Having Jenn join us for this leg of the trip has really given me a bit of perspective about the months spent traveling in developing world. For me, after five months of backpacking I really lost track of the delineation between my developing world experiences and life back home in the states.

Jenn though had no such confusion when she arrived with shiny-clean clothes and a backpack that smelled distinctly better than mine (what is that funk!?!). Jenn knew two things about herself when deciding to join a leg of the RTW trip, one, she definitely wanted to meet up at some point in the journey, and two, she had no desire to travel into the developing world – props to her for knowing herself well and not embarking on something she couldn’t handle.

In Milan last month, Helen and I slogged off of the plane, sweaty, dirty, and with a small sugar-ant infestation in our packs (ok, just my pack actually…perhaps I should have left the half-eaten Snickers behind in Dehli?) and Jenn took one look at us and started a list of all of the reasons she chooses not to travel third world.

IMPORTANTLY!!, this is not to be seen as a discouragement from developing world travel…because I loved every minute of it and had absolutely amazing experiences!…some of the best in my life.

Fried Tarantulas in Cambodia!

This is more of a brief look at some of the more endearing, hellacious, charming, and weird things I’ve contended throughout the extensive travel in developing countries…we compiled this list throughout the three weeks Jenn traveled with us and we noted it down every time Jenn would exclaim, “That’s why I don’t “do” developing world!:

1. Shots. Lots and lots of shots are needed. They poked me relentless for weeks to get them all in…and shots DON’T guarantee that you won’t get sick, they simply offer up that you probably won’t die from your sickness.
2. Drinking the local water results in illness. It just does. Sadly, I did it anyway once or twice and I came to Italy sporting a rockin’ case of giardia (the medicine to fix it was just 80 cents in Nepal!).
3. Squatting over a ceramic floor toilet is a luxury…sometimes it’s just a hole!
4. The air is scented with a beautifully fragrant mingling of urine, cow dung, exhaust, incense, and humanity.
5. People swarm you, watch you, talk to you and possibly pet you just because of the mere fact that you are light skinned. You become wholly accustomed to it and unfazed.
6. Pick your battles – you can’t freak out over it all. Some seemingly unpleasant things will be a fact of life.
7. Chaos. Everywhere. Sometimes it’s organized chaos. Often times it’s not.
8. Amenities, toiletries, and creature comforts are very basic. Somehow I found a jar of Skippy peanut butter in Dharamsala but spent three months searching for Q-tips. I don’t know why :-) It just is.
   

   Maoists Marching in Nepal

9. Transport can be amazingly on time but is generally nasty dirty. Don’t pick this as a battle because you won’t win…just embrace it and go with the flow and bring sanitary wipies and antibacterial gel.
10. Desensitization to boisterous political demonstrations that will likely lead to mayhem is a distinct possibility.
11. You have to be comfortable with your body.
12. You have to be comfortable with your traveling companion’s body because you will know as much about their bodily functions as you do your own.
13. You embrace the poppy-songs that you would hate/sneer at in the Western world because the songs play incessantly and invariably link themselves to places, events and smells …Summer of ’69 reminds me of tubing in Laos and I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have listened to Shaggy in the past three days…were topping the 11 mark.
14. It doesn’t make sense.
15. Everything is just a little bit harder to do…finding the right train takes a while…and using dial-up speeds in an internet café could be a half-day project…but there’s time, so what’s the hurry?
16. Outside of the US, people do not queue…they just don’t. The idea of a neat line of people waiting until their there turn is nowhere to be found and you may have to throw a few elbows, shove, and push right back if you have hopes of purchasing anything.
17. Traffic and cars. Nothing I say can prepare for this. Lines in the road are nonexistent…your mode of transportation will think nothing of dodging through oncoming traffic if it’s faster than waiting on the correct side of the road, and helmets on motorcycles rarely exist. Motorcycles in general can accomplish great feats – apparently you can talk on a cell phone, eat a sandwich and safely transport your entire family of six on the back without a blink of an eye…who knew?
18. It still doesn’t make sense.
19. Once you embrace the modesty of the developing world it’s hard to go back….I love my kurtah with all of my heart…but after some distinctly strange looks in Milan I shoved in deep into the recesses of my pack and reserved its use for long travel days.
20. The people are generally incredibly and overwhelmingly warm…coming from a largely hands-off culture like the US that means you get your personal space invaded a lot…Who am I kidding? In the developing world personal space as a concept doesn’t exist.

But there is so much love there – just so much love.

We had the same glasses perscription so we switched it up and goofed off!!

The best I advice I can offer is to recognize that control doesn’t exist. Just surrender. As a Westerner you have to abandon the desire to control every moment and circumstance and your attempt to force everything into a sanitized version of what you expected. It’s all better when you are just floating along with it, adrift in the well-meaning chaos.

Jenn’s list began to balloon out of control by the end into the most minutely hilarious additions, but really these are just some of the top reasons to dig in and love every moment of traveling in the developing world!  :-)

So, I know I’ve got some other RTW travelers and bloggers out there…anything you’d add to the list?!