The Things You Miss: Clean Underwear and Other Luxuries

Before I left home, I never realised just how many little things I took for granted. I’m not talking about cultural differences; I'm talking about the practical stuff: drinkable tap water, air conditioning that works, toilets that flush. They say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone, but I never understood just how much I had until I found myself sleeping in a stagnant room with no fan, no power, no working Wi-Fi, wondering how to ask for directions in a language I didn’t speak. Travel brings more than just cool experiences and profound realisations; it gives us an appreciation for what we have in our everyday lives and reminds us that most of the world lives by different rules.

Having my own space. I've lived in hostels almost non-stop since leaving home. I don't mind it, but having my own room is something I miss sometimes. No loud snorers, no couples trying to be intimate, no explosions of other people's stuff covering the floor. That extends to bathrooms and showers, too. 

Homemade clothesline for Jo and me in Paris, France, using bungee cords, carabiners, my bag, and the ladder for the bunk beds

Paying with card. It's normal in the United States, but most of the world is still cash-based. In many places, cashpoints and money exchanges are hard to find, making budgeting extremely important. Paying with card is much easier.

Drinkable tap water. Boil notices back home are rare annoyances. For the rest of the world, boiling water is normal. Many countries don’t have reliably clean tap water; it either comes from bottles, potable water companies, or filtering and boiling it yourself.

Flushing toilet paper. No trash bin? No problem in the Westernised world. Everywhere else, from Mexico to the Sahara to Southeast Asia, you can't flush your toilet paper down the drain. Instead, you have to throw it in the bin. If there is toilet paper at all.

Air conditioning. It's how I can wear jeans in Texas in July, because every business and home has the air con turned up. It's a luxury for travellers, as air conditioning units are massive power draws, expensive to maintain, and prohibitively expensive for businesses and families across the world. Even in Europe, it’s often seen as unnecessary or excessive.

Reliable electricity and internet. Power outages come from storms and weather damage back home, not from sketchily constructed power poles or poorly maintained electric grids. The internet doesn't randomly drop, and no one in power can just shut it off nationwide on a whim. And if they do drop, there is public accountability. In the rest of the world, power and internet outages are a normal course of life.

Free water at restaurants. Water comes out of the tap, and it is relatively cheap for business owners to provide it for free. There are no laws mandating it; it is provided as a part of our culture. That's not the case in most of the world, and even Europe charges for water unless you know how to specifically ask for tap water (which they are legally required to provide when specifically asked).

Accountable justice system. Corruption is the way of the world, not an exception. Payoffs for "losing" paperwork, bribes to get out of fines, and racial and religious discrimination are rampant, accepted, and tacitly legal. The American system isn't perfect, but at least we fight back when it's undermined.

Clean underwear. When you're on the road, you wear and re-wear until laundry day arrives. Being able to change your underwear to a fresh pair every day is a wonderful thing.

Speaking the language. There have been times when the only way I could communicate with a taxi driver was through facial expressions and hand gestures. Only a few languages transcend national borders, so with each new country comes another download to Google Translate.

Speaking English. One of the few international languages is English, and countries across the globe include English in their primary school curriculums. English is how Germans, Spaniards, Frenchmen, and more communicate with each other, and as a native English speaker, I have rarely been unable to partake in communal conversations or activities.

Freedom of speech (and religion, assembly, petition, and press). It's under attack across the world. Practicing the wrong religion (or accidentally offending a custom) can land you in jail in many countries, and speaking out against the government is more often considered treasonous than a patriotic duty. Even in some Western countries, praying silently in certain public spaces has been criminalised or curtailed.

The rest of the world lives by different rules. Things I considered normal before, I now know are luxuries on the grand scale. They’re daily expectations I never thought to question until I had to live without them. Each missing comfort reshaped how I see the world and what I call normal. Travel is exhilarating, but it comes with humbling lessons. One of the biggest is this: what we call “basic” isn’t basic everywhere. Whenever I land back home for good, I’ll be grateful for clean underwear, running water, and a room of my own.