The visitor

The members of the Big Trip Asia expedition welcome a visitor. During almost all January, they will be three people traveling instead of two.

But there is a potential problem. After 6 months of almost complete isolation from the company of other westerners, the members of our expedition (hosts) have grown increasingly weird, they have new habits and even present some traces of wild behaviour.

Will they be able to welcome a new person to their habitat? But what is more important: will the visitor cope with their increasing
weirdness?

The visitor is Nik, a younger brother of the female host.

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The first hours, still under the influence of jet lag, things don’t look very promising. Visitor is kept in quarantine for a few hours for observation, before tests start.

Test 1: Hit the ground running
With no time for soft landings, visitor is directly thrown into the streets of Hanoi, while hosts observe his natural ability of crossing the roads full of motorbikes coming from all directions.

Test 2: Street touts madness
Visitor reacts well to the relentless offerings of a motorbike ride, a group tour, a shoe shine… Another shoe shine, another tour, maybe motorbike?

Test 3: Whatever runs, flies or swims…
Not only visitor enjoys trying all local food, but he refuses to have anything else, needing his daily fix of phở bò or Chè, some local specialties.

Test 4: The rat sized gecko
Visitor is confronted with the ultimate big trip asia initiation test. The XL red eye singing gecko. Visitor keeps cool.

Hosts soon start getting amazed of visitor’s ability to integrate into the country and their ways of traveling, so from day 2 they apply the definitive test.

Test 5: The boring stories
Hosts were dying to talk about their adventures in the last months of traveling. Their funny anecdotes, and specially the boring ones, don’t seem to come to an end. Visitor listens to them again and again, keeping cool, with a remarkable endurance and patience.

All test are successfully passed, visitor is soon recognised as a full member of the group!

The rest of the time together is all good. Many sparks of laugh, nice places and food, millions of Dong spent, toblerone galore, happy times…

Thanks, Nik!

Besides, visitor’s pictures serve as a unique document of host’s behaviour in a natural setting, an opportunity for scientists and researchers alike to learn more about the behavioural patterns of these nomadic species.