Christmas and lots of things that Suck

Published: Mon, 12/29/14

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Above: Saturday market in Nong Khai with sunset views over the Mekong.


​Update: Happy Holidays!

I'll be honest; we haven't had the best of holidays. I've previously read other travellers write about how their new lives get complicated during the holidays. This being our first Christmas away from home we figured that it wouldn't be entirely smooth. But it's been rougher that that and we've gotten it on quite a few fronts. 

We love our new lives and we don't want to change anything, it's what we've worked towards for many years. For those who are upset with us right now we can just promise that we'll try harder to keep in touch. But we'd also like people to realize that we are also settling into a new reality ourselves.

So, in keeping with our general mood these holidays, we'll focus on the negative in this newsletter. Things that suck. Because I'm sure we're not the only people in the world having a generally sucky Christmas break...

Photo 1: Thais like t-shirts with a lot of words on them. You won't see many plain, solid-colour t-shirts. And while most of the t-shirts will have sweet words about love, or non-sensical sentences that will leave you scratching your head, once in a while you'll come across a t-shirt like this:
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Funny that you'd see this on a t-shirt but most will agree a pretty sucky message. Unless you have a bitchy ex-wife that you want to present with a surprise gift....
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Elephant preservation/conservation
I thought this sucked.

A little over a month ago I wrote this post. I didn't think I'd get much reaction to it. I figured it would be a bit of a fluff post with some elephant photos (who doesn't like elephants?) and some good words about a non-profit foundation. So I was surprised by some of the negative comments we received on the blog but also on our email.

I'm curious what non-bloggers think. Of course everyone is going to say that elephant conservation is a good thing - but where do you draw the line? Do Westerners wear rose-coloured glasses when it comes to animal conservation?
In SE Asia? Bring toilet paper wherever you go. Lissette always packs toilet paper and an extra pair of pants when we go somewhere. Just in case. I always roll my eyes. Of course nothings ever happened that we would need either. Until last week when we were in a shopping mall buying running shoes. And then I suddenly felt my bowels come to life. I ran to the bathroom. There was no toilet paper. Not even a toilet paper holder on the wall next to the toilet. Lucky for me Lissette had packed the toilet paper.

Which reminds me of a travel tip:

Codeword for taking a dump that sounds almost sophisticated (General travel tip)

Travel tip: “Crappuccino”. Definition: “The particularly frothy type of diarrhea that you get when abroad”. Tell a fellow traveler that you “have to go for a crappuccino”, it will automatically discern you from the unknowledgeable, inexperienced traveler and you will no doubt be treated with equal doses of respect and sympathy.

Having to go for a crappuccino with no toilet paper sucks.

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Why I’ll never fly US Airways again
The worst plane experience we've had. We will never, never fly US Airways again. It sucks.
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Why OpenTable.com Sucks
This happened a few years ago and it really bothered me. Not because we had such a bad restaurant experience - but because it stunk of the typical corporate manipulation we see everywhere these days.I was surprised to see the number of comments from people who had similar negative experiences with Open Table.
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Falling for the Bangkok Gem Scam
This experience sucked more than any other. It also required a certain amount of stupidity which I was very willing to provide. Imagine losing $3,000? But it is the most popular post on the site and every day I get a large amount of traffic on it. Why? Because even 12 years after I got dupped people still get scammed in exactly the same way. Nothing has changed and the Thai government allows it to happen. Amazing.
We wish everyone a happy & prosperous 2015 (and hopefully very few sucky experiences). 

Prospero año y felicidad !!