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Maybe I've already been here too long, but I think this is the best thing ever.

A Thought (and Many Words) on Expectation and Travel

So I recently returned from a trip to the Philippines. With every new plane I board, I find myself flying further and further away from the girl who left Boston back in September. My dear friend Julie and I bought our round-trip tickets from Taipei to Manila a month ago, but we had planned absolutely nothing else in between these destinations.

We arrived in the middle of the night Feb. 16. Slept at the airport. And walked into a beautiful Filipino 7 a.m. sunshine with only the weight of our little backpacks and the bright, shiny feeling of freedom and optimism that comes with being in a foreign country with no plans. We literally did not know our next step until we planted one foot in front of the other.

I thought that with such little expectation, there would be no room for disappointment. However, poor planning (or nonexistent in our case) is not the same as being void of expectation. You can't escape expectations.

I had this postcard image in my head of a palm tree-lined beach along a clear blue ocean that we had seen when we arrived in Manila (and promptly booked our next flight to said beach shortly thereafter).

My mind never ventured to what lay beyond the sand in the photograph, and I found myself extremely bummed the first days beach bumming through Boracay. It was such a mecca for mediocre food, beach-side tattoos and hair-braiding, drunk men using the ocean as a giant public urinal, and rows full of stalls peddling Boracay-labeled trinkets -- not the off-the-beaten path adventure I had hoped for. 

I'm reading Alain de Botton's The Art of Travel, and I love how he describes his personal experience with this phenomena during a trip to Barbados:

"Nothing was as I had imagined it, which is surprising only if one considers what I had imagined. In the preceding weeks, my thoughts of the island had circled exclusively around three immobile mental images, assembled during the reading of a brochure and an airline timetable...If pressed, I would naturally have recognized that the island had to include other elements, but I had not needed them in order to build an impression of it."

But for me everything changed when we accidentally wandered into a cemetery in the mountains. There were stone coffins/tombstones seemingly haphazardly stacked atop one another. We realized that one of the young women buried in front of us was born just a few months after me. She died at 16.

Suddenly I felt so ungrateful and selfish for coming to this girl's home (it really looked just like the paradise pictures had advertised) and not appreciating it for everything that it was and might have been for her had she lived long enough to see me face to face that day.

I thought about all the experiences I would have missed if I hadn't made it past 16 -- how small my world was then and how little hope I had for my future around that time.

In just the 10 days we spent in the Philippines, there really was so much to experience and so many new things to see:

• became a certified scuba diver
• danced alongside posh Brazilian models in Manila
• got attacked by a family of jellyfish in Moalboal
• sang love songs over the intercom system to a plane full of Cebu Pacific passengers
• ate chicken fetuses
• swam under waterfalls in Kawasan
• hiked in dark caves alongside baby bats and alien spiders
• ate a cheese popsicle
• met tarsiers in Loboc
• slept in the jungle and showered with big lizards
• pet the tiniest goat I have ever seen and admired Chocolate Hills in Bohol
• ...while all along the way getting to know this amazing new friend who lived an ocean away from me only months before.

Boton quotes J.K. Huysman's 1884 novel A Rebours (while discussing the protagonist's ambivalence toward traveling to faraway destinations): "the imagination could provide a more-than-adequate substitute for the vulgar reality of actual experience." But what would the point of travel be if everything always came as expected? Isn't that the whole idea of an adventure?

Thanks to Julie, Boton, Huysman, that 16-year-old girl, and many other friends made along the way, I had an amazingly unexpected voyage to the Philippines and am loving the vulgar reality of actual experience.

 

  

  

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

Fun Thai-mes in Thailand

I recently booked a spontaneous trip to Thailand with a few schoolmates. One of our friends is returning to Pattaya, his home for the last seven years, and invited us over for a week of good eating, sun-bathing, boozing, general Thai-themed shenanigans, and a nice place to stay.

While it's been an interesting learning experience as far as traveling with four people you've only known for two-months or less (and who have completely opposite personalities...we've all admitted that we would not likely have become friends under different circumstances. It's like bad reality TV.), the trip has certainly not disappointed as far as the above criteria go. The highlights:

Good Eating
Of course, always a must!

• Soups, always spicy: Lots of duck and pork noodle soups with more chili than I've probably consumed in the last year put together. Best tom yum kung and tom kha kai ever. Thais do such an amazing job combining salty, sweet, spicy, sour. Also firmly believe you can't go wrong with kaffir lime and coconut milk. 

• So much street food (and by street sometimes I mean beach): pad thai, papaya salad, fried taro/tofu/corn, meringue cookies topped with shaved egg yolk, grilled/dried squid, roasted chicken.

 

  

  

 

• Giant black scorpions! 

• Such fresh seafood (there is something so beautiful about eating decadent seafood meals while staring out at the ocean): lemon whole fish, crab, prawns, scallop salads

 

 

• Western food: I'm staying at a Swiss guy's house, so there's also been a fair share of steak and potatoes and tons of cheese plates with Parma ham and this special cured beef found in the mountains of Switzerland.

 

 Sun Bathing

• Spent a night on the island of Koh Samet. Soft white sand. Clear water. Coconut in hand. Bliss.

Boozing

• Not my favorite part of the trip. Although, it consumed such a large part of the itinerary that I felt it deserved its own bullet point.

 

General Thai-Themed Shenanigans

• Rode on traditional motorized Bangkok bike/carriage taxis called "tuk tuks"
• Picked up a backpacker on the boat back from Koh Samet and brought him to our friend's place in Pattaya. Showed him (yes, I quote) "one of the most interesting nights of my life."  
• Women bathing in the middle of a bar. Oh, nightlife in Thailand.
• Ping pong show. Because I have younger siblings with access to this blog, I'll just say there were ping pong balls, needles and balloons involved.
• Purchased my entire spring/summer wardrobe at a traditional market. 6 shirts. 2 dresses. $30USD.
• Tried to play polo, which mainly means riding in very slow circles on a horse while trying not to fall off.

• Got in a motorcycle accident with a goofy-looking, stupid-hat-wearing, angry, Russian man on a four wheeler. Walked away with a small bruise/scar on my neck that looks like a hickey. Lame.

• Dipped my feet in a fish tank to have my dead skin snacked on by Garra Rufa or "Doctor Fish." Fish=full. Feet=soft. Win-win.

Nice Place to Stay

• My friend lives in what is pretty much the Playboy mansion of Thailand (complete with stocked bar, nightclub, stripper poles, cigar room, multiple hot tubs, recording studio, theater, bowling alley, ocean view and nice Thai ladies bringing you fresh towels).
• Such a change of pace from the hostel travel I'd become accustomed to. 
• No complaints.

 

 

I'm a Lost Girl.

My first post as a Lost Girl is up! Check it out here: "What Not to Pack: Five Items to Leave Behind."

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section over there!

Why this Year is Already Better Than Last

I hope the next 50 weeks will be as good as the first two.


1. My Debut as a World Class Pillow Fighter on Taiwanese News.
I spent the first Saturday of the year outside Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall with hundreds of other pillow-wielding, flash-mobbery enthusiasts. Twenty out-of-breath, laughing-'til-your-abs-are-sore, joyfully-chaotic-hysterically-juvenile minutes of pillow fighting until the cops shut us down.

Plus, there were people wearing helmets. I love quirks like this that are "so Taiwan."

Here's the video of the news clip. You'll find me getting bashed in the head by my friend Jim at around 0:13. Sweet revenge comes at around 0:31 though.



2. I Ate Bees...On Purpose.
I went to WuLai over the weekend with some friends, and, among many other exciting adventures, we ate at Taiya Po Po, which was featured on "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern" for its authentic aboriginal cuisine. 

I don't know why, but I was a little surprised when our plate of fried bees arrived at the table. I felt like, "Hmm...wow...those really look like bees. I'm about to eat a bug." Anyway, the dish was really tasty. A little too oily, but the crunch of the bees complimented the greens and the refreshing spice from the red chili peppers.


Highlights from the trip also included wild mountain boar sausage, bamboo tube rice, wild mountain yam soup, fermented pork, sesame oil betel nut salad, sugar cane juice, preserved eggs. We also rode a cable care through the air up a mountain and saw the highest water fall in Taiwan.

More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thelittletourist/sets/72157623189269842/.

3. Diving Right In
I'm already one step closer to my New Year's resolution of learning to scuba dive with my dear friend Julie. Tickets purchased for the Philippines Feb. 17-26.

4. It's A Good Time To Make Babies...Or Die. 

I recently purchased a tiny scroll of paper from a fortune telling machine for $10NT. I had to have my Chinese teacher translate it for me, but apparently my near future is looking very peaceful and calm. The fam is happy and healthy.

If I become a fisherman, I will make money. If I become a farmer, I will not make money. If I become a businesswoman, I will make money.

It's a good time to make babies. If I get pregnant, I will have a boy.

It's a good time to die. If I die, I will have a nice burial.

5. Come Ride with Me!
I have visitors lined up to come starting next month, every month, all the way until summer! Hooray! Reserve your spot soon if you'd like a room at "旅館 愛鈴" or "lǚ​guǎn​ ài​ líng​" or "hotel ashley."