What Visitors Can Do

Having visitors come to stay with you can bring mixed emotions.  Hopefully the visitors in question are people you actually want to see.  Even so, it means playing host and changing around your own schedule to fit their holiday.  It means finally washing some sheets and buying extra toilet paper.  If you live overseas, it means preparing to help your friends and family adjust to your local oddities.  At the end of their trip, you’re guaranteed to be a little lest rested than normal.  So what makes having visitors so great?

The right house guests bring with them a whole new outlook on your home.  They make you see things the way you saw them when you first arrived.  Visitors force you to re-take those day trips you took when you first moved, and experience all the fun of the touristy things in your area.  It’s also a chance to make new memories with old friends.  A drawback of living overseas is that trips back home at Christmas are spent “catching up”.  Having those same friends come to visit you means moving beyond the catch up and into time together spent laughing about what’s happening right now, rather than what happened when you were kids.

Who wants these clowns around?

After next week nearly all of JD’s family will have come to visit us in Vietnam.  This is impressive when you consider the distance and cost to get from Johannesburg to Da Nang.  It’s not exactly a weekend trip.  Not only have their visits been flattering (what?  You mean they were coming to see JD?!) they’ve also been helluva fun.

Last weekend was a break from the norm as JD and I scooted off to Lang Co, Hoi An and An Bang to show our guest, JD’s dad, what Vietnam is made of.  It was more miles on a scooter than I’d done in a long time.  We ate different street food every night and stopped at each bend to admire the view.  It was a fantastic weekend, for all of us, and I now have a reinvigorated appreciation for my current home.  It’s a place I was proud to show off and happy to (try to) explain.

The home I get to brag about

We’ve been lucky in a few respects.  Our friends from afar have all come with the right attitude; they know Vietnam is a developing place and are willing to take on the challenges and runny tummies that are part of the package.  They’ve come with flexible schedules – no tour buses for these folks!  They’ve come wanting to see how JD and I live and are some of the most accommodating people you could ever hope to have share your kitchen.

Best of all, they’ve all loved Vietnam.  Nothing’s better than seeing people you love having a great vacation.

So, again, let’s ask the question, what makes having visitors so great?

They do.  The extra toilet paper is totally worth it.

Lock your door if these guests come.