Some thoughts as we wait for a replacement rental car to come from a city 5 hours away…. - Mara Posting

How do you judge a place?

It’s scenery or lack thereof? The material and size of buildings? The number of bars, stripclubs, or libraries? How clean the parks are? The existence of sidewalks or street trees? The cost or form of public transportation? If trains run on time? The number and type of cars, mopeds, and bikes?

It’s people? The frequency with which they smile (and does a smile guarantee their friendliness or happiness)? How people dress? Walk? Talk? How often they exercise or drink coffee, wine, beer, or tea?

The cost of a bigmac?

In the Philippines, almost everyone has a rooster, and there are more beauty products than I have ever seen. Every store has a floor-too-roof wall of whitening creams, cleansers, slimmers, and moisturizers. Yet, I could not find a bottle of shaving cream anywhere!  In Buenos Aires, there seems to be at least one bookstore per capita.  In Germany, every park brims with people in athletic shorts… drinking beer from 1 liter mugs.  In Vietnam, minibuses are truly mini (I couldn’t fit my knees behind the seat in front of me), and drivers prefer to use horns instead of brakes.  In Argentina, city bus drivers don’t use horns or brakes; they accelerate at intersections and then slam to a stop at the bus stops. 

In Turkey, fruit carts are at every corner – fresh squeezed orange juice for less than $1. In parts of Samoa, fruit is ironically scarce.  In Turkey, men move the hand carts; in Vietnam, women do. In Morocco, mules pull the carts, as they froth green at the mouth, trying to spit out their bits.  In Spain, you go out for pre-dinner snacks no earlier than 10pm.  In Laos, everything shuts down by 9pm, and the streets are empty.

Samoan dogs have hard lives and are kicked constantly. In Thailand, they are aggressive guard dogs. There are only cats in Istanbul; Turkish dogs live in the countryside, and some are the size of a small bear.  In Europe, they ride the subway with their owners.  The most playful dogs are in northern Vietnam, but they might not be around long. Several strays have adopted me in Argentina.

Kids in Finland wear safety vests while playing in a double-fenced playground. In Kenya, they carry siblings slightly smaller than themselves. In Thailand, I heard a “crack” and turned my head to see an immobile motor-biker lying in the street in front of a pickup truck.  In Budapest, I heard a “crack” and looked across the street as a store alarm went off, and a man next to the store window put something in a plastic bag and slowly walked away, glancing over his shoulder.

Everywhere, there are a lot of gun-wielding guards in front of banks. There are too many double-doored (triple-locked) apartments with narrow stairs and no lifts, and even more dirty bathrooms (and usually the dirtiest are the ones you pay to use). But unlike what the guidebooks say, most people are not out to get you, and most vendors will smile even if you don’t buy anything.  

Have I judged or observed?