Fears
In just 10 days my wife and I will be boarding a plane and begin our travels to Thailand. Traveling always comes with some sort of uncertainty and fear along with it. I'm not talking about fear of flying or any of that stuff. There are other little fears that I have that go along with traveling and with this #roadtosteemfest prompt, I will go over a few of them and explain why they are some of my fears.
Losing my luggage
This has happened to me a few times while traveling, so this is something that I worry about all the time while I am traveling. This is something I know a lot of people worry about, but since I have dealt with it multiple times, I worry about it every time now.
When I was traveling to Africa a few years ago, my luggage got lost when I was stuck in Istanbul for a day. The unexpected 24 hour layover was made worse because I was stuck in the same clothes for that extra day of traveling. Luckily I was able to wash my socks and underwear in the sink of the hotel.
Last year on the way to Poland, my luggage got lost and it took an extra day to get to me, so I didn't have a full change of clothes until the second day. I have learned to pack my carryon bag with a few changes of underwear and socks though and anticipate the fact that my luggage will be lost for a day or two while I am traveling.
I have been lucky enough that my luggage was never lost for good, but I am always worried about that, so I pack my camera equipment and laptop with me in my carryon and just use my check bag for clothing and other various crap that isn't as expensive.
Missing connecting flights
This is another thing I am sure that everyone worries about. Landing in another country at a foreign airport after being on an 10 hour or more flight without sleeping very well at all can be very disorienting. Now add in the fact that you have to clear customs, make it to your next gate, which is usually on the whole other side of the airport, and you have like 30 minutes to do it in, it can be pretty stressful.
This is usually when I worry about my luggage as well. When I am rushing to the next gate and barely making it in time, I am wondering how my luggage is going to make it. If I am barely making it, I know for a fact that there was no way that the plane I just got off of was able to get unloaded, all the luggage was sorted and then my luggage was taken and loaded to the plane I was about to board. So if I barely made it on my flight, I know my luggage missed the connecting flight.
I have only missed one connecting flight though, and that was in Istanbul. It actually ended up being an awesome time. The airline put me up in a hotel for the day and paid for my food. When I got to the hotel, there was a wedding celebration going on in the courtyard area, so I was able to get some food from that since the hotel's restaurant catered the event. I was also able to go explore the city in the morning and get this picture of a three pawed kitten. It was a pretty cool experience.
Getting lost
When you land in a foreign country and don't speak or read the language, it can be pretty scary. Luckily a lot of people speak English in Thailand and Bangkok is the most visited city in the world, so it is very tourist friendly when it comes to tourists getting around.
But it is still a bit unnerving to think about how easy it can be to get turned around in a big city like that at night and before you realize it, you have no idea where you are. It's a good thing that all we will have to do it get a Tuk Tuk and have them take us back to our hotel if we get too lost from wandering around. I am sure by the end of our time there, we will be experts at the area and will have walked plenty of miles around Bangkok.
Theft
Whenever I have my camera bag on me and I worry that someone is going to sneak up and slowly unzip it and start stealing my lenses out of my bag while I am busy taking pictures or something.
Now being in a different country adds a whole new level of paranoia into someone pickpocketing because if they steal my wallet or any of my other important documents, then we could be screwed. Losing your identification when in another country seems like it could be a nightmare. I would not want to spend my whole vacation dealing with trying to get new identification and paperwork from the embassy when I could be enjoying my time.
So that is it
So that is pretty much it. I don't really have any big fears when it comes to going to Steemfest. I know that it is going to be awesome, even if the airline loses my luggage. If they lose it and never find it, I will just file a claim and get paid for what they lose and I will just be able to buy new clothes there in Bangkok anyways. My wife and I are planning on traveling very light on our way there anyways because we plan on buying plenty of clothes and souvenirs while we are there.
We can't wait to see everyone in less than two weeks! We can't wait to eat the food there in Thailand the way it is supposed to taste and not from the restaurants here in the US, where they may have changed things a bit to make it taste more like how Americans like it. I think I might be more excited about the food more than anything. I can't wait to eat durian fruit and smell its putrid smell. I can't wait to get mango rice snacks every few hours just because they are delicious. I can't wait to go to the floating markets and eat soup on the boats while browsing what the different boats have for sale.
I just can't wait for Steemfest. It is going to be epic.
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