Is The Grass Really Greener on the other side?
Today, Michelle and I went out for a walk around Cuenca, Ecuador where we’ve been staying for the last few months. During the first week of November, this city celebrates “Cuenca Days”, which is a commemoration of Cuenca’s independence from the Spanish Monarchy back in 1820. It’s a great time to be here because there is so much happening! The thing we like the most during Cuenca Days is that tents are set up all along the streets where vendors come in from all around Ecuador to sell their wares. Many of the items being sold are hand-made and are of the highest quality and gorgeous! Other events take place around the city, but we mostly enjoy just walking around, seeing the people and maybe buying a souvenir or two.
It’s times like today that I’m so thankful we decided to travel during retirement. I often think to myself when we are strolling around Cuenca, Ecuador, or Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, or Hoi An, Vietnam, or… (you get the point)… I think to myself, “This is amazing! I am a guy from a small town in Western Pa, and now I am here, seeing these things in person and experiencing new cultures and meeting people from all over the world! How cool is this?”
Do we sometimes miss the things we had back in the US? Actually, for the most part no! But there are some things that we do miss, like walking on the C&O Canal in WV or MD, or being able to order things on Amazon, or eating a sub sandwich from Jersey Mike’s, or going for weekend road trips in our car. However, the things we’ve been able to see and do these last 2 1/2 years have been life changing! Our view of the world, and the people in it have changed so much since we started on this journey!
It’s because of traveling that we know that in Manta, Ecuador today, there is a man and son who have a little stand along Avenida Flavio Reyes (Flavio Reyes Avenue), and they make keys for people. The way it works is you drop off a key that you want made and in about an hour they have it ready for you to pick up! They were always busy, but never failed to smile and say hello to us whenever we walked by. It’s also because of traveling that we know a man named De Zu who lives in Bali, Indonesia. He works at the hotel we stayed at and whenever we saw him around the hotel property, he would stop to ask how we were, and if there was anything that we needed. He went out of his way to always talk to us! When it was time for us to leave, he asked if we could become Facebook friends so that we could keep in touch. (We’re still friends on Facebook!).
The young lady on the left in the picture above is Kim. She works in the hotel that we always stay at whenever we are in Hoi An, Vietnam, and she is one of the friendliest people you’d ever want to meet! She loved to show us pictures of her daughter whenever she had new ones to show (her smile lit up the room as she did), and we’ve kept in touch with her through WhatsApp since we’ve been away. Recently we learned that she is expecting her second daughter right about the time we are scheduled to come back! One day when we walked by the hotel desk where she was working, she stopped us and said that she had something for us. She and her family own a coffee shop, and she knew that I love coffee, so she handed me a big container of coffee that she and her family had roasted and ground up so that I could have great coffee to drink in our room! And, when it was time for us to check out a few weeks later, she gave me another container of coffee to take home! We can’t wait to see her again when we go back!
The young lady on the left in this phone above is Angela. Angela owns one of our favorite restaurants in Chiang Mai, Thailand! At first she didn’t talk much to us when we first started going there, probably because of the language barrier. But by the end of our trip, we had gotten to know her and when we told her that we were leaving the next day, she asked if it would be ok to take a picture with us. She had one of her workers take the picture, and then I took one of her and Michelle. If you ever are in Chiang Mai and eat at the “Outlaws Bar and Grill”, don’t forget to say “hi” to Angela!
This is a picture of my Mother-In-Law Annie, who is with my Father-In-Law Murray, having an afternoon beer at “Nhu’s” restaurant in Hoi An Ancient City, Vietnam. (We don’t know the real name of this restaurant. It’s written in Vietnamese and we don’t understand it so we just call it “Nhu’s”). Nhu is seen in the back of this picture. It’s the only picture we have of her, but I wanted to tell you about Nhu. Nhu, her husband and Nhu’s mother work in this restaurant every day of the week, without a day off. Nhu is always smiling and always happy! Quite honestly we don’t know how she does it! During the rainy season, her restaurant often floods so they have to put all the tables and chairs in the attic to keep them from floating away. During this time they use little plastic tables and chairs that they can quickly move whenever the river reaches flood stage. (After rainy season, they bring the regular wooden tables and chairs back down from the attic and then move the plastic ones up). Nhu takes such great care of us! Whenever she sees us come in, she knows already what we want to drink and brings it to us (always with a smile!). Her food is top notch and the service is always beyond excellent! We first met Nhu on our first trip to Vietnam in February 2020, and didn’t see her again until we came back 3 years later. We weren’t sure if her restaurant had survived during the pandemic. We were so happy when we went back last year and saw that she was still there! Nhu is more than a person who works in a restaurant to us. We consider her a friend and can’t wait to see her when we go back again!
So why do we travel, and more importantly, is the grass actually greener on the other side? I wouldn’t say that it’s greener, but it’s different and has many different shades of green that we both love! We travel because we love the fact that we’ve met these amazing people around the world that we wouldn’t have known unless we’d gone there to see where they live! We travel because we truly feel freedom that I know we never felt when we lived in our house back in the US. Today, I am feeling very blessed that we get to do this and I get to share it with you!
Have a great day everyone!
It’s always the people right? That’s what I love the most about traveling.
Amen to that Brenda!