The Joy of Doing Laundry on the Road
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 06.18.09 | 2:52 PM ET
Photo by As any traveler knows, sometimes the most mundane chores and tasks become the stuff of great memories when you do them in a new place: Grocery shopping, getting a haircut and, yes, even doing laundry can suddenly become an adventure.
I’ve had some great travel experiences while doing laundry overseas—a particular encounter in a Chamonix Laundromat comes to mind.
So I was happy to read Daisann McLane’s piece on this very topic in National Geographic Traveler:
Every time I travel, there comes a moment when the stress of planning, of anticipation, logistics, timetables, and anxieties lifts, and I’m flooded with relief and a great sense of joy: Yes, I am really on the road.
For some reason, that warm, delicious Ahhh almost always happens when I am in the hot sun, wringing the last drips from some freshly washed T-shirt.
McLane is a World Hum contributor, filing this terrific essay for us from Greenland.
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Downtown Hotels 06.18.09 | 3:43 PM ET
For me doing Laundry is the most boring job,either at home or away from home.
Sometimes…... I do my familys laundry to but I wouldn’t mind doing my own….. It wouldn’t take as long and then… It still would be boring…
David Weindling 06.18.09 | 4:04 PM ET
The joy of doing laundry is entirely dependent on your company. I once had a haircut in Belgium that went quite well after we settled on Spanish as our shared language in which to say short on the sides and back. Currently, I’m looking forward to delivering a letter in Copenhagen. Everyday chores in new places are opportunities for unique experiences. I just blogged about this today at http://gofarther.wordpress.com.
pam 06.18.09 | 4:31 PM ET
I loved that piece by Daisann McLane, loved it.
I also remember taking my laundry in to a place in Hoi An . When I dropped it off, the woman touched me on the nose and said, “I LOVE your nose! VERY NICE!” Later, when I went to pick it up with my husband, she did the same thing, taking a tight grip on his shoulder, “I LOVE your husband! VERY NICE!”
I have a couple of now rust colored t-shirts that were laundered in Siem Reap that I can’t bring myself to toss as well—whenever I pull them out, it’s Angkor Wat in my mind all over again.
Karyn Johnson 06.18.09 | 4:42 PM ET
I will always have a memory of doing laundry in some small town in England when I was staying with a friend (she didn’t have a washer and dryer). A convenience store was right next door, so we went over there to buy candy and magazines while we waited on our laundry. The cashier took note of my American accent, and then asked me if we used the euro as currency in America.
My jaw was on the floor. My friend (who is also American, but married to a Brit), had to point out to the cashier that euros are European currency. America is not in Europe. Therefore, America doesn’t use the euro…we have a currency called the US dollar.
So an otherwise mundane trip to the laundry is now forever stamped on my brain, thanks to that incident.