I'm nearing the end of my trip (just 26 days to go!), so I thought I'd verbally dump my backpack out for you to see everything I've needed for backpacking for four months in Southeast Asia.
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Tiles in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia ... and some really dirty feet (mine)
What I Am Wearing After 3 Months Travelling SE Asia
Let's start at the ground, shall we, and work our way up.
For starters, there's my feet. If you look at the tops of my feet, they're fine. They're in the same pair of flip flops they've been in since I zipped open my backpack in Bangkok. If I take off the flip flops, you'll see gleaming baby-white skin shining out from the darkest, goldenest brown tan you've ever seen. At least I think it's a tan. My feet might also just be really dirty.
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A Room of My Own
One of the things I've had to really deal with a lot this trip is being on a rather tight budget means I am not always staying at the nicest of accommodation. Sometimes, things work out for the best (like Baan Traversi in Krabi), othertimes I think I'm getting a deal, only to enter into a cockroach showdown (Salad Beach Resort on Koh Phangan), and other times things have just been down right miserable (Hue Backpacker's and the horrid hostel on Cat Ba Island in Vietnam). Just when I think I've seen it all (grimy walls! A bed on the floor!), something new pops up that I never even thought possible.
In the case of my guesthouse in Chiang Mai, it was a toilet missing the tank lid and a mattress that was described on various reviews as "hard" but was basically sitting on a mattress stuffed full of metal car parts.
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The Grass is Always Greener (and other clichés about life)
Trekking in the rain through Myanmar -- tiny rocks piercing my feet, my face down against the incessant onslaught of beads of water hitting my face, my pants, shoes and jacket thoroughly soaked -- I daydreamed of my cozy, warm apartment in back home in San Francisco. To get my mind off the pain, I cycled through the recipes I'd make when I got home. As I mentally listed things I'd bake (moussaka, blueberry crumb bars, a meat pie) it occured to me that not too far in the future, I'd probably be standing in my kitchen next to the hot oven, gazing out the window at the foggy bay, waiting for the timer to chime, dreaming of trekking in Myanmar in the rain.
The grass is always greener, isn't it? The more I'm on this trip, the more this reality continues to rise up everyday. I'm starting to accept it's just a fact of life: there is always always something better, a better hotel room, a cooler travel destination, a more impressive job.
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