Generic tips for travellers to foreign parts

[Anne_Neville]

Most places in major cities do take credit cards. They might not take your ATM card, though- I found that they use a different system for ATM card purchases in Australia, and we couldn’t use ours for that (though they did work at the ATMs just fine). I don’t remember trying to use my ATM card for purchases in Europe (I normally use my credit card), so I don’t know if it would have worked there.

If you’re American, and have a typical American cell phone, it probably won’t work in most of the rest of the world. You’ll have to remember how you managed to meet up and keep track of each other BC (Before Cellphones).

International calls are #*@$**! expensive, especially to or from your hotel phone. Keep your calls home short and to the point, or your hotel bill or next phone bill might have a nasty surprise in it. Email is probably a better option- in most European and Australian cities, we found that there were internet cafes around and that some hotels had computers with internet. Email also helps with the time-zone issue, so you know you won’t get the math wrong and end up calling someone back home at 3am their time.

I’ve never gotten a hair dryer to work satisfactorily with a voltage converter. I eventually ended up getting a 220-volt hair dryer for trips abroad.

@Spiff

Except if the locals are enjoying cabeza.

But remember, there’s a lot of space between “I will eat anything the locals eat, including head tacos” and “I will try local dishes that look like something I would like and don’t violate any of my dietary restrictions” and “I will only eat at a restaurant I know from home, and will only order things that I could get at home”. Even if a cuisine is not known for being compatible with your dietary restrictions, you can still find new and interesting stuff to try that doesn’t violate them. Mr Neville and I managed to find vegetarian Czech food (Eastern European food in general is not known for being vegetarian-friendly). You really don’t have to be willing to eat absolutely anything to have an interesting and enjoyable experience eating abroad. Nor do you have to drink alcohol, although some of us do enjoy trying local beers, wines, and other drinks.

Warning for Americans who don’t drink alcohol: soda servings are a lot smaller in Europe than they are in the US, and they cost a lot more. I think a Coke costing more than beer or wine was fairly typical at restaurants we went to in Europe. They don’t give free refills, either.

Warning for non-Americans who drink alcohol coming to the US: you’re much more likely to come across a restaurant that doesn’t serve alcohol here than you are in Europe or Australia. If a restaurant does serve alcohol, they might have an outrageous markup on the price (3 or 4 times what you’d pay at retail isn’t that unusual). And house wines at most restaurants are decidedly inferior to what you’d get if you ordered a glass of the house wine at most restaurants in France or Italy.

If you ask for water, in some parts of Europe they will assume you mean mineral water. Mineral water, to me and to at least some other Americans, tastes like really bad tap water- not at all like bottled water you get here. It’s also not free (or even cheap, some places). You should try mineral water at least once, though- maybe you’ll like it.

@Zebra

But the weird thing was that after studying the map at home so much, I had a pretty good feel for the city when I got there. I could look and see the Eiffel Tower and then see another landmark and I knew which direction the hotel was or whatever I was looking for at the time.

Some of us don’t have that experience at home, even after living here for nine years… If you don’t have a sense of direction, though, you can still enjoy travelling. Just allow extra time for getting lost or taking the subway in the wrong direction when you’re going somewhere, and make sure you’re not impeding the flow of traffic when you stop to look at your map.

@DurbBook

Carry wrapped hard candies. Peppermints are nice to freshen the breath, and local kids just love butterscotch (which didn’t seem to exist when I was in Mexico, so I always had a crowd of kids around scarfing up butterscotch from the States).

Butterscotches can be good at heading off motion sickness, at least for some of us. I start sucking on one as soon as I start feeling a little off, and it does help. It doesn’t work nearly as well if you wait until you feel like you’re about to puke, though.

I do hope you got some Mexican chocolate in exchange for the butterscotches- Mexican chocolate, with the cinnamon in it, is sooo yummy.

[Scissorjack]

• Do not get drunk if you’re alone in a strange city: you’re not on home turf, and you can’t read the risks. This goes double for women.

• Do not do drugs anywhere east of about Poland. It may be just a joint to you, and the chances are you won’t get busted, but if you do you can be in a world of trouble. Beware anyone who tries to sell you drugs: he is not your friend. That goes double for tuk-tuk drivers in Chiand Mai.

• Be friendly, but wary of scams: if a charming stranger at the airport tells you that the hotel in your guidebook is closed, he’s lying. If he offers to take you to a store to buy gemstones in a one-day-only sale, walk away. If he suggests a friendly card game, run - you’ll only end up being driven to an ATM at knifepoint.

• Wear a johnny, for God’s sake.

• Wear a photographer’s vest with inside pockets: convenient of access, not too hot and heavy to wear, and damn near impossible to steal. Bags walk.

• If you have more than one medium sized pack, you have too much stuff. Buy a cheap T-shirt, wear it a couple of days, then ditch it. Saves weight and washing.

• Smile and be polite at Customs and Immigration: the guy behind the counter may be a total arsehole, but he has the power to make your life intensely miserable for a few days instead of mildly irritating for 20 minutes.

• Do not carry anyone else’s bag for them anywhere near an airport. That woman struggling with two babies and fifteen bags? She ain’t looking for Sir Galahad, she wants a mark. Suppress your sympathy reflex where kids are involved: it’s easy to have your pocket picked while a baby’s being thrust in your face.

• Take trains wherever possible. Trains are more fun, you meet real people that way, and if you’re lucky you can sit between the carriages and smoke.

• Go to Rasta Baby on Koh Samui. It’s the Platonic ideal of every beach bar you ever saw, the barmen are Thai stoners, which makes them about the mellowest people in the world, and the DJ spinning old vinyl is psychic: he knows that you want to hear some T-Rex even before you do. Oh, and the toilets are full of lizards.

[Full_Metal_Lotus]

Hey…

Bring some gifts from where you came from. Go to YOUR local tourist station, and get 20-30 post cards, key chains or other kninkknacks, depending on your length of stay, number of desitinations etc.

Many locals are thrilled to have a picture of your home town tourist attractions, or other such post cardy type things.

Meet a nice person who shows you where to get "reaL authentic “Foriegnovia” knitted ash tray covers— return the favour and give them a keychain from your local John deere dealership… to you a trinket, but to them a unique item from a foriegn land!

Never hurts to be a good will amabsador!

Regards
FML

[Siam_Sam]

When considering taking a room that you’re being shown, tiptoe up to the bed and lift the mattress real quickly. If nothing moves, take the room.

[Darryl_Lict]

@Sattua

Carry toilet paper and hand sanitizer with you at all times.

Word. And pack some Lomotil also.

@TheLoadedDog

All airports, transit systems, etc are actually pretty similar. They are designed to be idiot-proof, and even the most daunting and complex of them isn’t really, if you stop and calm down for a moment or two.

I agree with the calming down thing. I assume you’ve been to southeast Asia. I found the busses in Laos, Burma, Poland and Peru to be pretty daunting.

@jjimm

Different kind of safety than crime, perhaps.

E.g. in the west, if someone’s digging a dirty great hole in the street, then there are regulations and ordinances to say “there must be warning signs at such-and-such a distance, and cones around this bit, and flashing lights etc.” (except Ireland ). In many third world countries, it’s more like “I will dig this hole and who cares about anything else as long as I do my job as quickly and with as little hassle as possible” Thus you might be walking down the street and suddently find the sidewalk or pavement disappear without warning into a large trench, as I did in Agra, India. And Vietnam. And Thailand. And China.

Words to live (survive) by. By the way, the large trench is usually a sewer. Also, don’t think that you are in California and that pedestrians have right of way. Look both directions and assume that car is going to try to run you over.

@Scissorjack

• Do not get drunk if you’re alone in a strange city: you’re not on home turf, and you can’t read the risks.

Do you mean all 3 conditions simultaneously? I’ve done that in almost every country I’ve been in, and it only ended badly once. My advice is to not get stupid drunk unless you are in Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand.

@Spiff

Except if the locals are enjoying cabeza.

I mistakenly ordered a brain taco (I probably got cabeza mixed up with carnitas or something like that). It was actually pretty good, tasted like fatty fatty cow. I never ordered it again, probably because of mad cow disease.

@Anne Neville

Most places in major cities do take credit cards. They might not take your ATM card, though- I found that they use a different system for ATM card purchases in Australia, and we couldn’t use ours for that (though they did work at the ATMs just fine). I don’t remember trying to use my ATM card for purchases in Europe (I normally use my credit card), so I don’t know if it would have worked there.
If you’re American, and have a typical American cell phone, it probably won’t work in most of the rest of the world. You’ll have to remember how you managed to meet up and keep track of each other BC (Before Cellphones).

In my experience, my Bank of America ATM/Visa card worked in almost every single country I’ve been to.

@Motorola

Jetset around the world without missing a call. The quad-band technology keeps you connected in more than 100 countries worldwide.

This quote is about the Mototola RAZR, a pretty generic phone these days. Most countries will allow you to buy a pay as you go SIM card which will allow you to make calls, so long as the cellular technology is supported by any of the 4 bands.
I’m of the light packer theology. If it’s not freezing cold where you are going, I find that a fleece zip up, lightweight Goretex shell, and a pair of polypropylene gloves will get you by (I get cold easy, too). If you aren’t real picky about a big fluffy towel, a micro synthetic towel will get you by.

[Colophon]

@Darryl Lict

My advice is to not get stupid drunk unless you are in Ireland, Australia, or New Zealand.

… where it is mandated by law.

[Nava]

@Colophon

… where it is mandated by law.

Oh, so the reason people looked at us funny when we went into a bar and had a round of Guinness was that we weren’t drunk enough? We’d thought it was because we were underage (we found this later, Spain didn’t have a drinking age at that time).

[manx]

In New Zealand? If you start up a conversation with someone, they will almost always ask you where you’re from, and how are you liking NZ. The correct answer to ‘how are you finding it’ is ‘much nicer than Australia’

I read this in a travel book about NZ, thought ‘how silly’ and then observed myself doing the very same thing. The author of the book seemed to think it was unusual - do other countries not have the same need for tourist love?

[Scribble]

@Spiff

Except if the locals are enjoying cabeza.

See, there you’re wrong, IMHO. Tongue is delicious. I’ve had some severely yummy tacos de lengua from street vendors in Mexico.

I haven’t tried tacos de other parts of the head, but I would, if I could find a good restaurant, home cook, or vendor that made them.

[Darryl_Lict]

@Scribble

See, there you’re wrong, IMHO. Tongue is delicious. I’ve had some severely yummy tacos de lengua from street vendors in Mexico.

I haven’t tried tacos de other parts of the head, but I would, if I could find a good restaurant, home cook, or vendor that made them.

Hmm. All these years I thought cabeza (head) was brains, now I see that it’s actually sesos. Maybe my cabeza taco was just bits of meat from the head (apparently cabeza can contain brains, but not exclusively). Nevertheless, it looked like brains and tasted different than straight up fat. Lengua tastes like a firm smooth piece of beef to me, and is quite tasty. I just don’t particularly like the look of it in a butcher case.

[even_sven]

@Darryl Lict

I was on a really cheap safari ($600 for 3 weeks) in Africa. We had an African cook who only knew of one spice, some kind of strange anise like substance. There were a couple of vegetarians on the truck. They pretty much ate nothing but eggs and rice for 3 weeks.

What a shame! The vast majority of people here are involuntarily vegetarians. They simply can’t afford much meat. This place is flooded with many wonderful vegetarian sauces, as well as great meat-free street snacks and all the fresh fruit and veggies you could ask for. I venture other parts of Africa (and any other country where you find plenty of poor peope) are the same. I started eating meat when I came here to make social interactions easier, but if I hadn’t, I still wouldn’t be missing out on much.

[jjimm]

All those people saying pack light: this is a good idea.

However, I once heard the opposite view, and it was good too. Having more than one main bag is dumb, but as long as you can get all your shit into one bag (plus your day pack), pack as much as you possibly can! It’ll all come in handy at some point, or you can trade it with other travellers, or give it to grateful locals. The main point is that lugging a heavy backpack around will get you fit and help you to lose weight, really quickly, so by the time you get to a place where you’re in a swimsuit, you’ll be nice and buff.

Seriously: little padlocks on your pack zippers only offer a mild protection of your stuff against opportunists, but they will reveal tampering.

[Zebra]

@The Librarian

Post #47, I am shocked & disappointed.

“Take half the stuff and twice the money”. (from some travelguide whose name I forgot).

Sorry, I was waiting for post number 42 but missed it.

[panache45]

Be prepared for things going wrong, and learn to roll with the punches. A few years ago I was in Paris, and a one-day general strike was planned for my second day. Except that it continued day after day, for my entire stay. No transportation whatsoever, many restaurants closed, museums closed, etc., etc. So i learned how delightful Paris can be, when you simply wander around aimlessly, soaking up the experience. And it gave me an excuse to go back the next year, to do all the things I missed the first time. (As if anyone needs an excuse to go to Paris.)

And yes, do your homework. Don’t stand in the middle of Paris with your nose in a guidebook, trying to identify that huge metal thing the size of a skyscraper.

[light_strand]

This is basically just practical stuff, but it might save you a couple of bucks.

Check with your credit card company and see if the charge a fee for foreign transactions. Most are now charging a couple of percent for a foreign transaction, but some a still free. If your card doesn’t charge a fee, then use it for everything you can, but keep in mind that credit cards are not necessarily as readily accepted overseas as they are here in the states. You’ll find that many restaurants, and small shops do not accept them.

Get cash from an ATM. ATMs are readily accessible, and they offer the most recent exchange rate, with the best rate/fee ratio. However, like with credit cards, your bank may charge a premium, so check first. If your back does charge a fee, local banks, and the hotel you are staying in (provided it is a relatively large chain) generally offer the best rates. But generally I use ATMs.

Have some cash at all times, but not too much. I say usually this is equivalent to $100,00 USD will get you out of most situations. Keep it in an inside jacket pocket, or a front pocket.

And if you see something you like, buy it. You rarely regret your purchases, but I still kick myself that I didn’t buy those boots when I was in Florence. Also, ship stuff home if you don’t want to carry it. Many shops offer this as a service, but if not, you can usually find post offices nearly everywhere.

Oh, and one of the advantages to packing light, is that you have plenty of space for tchotchkes.

[Siam_Sam]

Don’t rely on ATMs exclusively. I’ve had my card eaten twice: Once in Honolulu (my fault, as I stupidly counted my money before removing the card, and it timed out) and once in Bangkok (the machine simply shut down and showed a Closed sign immediately after it accepted my card. Took two weeks for the bank to return it, Grrr). For that reason alone, take some travelers’ checks.