How to pick your perfect travelling partner

And so, as we face another day in lovely Luang Prabang, I am seeking shelter from yet another monsoon in a mercefully air conditioned internet cafe. Not that I am complaining about the rain, we were very well prepared for days of crazy downpour and wading through streets-turned-rivers. However, there are only so many foot massages one can take to pass the time. So, I have decided to dedicate my latest blog entry on the musings of travel companions.

Know your onion Now, anyone who knows both Rebecca and I would be forgiven for thinking "Kuels and Georgina? Thailand? Together? OH DEAR" Yes, yes we are known for our bickering, but this leads me on to my first must of a travelling companion -  know what it is that you are dealing with. Rebecca and I both have our habits, and our warning signs. For me, I get grumpy when I haven't eaten. For her, she gets grumpy when she's tired. I know that I should never get on a bus without some sort of snack readily avaiable, or hell may in fact, break loose. Especially when pent up over a number of hours for fear of upsetting the other. Which leads us onto point two:

Don't be a doormat. As I am slowly learning, there is no point in pussy-footing around your partner for fear of annoying them. Not only will the resentment build up like a rather precarious volcano, errupting at the worst possible moment, (in this case, in a rather  wonderfully airconditioned cafe where they do the BEST mint-lemon frappes, which we can now never return to) but there is also a risk that you will miss out on the thing that you really want to do, for the sake of making your companion happy. OK, so this may be my problem more than most, as I am an eternal people-pleaser, but as Rebecca firmly, but fairly told me last night after another of my little tantrums, I should be more selfish and do what I want to do, rather than what I think I should do. Perhaps this is why I enjoyed my cookery course so much; even though Rebecca was ill in bed, I still went out and enjoyed myself because its what I wanted to do. Plus, it was food. And everyone knows how much I love food.

Don't be naive: you will argue Although we haven't as much as you might think! (No really!) Neither of us have yet (touch-wood) abandoned the other in a state of fury or fustration. Admittedly, we have come close, but believe it or not, we are still on speaking terms, and I am happy to report that we are getting on better I expected. Yes, it is tough being together 24/7, but it's ok to say "I'm going to go for a quick nap" when you might mean, "SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE". Likewise, its ok to sit in silence with each other. Perhaps that's the most important rule of choosing the perfect travelling partner: to be comfortable in each other's company in silence. 

I started thinking about this list whilst casually sailing down the Mekong River after visiting the rather exciting Pak Ou Caves (yes Dad, I went to see a cave. By choice) which is basically a cave full of Buddah statues from all over the world, collected over hundreds of years, of different shapes, colours and materials. Neon pink plastic included. Anyway, I realised that you can't really know if you are going to get along until you take the pluge.  We may have been close friends for three years, travelled to Sri Lanka as part of a team for 2 months and lived together for a year with many ups and downs along the way  but I still didn't really know what to expect when we decided to embark on this 'gap yar' traveller's pradise. 

They say travelling can either make or break a relationship. We'll see shall we? ;-)

xxxx