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The perils of traveling with friends
When good pals become travel partners, their friendship is put to the test.
By Sarah Treleaven
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Solo and loving it! World traveller Sarah Treleaven
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When I decided to join a close friend on a four-month tour through Southeast Asia, I expected the odd quibble or irritation. But it wasn't until the two of us were in a shack in northern Thailand -- furious and sleepless after yet another fight -- that I realized the toll this trip had taken on our relationship. We were no longer friends; we were married.
Christy met me at Bangkok International Airport at the start of the trip. As I hugged her, I felt a surge of excitement. I had no doubt we would have the experience of a lifetime. And, in many ways, we did. We sat in string hammocks, watching the sun set over the Gulf of Thailand. We bartered in Bangkok's bustling street markets and learned to flirt in Israeli, Swedish and French. We snuck beers into a Hanoi theatre to enhance our appreciation of Vietnamese water puppetry. And we rented bicycles to explore the magnificent temples of Cambodia's Angkor Wat.
But by the end of the first month, having checked into yet another dodgy $5-a-night Cambodian guest house, we were both feeling pretty rough. I was sporting a look best described as "shipwrecked," and Christy had all the perspiring charm of a political prisoner. The challenges of moving on to a new place every few days -- enduring stalled buses, sleazy hostels, giant cockroaches and a dangerously close encounter with an angry monkey -- rapidly wore us down. Despite the bond we had forged years ago as co-workers, we bickered and seethed our way across the continent. We stared at each other over restaurant tables with nothing to say. I lectured her for tracking mud across a hotel room floor. And one night, I dreamed that the two of us had to bury a dead hooker. I didn't need to consult a soothsayer to know that things weren't going well.
Can you travel with good friends? Discuss in our forums!
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