Oh! Yes!
South America’s two biggest hits at the moment
Not gonna lie, I’m digging the Michel Telo jam.
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”)
Actual things Brazilians think
- That God is Brazilian.
Fábio: Because we don’t have wars. Nobody attacks us and we attack nobody.
Me: And the extreme poverty, hunger and violence?
Fábio: Yeahhhh, but the whole world has that.
Me: Hmmm moving on…
(I know you’re reading this Fábio… no offense, I just find that hilarious! Besides, we all know God is an American.)
- That a Brazilian invented flying.
- That if a beer isn’t ice cold, it’s “hot.” I’m pretty sure there isn’t even a Portuguese word for ‘warm.’
- That I look like a celebrity. So far I’ve heard I look like an actor from one of their TV shows (no pic provided unfortunately), Toby Maguire, and James Blunt.
