Amenities in order from least common to most common: milk for drip coffee, drip coffee, hot shower, beer, WiFi, air conditioning, toilet paper, filtered drinking water, western toilet, cold shower, electricity, mosquito netting, cell service.
Go slowly, be kind, and keep going. Just like in a 100.
Driving on left: yield for right turns, directional and windshield wiper controls are swapped, driver needs to enter in the right side of the car.
Never pass up clean water or a clean bathroom.
Trying to predict how much time something will take is a waste of time.
Paying for two cokes and two beers gets you hours on the terrace of the fanciest hotel.
Bears (or lions in Africa or tigers in Indonesia or sharks in Australia or whatever the top of the food chain happens to be) don’t care about how your day is going.
You can always fit one more person in the car.
There’s more WiFi and cell coverage than you expect but your phone will connect less than you expect.
Cash wins.
Most problems can be solved with a cold Coke, Fanta (orange not red), or beer.
Africa: embrace the dust. Love the dust. Be one with the dust.
Indonesia: embrace the humidity. Love the humidity. Be one with the humidity.
Your body’s response to the humidity is very non-linear. You’re walking along just fine and then – BAM – the humidity catches up to you. And every pore is sweating and everything is saturated. Maybe that’s what malaria is like.
Tires (and entire wheels) fail first.
Some things are both unknown and unknowable.
Find the yes person and stick with them; find the no person and politely persist.
