I’ve been back in the UK almost two weeks now and it’s funny how much we take for granted at home, yet when we travel we have to adapt and make compromises to be comfortable. Here are my top ten things that I’m really appreciating at the moment and why.
1) The tap – Yep, that’s right. You can turn on the tap and drink straight out of it without worrying that you’re going to get sick.
2) Loo paper – Gone are the days of scrabbling about in your backpack to find the roll of loo paper you have carefully sealed in a plastic bag to avoid it getting wet. You’ll also find that you no longer have to take it everywhere you go ‘in case they don’t have any’.
3) Food – There are option for breakfast that don’t taste the same as lunch and dinner. It turns out curry or spices aren’t necessary with absolutely everything including your fresh lemonade, while the veg you are getting hasn’t been cooked to a pulp.
4) Washing your clothes – Clothes are now in abundance so you don’t have to spend your evenings in front of the sink with a bar of clothes soap before hanging them above your bed in the hope that they will dry by morning.
5) Showering – Water now comes straight out of the wall at head height meaning the bucket and jug wash is now obsolete. Oh, and you also don’t have to wait until morning in the hope of getting a thimbleful of hot water.
6) Bins – You see them everywhere meaning you no longer have to watch the locals throw their rubbish on the floor for someone else to pick it up, or hand your rubbish back to a shopkeeper to watch him throw it on the floor for you.
7) Your sheets – Rest assured that your sheets won’t have been slept in by anyone else so you can forget about peeling back the covers to search for signs of sleep creases, black hairs or even to give the pillow a sniff to check it’s clean before you get in.
8) Selfies – It’s as if you’ve developed the perfect disguise because you can now navigate the streets without being stopped for “one selfie” only to find yourself staring into the sun as they move the camera about to get the most flattering shot of themselves.
9) Car horns – The sound of a horn now has a genuine purpose to warn of imminent danger as opposed to being used to just inform everyone that you’re on the road.
10) Animals – They are kept and looked after on farms in the countryside as opposed to being left to roam the streets of a city to rummage through the piles of plastic in search of food.
Header photo credit: Austin Vince