Final thoughts on travel

A few final thoughts on travelling, bulletted out for you. Hooray listicles!

• Hotels in SE Asia can be fantastically cheap. The hotels we stayed at in Phuket and Siem Reap, in particular, were AMAZING and still dirt cheap. I think the most we ever paid per night per person was $25. So if you're going to this area of the world, don't feel like you have to cheap out and stay in a hostel. You can, but nice hotels are out there and are very affordable.
• Don't try to pack to much in a vacation. Especially one as long as mine was. It was great, and I don't regret seeing any of the things I got to see, but having done so much and gone to so many places, by the time I got to Kuala Lumpur - I was just exhausted. Honestly, if that hotel had had a pool, I am not sure I would have ever left. And I would have been just fine with that. Too much travel is tiring, physically and mentally. Pick one or two places and stick with those.
• Choice of travelling companions is so very important. You really do need to take along people who have similar styles to you, otherwise you might spend your entire time bickering about what to do next. Fortunately, we were generally okay enough to go it alone if we wanted to do something a little different, or if we were getting slowed up by the stragglers in the posse. It worked out well for us...make sure it will work out for you!
• There's this bizarre notion of "cultural authenticity" that a lot of people have. For example, when I mentioned that I would be visiting Bangkok, someone told me that it was "just like any other city" and "not authentically Thai." Which kind of took me aback a little bit - there are 9.1 million people in the city itself, of whom about 8.7 million are ethnically Thai. I'm sorry, did they somehow lose their citizenship or culture by moving to/being born in a city? This way of thinking - that something in Thailand can be somehow "inauthentic" - is pretty problematic. It's kind of a colonialist notion, really, demanding a sort of disney-esque "noble savage" caricature of what life in some Foreign Land is like. But here's the dirty secret: Thais drink Starbucks. Malaysians go to the mall. Koreans eat at McDonald's. And none of these people are any less products of their homelands for it. They are probably different than the generation before who did not do these things, but it is pretty belittling to them and to their countries' economic successes to tell them that by going to Starbucks or McDonald's or buying Apple products they are somehow betraying their cultural heritage. We live in a globalized world. Some things are everywhere. Deal with it.
• In that vein, if you want to go to McDonald's or Starbucks while on vacation, don't feel like you can't because you can do that at home or because of some notion that you should completely any American-based company while on vacation. One of the most fascinating things that I find when traveling anywhere is just how different we all still are, despite being the same. And the places where these differences are most apparent tend to be the places most indicative of globalization, i.e., the ubiquitous fast-food chains. But go in them! Look at the menu! See how the franchise has adapted its menu to suit the location and be reminded that yes, we all are different, but yes, we all love to consume things. It's quite amazing.
• As much as it pains me to say this, English is really the most important language you could know while traveling. On this trip, just about everyone we encountered, from the service professionals to the airline staff to cab drivers and street vendors and even other tourists spoke English to one degree or another. As important as it is to learn other languages (and it IS very important to learn other languages), it's not the end of the world if the only language you speak is English. Especially in Southeast Asia, you're pretty much guaranteed to find people who also speak English and can help you.
• Most importantly, have fun! Experience your trip. Don't hide behind the camera, don't hide in your hotel room. Say yes to new experiences. Hugs not drugs. Hit the books because they don't hit back. Other cliches. Mostly, enjoy. Vacations are about giving you a break, so do things that will make you happy. Don't feel obliged to do something you don't want to do, unless you are a child, in which case please listen to your parent and generally don't act like an ass. Remember, there are other people on vacation too. Don't ruin theirs.