike got further, our conversation got deeper. He was father of three and only a few years older than me. I couldn’t believe that, he looked so much older than me. This was the first time that I got to see how way of living can change the value of same amount of years. He asked me if I would come back again with my future kids. I said, I would love to be gone there when I was a kid, so it seemed to be a great idea to go back there with my family and I replied his question “ yes”. He told me he has never seen snow, and said “bring me snow, next time”. He was so curious about it. He is one the reasons behind my need for going back there. I promised him to bring snow.