I’m so excited to co-host this Friday’s bloghop link-up with We Took the Road Less Traveled! This week’s theme is “3 irrational fears.” Honestly, I can probably come up with a dozen irrational fears that will make me sound totally crazy. But definitely a couple are at the forefront of my mind these days.
As some of you may have gathered from my last post, we are going to Southeast Asia next! I’m SO excited about it because it seems like we’ve been talking about it for foreveeerr (it was originally supposed to be our first travel destination). But I have a confession: I’m really nervous about it too. Southeast Asia has some of the things that I fear the most.
So to keep with the travel theme, here are 2 fears relating to my upcoming travels, and 1 general travel anxiety:
1. Falling into a Squat Toilet
I’m absolutely terrified of those things. Honestly, whenever someone talks about their trip to Southeast Asia and all the amazing stuff they did, I just want to go like “Yeah, that’s great and all… but what I really care to know is: HOW ARE THE BATHROOMS?!?”
My worst fear is that I’ll eat some food that won’t settle well with my stomach (you know how much I love street food), and then I’ll be stuck on a 10 hour bus/train ride with nothing but a dirty squat toilet.
Seriously, I’m not even scared of getting food poisoning (I’ll survive it), but rather of it happening at an inconvenient time and having to use disgusting public toilets.
This fear comes from childhood trips to China to see family, which always included visiting a lot of really gorgeous attractions. But unfortunately, this also means a lot of… really nasty public restrooms. Especially in overcrowded touristy places. How is it possible that it seems as if every single visitor before you had explosive diarrhea and then didn’t flush?! Okay… I’ll stop creating visuals, but more often than not, one sight (or sniff) of it and my entire excrement system will shrivel up in fear. And then I would do things like not drink a single drop of water for the rest of the day, even though it’s 100 degrees out, because I don’t want to have to go.
I know Southeast Asia is getting more and more modernized so I’m hoping this won’t really be a problem. And D has a point when he says that I can’t avoid an entire region just because of my issue with bathrooms. I’m thinking I will just need to stay within dashing distance to my apartment.
So please tell me your experiences in that part of the world!
Okay, that’s enough. This is more than anyone ever need to read on this subject.
2. Cockroaches
I’m not that much of a girly-girl that I’m scared of all bugs. It’s actually just specifically cockroaches (even dead ones). Actually, I can’t even look at a picture of one. I was about to type that cockroaches are the scum of the earth, but decided to google it just in case they’re actually important (and they are, apparently), and I almost died just now from the pictures that popped up.
There’s just something about them that disgusts every fiber of my being. Even thinking about the crunching sound of their shell when you smash them gives me chills. I just. can’t. do. it. Anyway, I know Southeast Asia has a lot of those. Huge, fat ones too. And maybe ones that fly as well.
Logically, I know I shouldn’t be scared because they’re little and I’m big. And they’re not even poisonous. Even if one runs over my foot… so what? It won’t hurt me. But I know if it actually happened, I’d go into hysterics. If I know a cockroach has been sighted inside the apartment, I cannot sleep easy until the bastard’s been found and killed (not by me of course. I already told D he has the new job of cockroach-killer in SEA.)
You guys, roaches can CRAWL INSIDE YOUR EAR WHILE SLEEPING and get stuck. D said we’d better sleep with ear plugs. Yikes.
And NO, that cockroach in Wall-E is not freaking cute.
3. Forgetting things
This one is seriously anti-climatic after the first two, but I honestly can’t think of another crippling fear. So this one is a general travel anxiety.
I’m becoming a pro at living out of a carry-on and unpacking/repacking every few days. But everytime I zip my bag shut and step out the door for the final time, I’m always hit with the worry that I left something. I’ll double check my bag but really it doesn’t matter since I already closed the door behind me.
I’ve been known to leave my purse, phone, etc. behind at restaurants or movie theaters before, so I wouldn’t really put it past myself. But really, all we need is our passport, phone/laptop, wallet, and the USB of pictures, right? And of course, my most valuable possession – my 21 year old teddy bear that travels with me. :)
What are some of your irrational fears? Please share so I’m not alone! And also, please tell good news about Southeast Asia!
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Girl, aren’t you an expert at squat toilets by now?? Lol. While I was traveling, I had this completely irrational fear of getting on the wrong train or bus. So much so that I would have to confirm with at least 3 different people (one of them preferably being the driver) where the bus/train was going. Even then, I would stare anxiously out the window until I saw a sign for the place I was supposed to be going. Of course, once I actually DID take a bus to the wrong place and realized it wasn’t that big of a deal, I stopped panicking about it so much. Maybe you should just fall into a squat toilet – JUST kidding!! Don’t do that. :)
NOOOOO don’t curse me into falling into a squat toilet… I don’t even know how I could cope afterwards (just like stories you hear of girls falling into a portapotty… OMG how do they go on living?!).
And yes, I know what you mean! I always double check with at least 1 other person too, or the driver, when I’m taking the train/bus. :D
Oh man: cockroaches!!! I’ve been sheltered from being exposed to any cockroaches right up until this summer in Warsaw when I saw one, dead, in a store that was closed. So there was a whole glass pane between me and it, but I would hate to discover them dead or alive anywhere near my home. I hope your travels will be cockroach free :)
Haha, I’m actually pretty impressed you went through so many years of your life without coming across one single cockroach until recently!! I seriously don’t know what it is about cockroaches that disgusts me SO much more than other bugs. I mean… there are bugs with more legs and ones that are actually poisonous.
You are right, it is not like 20 years ago, nowadays our toilets are more modern. The thing is, I think when you are actually here, your fear of squat toilets will be replaced by fear of seated toilets. The probability of falling into a squat toilet is much lower than the probability of walking into a tree. At least with squat toilet, your butt stays free of touching the toilet seat where all sorts of things have touched it before you. Bring lots of tissue or if you are more paranoid, disposable toilet seats (you can buy them here rather easily).
As for the roaches, well, you can’t really avoid them if you go the cheap route. On the bright side, they’re the least of your problems. It is soon to be rainy season over here, the mosquitoes and all sorts of flying insects will come out with a vengeance especially at night. Wherever you can, buy 1 of those electric insect repellent and turn it on in your room for a couple of hours before sleeping.
Oh gosh, I hope I didn’t make you cancel your trip! SEA is a very nice place to travel to. The stuff that I mentioned are just imaginary stuff, they’re not real, it is perfectly fine to come :D
Hehe here in the States, you should learn to do the business without your butt touching the seat too, and definitely NOT without a seat protector! I guess Western toilets just seem more clean to me, because it’s not a wide open flat thing? But don’t worry, I am definitely still going to SEA and am still excited about it!!
Oh no! I thought we were missing rainy season. Those electric repellents are seriously like god sent!! At first we were getting attacked by mosquitos in Turkey, and then started using those, and since then have been bite free. I think a few of our rentals in SEA come with a mosquito net, so that’ll be fun :D.
Ughhh squat toilets. No fun – I think that’s a valid fear, actually!
Glad I’m not the only one with that fear!! I don’t know why no travelers coming from SEA talks about it.. so I just assumed no one else cares that much or something!
You know, I didn’t think the conditions in SE Asia were nearly as bad as some places in China. But I only took one overnight bus ride around; the rest of it was short buses and trains. Ugh, bugs. There are some places with monster bugs that I will totally avoid. Deathly afraid of all insects.
How were the conditions on buses and trains?!? We’ll have a couple of medium-long ones, and I hope I won’t incidentally fall sick on those days, heh. And yes, I totally agree… some of the ones in China are just disgusting… ugh. They really traumatized me!
Hmm, hard to remember since it was almost two years ago now; I just remember them being “not that bad” since I was so used to conditions in China back then. So we’re probably talking moderately clean squatters. I don’t think there was a bathroom on the overnight bus, but it stopped at least once. Not the cleanest rest stop, but really no worse than, say, port-a-potties at a fair in the States.
Oh yay, that’s good news to me! :D
Cockroaches are probably my most hated specimen… ughh!!
great post!!
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20 year old travel blogger with a thirst for adventure
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Me too!! I don’t even know why because they don’t bite nor are they poisonous! But seriously, snakes, rats, or even spiders don’t bug me too much… just roaches!!
First of all, I really shouldn’t have read this while eating a big bowl of chowder. Anyways… I am also terrified of roaches and was afraid that my condo in Malaysia would be inhabited with those gigantic hissing ones. Thank goodness the ones in Malaysia are small because my car was infested with them, and there’s nothing to distract you while driving like a roach crawling on the dash or ceiling. As for squat potties, the day I chaperoned the 4th grade field trip and the only bathroom was a nasty squat potty will forever be burned in my mind. There I am yelling at a bunch of 10-yr-old girls that I don’t care how disgusting it is, we paid for them already and it’s the only option. Luckily, I had enough tissue paper and hand sanitizer for the entire class since apparently, none of the money we paid to use the potty went towards stocking it. Anyways, have fun in SE Asia. (P.S. I never once got food poisoning from a street stall but I did get it once at a 4 star Singapore hotel restaurant.)
Oh NOOOOOO!!! You just made me even more nervous, LOL!! I got the chills just reading about your car being infested with roaches (even if they’re small)! I read some horror stories from other bloggers too in SEA and now I’m convinced they’re everywhere. And then I chuckled from the field trip story, but I’m pretty sure I won’t be if it happened in person!
Haha I love these!! Toilets and cockroaches don’t bother me too much, but spiders and forgetting things… every time!! I also share Mandie’s anxiety about getting on the wrong bus or train, or missing my stop, or connection. It’s happened before, so I refuse to admit that most of the time it’s irrational lol.
I used to be really scared of spiders too (even the daddy long-legs), but then I realized that I’m scared of cockroaches SO much more…so now I’ve pretty much stopped being scared of spiders haha. How can roaches not bother you?!? They’re so ugly and crunchy. I would really love to learn how to be okay with them!
I hear you on the toilets. I’ve only spent a few weeks in SE Asia but you’ll definitely encounter squat toilets, toilets with hoses (no toilet paper), and places where you will be asked to put the used toilet paper in a wastebasket rather than flush it down into a primitive septic system that will clog (you should respect this as it may lead to the toilet backing up and time/cost for the hotel/business – there were many non-functioning toilets at restaurants we visited because of Western tourists clogging toilets despite signs to not flush the toilet paper). This was true even in a few places in Seoul, South Korea which was unexpected for us (although we did stay in historical accommodations in Seoul). I would just come prepared with sanitizer, plenty of toilet paper, and those Urinette things can be helpful to avoid contact with unclean seats. Toilet paper and soap were often missing at many places during our travels in both Asia and Africa. For street food, I would ask guides/locals/hoteliers what is safe to eat and when street food is not safe to eat as we got some good pointers on what to avoid from folks in Cambodia and Vietnam (time of day is very important as food may be sitting all day long and it gets so hot!). Good luck and look forward to hearing about your travels to Asia!
Thanks for the tips!! Yeah I can imagine food being not safe anymore if it’s out under the hot sun all day. I plan on just going to whichever stall has a long line :D. I’ll be prepared with my own toilet paper and hand sanitizer! :)
The squat toilets have always been my major fear before going to Asia where they are practically the norm. I have to admit I’m not still a huge fan, but I’m better than I was before actually using them everyday.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one with this fear! I guess they are still pretty prevalent in that part of the world, huh. I guess I can get used to them too as long as they’re spotless!!