Living Through Others

Even though our trip is imminent Debbie and I will not pass up the chance to live vicariously through the experience of others. We have the chance to go and view the slides of our friends R & J’s latest adventure and we jump at it.

It is a small gathering of R & J’s friends of course, it is at their house, B, S & R, Debbie and me. R & J went to SE Asia this past summer and it is time for them to show us where they had been and what they had done. Debbie and I have been to a few of the places they went to and wanted to refresh our memories and get some insight into the places we have not been.

Dinner is set to a SE Asian theme. Not sticking to one particular culture. Shrimp, chicken, rice, appropriate hot and sweet sauces, veggies and salad. Everything is soooo good (cannot comment on the salad, I don’t eat the stuff). I eat too much.

We all crowd into the ubiquitous ‘computer room,’ wiggle about until we can all see the screen and the show begins. R has set the slides in chronological order of their trip. First port of call – Siem Reap. The photos are great and the memories of what we did and where we stayed drift in and out as the pictures come up on the screen. With the images fresh it seems like Debbie and I had just left Siem Reap ourselves.

Next stop Bangkok, this is all new to Debbie and me as the farthest we have been into Bangkok is the airport. As with all travelers, the slides conjure up the feeling that we should go there and see for ourselves. The clash of the new and the old is always striking and Bangkok has its share of both.

I have been to Singapore but it was long ago and although I remember some of it, the photos show the place has changed a lot. It is still immaculately clean, but as it was 30 years ago the new now far exceeds the old which to me makes it somewhat sterile. None the less it is very beautiful and worth at least a visit.

The pictures then take us to the west coast of Thailand and the Andaman Sea. We have swum in that particular sea but not off the Thai islands. I heard it was crowded and maybe worth  a miss but J & R’s pictures did not indicate hoards of people and the water looked so good, I think it would be worth a side trip. With a dive or two on the agenda of course.

The slide show ends with a few slides taken while on a long layover in Japan. From the twenty or so pics, I think we may have to add Japan to our bucket list. I do not see how our list will get any shorter if each time a place is crossed off another is added to the bottom.

R & J’s trip looks really good. Sitting in on a travelogue set by someone else and daydreaming along as the photos flash up is a very inexpensive way to travel. Of course the impressions are those of the ones that did the traveling but just getting the discourse and seeing the photos stimulates the feeling of being abroad and helps to squelch the travel lust between trips.