The End of Easy - Headphones revalued (Jakarta, Indonesia)
One of the items that I’ve brought with me and begun to wonder about how useful they are relative to their weight and size are my noise cancelling Bose headphones. They work great on airplanes to give me peace and quiet. They also allow for enhanced in flight movie viewing pleasure. Much better than any of the airline handouts - even in Business Class. But really, how often am I in the air? On top of that - they cost me a lot when I bought it. Do I really need to be carrying such pricey (They don’t seem so expensive when you fly a lot for business) headphones on a world trip?
Of course, I knew the answers to these after I decided to bring them. First, if they just sat in a warehouse they would just gather dust. Not a good use of a purchase. Secondly, I learned from Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro that finding peace and quiet in a big city might be hard to come by - especially if the hotel room is near a major street (With lots of buses) or only has single-pane windows. I’ve used my headphones a couple times on this trip outside of an airplane – but not seemingly enough to justify their existence in my pack.
Today, I found a new use for them. Blocking out the city wide loud speakers of Islamic prayers! No offense to Muslim beliefs, but listening to someone’s prayer out loud is pretty annoying. Thankfully, I can barely hear them through the well padded ear cups.
With that said, this journal entry marks a turning point in my world trip. It really is the END OF EASY now. Nearly every country I go to from here on out until I reach Western Europe will either be dramatically different or harder to get by due to language, infrastructure, culture, or health / sanitary conditions.
The only respite I can imagine are certain areas within individual countries and that is a relative respite. Of course when I say EASY it is relative too. Australia and Singapore are easy due to the level of infrastructure, limited country - history (Less than 200 or so years), and English being predominant. Japan is easy because of the climate (Not hot or humid), prevalence of English and Tourist Information Centers, relatively familiar food (If you eat Japanese food that is), and modern infrastructure. The “culture shock” of these places fits within certain boundaries which makes them easy - though some people may not agree with my take on Japan. There may yet be other places that are easy.
It doesn’t mean that the places I am going to now are difficult to travel in, but there certainly will be more of a struggle and an effort on my part to absorb the differences. Buying my train ticket to Central Java this morning being a case in point.
Oddly enough I am tackling Indonesia first - a country that, save for Bali, isn’t on most people’s holiday itineraries. Most travelers would probably go to Thailand first for an exposure to SE Asia, not counting Singapore. Indonesia would probably be last.
I have been to Japan, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong so Asia certainly isn’t a mystery to me in that sense. Besides, I am Asian and that does make a difference too. Although I will note that I have met Asian-Americans born in the USA who are more “Westernized” in behavior than Caucasian friends I have. One just can’t tell by looks these days. A mistake of many people that I seem to be meeting.
At various points people have thought I was from - Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, China...but never America. I suspect some people here in Indonesia here might think I’m Indonesian too.
(Dec.22 - I’ll add that the noise cancelling works great on muting out the moped and motorcycle engines! Now that I think about it – these headphones are a great idea for SE Asia!)
Of course, I knew the answers to these after I decided to bring them. First, if they just sat in a warehouse they would just gather dust. Not a good use of a purchase. Secondly, I learned from Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro that finding peace and quiet in a big city might be hard to come by - especially if the hotel room is near a major street (With lots of buses) or only has single-pane windows. I’ve used my headphones a couple times on this trip outside of an airplane – but not seemingly enough to justify their existence in my pack.
Today, I found a new use for them. Blocking out the city wide loud speakers of Islamic prayers! No offense to Muslim beliefs, but listening to someone’s prayer out loud is pretty annoying. Thankfully, I can barely hear them through the well padded ear cups.
With that said, this journal entry marks a turning point in my world trip. It really is the END OF EASY now. Nearly every country I go to from here on out until I reach Western Europe will either be dramatically different or harder to get by due to language, infrastructure, culture, or health / sanitary conditions.
The only respite I can imagine are certain areas within individual countries and that is a relative respite. Of course when I say EASY it is relative too. Australia and Singapore are easy due to the level of infrastructure, limited country - history (Less than 200 or so years), and English being predominant. Japan is easy because of the climate (Not hot or humid), prevalence of English and Tourist Information Centers, relatively familiar food (If you eat Japanese food that is), and modern infrastructure. The “culture shock” of these places fits within certain boundaries which makes them easy - though some people may not agree with my take on Japan. There may yet be other places that are easy.
It doesn’t mean that the places I am going to now are difficult to travel in, but there certainly will be more of a struggle and an effort on my part to absorb the differences. Buying my train ticket to Central Java this morning being a case in point.
Oddly enough I am tackling Indonesia first - a country that, save for Bali, isn’t on most people’s holiday itineraries. Most travelers would probably go to Thailand first for an exposure to SE Asia, not counting Singapore. Indonesia would probably be last.
I have been to Japan, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong so Asia certainly isn’t a mystery to me in that sense. Besides, I am Asian and that does make a difference too. Although I will note that I have met Asian-Americans born in the USA who are more “Westernized” in behavior than Caucasian friends I have. One just can’t tell by looks these days. A mistake of many people that I seem to be meeting.
At various points people have thought I was from - Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, China...but never America. I suspect some people here in Indonesia here might think I’m Indonesian too.
(Dec.22 - I’ll add that the noise cancelling works great on muting out the moped and motorcycle engines! Now that I think about it – these headphones are a great idea for SE Asia!)
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