Planes, Trains & Automobiles

This is what Brian said to me over dinner. And I guess he’s right because I haven’t been completely honest. Mostly because I don’t want people to think that I’m ungrateful for this wonderful opportunity, or that I’m a “princess.” But truthfully, I haven’t had the best time in South East Asia and actually made the decision to cut my trip short and go home. So here’s some honesty, a few things that I’m tired of:

-having to ask for a napkin or use toiletpaper as a napkin
-asking for the bill at every meal
-having dirty feet everyday because there are few sidewalks and more dirt than grass, in fact, there’s no grass here
-taking my shoes off before I enter any place so that my feet can get even filthier
-beds that are made with cartoon character sheets, mismatching pillows and towels as blankets
-sleeping with geckos in my room every night
-constantly smelling the stank of the sewage system
-showering in bathrooms where the whole bathroom is the shower stall
-using those dinky wands to shower with
-going to the bathroom over pits in the ground
-being crammed into every mode of transportation we take
-sleeping in rooms with dirty walls, where you can literally see the remains of the last 200 people who slept there
-being hasseled for everything, I mean everything
-being charged a higher price because I’m not a local
-not spending that extra $5 for a room with a/c in order to save room in the budget
-seeing trash everywhere and not being able to find a trash can
-being helped by people who don’t know what customer service is
-not being able to drink the water
-always questioning whether we’re getting ripped off
-feeling guilty for indulging
-mistaking a local’s friendliness as help instead of what it really is, a nicer way of begging for money

Despite all of these things, and the possibilty that it might get worse, I decided to stick it out. But I won’t be going to India this time around. I can only take so much. Instead, after a few days in Chiang Mai, Brian will board a plane to India and I’ll board a plane to Bali for a week at Club Med. After a little pampering and relaxation, I’m headed to Paris and then to Italy to meet up with Brian. It’s better than going home and will give me the boost I need for the rest of our trip!

It’s funny, we’ll be away from each other for almost 3 weeks, which will be the longest we’ve been away from each other since Brian was in Europe. I think we’ll manage.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 9:25 pm and is filed under Round-The-World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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