Toilet paper and coffee may not top global awareness and raising a nomadic child on the list of things a traveler can be grateful for.

Still, I think it’s good to go back to basics once in a while. Let’s acknowledge all the simple things*, no matter how small they may seem, that turn any single trip into a thousand lessons of appreciation.

*(Things like deodorant…)

A traveler can always be thankful for:

1. A passport.
2. And if you don’t have one, you can say “cheers” to the political powers that give you an option to possess one.
3. Airplanes. Yes, even the ones that are delayed.
4. Credit cards, which have saved more than one person in an emergency.
5. Coffee.
6. Travel quotes and cheesy motivational memes.
   
7. Cameras. Not iPhones, but the very mechanism inside them that magically transforms a physical moment into a shiny memory.
8. Paper maps.
9. Paper books.
10. And random book swap shelves in hostels. Because a great travel story is even better when you stumble upon it.
11. Pens. Because journaling from some sidewalk cafe with a giant quill in your hand would clearly shout ‘tourist’…
12. Postcards.
13. Pocket packs of Kleenex. Especially in Southeast Asian bathrooms.
14. Facebook friendships that last infinitely longer online than in person.
15. Bread. Any type, from anywhere. Always.
16. Different languages.
17. Smiles, in any language.
18. And Customs officers who know how to smile back.
19. Flip flops.
20. And places where it’s OK to go barefoot.
21. Communal accommodation. Because we learn so much when we learn to share…
22. Those grains of sand you find in your shoes three weeks after a vacation ends.
23. Silk liners that stop bedbugs.
24. Overnight trains.
25. ‘Orphan’ holidays.
26. Guys like Karl Baedecker and Charles Lindbergh, who pioneered travel for the common man.
27. Ladies like Gertrude Bell and Freya Stark, who made it OK for women to do the same.
28. Skype dates.
29. Microbrews.
30. Hammocks.
31. Care packages from home, after you’ve been gone for what feels like forever.
32. Bird sounds in the morning.
33. Honest taxi (and tuk tuk) drivers.
34. Free wifi from global chains. Nobody wants to see a Starbucks on every Calcutta street corner, but you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth…
35. Waterproof fabric.
36. Tiger Balm.
37. Duct tape. Because it fixes everything from damaged shoes to backpack straps to holey clothing.
38. The first aid kit in some forgotten pocket, which you hopefully never need to use seriously.
39. Airport seats without armrests. So much better for long layovers…
40. Highway rest areas on road trips.
41. The flashbacks that hit you at 3:00 a.m., when you recall a laugh or a smell or the feel of a foreign bed, and know that you have been somewhere. And that is the most wonderful thing in the world…

What’s on your list of things to be thankful for?