Letters from Bangkok

Lessons on hospitality, curiosity and lifelong learning from my 86-year-old Thai friend

Sawadee ka fellow learn-it-all 👋

Greetings from Don Mueang International Airport in Thailand 🇹🇭

I just checked my backpack and it’s down to 15kg. It feels good to be lighter than before. I feel strong enough to carry it which I can’t say the same a couple weeks ago…

When my Grab taxi driver picked me up from my homestay, he asked me to double check that I was going to the correct airport. Been there, done that with learning about cities having two airports when I lived in Chicago.

Then he asked me where I was flying. I said, “Loei.”

He said “What? Loei! You must be a Thai local.”

I laughed.

“How many days you stay in Thailand?”

“Seven months,” I said trying to quickly do mental math of 7 times 30 in my head but didn’t want to come across as pompous.

“Wow, you must like Thailand.”

“Yes, the people are so kind, I get to learn about Buddha, and I’ve gained seven kilograms from tasty noodles, soup and rice [before the dengue virus and food poisoning the past few weeks].”

Then I explained how I am going there to live in an eco-village to meditate and learn more about Buddha and be mindful.

Anywho, this past week, I’ve lived with a Thai host family I met in Chiang Rai a couple months ago at a meditation course. This experience has left me inspired. I will share the letter I wrote Suwit last night and gifted him this morning.

Now, let’s dive into letter 263 from a learn-it-all. Enjoy!

❓Question to think about

Who has inspired me lately?

🖊️Writing

Wednesday May 21, 2025
📍10:30pm in Bangkok, Thailand

Dear Suwit,

I am glad we were roommates in Chiang Rai. It allowed us to cross paths—you, May, and I —at the meditation course. The course was not what I expected, but I’m grateful I crossed paths with your family because of it.

Thank you for being so forthcoming with your invitation to host me if I ever find myself in Bangkok. Here I am now because of it.

I love how you laugh with your domestic helper Mii and still smile at life, like the happy man enjoying his ice cream. I love that Uncle Sanit and you act like mischievous boys who just left middle school again.

I love that you have a family that takes you to eat Italy and takes a work day off for quality time at the Jim Thompson house museum. I love that we were curious to go to every floor, no matter how many steps there were.

I love that you know your neighbors, especially the intelligent blind husband, and know them like family when you walk around the block.

I love that even though your beloved wife, brother and son have passed away, you still have a bright spirit to live even when others leave.

I love how you read voraciously about everything, even ChatGPT 4 and new technologies. You read every book at least twice, slashing each bottom corner of the page each time you read it. You also learn margin notes of new English words translated to Thai. I appreciate you loaning me some of your English library during my stay. Please do email James Clear to tell him your American guest enjoys his book.

I love how the staircase to your guest bedroom has the cutest black + white naked babies framed. They’re so cute.

Suwit — you remind me of my grandpa, who passed when I was ten years old. He was a gritty engineering businessman with an international career and diabetes, too. A family man through and through.

Thank you for hosting me. I needed this week to reset my energy and give me clarity on my direction. I missed being part of a family. How you’d make me eggs for breakfast in the morning, like my dad does for me.

When I am 86 years old, I hope to still bring light to someone else as you’ve done for me.

With many wishes for you to live to 120 years old,
— Jennifer, your American meditation student

PS - thank you for your note in my friendship memory book

🎧 Listening

🌟Quote to inspire

"When someone is seeking, it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal... For in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose."

— Poet and novelist Hermann Hesse on remaining open and receptive to what the world offers you.

📸Photos of the Week

🙏Shoutouts

• To Suwit, Mae, Mii, and Sanit for the quality times together

• to Meghan for the 7/11 snack recs and her 10 year old brother Manny who beat me in his first game of Monopoly

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I appreciate you reading this!

If ideas resonated, I’d love you to press the heart button, leave a comment, reply to this email, or reach me at vermetjl@gmail.com.

Keep on learning 😁

K̄ha bhuṇ ka 🌺 🌺

Jen

PS - in case you missed last week’s letter, I wrote a poem called “How lucky am I?”

PPS- if you’d like to read my favorite letters, the best way to encourage my work is to buy my book on Amazon here.

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