What have you learned from travelling?

[MadMAGA]

I've been very fortunate in visiting lots of different places for work, study and holidays. I was idly thinking about what I've learned from it, other than generally expanding horizons, and came up with:

• British fruit and puddings are really, really sweet compared to the equivalents in Asia.
• Scotland's got a point when they complain about their infrastructure compared to England. The motorways are like 1980s England.
• Luton Airport has the best cabin baggage and passenger screening security machines anywhere in the world.
• I'm incredibly fortunate to have been born in this country.

We in the west should be much more concerned about preserving our rights and freedoms than we are. Especially women.

Oh, and that we should be very grateful to have a sewage system that lets you flush toilet paper!

I am British, live in England, haven't travelled for years but lived abroad in 6 countries in my 20s, so my observations are from SE Asia and a few countries in Europe.

I've learnt:

Life is better when you live somewhere eating out is affordable
Public transport in England is overpriced
UK is low tech compared to SE Asia
We have great workplace rights and working conditions in the UK
All climates are challenging in some respects (humid, too hot, too cold) - overall I am most comfortable with the English climate
I am more attractive to men in Europe and less so in SE Asia

That I don't need nearly as much stuff as I have. When I backpack or travel ultra-light I realise that tbh I probably don't need 80% of my clothes which I've left at home. Probability 80% of my stuff in general!

That countries/people aren't always how the media portrays them.

Yes to not sleepwalking into giving up our rights and freedoms. Seeing how crap it is to be a woman in some countries made me even more determined not to let men and the Be Kind brigade take away women's single-sex spaces.

I heard some time ago someone saying that the USA would be a lot easier for us to understand if they spoke a different language. We think American culture is a lot more similar to British culture than it actually is.

I would like a toilet with a bidet hose like they have in south east asia
I’d like the efficiency of transport, the cleanliness and intolerance to nuisance of Singapore, along with their plentiful, free and clean public toilets
the fresh, flavourful and incredibly cheap food of vietnam
the gentle respectful culture of Cambodia with such resilience to unimaginable trauma

i really appreciate our ability to travel and the strength of the British passport

we learned from a lovely young waiter that as native English speakers, we speak very quickly and have strong British accents.

That just because we've (the British) been brought up to believe our way of doing things is best, it's not always the case.

I'm lucky to have been born in a country with a good infrastructure, or at least one which has largely developed alongside the other developments of housing and growth.

Or force us out of mixed-sex spaces, which tends to be more of an issue globally.

The world really is a beautiful place.

those of us who reside in countries with some sort of social security systems in place are a fortunate lot.

I was in Thailand when the seniors were losing their life savings via that SIM card scam and one of our guides must have known someone closely affected. He said there was no support at all apart from family members for the elderly who were now broke. And they didn’t have much to start with.

we are fortunate for the amount of food choices we have.

dare I say it but “disabled and disabilities” was re-defined for me.

Compassion and respect for the elderly.

inclusiveness of elderly in daily family lives, those who have no choice either young or old. But they make it work.

that the monks removed the gifting at the temples and either kept items for themselves or dumped it. We watched an elderly couple come with beautiful fabric to gift at a temple and our guide told us how much it would have cost them and they would have gone without to afford the purchase.

you can’t fish in front of temples but you can feed the fish there. And there’s lots of them waiting.

control over social media and TV news items. We were watching the BBC news in Vietnam and ad’s were on. One was blocked as it went against the law. Not sure how a BBC ad would offend but I was surprised at the level of control.

how widely practiced English language is.

how important a big mug of tea is to us.. lol. We take our own tea bags and wine bagnums now..

The small differences between different cultures, but the fundamental similarities between people across them all.

That people's generosity in welcoming strangers is often inversely proportion to how much they have to spare.

That bidets are actually quite a good idea

Agree about Dublin observation!

That other countries are proud of their flags & fly them everywhere without controversy. It made me sad that England is different.

That it’s airways worth getting up early & being on the first funicular ride, boat trip etc, because the later ones will be much busier.

I love traveling and have done a lot alone and with my family .
contrary to you I learned how awful English motorways are compared to to others including scotlands who are not congested and lovely to drive .
Anyway I learned to appreciate new foods , new ways of dealing with issues and expectations.
But above all what I always pay attention is the people , some experiences just like you make me happy I live in the uk , others make me sad the uk is so bad on them and so Americanised . One of the main ones is how unfriendly the Uk is towards children . Specially south Europe loves family time , children are not only included but seen as the ones in society who we should always protect , the uk is just so different, it’s like children get punished for just being kids doing kids stuff and told to adapt to the adults instead of us adapting to them .
I also realise how friendly and hospitable some countries are , even within the U.K. . People’s friendliness is completely different one nation to the other .
Above all I think traveling showed me what I should prioritise in my life , the person that started traveling in early 20 s was a completely different one a few years later . I’ve learned a lot from the people above all .

That is so true , we do t even have to travel far away . Fruit in France is so much better

This is a good one.

Also that the world does not revolve around us and there are any different kinds of people, languages and cultures and food types out there.

That I'll try almost anything once, but I'm simply unable to get myself to bite into a fried insect, even to be polite.

To wash your hands a lot - A LOT - or you're going to get very, very ill and need three courses of antibiotics to clear it, which will trigger an autoimmune disorder you'll still be dealing with ten years later (thanks, Egypt).

To pay close attention to other countries' social conventions. A woman friend I was travelling with almost got us arrested in Abu Dhabi for making a scene because the male airport officials wouldn't look us in the eye - which (an unrelated man looking directly at a woman) is apparently completely forbidden there. Separately, a male friend and I felt very uncomfortable in a rural Turkish town - he had dyed blonde hair (which apparently automatically meant he was gay) and I was wearing a strappy summer top - so the whore of Babylon and her abomination friend decided to take a walk through the town park, where we gradually noticed that (a) all the women were head-to-toe covered and (b) all the men were looking at us like they couldn't decide whether to rape or kill us first...

To always carry cash, as many economies function on a tipping structure where you'll be asked to tip in situations you're not used to (like toilet attendants). It's no use feeling outraged about this; in some economies this is an accepted part of how things work. It's the same way where I'm from (USA) - the people you're expected to tip generally make a very low wage and tipping brings it up to the living-wage standard.

That old ladies in China have extremely good knees. I know this because the toilet stalls in Tiananmen Square have no doors, and the toilets are the squat kind.

That if I win the Euro millions I will 110 % NEVER EVER move to a hot country, I think I’d die if I lived in constant heat 😂.
Week is plenty , always glad to be home ☺️

That in Vietnam they shut the primary schools when it’s below 10 Celsius! In the UK the kids would never be in school haha

That EU health and safety regulations only seem to have been pushed in the UK.
That sunshine makes everyone so much happier.
That buses and trains are so much more modern and clean than in the UK.

Bus, train and taxi fares are a lot cheaper abroad.

To be able to walk around freely without being, stared at, importuned or harassed.

I left for a year when I was 25, visiting 12 countries. When I came back I'd seen enough to tell me that the UK is nowhere near as bad as I thought it was. We have so many good things here.

That we in the UK really do have the best farm food shops and supermarkets, in my opinion.

That we really are overly-polite (although that's fast disappearing).

... But conversely that our UK customer service is non-existent compared to most places I've been to. As a pp said, American customer service really is excellent.

London Lass 🙋🏻‍♀️ .
I beg to differ , it is us Irish folk that have better farm food shops , supermarkets , & we’re far more polite 😂 😂

That we (Brits) have so much more in common with other Europeans than we do with people from more distant English speaking nations.

I've learned that when the holiday comes to an end, I will have had enough anyway and I just want to go home. Immediately. Teleported home in an instant, without all the faff of travelling back.

That kids are kids the world over, every country and every culture.