Lessons Learned

I was planning on recounting everything that happened on my journey to Asia in this post, but I figure that I’ll be talking to anybody that cares anyhow. Not to mention that that’s a whole lot of story. Instead I’m going to pass on a few nuggets that are probably obvious to everybody else that I learned on my trip with regard to traveling internationally.

Change your money about a week before you leave

I wasn’t really sure how much cash I was going to need before I left so I put off changing my money until the very last minute. Most (perhaps all) banks don’t keep foreign currency on hand and it takes about three days for them to have it delivered. Additionally, the exchange rates at the airport are outrageous. You can always take money out at an ATM upon arrival but in order to do so you first need to contact your bank so that they won’t automatically block the transaction (believe it or not, it’s strange when the same check card purchases gasoline in Minneapolis one week and withdraws money in Singapore the next). When using an ATM in a foreign land you can never really be sure what exchange rate the machine is using nor what kind of fee the transaction is charging you, so all things considered I recommend changing money ahead of time and keeping very good track of your wallet.  

Have wheels on your luggage

Okay, this is something that I already knew, but there is something that I forgot…

Make sure the wheels on your luggage work

When I showed up at the airport I set my bag on the ground and began to drag it very slowly behind me. When I turned around to see what the deal was it was apparent that the wheels weren’t turning and that I had left some streaks in the entryway to the airport. Yikes. After that I proceeded to carry my 40 or so pound suitcase along with my backpack a few miles over the course of the trip on my way to and from various airports and hotels.

Be aware of cultural differences 

While we in the U.S. firmly believe that we do everything perfectly, the rest of the world does a number of things very differently. For instance, it is considered insulting in many nations to tip. It takes some time to really get a feel for cultural differences, but you should certainly be on the lookout for legal differences before tripping internationally. I made a running joke while we were in Singapore that I refused to jaywalk because the legal penalty was death. This is kind of harsh, but any country boasting a Jolly Roger on its customs forms as a warning to drug traffickers and a $500 fine for eating on the train invites itself to such criticisms. On that note, I’m pretty sure eating in public is pretty frowned upon everywhere outside of the U.S. They don’t fine you in Japan, but they sure do look at you funny.

If you don’t speak the language…

Then don’t mess around with English. You’re not going to make any progress trying to communicate by spitting out English words hoping to hit a cognate. Outside of the obvious inefficiencies, there is also the possibility that you hit a word that sounds like a word in a different language that means something completely different. Alternatively, you say a word that is extremely similar and the person you’re trying to communicate with still doesn’t take your meaning. While in Singapore my friend Matthias ordered a dish that he thought would benefit from some soy sauce. Nobody at the restaurant seemed to have any idea what he meant. After ten minutes of trying to discern what he wanted using the English that they knew, a man whom I presumed to be the owner explained that in Singapore they pronounced the word “sosss-uh”. The extra “s” is not a typo. While it’s really impossible to communicate something like “soy sauce” nonverbally, one would do well to attempt to communicate nonverbally when confusion arises (as it inevitably will) out of country. At a clothing store in Japan I found a shirt that I liked and when I grabbed it and began to search for the cash register I was stopped by an employee. He said something in Japanese and I made an “I’m just a stupid American” face. After about thirty seconds I pulled out my wallet to indicate that I wished to purchase the shirt and he promptly took me to the cash register.

Do what the locals do

I find that I have the best times on my vacations when I dine at restaurants I’ve never heard of and visit places that aren’t overly touristy. It only took one trip to the Sears Tower for me to learn that most big attractions are little more than manufactured crap. I recommend doing a little research and finding some sort of food special or activity that is exclusive to where you’re visiting. The obvious thing to do in Japan is to find a good place to eat sushi, but there’s sooo much more going on. One stop that I made while in Nagoya was to an all you can eat cake buffet. I kind of wanted to die after eating two plates, but they had some damn tasty cakes.