it all comes down to this....

i'm back in shenzhen and already feel settled in my old routine. its a bittersweet feeling as i had such a great vacation, but am glad to be stationary, at least for a little while.
thailand was amazing. we spent about 4 or 5 days in bangkok and about 4 or 5 days on koh phagnan island off the central coast. bangkok was a crazy big city with tons of backpackers and travellers from all over. the beach was the same on one part of the island, but we moved to a quieter, more relaxed beach and it was much more my speed.
because i wasn't able to post that often i made a ton of notes about things i wanted to write about. i've decided to just list things, i learned, saw, felt and hated along the way. most of the time i felt so overwhelmed and over stimulated that it was hard to just relax and focus on what i was thinking about/feeling at the time. so i just made notes here and there and now i will try to convey these thoughts and feelings the best that i can......
~southeast asia is so cheap (including china) i can never pay western prices again.... you guys are seriously overpaying for everything!!
~when you are traveling somewhere in thailand (lets say on a bus) and they say wait a moment, that usually mean 1-2 hours.....
~china has the worst bathrooms of any country i've been to.
~i prefer travelling alone.... i'm not cutout to be around someone 24 hours a day for a month straight... its also more exciting that way.
~i don't really like travelling.... i like living in other/different places. travelling is exhausting
~i saw a cat in a sweater tied to pole by a string in han oi, vietnam... a cat in a sweater!!!
~the poorest areas/families in most western countries will never know poverty like they have in s.e. asia.
~i'm tired of seeing old, crusty western men with young, beautiful asian girls who have no other choice but prostitution.
~prostitution is a HUGE problem/issue/fact in s.e. asia but its different everywhere you go. in china brothels are disguised by massage parlors, in vietnam, they are disguised as karoke bars, in cambodia, there is no disguise, just women (mostly under 18) standing beneath pink fluourescent lights, and in thailand the prostitutes are the disguise, one can never be sure if its a man or woman.
~cambodia is the furtherst from home that i have ever felt. it has also left the biggest impression upon me.
~australians and israeli's are the 2 most common backpackers in s.e. asia
~i saw a kid vomit in the floor at a restaraunt in ho chi minh city and nobody (including his parents) do a damned thing about it.
~the vietnam war was worse than any of us in the u.s. and elsewhere could ever imagine.
~mosquitos like to bite susan more than they like to bite me
~s.e. asia has the craziest drivers.... maybe not thailand and cambodia so much....vietnam and china, insane!
~the foreigner price for things is about 5x's the local price and they will try to screw you in every way possible.
~money affords us many luxuries, especially free time and retirement.... i saw a woman about 70 years old doing construction in thailand. she was wearing a long skirt, flip flops and carrying huge bags of cement.
~i think women run vietnam. i mostly saw the men sitting in cafes while the women were out making the money.
~don't ever ride an elephant in thailand.... i saw a man severely beat an elephant's head when it would not do what the man wanted it to... which was stand still.
~you can hang a mango shake from a towel rack in thailand. they put everything in bags in asia.... including food and fruitshakes, and soymilk. whatever, if it fits its in there. my friend amy and i have nicknamed china "baglandia"
~when thai women are pregnant they drink the milk of a young coconut everyday... it is meant to have the most nutrients for a woman and her baby.
~i appreciate living and travelling in china more now because there are no foreigners and it is much more of a challenge.
~thai people love those menthol nose inhalers.... even children have them.
~did i mention prostitution is everywhere?
"not all that glitters is gold, not all who wander are lost" j.r.r. tolkein