Traveling in Southeast Asia was new experience for me and one I totally embraced from the minute I walked off the plane.\u00a0 The smells were different.\u00a0 The people looked different.\u00a0 The actions were different.\u00a0 The food was different.\u00a0 Sanitation was different.\u00a0 Even the toilets were different.\u00a0 I embraced it all.\u00a0 Well… maybe not the toilets.<\/p>\n
But, as I reflect back on all the beautiful memories from the countries of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore, I find myself missing some elements of the journey.<\/p>\n
I miss the humbleness of the Cambodian people.<\/p>\n
I miss the hustle of the Vietnam business people.<\/p>\n
I miss Thailand’s gorgeous beaches.<\/p>\n
I miss the pristine look and efficiency of Singapore.<\/p>\n
I miss the honesty of the Malaysian people.<\/p>\n
I miss the simplicity of the villages.<\/p>\n
I miss the incredible hospitality of the Southeast Asian people.<\/p>\n
And, miraculously, I miss the food.<\/p>\n
My friends who know me well know that I am not an adventurous eater.\u00a0 I love to\u00a0taste<\/em><\/strong> all foods but tend to eat<\/strong><\/em> more traditional foods.\u00a0 Since I’ve been home, I’ve found myself craving the tastes and smells that I became accustomed to during my visit. I’ve delved into my brain to try to determine “why?” and I think I’ve come up with an answer.\u00a0 Everything was so fresh!\u00a0 The vegetables and fruits were picked and brought to market each day. Restaurants frequented the markets. Locals came to the market twice daily, and leftovers from the market were dried or jellied or pickled.\u00a0 Then the “fresh” routine began again the next day.<\/p>\n Since I’ve been home, I’ve eaten many of the same foods and they just don’t taste the same.\u00a0 Bananas, cherries, and pineapples were sweeter, vegetables more flavorful and crisper, and bread was less prevalent. Shopping each day in a village market with fresh fruits and vegetables made a difference in the food we ate. That realization took me back to my childhood when my uncles and aunts would share fresh fruits and vegetables just picked from the fields that day. They were so good!\u00a0 I miss that.<\/p>\n Even though I miss the food and have fond memories of my journey, I must admit that it is good to be home.<\/p>\n I missed my husband.<\/p>\n I missed my daughter.<\/p>\n I missed my bed.<\/p>\n I missed my friends.<\/p>\n I missed the sameness.<\/p>\n I missed the routines.<\/p>\n I missed America.<\/p>\n “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home. Home! Home! sweet, sweet Home”… Words: David Denham, 1837<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Traveling in Southeast Asia was new experience for me and one I totally embraced from the minute I walked off the plane.\u00a0 The smells were different.\u00a0 The people looked different.\u00a0 The actions were different.\u00a0 The food was different.\u00a0 Sanitation was different.\u00a0 Even the toilets were different.\u00a0 I embraced it all.\u00a0 Well… maybe not the toilets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"There's no place like...","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[310,52,102,309,311,270,274,313,298,4,312,255,219,308,296,90,91,253,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Dorothy.jpg?fit=271%2C186&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9gDsa-bo","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":945,"url":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/?p=945","url_meta":{"origin":706,"position":0},"title":"Dolly got it right.","date":"July 28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not really sure what possessed me to do this; but, I took off on a Tuesday afternoon and headed for the Tennessee mountains. It was hot here in Georgia and I was looking for some cool mountain breezes. Or as my friend says, \"The mountains were calling\". As I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lifestyle"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/F16E3437-E589-4DE0-ACAA-09CE7D9D2248.jpeg?fit=500%2C375&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1298,"url":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/?p=1298","url_meta":{"origin":706,"position":1},"title":"Part 5: African Adventure 2022","date":"October 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Cape Point, Kirstenbosch Gardens and Boulder Beach Our South African Guide, Gillian Schroeder, picked us up bright and early for a rainy day drive to Cape Point.\u00a0 On the\u00a0way, she pointed out her favorite place to get fish: Fish On The Rocks.\u00a0 Love the name.\u00a0 Our drive began on a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "animals"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/IMG_6654.jpeg?fit=500%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1310,"url":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/?p=1310","url_meta":{"origin":706,"position":2},"title":"Part 11: African Adventure 2022","date":"October 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Maun, Botswana When we arrived at the Maun Airport, we were greeted by a driver who took us on a quick tour of town and then whisked us away to the Cresta Maun hotel.\u00a0 We had the afternoon free to rest or explore. David and I did neither.\u00a0As we chatted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Botswana"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/IMG_7966.jpeg?fit=500%2C375&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1300,"url":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/?p=1300","url_meta":{"origin":706,"position":3},"title":"Part 6: African Adventure 2022","date":"October 7, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0Robben Island, Ellerman House and Mount Nelson High Tea\u00a0in Cape Town, South Africa. Today held a big disappointment for us.\u00a0 We secured our Robben Island tickets before ever leaving home because we wanted to see the place where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned and better understand his plight.\u00a0We made our way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/IMG_6739.jpeg?fit=500%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":266,"url":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/?p=266","url_meta":{"origin":706,"position":4},"title":"Bumps in the Road","date":"November 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Early in November, the traveling bug hit. Each year I receive a free companion ticket from Delta that lets me take a friend or family member and fly anywhere in the 48 contiguous states. I love the opportunity to share travel with someone. This year, I let the expiration date\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "fall fun"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_1725.jpg?fit=500%2C637&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":689,"url":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/?p=689","url_meta":{"origin":706,"position":5},"title":"Order among Chaos","date":"October 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"As Hurricane Willa makes landfall near the resort towns on the Mexican Riviera, I am reminded of the devastation caused by Hurricane Michael in Georgia and Florida. So many friends were affected by power outages, fallen trees, destroyed crops, and mangled houses. But, thankfully, no friends or family lost lives.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/gas.jpg?fit=500%2C333&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":712,"href":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions\/712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlordrutter.press\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}