Charming men know how to taste lives: English in other languages
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”)
Combat chic
The reversible, fashion-forward Ho Chi Minh sandal. Way #12,823 that Ho Chi Minh outsmarted a vaster, richer, more militarized army. (No footprints.) (Also kinda sexy-looking.) (And eco-friendly - made from truck tires.) (I want the baby one!)
