Think Before You Do: Things we learned the hard way – Updated
A couple things we’ve learned from experience. As they say, live and learn.
FYI, we’ll update this list accordingly with new lessons along the way.
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1. Always adhere to the ‘Core Competencies’ eating strategy: Our friend Frank shared this advice with us and for some odd reason we’ve strayed away from it a few times on our trip thus far. When given the choice, ALWAYS choose the local fare to grub on. There is no point in ordering spaghetti in Laos or french fries in Thailand. If its not part of the local fare, it will inevitably suck. Additionally, the best part about traveling is sampling the cuisine – get it while you can!
2. Triangulate everything: Whenever asking for directions or other travel info, one source of information is NEVER reliable. Therefore, our advice is to triangulate – take three data points, take the average, and your chances of getting the right information increases exponentially -we haven’t gone wrong yet.
3. Sit far away from the bathroom: On buses, trains, planes, wherever – get a seat far away from the bathroom. Not only will you hugging yourself later in the ride when the air around the toilet becomes more and more fragrant and you’re nowhere near it, but you’ll be glad to not have to deal with the people traffic continually passing by your seat during the ride.
4. Walk away from the station to avoid getting ripped off: To get the best deal on a taxi, always walk a short distance away from your drop-off point to avoid getting suckered into the drivers that will rip you off right at the station. Of course, consider safety first – if its late at night or the surroundings look shady, pay the extra it will be worth it.
5. Roll it up: Roll your pants up before entering a squat toilet to avoid wiping up any mis-fires with your cuffs. The perfect excuse to bring back the “peg leg” look – I used to LOVE pegging my jeans – it was so cool.
– Shan
Tags: Travel Tips
Shan
February 10th, 2006 at 11:53 am
Life is a wonderful gift wrapped up in a beautiful array of colorful surprises, enjoy and keep writing.
Bernie
February 10th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
Lots of work in this trip, very emotional, fun and memories for ever. Be patient.
Mom
February 10th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
very wise comment, I will try tonight. big kiss, Mom