CNN's 20 Biggest Travel Mistakes

We came across this article today, and admit to making mistake number 2:

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/02/travel/20-travel-mistakes/index.html?c&page=4

2. Not buying something you like as soon as you see it.You think you're gonna circle back to that shop.
You think you'll see a cheaper, better version somewhere else.
You won't.
That evocative street painting or those Metallica nesting dolls you didn't buy? Now not having them will haunt you for the rest of your life.
When you see something you like, just buy it and live without regret.

Ah well. Happens to us a lot, especially when visiting some place for the first time. Like our last trip, which was to Japan.

While we were the one to plan the itinerary for this trip, and have made it such that we'd only cover different areas every day, and yet we still find ourself going, "Oh that looks nice. OK, we'll KIV that to get later on our way back."

When we ought to have realised that we usually never, ever, go back by the same way, or we would have forgotten all about it much later on.

Not always because we worry we might be paying too much for whatever caught our eye (that one may be so when we are shopping in a street market or something, like when in Chatuchak) but more because we worry we may quickly overspend and end up not having enough cash much later on, and then if we see something we want then, we can't afford to buy it.

Especially when in Japan where, hoo boy, there are loads of things one can buy. Cutesy stuff, gadgets galore, souvenirs...it's like the first time we walked into Daiso when it first opened, but on a far larger scale.

And the funny thing is...while we know we always say, "We'll come back for it later," (and don't), we can't help but to keep doing it. Even when the Chief points it out to us (whether to prevent us lamenting about it much later on or to egg us on to buying more things), it doesn't necessarily push us over the edge to buy it.

But we guess it was rather prudent to hold back when in Japan - there were too many things we could have fancied getting (what more when walking into Tokyu Hands!), and the KIV measure does help us in a way: if we don't remember to get it, it's probably a fleeting impulse and not that important to us.

Or we could have just forgotten to get it. Ahhhhh!