Southeast Asia: Loves and Hates

Loves

• Free tea with almost every meal
• Children yelling hello and giving high-fives in the street
• Sandals and shorts are appropriate everywhere
• The conspicuous absence of police
• The variety of fruit
• $3 hostel beds in every city
• $1 meals
• “Same same but different”
• Unashamed plagiarism of everything: movies, music, books, brands, storefronts, designer clothes, jewelry, etc. A Vietnamese friend put it perfectly when another girl copied my jack-o-lantern design: “Vietnam very good at copy.”
• There’s always a motorbike around when you need one
• People will sleep anywhere, at any time
• Cows are community lawnmowers
• No coins! (except Thailand)
• Monks doing normal people stuff – using cell phones, riding bikes, surfing the Internet. Always funny.
• No tipping!

Hates

• Being hungry after every meal
• Blatant dishonesty of the tourism industry – “yes yes, no problem my friend.”
• Lonely Planet refusing to admit that some cities just plain suck. Beware of code words “charming” and “acquired taste,” which translate to “stay away.”
• There’s always a motorbike around when you don’t need one
• Hot girls are sometimes not girls. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “hot or not.”
• Low regard for nature and preservation
• Foreigners paying higher prices than locals
• Service is terrible (see “no tipping”)