Random Musings – Travel Buddies

I was incredibly fortunate to have a travel buddy as fantastic as Robin. He was accommodating, friendly, outgoing, and, most importantly, flexible. We have similar interests, which make travel easier (I want to go look at t-shirts! I want to scale vertical wall faces! No one is going to be happy.). We both wanted to do more active things, like hike or kayak, and the natural scenery was more important than city skylines and skybars. We had a couple of drunken adventures and a couple of calm days on the beach. We laughed, a lot. Whether it was about the random circumstances we were under or a miscommunication that was hilarious, we laughed. There were no fights, there were no obstinate shrugs. There was no malicious comment muttered under one’s breath. This says more about our abilities to get along with other, than anything else, but to me, it reinforced my opinion that Robin is an incredibly unique and special friend. Traveling was more fun with him there.

As I move on in this journey across the globe, I won’t have the companion footprints following beside me, but I know that at certain moments, I’ll turn to my left and reach out to give him a fist bump or say “that’s what she said,” and wait for his chuckle or sigh. There won’t be someone to say, “let’s go bowling” or “bikes!” at the right time. But, email will allow me to shoot him a message and say, this is what you’re missing, or, this is what you’d love. Damn, I went to this vegetarian restaurant cause I knew you’d want to go, but then I tried to order chicken and they looked at me with undisguised disgust.

Thanks for being an incredibly fun buddy along the way. Thanks for keeping me out of trouble and keeping me in-line. Most importantly, thank you for not allowing me to buy that BeerLaos tank top, no matter how hot and humid it was outside. It would have been a terrible decision.

Asia misses you. And so does YumYum.