Very Grateful! Some Reflections!
While traveling over the past few months, I am really thankful for what I have. Clean water, safe place to sleep, clean clothes, food, running water, mostly healthy, free speech, and great friends. I am sure I am missing a lot of other things as well, but this is a good list to start. Sometimes I don’t realize what I have until I visit other countries that do not have some of those basic things and liberties. We take clean water for granted and we probable abuse our free speech in America, but I am grateful that I have both. I love my washing machine – I hand washed for ~1 week and it is nice to be able to wash clothes. I thought it was interesting that the washing machine is in the place of the dishwasher, when I was staying with Kris, my cousin, in Korea. It is a great idea. I should have looked at the plumbing under the sink. We put in a two sink in the my kitchen and it took a while to figure out the plumbing. You Tube is great! I can figure out how to troubleshoot my washer machine error message and buy the correct piece to fix it, add plumbing for two sinks, and hem jeans. Although I still do not know how to play Munchkin. The You Tube videos were mostly guesses on how to play the game. The kids were cute, but after awhile, it wasn’t worth trying to figure it out.
It is also funny what I miss while traveling. Asia has a large diversity of food, but sometimes, I just want guacamole and cranberry bagels. I lived in the southwest and west coast and avocados are abundant. Aperna has one of the best guacamole recipes! Cranberries is a very american thing (America is very good at marketing – I don’t think Canada, when I think of Cranberries). Don’t ask me why I want bagels – I do not eat them very often, but bagels are scarce in Asia. The other thing that I really missed is Indian food. The places I have visited so far has a ton of different types of food and normally I can eat the same thing for weeks.
The other thing that was interesting is that I got tired of traveling. It is great to see different places, experience different foods and cultures, but at some point, I did not want to see anything new. It took me a little while to figure out, where I wanted to travel next (after Singapore), and I wanted to fly back w/ Meg and family to the familiar guest bedroom. After I got here, I realized that I was leaving in ~1 week for another adventure. I could have stayed at some beach town and do nothing, but I wanted to be somewhere that was familiar and not new. I can better understand why people travel to the same places. It is nice to know where you are, how to get there, where to eat, and where to buy your favorite whatever it is. I was able to experience this a little, when I was traveling with friends in Asia. I have already been to some of the places and it was easy to figure out transportation, payment, food, subway systems, airport, etc. It takes less energy and I spend a lot less time on my phone trying to figure out where I have to go. Google maps is great! I can figure out bus schedules, train schedules, and direction (except in China). I don’t know how I traveled in my 20’s. We didn’t have google maps, cell phones, texting and somehow, I was able to figure out transportation, lodging, restaurants, and see famous places solo. Amazing!
Pokemon Go! I was in Taiwan, when Pokemon Go was released. Amazing how many people were playing the game. Everywhere I went in Asia, kids and adults are playing the game. This is when I realized that I do have to upgrade my smart phone. It takes to long to load and play Pokemon Go. Korea (except Sokcho) and China does not have Pokemon Go, since you cannot use google maps and/or products. I did catch at least 1 Pokemon in the places that I visited (besides S. Korea and China). I am really bad at catching Pokemons!
People are inspiring! I met so many different and helpful people. If they didn’t speak English, they would go get someone else who did. I am also grateful that almost everyone speaks/understands English. Google translate or the default translator on my phone is great as well. I am really amazed when people are fluent in multiple languages. I met some amazing people as well. I met a ~70 year old man from California who took off work for a couple of days, traveled to Tibet over the week, because it was on his bucket list, and then traveled back home to go to work on Monday. Amazing! I met another person from Brazil that is opening a restaurant in Xian. I met German/Chinese couples, French/Chinese couples, missionaries from Fiji, and a group of guys from Malaysia doing a guys trip without their families who worked with a common company. The most unusual thing is that I met someone who I use to work with in Japan on some random day tour group. It is funny. The world is huge, but small at the same time!
Asian style toilets. It is really quite easy if you have been backpacking/outdoor camping and made all of the bathroom mistakes in the woods. The nice thing about it is that you do not have to dig your own hole. Enough said about toilets. The nice thing is that you can almost always find a western toilet. If all else fails, go to a mall if you are near one.
Some interesting lessons:
- Always go to the bathroom if you have one near you – you never know if you will find another one or the condition of the bathroom. Bring your own tissue/toilet paper/baby wipes.
- If someone offers to do your laundry, do your laundry. If there is a convenient laundry machine, do your laundry.
- Bring cash, sometimes, your bank card doesn’t work in the ATM. It is strange I had the hardest time w/ my American bank card. Sometimes there are specific global ATM’s or specific banks that will give you cash (like the Bank of China, not the China Construction Bank). Meg also checks to make sure the key pad and the bank card slot does not move – here are tips on how to prevent ATM skimmers. Do the exchange rate conversion before you take out money to make sure you don’t take out more than the maximum amount. ATM’s do not tell you if you are taking too much out, they return your card.
- Exchange fees – at some point in time, it is just easier to exchange money at the airport. Otherwise, I spend time trying to find a bank or ATM to get money/exchange money.
- SIM Cards/Phone. Wow, I got lucky. My phone plan has global rooming at no extra costs. It works in most counties. The first SIM card I had to buy was in China.
- Unlock phone – I am glad I had enough forethought to ask my phone company if I can use my phone in China. I can use my phone, but I had to go through steps to unlock it before I went to China. Otherwise, I would not have internet access when I got to China and I would not be able to use their sim card to get internet access because my phone was not unlocked.
- Friends are great! It is great to travel and meet new people. It is also great to see familiar faces! I am glad I have friends than can travel to the other side of the globe.
- Wire transfer – make sure you set one up before you leave. I think my bank wants me to sign specific papers to do a wire transfer. I was lucky that I could send the money to Meg, so she can wire transfer the money to the travel agent in China.
- Double check if the apps on your phone will work in the foreign country. This was funny when I went to China, because I could not use any google apps and I was lucky I had Whatapp (messaging system) and the default apps on my phone (translator, maps, etc.). Before I went to China, Vivian asked me if I had WeChat (Popular messaging system in China), lucky I downloaded Wechat before I arrived because I have an android phone that downloads everything from the Google play store, but China blocks google. It is like a circular argument – you can’t download the app because you need google play and you can’t get the app via their web site because it is loaded on the google play store. It all worked out in the end and I had to communicate via Meg to email and Whatapp to meet with friends in Beijing and communicate with people back home. It maybe easier now! The internet changes all of the time!
- Ask for help! I am great for asking for help when I am lost or am not sure if I am going in the the correct direction. Meg has been great helping me get to know Asia a little bit better. When I get stuck on travel plans, she is great at finding better deals. This is interesting – when I was looking for plane tickets when I first got to Asia, the travel sites were quoting me higher prices than the prices that Kris and Meg would get for the same plane ticket. I had to have Kris or Meg send me the link or buy the tickets on their computers. The list goes on: getting visa, wiring money, place to stay, etc. Thank you!! Thank you!!
I am off to my next adventure. So it will be a couple of weeks before I post more pictures!