- People who live their whole lives not wearing shoes have crazy looking feet. They are super muscular and big and their toes are spread apart like mini fingers.
- When you find a perfume or lotion to test out in a store, you ALWAYS test it out. Because inevitably you smell and/or look terrible and wearing perfume makes you feel like a “lady.”
- You learn your every country, ride or die meal, and search it out regularly. Not because it’s your favorite but because it’s predictable. (Mine is dried mango, cashews, and some sort of dark chocolate if I’m lucky).
- Leather seats, while pretty, only make you sweat more and are unbelievably undesirable on any and all bus rides. Never, ever, will I have leather seats.
- Too many people to count lie about directions. It’s not helpful when you’re a newbie in town for like 5 minutes and trying to find a toilet. Stop doing it, you Americans.
- Toilet paper is a vastly Western concept. Carrying a spare roll EVERYWHERE you go is never looked down upon.
- Squatty potties are everywhere. Sometimes it’s a hole in the ground, sometimes it’s ceramic and clean. Either way, you are going to get pee on your feet. There’s no way around it. If all of these countries have figured out how to not get pee on your feet, I’d love to hear about it. In the meantime, I’ll be over here with baby wipes.
- It’s not scary traveling. Most of the time. Somehow we envision being in the middle of nowhere with no way to figure out how to get home or to food or water or a cell phone. But that’s just not true. People are inherently good and people are everywhere. Last month, we were on a bus in the middle of Cambodia with no idea where we were going and no phone and a man I didn’t know translated to another man I didn’t know who called my host for me and then translated directions to the bus driver. Go somewhere off road that you can’t plan. Don’t let fear of the unknown hold you back. The discoveries you’ll have will be worth it and you’ll see the best of people all over the earth.
- People play American music almost everywhere. Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber are just as ridiculous and just as popular everywhere I’ve been as in the U.S. I know, it surprised me too.
- Coca-cola is like the world’s favorite drink. Pepsi wants you to believe that they are better and more popular. It’s a lie. Coke is selling in villages where they don’t even have a bed to sleep in. Oh and they call it “Coca.”
- When you enter into countries who are not that long out of war, genocide, or crisis, you can feel it. The air is different, the people are scared, there’s an air of anxiety that just lives and breathes. You get really good at just “feeling” a place when you hop cities and towns and countries regularly.
- KFC is way more popular than you would ever dream. It’s like everywhere you turn. I don’t understand it. That’s all.
- Everyone believes that America is really beautiful. When you talk with people about America, most everyone says, “oh yes, I’d love to visit! It’s so beautiful isn’t it?!” In general, I think of the corn fields and mini hills I grew up around and pause to come up with something that’s not discouraging. However, every time, what I start to realize is how diverse and wild America really is. Beautiful beaches to giant forests to peaceful plains. Big gleaming cities and quiet country landscapes. Sea to shining sea and all that junk. We’re pretty stinking blessed.
- Every country works and labors and toils the day away differently. In Mozambique we worked like 3 hours so stinking hard and then we rested for 3. Then repeat. All. Day. Long. It drove me crazy. Americans work like they’re sprinting. It’s a hard habit to break.
- Countries that don’t have air conditioning also don’t have heat. The way to withstand the heat is to not expend energy as much as possible. Lay in a hammock. Pull up your shirt over your tummy. Sit in front a fan and do very little. The way to withstand the cold is by wearing as many blankets as possible in public places, in as many ways as possible. In South Africa, we started wearing them as skirts after we watched the locals do it. In Thailand, it was as an additional jacket over your shoulders. Inside, outside, everywhere. Anything goes.
- As a girl who doesn’t particularly struggle with sweating or body odor, I used to think a shirt was dirty after I wore it once or twice, maybe three times. Now, I know that I can wear my clothes somewhere between 5 and 7 times before they are really, actually dirty. And then I normally have to wash it because I inevitably, clumsily, spilled something on myself.
- Good coffee is a blessing. I’ve learned how much I adore coffee. Not just the taste, but the experience. The slow and luxurious process of sipping. How the warmth drips all the way down to your stomach, warming your heart along the way. Maybe this sounds dramatic, but it’s real. Living a fast life, with gross instant coffee in the passenger seat most days, makes you appreciate the days of sitting across from a friend, lazily drinking an Americano. Truth be told, at least 1/2 of my off days on the race are spent seeking out this glorious experience.
- Motos (or motobikes or scooters) are bananas. They are exempt from traffic laws and do whatever they want. If they hit you in Nepal, they will hit you hard in hopes of killing you because the driver has to pay less if you are dead. In Vietnam, the only way to cross the street is by walking out in front of traffic. Then you walk at a steady pace, assuming that everyone sees you. If you stop you confuse them and risk being hit. So you keep going, all while motos zoom around you. It’s insane.
- Every single country I’ve been to has some random, very loud speaker system nearby. It plays music/makes announcements/yells/celebrates at all sorts of crazy hours of the night. Noise laws are a gift from God.
- Thailand loves fluorescent lighting. Vietnam loves skin whitening cream. Cambodians eat frog on a stick. Regularly. Mozambique is all about the party, all the time. And India loves Hollywood.
