unexpected differences

There are a few things that came completely unexpected for me: vast amounts of second hand smoke, the sheer volume of insects, clean is actually a relative word, and garbage does not magically disappear.

Everybody smokes.  Really... everyone.  For starters there is the fact that people can smoke anywhere: temples, restaurants, inside stores, and in hotel lobbies (hahah, I can’t think of anywhere else I go!).  This has been making me appreciate the smoking bylaws where I am from... getting a chunk of cigarette ash blown into your food during your nice beachside dining is enough to ruin one’s appetite (at least for this ex smoker).  Now, I don’t think that it is just because people are allowed to smoke everywhere... I think there really is far more smokers.  Basically every single local man I have seen has one hanging out of his mouth... and every tourist I have spoken to smokes (and seems surprised that I don’t) and everyone I seem to pass by is smoking... even pregnant women (not that I am judging her choices, it is just a sight that I have rarely seen in public).  It’s funny... a large part of the reason I quit two years ago was because I felt like such a social outcast when I smoked... now it seems I am the odd one because I choose not to....

In addition to the copious amount of second hand smoke I am ingesting, I am quite surprised by the vast amount of insects.  If you look at any spot (any spot, in any location) for a length of time you realize that it is not still as you had originally thought, but instead it is a thriving population of some type of insect (most commonly ants).  So, there you are lounging by the pool working on your tan (putting some time in at the office as Caitrin likes to say) and you lazily look up to watch the clouds slowly roll by... at first you don’t even see the power line above you, and as you focus on it you realize that it seems almost alive... and then you realize that an ant superhighway is busily going on only feet from where you are laying....  That’s ok... they are pretty far above me (ok, so there are also some crawling on me... but only a few) but I am just tanning I can handle it.  Then you go out for dinner at one of those cool restaurants with really low tables and pillows to sit on, and you choose this cozy looking table that’s in a gazebo beside a pond with lush rainforest vegetation surrounding it... it’s so different from anywhere you have ever eaten... so exotic... so exciting... so cheap!  And as you sit there enjoying your ethnic meal, you stare blankly at the ground (as I like to do) and the longer you stare, the more you realize that it’s alive... with ants!  Big ants (freaking huge things) tiny ants, black ants, brown ants, ants whose middle seems transparent...  Do you have any idea how many meals I have gotten with a lone ant crawling on my plate?  I have decided that if a little bugger gets in my food, its just extra protein.  Right?

It’s not just the smoke residue and bugs that make me want to bathe more often (ugh and the sticky heat) but nothing is ever... clean.  Like, Canada clean (that’s my new term... it means clean like I used to expect... smelling like fresh laundry, not sticky at all, no smudges or fingerprints, no soap residue or black marks,  no bedbug stains, toilet seats I would sit on, mirrors you can see your face clearly in... ) Not only do things rarely present as Canada clean, but they are also run down.  Paint bubbles and falls off walls, bathroom ceilings sag, tables always seem to be wobbly, and there is this smell everywhere... mold and mildew maybe?

Finally, the thing that most surprises me (and in retrospect it really shouldn’t, but I was very naive) is the GARBAGE.  I say this shouldn’t surprise me because I know very well that I am from a very privileged country where everything seems to be provided  (for a charge of course).  Like dumpsters and garbage removal.  I am unsure of how the garbage removal systems works here, all I know is there is far more garbage than I am used to seeing.  There is always garbage on the streets and sidewalks... food wrappers, juice containers, cigarette butts, yesterdays offerings... some of it has been pounded into the ground by hundreds of feet. On the beach (ah, the beautiful beach) there are cigarette butts everywhere, and when a breeze comes up a piece of discarded paper will fly right onto your body.  And as your walking down the street, or through the market, you can turn the wrong corner and there is just a huge pile of garbage sitting there.  Sometimes it is half hidden by a removable fence, sometimes it is just right there, out in the open.  At first I thought the garbage all over the streets was from the tourists (and I went through a time where I was disgusted by the way we have exploited this beautiful island... but that’s a story for another time) but I think that it is caused by the fact there is not a garbage removal system like there is in Western world.  At least garbage is not contained the same (like in dumpsters) so it seems to be spilling out everywhere....

I think I will make this the last of my “culture shock” blogs....  hhaha, I seem to be neglecting to write about all of the amazing things I am experiencing (like, I got to eat at this amazing little restaurant where I sat on a pillow in a gazebo beside a pond, and I paid less than $5!) and instead I am writing about my misadventures (I thought about changing the name of the blog to “Heathers misadventures in Southeast Asia” since I seem to be stumbling into mess after mess!)  I did not intend to focus on the negatives...

I swear, next blog... sunshine and lollypops!