We made a few discoveries and even more mistakes, and when we sat down to summarize this year, it was quite clear which bigger, and smaller, things that impacted most on us.
And now we want to share this with you, good people that we are, so you don't need to do quite as many mistakes as we did this year, but also to give you a shortcut on amazing things that you can learn about your own abilities while traveling.
Read and be aghast. Or amazed. And leave a comment in the section below.
1. DON'T EAT FOOD FROM BOATS
We're talking long-tail-pulling-up-on-shore-with-no-real-sanitary-obligations-boats here.
Of course we should have known better. We've read every tip on how to NOT get food poison there is. Did we apply it to real life? Nah-ah.
Especially not in this place as we're pretty sure we got our
food poisoning from one of the boat anchoring at this very beach (!)
Railay Beach - Krabi - Thailand
Usually, your nose knows best. If it smells shady, it is shady.
Here's some other tips on how to avoid food poisioning (DO obey them):
- Eat where the locals eat.
- Long lines means high vending with means fresh food. You do not want food that's been on that grill for two hours.
- Avoid fruit and vegetables that you havn't peeled and washed yourself.
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2. LUXURY MAY BE WELL WORTH IT
Our Ha Long Bay cruise made most of the people we met put on the snarky 'oh god you b*thces be stupid about your money'-cringes when they heard how much we spent on it.
Still, we had one of best weekends in our life there. After being sick in 14 days, we were skinny, weak and tired, and that extra luxury - along with probably the best food in the world - was exactly what we needed.
Now, half a year later, we don't remember the amount of money we spent as a burning hole in the wallet, we remember magic fog and kayaking and drinks on the deck and a luxury suite for ourselves as one of the top 5 things we've done in our lives. So worth ever cent? Absolutely.
Pretty solid censorship there in our private jazzuci...
LESSON LEARNED: Money and costs are not as important as experience and memories. Although we strive to travel even cheaper in the future, we will try to always remember Ha Long Bay as a reminder of that.
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3. THERE ARE STILL PARTS OF THE WORLD THAT FEELS FAR, FAAAR FROM HOME
We didn't realize just how different China would be, as our more attentive readers sure have heard of thousand times by now.
There are still parts of the world that doesn't speak English, can you imagine? We had to point, and gesture, and guess, and try again, countless of times. Every day. Just to get food.
- And what's worst: -
We couldn't use Google Maps,
- or Translate to help us through it. -
We couldn't use Google Maps,
- or Translate to help us through it. -
We didn't realize how much it would drain on us. After just a week, we were exhausted, and still had two more to go.
But after moments of frustration after one other, we grew. We learned that, even though it was hard and challenging and forced us to rethink, we actually made it.
Faar, faar away from home, in ancient city Fenghuang [fwhanghwangh] - quite happy still
We wouldn't want to exchange that experience for anything. Because now we know we can go to the middle of a foreign country and get around. And get food. And get experiences. And get home again.
LESSON LEARNED: All of the commun traveling-clichées hit us simultaniously:
- We are capable of taking care of ourselves - even without the help of internet.
- We can manage even when it seems hard.
- There is a world out there that is like another planet, but we will cope, and we will enjoy it, perhaps in a different way than we usually enjoy stuff.
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4. IT IS A HARD KNOCK LIFE... without Google and Facebook
Speaking of China; Never in a million year did we know that we were THIS addicted to the social media network, but after three weeks in China, we even missed our friends annoying daily selfies and googeling every other question just for the fun of it.
This blog is on a Google-run portal which also blew out the spark of the whole time in China. We need to write down our stories!
LESSON LEARNED: Make sure you have a working VPN when going to censor-friendly countries, or get ready to get to know the offline version of your self (it might not be as strong as you thought...)
Also: Make sure that you have all the translation apps needed for a country that isn't so keen on speaking anything other than its mother tongue.
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5. BEAUTY IS NOT NATIONAL
Picture yourself feeling your most attractive. You've been in the sun for quite some time and gotten a nice tan, you feel comfortable and confident and you know you will glow in pictures.
Well forget all that before going to Asia!
Let this picture speak for itself:
Well that's perspective.
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6. TRAVELING TOGETHER IS A GREAT WAY TO GROW TOGETHER - OR APART?
We were both deferent amounts of nervous before going on an eight-week-trip together: Felicia in the higher end of the scale, with Jonathan more chilled and confident. There were times when his confidence brought us both back from insanity, and there were times when Felicia's precautionous thinking ahead was the saving from big arguments. In total, we grew more together after traveling. We found out that we are best together, on our own, and Asia 2.0 actually made us realize we were ready to move in together.
Best friends before all
LESSON LEARNED: Talking about possible obsticles that can occur on the way is good. Just don't let the worries of hurting your relationship stop you from having a great time together.
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7. JETLAG IS REALLY HARD FOR YOUR BODY
"...Which is why I tripped really hard on four glasses of wine
three days after returning to Sweden from Canada...
Four glasses is... like, an ordinary friday night?
(OK minus 2 and you got an classic me-on-weekends).
And still, I was completely dead the next day.
The worst hang-over of my life, not being able to move that whole day
- just because of jetlag."
-Felicia
Not our sober-est moment
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8. STOPOVERS - even shorter ones - ARE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR BONUS EXPLORING
Pictures from our stopover in gorgeous Frankfurt
We almost let the pictures speak for themselves there, but here you'll get a caption anyway:
Original plan:
Sitting on the airport for 12 hours, like one, searching for free WiFi and stuff our faces with Café Latte.
New plan: After a few turns on Google, Jonathan decided that we will not waste this opportunity and left the luggage on the airport, put on the suit and discovered Germany.
Now, Germany as a country has rose to top ten countries to visit next.
LESSON LEARNED: Even though staying at the airport drinking coffee sounds like the best idea when you are tired after traveling, you will be glad you took the time and energy to look around a little. You never know what you will see outside the airconditioned walls of the airport.
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When returning from colorful Asia, Sweden seemed grey and boring - a dejavú of the very same feeling that made us leave in the first place.
But you cant let negativity rule your life; at least its not very fun if you do. So we flipped our mindset and looked out our windows instead of on our Windows.
And we found beautiful views, great quirky cafées and tourist destination others travel for hours to reach. Gothenburg wasn't our prison anymore - it was a great place to start exploring.
And it resulted in some.. colorful posts.
An old childhood fave turned out... well, click on the picture to read for yourselves.
Gothenburg also had some hidden masterpieces on the walls...
Vacationing in Skåne ended up quite... thrilling.
LESSON LEARNED: Sometimes you get what we in Sweden call "home-blind", meaning you get so used to the things you are surrounded by that you dont see their real value. And although we already counting the days for next voyage, we have a lot more to se of the city we're born.
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10. ALWAYS TURN ON TAXIMETER
"Oh no I promise you'll get a much better price if you just accept my offer OK? Really good deal yes?".
You'll here it a thousand times and you will decline every time. We took taxi in Indonesia for 11,000 rupiah (less than 1 dollar) when "the very good price" started around 70,000 rupiah for the same route.
Same in Bangkok, we got away half price from Khao San to Siam just by - more or less - forcing the driver to turn on the taximeter.
Khao San Road is filled with taxis and tuktuks, but many of them keep to their first offer because they know this area is filled with tourists - just walk out of the shopping street and you'll find taxis that doesn't double the real amount.
LESSON LEARNED: Be persuasive and don't give in to the taxidrivers
suggestions. Remember that they are more in need of your money than you are of that specific persons services - you'll always find a driver that accepts your conditions if you just walk a few meters more.
Oh exploring in all its glory, how ever much we love new views and deep first breathes of a foreign culture, we've found our own amount of rest needed for the trip to stay a time of enjoyment instead of a stream of constant moving and new impressions.
We've found that paradise is doing stuff one day, chilling the next, blogging the third. That is off course not always possible, certainly for countries that are more expensive and/or we have limited time in, but when our equation ends up right... oh the world is in order.
LESSON LEARNED: If you are attentive to your own health and listen to your mind and body, you'll find that traveling becomes so much less stressful and so much more fulfilling when you adjust the route to your own pace. Remember that you travel to feel good!
We sure would have liked to put those 3000 bath on, bascially, anything else.
Also, make sure that you have a lot of time to get there, as traffic jam and unexpected ride-time almost made us miss our flight in Hong Kong as well..
LESSON LEARNED: As the titel says, aaa-aaa-aalways double check which airport and HOW to get there. It might not always be the biggest one or the same you arrived in, especially if you are traveling with a low-price airline.
+ Make sure that you have A LOT of time to get there.
For us, 35-40° C in the southern of Thailand was waaaay tooo hoooot. We couldn't move, just barely keep awake, so we had to just tagg along to the people laying half-passed out around the low tables on Railay beach, seing all the things we planned to do vanish before our eyes.
LESSON LEARNED: It's easy, really. Go online, type in prefered month + place + "temperature" on Google and you'll probably end up with 700+ results on what you can expect for your trip. That plus your previous knowledge about your own limits when it comes to heat and coldness will make a perfect temperatured time abroad.
Other things you should check beforehand is what the people in the country might do when you're there.
For example, in China, it's common as a chinese to see some more China under national holidays which equals: going to the Great Wall the 30th of April, when people have started their vacation before the national holiday 1st of May, is not our best unplanned idea.
We were in luck as we went to the not-so-crowded Badaling section and still enjoyed our day very much, but next time we have to consider the eventual traffic and crowds before we make plans on when to go.
LESSON LEARNED: Just.. Check beforehand if the country you're going to have a special celebration or holiday during your time there. It can either be a great opportunity to take part of some local customs - or it might make you see only half of the things you planned due to mile-long lines.
This isn't as much about the coffee in itself as it is the importance of building up new homes along the way. Traveling is exhausting at times and you are constantly exposed to new ways of navigation and interact, which makes home feel faar away at some points. We found that the best way to cure homesickness is to make a new home in the new area. In Hanoi, we kept returning to Hanoi Social Club to sit on the terrace and blog, in Fenghuang we went to KFC just to get some western food, in Chiang Mai our hotel had a great reception and pool area where we stayed for hours to read and edit pictures.
It's those small things that turns a scary foreign place in to an exciting part of your world-dictionary.
I still don't know how we would have survived the traumatical experience of almost having to spend the night in the wild in Wulingyuan if we had not taken the next day to rest and eat sweets at E-pino.
LESSON LEARNED: It's OK to feel unsure and scared in a new place - we still initially hate a new place until we've had the time to walk around in it. The most important thing is to feel confident and sure again, and it's up to you to figure out how to get there. Just know that you are not alone in feeling like an alien when it comes to places you never been before, and take your time to get to know the place.
Did you learn something about a place that you didn't knew before?
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11. REST IS IMPORTANT
Oh exploring in all its glory, how ever much we love new views and deep first breathes of a foreign culture, we've found our own amount of rest needed for the trip to stay a time of enjoyment instead of a stream of constant moving and new impressions.
LESSON LEARNED: If you are attentive to your own health and listen to your mind and body, you'll find that traveling becomes so much less stressful and so much more fulfilling when you adjust the route to your own pace. Remember that you travel to feel good!
______________________
12. ALWAYS DOUBLECHECK WHAT AIRPORT YOU'RE FLIGHT IS LEAVING FROM...
We sure would have liked to put those 3000 bath on, bascially, anything else.
Also, make sure that you have a lot of time to get there, as traffic jam and unexpected ride-time almost made us miss our flight in Hong Kong as well..
LESSON LEARNED: As the titel says, aaa-aaa-aalways double check which airport and HOW to get there. It might not always be the biggest one or the same you arrived in, especially if you are traveling with a low-price airline.
+ Make sure that you have A LOT of time to get there.
______________________
13. Yes, there is something called TOO DARN HOT
For us, 35-40° C in the southern of Thailand was waaaay tooo hoooot. We couldn't move, just barely keep awake, so we had to just tagg along to the people laying half-passed out around the low tables on Railay beach, seing all the things we planned to do vanish before our eyes.
LESSON LEARNED: It's easy, really. Go online, type in prefered month + place + "temperature" on Google and you'll probably end up with 700+ results on what you can expect for your trip. That plus your previous knowledge about your own limits when it comes to heat and coldness will make a perfect temperatured time abroad.
______________________
14. BE AWARE OF NATIONAL HOLIDAYS
Beijing metro stations on 1st of May
Other things you should check beforehand is what the people in the country might do when you're there.
For example, in China, it's common as a chinese to see some more China under national holidays which equals: going to the Great Wall the 30th of April, when people have started their vacation before the national holiday 1st of May, is not our best unplanned idea.
We were in luck as we went to the not-so-crowded Badaling section and still enjoyed our day very much, but next time we have to consider the eventual traffic and crowds before we make plans on when to go.
LESSON LEARNED: Just.. Check beforehand if the country you're going to have a special celebration or holiday during your time there. It can either be a great opportunity to take part of some local customs - or it might make you see only half of the things you planned due to mile-long lines.
______________________
15. HOME IS WHERE THE BEST COFFEESHOP IS
This isn't as much about the coffee in itself as it is the importance of building up new homes along the way. Traveling is exhausting at times and you are constantly exposed to new ways of navigation and interact, which makes home feel faar away at some points. We found that the best way to cure homesickness is to make a new home in the new area. In Hanoi, we kept returning to Hanoi Social Club to sit on the terrace and blog, in Fenghuang we went to KFC just to get some western food, in Chiang Mai our hotel had a great reception and pool area where we stayed for hours to read and edit pictures.
It's those small things that turns a scary foreign place in to an exciting part of your world-dictionary.
I still don't know how we would have survived the traumatical experience of almost having to spend the night in the wild in Wulingyuan if we had not taken the next day to rest and eat sweets at E-pino.
______________________
Now we want to hear about
YOUR new knowledge from this year.
YOUR new knowledge from this year.
Did you learn something about a place that you didn't knew before?
Did you get a whole new view on yourself?
SHARE IN THE COMMENTSECTION BELOW!
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