today's post is brought
to you by special request. i guess i could have written something
about hoi an or how we got lost and had dinner in a dark alley
(always get lost and have dinner in dark alleys!) or how this is
turning out to be the journey of all the boat trips. but since i got
a special request, i thought i should rather focus on another
important part of travelling – meeting people – and introduce you
to the post requester.
there is wifi all over
vietnam, except in our hotel right now. so little social media
addicts that we all are we sat over dinner with our iphones, checking
facebook, and basically commenting on what the people across from us
at the table were doing online. yes, i it is a bit sad, don't i know
it...
ash – who, by the way,
was my knight in sweaty armour from my last story - had not only
started to read my blog and like it, but was now demanding more and
when was the next story coming and what was i doing here eating
dinner instead of putting down amusing words. and of course my ego
was stroked and so here i am by special request at midnight.
meet ashley from london
or ass as the vietnamese tend to pronounce it, which of course
one cannot help but adapt. after spontaneously tricking him into
being my today's travelette instagram on the topic of 'travel buddy',
i thought he deserved a bit of a better introduction than this:
(though most of the
pictures he jumped into are sort of like the above.)
we met on our first part
of the journey in bangkok and to my horror i had to find out that
there were people, well, one, who are almost half my age on this
trip. this led him to tell me that he doesn't mind being organized
and will i please organize him. my therapist would have been proud of
me when i declined, but somehow it still stuck that he calls me his
mum once in a while (thanks, ass!).
i never thought i would
become friends with someone who does that or with whom i don't have
anything at all in common with on paper. but sometimes wanting to
squeeze someone's cheek will be apparently be enough to start a
friendship. and before you shake your head or mentally high five me,
i am not talking about cheek squeezing in a mrs robinson way, but
rather in a puppy's cheek squeezing way.
ash, i'm not being
condescending, but i will call you a puppy. because you can sleep
anywhere and eat anything. but mainly for your enthusiasm you bring
along for everything: rocking a dingy piano bar, enjoying angkor wat
and angkor what, eating baked beans and pringles in the pool or doing
homework with the restaurant owner's kid. i envy that enthusiasm, i
want more of this in my life. thanks for showing me how it's done!
