Expedition Thailand: Lessons Learned

Now that its been 2 months (oh my goodness, how time has flown!) since I've returned from my travels, I wanted to share all the life lessons that I learned while backpacking around this wonderful country:

1. When someone offers you the opportunity to do something crazy, fun, adventurous, etc. - Do It!  Had I backed out of unfamiliar circumstances, I probably never would have gone scuba diving, never seen the mosque in Pitsanulok, never met a number of wonderful people, never would have jumped into the back of a thai family's pickup to circle the city for Songkran, and never would have had many of the experiences that I did.
2. While sometimes incredibly confusing, cramped, and disgustingly hot, public transportation is the way to go.  Its cheaper, (sometimes) faster, and ALWAYS more entertaining.  I met a lot of enjoyable people on public transport - like the little boy that tried to bite my fingers off, the man that tried to match up the 3 American girls with the 3 German boys just because we all had white skin, and the old man who for 8 hours constantly narrated our entire trip in Thai, "We're turning left. We're 400 km from Nakhon Phanom. You can sit next to me, don't be afraid.  Now we're turning right. We're 399 km from Nakhon Phanom."
3. Learn a little bit of the local language.  Now, having been in Thailand for 5 months before heading out, we were all well ahead of the game of most travelers.  But here's the thing - hello, please, thank you, and excuse me, are enough to show the locals that you're invested in learning about their culture.  Knowing Thai probably saved me about $200 USD because I could get the "friend price" for nearly anything that cost money, it led to wonderful cultural exchanges, and it just made the whole journey so much easier.  We could travel off the beaten path more freely and truly experience a number of different places.
4. Before getting on a bus, calculate which side of the bus the sun will be on for the majority of the trip. Sit on the opposite side.
5. Don't be shy - talk to everyone you meet. Sure, you might get yourself stuck talking to someone who blabs on and on about nothing you care about, but you also just might make a great new friend.

To help you get a better idea of where in Thailand I traveled during my 5 weeks on the road, copy and paste this link into your browser:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=
201852724059212416675.0004a2fbd928fa9cd8fa8