Needless to say, Asia is quite unique from the western world. It is wonderful, beautiful, but also a bit odd to what I am used to seeing. I know I am in Asia:
-When you go into a store or mall and the worker follows you around as if you are going to steal something. (Cambodia)
-When you will be asked to take SO many selfies with people OR you will see people sneakily taking pictures of you. (Everywhere)
-When two people on motorbike and someone holding an IV bag above the driver…. (Cambodia)
-When you will see giant coackroaches scrambling into a the drainage thing on the road. (Vietnam)
-When you see rats–some the size of cats. (Vietnam, Cambodia)
-When you are called “Antie, antie!” (Cambodia)
-When your bathroom is all tile with a shower head in it–no bathtubs and no separate showers. (Everywhere)
-When you see runover rats. (Cambodia)
-When you see a family of 5 riding on a motorbike. (Everywhere)
-When you see dogs of all shapes and sizes everywhere. (India, Nepal)
-When you see cows, water buffalo, and/or oxen free-roaming. (Everywhere)
-When you see people covered in head to toe in clothing while on motorbike so as not to get tan. (Vietnam)
-When you drive in a sleeper busses. (Everywhere)
-When people go swimming fully clothed. (Vietnam)
-When it is completely normal not to have toliet paper in a household. (India)
-When a large gecko makes sounds like something will kill you. (Cambodia)
-When people wearing masks to help with breathing–but you feel like they may look like a killer. (Nepal, Vietnam)
-When your feet are dangling off the top bunk of a sleeper bus, you will be yelled at. (India and Vietnam)
-When you are in the markets, you can find frogs, eels, chickens. (Cambodia)
-When personal space isn’t a thing. (Everywhere)
-When your power goes out and it may come back on in ten minutes or two hours. (India, Vietnam, Cambodia)
-You will see a family of 4 riding on motorbike and the mom breastfeading. (Vietnam)
-You will find out that busses and trucks have horns that are actually songs. (India, Nepal)
-When you use a crossroad you have more of a chance of dying than if you didn’t. (Everywere)
-When you need to go buy chicken–but you get to watch it be killed, defeathered, and then you get it. (India)
-When lines in stores aren’t a thing. (India, Cambodia)
-When you see all manner of things being carried on motorbike: From ladders, to a couple hundred eggs, to 16 cases of beer… (Everywhere)
-When you are traveling and your option is either peeing in the sketchy squatty potty or outside when there is no squatty potty. (Everywhere)
-When the power goes out in the mall several times in a couple hours and the locals continue as if nothing has changed. (India)
-When you wake up and their is a gigantic sweat stain on your sleeping bag liner. (Cambodia)
-When not so mini photo-shoots on the beach with a million selfie sticks being used improperly and camera’s. (Vietnam)
-When the locals laugh at you, but you have no idea why because they don’t speak English. (everywhere…)
-When it starts pouring rain, weird ponchos start popping out magically as people are driving on motorbike. (Vietnam)
-When you see half-naked or naked kids. (Cambodia)
-When men are peeing eveywhere and anywhere–especially by a wall. (India, but I also saw it some in Nepal)
-When you are served two rice dishes at a meal. (India)
-When you use the bathrooms and IF you are able to wash your hands, you probably won’t have anything to dry your hands with. (Everywhere)
-When you eat differently: With your hands (India), chopsticks and laddles (Vietnam), spoons and laddles. (Cambodia)
-When you see construction/road workers working in flip-flops. (Everywhere)
-Giant geckos that sound like some SCARY thing. (Cambodia)
-When you see matching shorts for couples: Swim trunks for the man and more feminine shorts for the girl but the same pattern–meaning, they had to probably buy it as a set. (Vietnam)
-When you get a cooking play set and part of the “play” food is a squid. (Cambodia)
