Are you a good traveler? I love planning trips, researching and looking for amazing and interesting places to visit, then go see and experience them in person, try new foods, customs, cultures. Unfortunately, I've never been the best traveler. Beset by too much crankiness, random anxiety, 'what ifs' and fussiness about things like running out of the only lotion that doesn't give me a rash, it is always a challenge to enjoy the journey and not annoy the hell out of everyone around me. Failure abounds.
I am a defective human with a tiny bladder and intolerances to gluten, fragrances, most skin products, heat, bad coffee and things I don't like. Every day is a lesson in finding the difference between actual real problems (knowing where the nearest bathroom is because lunch had hidden wheat) or just being a big whiny baby. Sometimes I can't tell, and spend way more time in the big baby camp. :) Todd, on the other hand, is an excellent traveler-curious and adventurous, he loves to explore and does not mind the endless minutia of travel challenges. Thankfully, Ellie & Jack are much more like him than me. Ellie, Zoe and The Jacks have taught me alot about going with the flow on this trip. They are amazing travelers.
One thing that Thailand has taught me is more patience with delays. It's nice not knowing what time or even what day it is most of the time, so if something is a little late, who cares.
We all have our ruts and routines, our little things that give us pleasure or shape our sanity. What's essential? Traveling really brings it all up. Take coffee-we live in an area that takes coffee seriously, and great coffee is everywhere. Here in Thailand, most of the time you get Nescafe powdered coffee that you can stand a spoon up in. You can get good coffee sometimes, but it might be a big effort to find it. Do you make that effort, just drink the Nescafe like medicine, switch to tea? It's enlightening to find out what is easy to let go of, and what is not. Sometimes it's such a trivial thing.
My favorite part of traveling is seeing the differences in how people live-architecture, infrastructure, stores, beds, clothes, gestures, gender roles, local habits, etc. But those are also the things that trip me up. Today it is the smoke. in many areas of Thailand, people burn garbage, vegetation and their fields. This is the dry season, so there are also lots of forest fires. This all results in air that stinks, low visibility and breathing problems. Luckily, it does not seem to be bothering Ellie, so it's easier to let it go.
Let it go. That's a good travel mantra I'll work on.
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