You know you're a SE Asia backpacker when....

• A couple beers at the bar costs more than your accomdations for the night.
• You get legitimately excited when a washroom not only has western toilets (as opposed to squats), but also provides you with soap and toilet paper. Bonus points if its free to use.
• You find yourself checking out 8 different hotel rooms in hopes to save $1 for night. You return to the very first one you looked at in the first place.
• You develop your haggling skills, and later realize that the 15 minutes you spent haggling saved you 30 cents.
• You bump into the same other western travellers 15 times, in 15 different cities.
• You have a bracelet tan and a sandal tan.
• There is a good chance you have a SE Asia tattoo: a large wound/scar from a motorbike accident (Don't worry Mom and Dad, I've emerged entirely accident free!)
• Your english has taken a considerable turn for the worse. Thankfully, your skills in hand gestures have tripled.
• "Same same but different" has become an important part of your vocabulary.
• So many of your conversations start with the famous 5 questions: Whats your name, where are you from, how long are you travelling, where are you going, and where have you been.
• Free water makes your day.
• You have found yourself "researching" your next destination (Lonely Planet of course!) while on the bus/train/boat, 45min before arrival, each and every time you reach a new city.
• You have become a pool SHARK.
• You happily plunk ice cubes into your beer, just to do anything to improve the non-refrigerated beer you are served on 38 degree days.
• You have a tank top/vest/singlet from every country you've been to.
• You've learned that prices are flexible for everything. Clothes, alcohol, hotel rooms,buses, tour group prices....

 

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