So you wanna be a backpacker?

So, here I am, back in the good old U-S-of-A, living life as an umemployed post-traveler, moping around my parents house, catching up on TV, and reminiscing with photos from my trip!

I just wanted to finish up my blog with this little disclaimer. Although I had an amazing trip, and had many incredible experiences, there were also a lot of crazy things I had to put up with. Life on the road entails a lot of rolling with the punches, and adapting to a lifestyle that many people would have difficulty with. Paying 4$-10$ a night for a hotel room in Thailand really helped my budget, but it also meant you didn't have much control over the conditions of the room. Sometimes they would be fine.....other times, not so much.

Ashley and I put together a list of a few of the more "interesting" things we encountered while backpacking. If you think you could survive these things and many more, you are definitely cut out for the backpacker lifestyle!!

You can handle being a backpacker if:

*You like having all your worldly wardrobe possesions cut down to about 3 shirts, 2 pants, and a few other odd items, all carried around ON YOUR BACK. Clothes start to seem much less important when you have to carry them everywhere.

* You are cool with having your total hair styling products consist of a 90cent comb from a gas station, and a hair rubberband.

*You are ok with eating PB & J breakfast, lunch, and possibly dinner.....for weeks in a row.

* You have a tendency to cling to useless items such as plastic bags and string, bag-lady style....you never know when they will come in handy!

* You can put up with, and actually learn to enjoy, cold showers.

* Climbing into a bunk bed is second nature

*You look for a really obvious stain before declaring a shirt "dirty laundry"

* You don't mind having your entire wardrobe divided into three zippered compartments: Tops, bottoms, and underwear.

* You don't think it's unusual to have to pay someone to use a squat toilet

* You know that any hike under 3 miles doesn't justify putting shoes on....flip flops will suffice!

* You don't flinch when your restaurant/food stand uses dirty ice, has people handling food with bare hands, questionable meat on a stick, and stray animals wandering in and out of the kitchen

* Wearing swimsuit bottoms instead of underwear seems like a reasonable alternative to doing laundry

*You don't know/mind if you are gaining weight, because all the clothes you have with you have elastic waistbands!

* You see actual bugs swarming around your bed and think to yourself "ugh...I really don't want to move all my stuff tonight", and go to bed anyways.

These are just a few of the things I dealt with during my 5 months. Got any other good travel stories/backpacker tips? Email me and I'll add it to the list! :)

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