How do some travellers manage to get the best service, tickets to sold out concerts, and get the chef to make them dishes not on the menu, even as those staying in the fanciest suite of the hotel are treated with polite bows and smiles that don’t reach their eyes?
Perhaps they know some secret that a fancy black card cannot buy. Sometimes these are simple. Sometimes it’s a cultural thing. And sometimes, it is up to travellers to smile and say thank you, in their language. Let’s break this down, continent by continent.
Communication really is the key
Want to earn a smile from the folks in the city you’re visiting? Learn phrases that help you get through the day. ‘Excuse me’ and ‘Thank you’ top my list. If you’re unable to learn even that much, install the translation apps on your phone that will help you. No longer will you have to groan because you misplaced the address the front desk so kindly wrote for you in the local language. Plus, the map apps are just perfect. Those Rand McNally maps you navigated with now offer you directions on the phone.
If you’re in Asia, learn to bow often and stare only at the Maiko girls giggling away in Kyoto.
Dress comfortably but well
Just because you’re on a holiday, does not mean you wear your uni shirt and shorts your mum bought for you. Doesn’t mean you carry a tux in your backpack either. Check the weather, and pack clothes and shoes that are comfortable. And if gigantic matching luggage is your style, then be ready to tip half your holiday cash to the people who will carry that in and out of your hotel room.
If you’re in Europe (or travelling across the Andes) and staying at one of the old boutique hotels or pensiones even, remember they may not have elevators to carry your six-piece expandable luggage. I remember unpacking my backpack and making several trips to the fifth-floor room (had a huge window that had one of the best views of the Eiffel Tower) with the lady of the castle sneering down her aquiline nose. She rolled her eyes but there was no magical bellboy who appeared and helped me lug the bag upstairs.
Some Asian hotels (and they’re the best when it comes to service) are so big, and often filled with guests that it takes forever for your luggage to show up. Smarter to wheel a smaller case yourself (so you can change and leave) and let the hotel handle the rest.
Speaking of change, use the laundry bags in the room for used clothing, and use the slippers the hotel offers so generously.
If you are going walkabout in the Australian bush, Tevas won’t do (beware the creepy crawlies! But if you’re at Masai Mara, you could happily wear them because you’re going to spot the big five in the relative comfort of the jeep. If you’re going to be in the city, sensible shoes are your best bet. I used to laugh at people who wore Birkenstocks with socks, but if the city temperatures drop rather quickly, then socks really help.
Visiting temples in Indonesia, Malaysia? Don’t argue about body positivity, the Gods don’t care. Just wear the sarongs they rent to tourists who wear shorts.
Learn to say thank you and excuse me in the local language. (Photo: Slama Smida via Pexels)
Tipping and gifting
If you are like the Americans tend to over-tip everywhere, then people are going to accept the money and be amused at you. But in many places in Asia, tipping is not a done thing. Service charges are included in the final bill. In some places, especially Japan, it’s considered almost an insult if you go around handing money to the wait staff. They are salaried employees and pressing money into their hands is akin to bribery. Notice the small tray on the table? That’s for the tips.
Again, if you’re meeting colleagues in Asia, remember that gifting a watch, even a Rolex is a no-no. It’s meant to signify that it’s a countdown to death or some such belief. You can happily gift a nicely wrapped (they gift wrap so beautifully) bottle of VSOP and it will be greatly appreciated. Flowers and chocolates are just as brilliant. If you care enough, then carry an Indian memento: Pashmina shawls or silk scarves (easy to pack!). Hotels do go the extra mile and will help in the wrapping.
Speaking of gifts, remember that buying mementos for friends and family back home is fun until you have to pack them (I still regret that I had no place for a Japanese doll that came in its own glass case). if you are still determined, as I was, you just shrug and pay for impossible things like a big rolled up Chinese scroll painting, and delicate wind-up music box that plays Beethoven’s fifth… or whatever else you just must have. I dare you to not fall in love with the fantastic lights for your home in Stockholm…
Check local custom before you tip. (Photo: Cottonbro Studios via Pexels)
Go with the flow, let travel will broaden your mind
If anyone tells you they did the Louvre when they visited Paris, please smirk on my behalf. Because that museum is like a petite planet that needs a couple of weeks at least to get used to. But yes, if you stop standing in the mindless, endless queue to go up the Eiffel tower, you will be able to actually experience the city of romance. Guidebooks won’t tell you where Hemingway drowned in Absinthe or how house wine is cheaper all over Italy than bottled water (I still cannot recall what I missed at the Uffizi, thanks to all that pinot).
If you are in Thailand, you will take a selfie with the reclining Buddha, but it’s more fun getting your fortune read with the sticks in the box and yes, don’t forget to spot the soup cup with three ears (two for the monarch and one for the servant who was handing it to him!) at the Royal Museum.
You will want to spend a day melting at the sight of Michelangelo’s magnificent Pieta at the Vatican and walk around in hushed reverence (and a crick in the neck) watching the Sistine chapel, but do be careful or you would be like us, stopped right outside the Vatican, robbed of all cash (travellers cheques torn)! Thankfully the cheques were replaced and we enjoyed tramping all over romantic Rome (second only to Florence) and enjoying the most incredible light and shadow play.
Even if you only have a phone camera, the pictures you shoot all over the savanna in Africa will make you feel like a National Geographic photographer. The slow-moving giraffes, the lions lazing in the sun, elephants and leopards and the quiet one-horned rhinos…
House wine is often cheaper in Italy than bottled water. (Photo: Nati via Pexels)
Travelling with kids?
It’s a different kind of travel when you have kids accompanying you. You might want to see the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum but the kids will drag their feet after a while. No holocaust museum for them either. So plan very different trips with the kids; that said, I had more fun than the child unit at Parc Asterix (outside Paris!) and the rides were so good simply because they were part of my childhood. The Herge (TinTin) museum just outside Brussels too brought back memories for me and turned the child into a reader.
If your kids are a handful, take them snorkeling, into a submarine to see the great Australian reef, and teach them to spot bicchu booti in the Himalayas. Dune bashing in an SUV is so passe. Take the kids camping and watch the sunset over Uluru and gawp at the glowworms in New Zealand (at the Waitomo caves).
Take the children to the flower market in Thailand and show them how awesome it is when food is cooked in a volcano in Norway (the bread - which otherwise one does not eat - tastes amazing!), take them to the chocolate factories (Bruges, Barcelona and Cologne!) and respect them enough to rent audio guides when you take them to museums. You will be amazed at how much kids learn. Next time, don’t just take them to Club Med and leave them at the kiddie club. Discover the joy of eating fries with them in giant paper cones in Amsterdam!
(Photo via Pixabay)
What to eat and where
Food is altogether another adventure you can take, following the footsteps of Antony Bourdain and other travelling food greats. Even if you are not as courageous as Gordon Ramsay who tried the ant chutney in Chhattisgarh, you can always step up to chai vending machines all over Tokyo which will remind you of home. Hot tea (with milk) in a can from a vending machine?! What else can you get? Don’t forget to try the shabu shabu hotpot and drink sake (both warm and cold).
You would have to have a magic wand or plan months ahead to get a reservation at Sukiyabashi Jiro or even Udatsu (they will offer vegetarian food if you make that reservation), but there are so many streetfood options in Tokyo and you won’t regret trying even the humble joints like the sushi at Rozan Ginza (12th of the Mitsukoshi Dept. Store)...
When you get to Naples, and are exhausted by your visit to the city covered in ash by Vesuvious, settle down at an innocuous place that will give you the best pizza you have ever eaten: Da Michele’s pizza. I thought I’d eat a slice and the six of us ended up eating nine 12-inch pizzas that simply melted in our mouths…
If you cannot imagine gorging on anything, get to the Butchart Gardens in Vancouver, Canada, and enjoy high tea (little cucumber sandwiches and tarts and tea). Canadian wilderness, though, has so much to offer in case you just want to truly get away from it all. And you’re close to the Arctic and you can get to a place where you can watch the Northern Lights too (The Blachford Lake Lodge in the Northern Territories offers some incredible views of the dance of the light in the sky, plus you take that small airplane to get there. Manitoba and Yukon also have excellent Northern Lights viewing experiences year round). If you think you like coffee, taste it when there’s snow all around you and you’ve used the last packet of Maggi you packed in your suitcase.
Why haven’t I told you about the food in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico and Chile? Because I was bewitched by the magical, mystical Andes mountains that I don’t remember having eaten at all. The white sands on Copacabana and Ipanema beach came back with me, and I know I lost my voice when I shouted, ‘Para todo mal, mezcal, y para todo bien, también; y si no hay remedio litro y medio" (For all bad, mezcal, and for all good, as well; and if there is no remedy, liter and a half)!
Give yourself the gift of travel and watch your world expand. This blue planet is the only we have, and none of us will be able to experience it all. Take that small step and plan a different kind of holiday. And yes, a simple hack: remember the concierge or the staff at the hotel by name, and you will be greeted by sunshine and smiles… They will remember how you take your tea and get you those tickets to Hamilton…
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