One of the things you’re likely to face at some point during your travels is culture shock – these can range from the smallest details to massive moral issues, and even on arranged group holidays it’s impossible to avoid, so it’s crucial to learn how to deal with it whenever it shows up.

I’m far from the ideal person when it comes to dealing with culture shock, but after traveling for so many years I’ve been forced to find a way that works, to avoid awkward or downright horrible consequences.

Here are a few culture clashes I’ve experienced, and how I dealt with them…

The “Smile & Laugh At It” Tradition

A couple of weeks ago I received a very interesting comment on an old post, where this person complained about how angry he gets when there are misunderstandings between him and locals, then they just laugh it off and make fun of him.

He didn’t say which country he meant, but I had a strong feeling that he was talking about Thailand.

In this country, often nicknamed “the land of smiles”, people smile and laugh at everything – especially in awkward situations.

This can sometimes be liberating, but also incredibly frustrating – the Thai people use their smiles and laugh to avoid “losing their face”, or even to help you to avoid “losing your face”.

For example, if you bump your head into a doorway, they point, smile and laugh at you – not in a rude way, but to relieve you from the embarrassment – this in the West usually means the complete opposite, and some people feel offended by it.

How To Deal With It:

Remember why they’re laughing, and the more frustrated and angry you get the more they will try to “cover up” by laughing and smiling – don’t show that you’re frustrated, instead work the other way around and smile while you try to get your point across.

The Contradictions Of Hygiene

Japan is famous as the country where burping is encouraged as a way to show gratitude to the chef – but you will find that burping is common and not at all frowned upon in many other countries too.

Whether you take morocco holidays in Africa, or travel east to India and Malaysia, you will be sitting at a restaurant, or walking the streets and almost always hear someone doing a clear, loud and proud burp.

This is not frowned upon at all, but then eating with your left hand is…

Apparently, the left hand is seen as dirty as that is the hand you use when going to the bathroom – and since they mush and mix all of their food with their fingers, they keep the left hand out of the way.

The weird part is that before sitting down to eat, they only ever wash their right hand – no wonder the left hand stays dirty..!

How do I deal with it:

Honestly, I ignore it as best as I can. I’m getting used to the burps and nose picks, and I eat the way I want – just because you’re in a foreign country that doesn’t mean that you have to do everything they do.

Value your own health above “fitting in”, and don’t be so hard on yourself – who cares if someone gives you a strange look for eating with your left hand? You know better, you know if it’s clean or not.

Oh, and I ALWAYS carry toilet paper around, I’m not getting near those hoses they have in the squat toilets!

Keep Things In Perspective

During my travels I have heard the most offensive and obscene comments thrown at me or people around me, and sometimes this is tough to deal with.

But you have to put things into perspective, and not let yourself get sucked in or bothered – because the only person who will be affected is you, besides, what you see as offensive, in their culture could actually be a compliment.

A friend of mine spent a whole year in Rwanda, and while she lost heaps of weight, her friend put on quite a lot.

The locals they got to know said to her friend “you’re so fat! You have gotten so fat lately!” – something that’s not very fun to hear as a Western person, but is actually a compliment there…

Finally, culture shocks are part of the travel experience, and one of the things that make traveling so exciting and crazy – see every culture shock as a great experience.

What kinds of culture shocks & clashes have you experienced while traveling? Share below in the comments!

(photo credits: 1 - 2 - 3)

The post Dealing With Culture Shock While Traveling appeared first on Travel Videos & Travel Blog - As We Travel Blog.

I’ve always had this fascination/fear of doing things outside of my comfort zone – I love it and hate it at the same time, BUT it’s the feeling afterwards which gets me addicted to it.

Everything from speaking in public to learning new skills like skiing and surfing – I keep doing it and keep looking for those opportunities all the time, despite being really scared of trying them.

Why? Because I know how rewarding the feeling is once I’ve faced my fears, or once I’ve done something I wasn’t so sure about.

I realized that by traveling I get to try so many new things that I otherwise wouldn’t have done, and I grow stronger as a person every time.

In New Zealand I tried golf, for example. Golf was something I had never tried in my life, and honestly hadn’t really planned to try either.

While it’s more common for rich Europeans to visit a golf course in St Andrews in Scotland, New Zealand was a good place for me to start because golf there is incredibly cheap and you can do it everywhere.

In Europe it’s seen more as a sport for rich people, and families who go on golf breaks around Europe during the summer.

Just like wine tasting, it’s something of a luxury experience, and both of those are cheap and so easy to do when you are in New Zealand.

So we decided to play some golf, and I started out really cocky. :p

I had played quite a lot of ‘mini golf’ and thought I was pretty good, forgetting what a bad loser I am when it comes to these kinds of games …

I understood pretty soon that real golf was nothing like ‘mini golf’, and I think I broke a world record in worst golf-player ever.

I even surprised myself when I hit the ball and it somehow ended up 30 meters behind me rather than in the hole 20 meters in front of me.

It annoyed me even more that Nathan just picked up the game as though he had played it his whole life – as usual.

While golf didn’t turn out to be a skill I was born with, my point is the feeling of having tried something new was still so rewarding.

It was the same with learning how to play tennis, I wasn’t very good, but I learned a lot about myself while doing it.

While it might not be the most enjoyable thing at the time, you can at least be proud that you did it, and don’t forget that it could grow on you, and you might start enjoying it.

Surfing was one of those things I fell in love with - the first few weeks in Australia I spent the whole time getting wiped out and after swallowing half the ocean I crawled up on the beach like a drowned rat telling myself that I would never ever go surfing again.

Fast forward a month, the sport had really grown on me, and surprisingly, I didn’t want to leave Australia but wanted to stay there and continue surfing.

This has repeated itself over and over again with me - from surfing, skiing and playing golf.

For some reason I always seem to hate things at the start, and then end up loving it.

Who knows, maybe if I try golf in Scotland when we head there later this year and give it a second chance, I would like it better.

How about you? What are some things you tried which you hated at first but then fell in love with?

The post How Traveling Helps Me Get Out Of My Comfort Zone appeared first on Travel Videos & Travel Blog - As We Travel Blog.

I’m not a religious person, in fact, I quit the automatic-at-birth church membership they sign you up for in Sweden last year.

However, I’ve always enjoyed visiting churches, I feel that there is something special about them, something very comforting. I feel safe and calm when I’m sitting in a church.

For me it is the same as with guide books – they’re comforting and it makes me feel slightly safer with one in my hand, but I never really read them.

It’s not the guidebooks themselves that are the problem for me, but the way some people read them – as if they were the bible.

Now I kind of like the bible as well, it shares some really amazing stuff for living a happy life, but just as with the Lonely Planet guides (and other guides), many people misread and/or read too far into it.

So, what they both have in common, The Bible and Lonely Planet – is that they’re both guide books.

They’re there to share with you some guidelines to help you on your way, not for you to follow strictly from point A to point B.

We see people all around the world, sitting in cafes, walking down the street with their heads stuck so deep inside a Lonely Planet guide book, that they seem to forget to simply just look around at where they are and enjoy.

Guide books are there to give you hints, but it’s your task to make up your own way of doing it – there are no ‘must do’s', or ‘must-see’s’.

I especially remember this one man who counted with his fingers all the things he had managed to tick off the ‘must do in New-Zealand-list’ in less than 3 weeks:

“I did the dolphins, I’ve done the bungy jumping, I did the skydiving, I saw the glow worms, I saw the wales, I went to the Glacier etc etc…”

He never once mentioned HIS personal experience, and when I asked him he didn’t really have anything to say about it – for him it was all about the list.

Now just to make things clear, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with having bucket lists, in fact I love them!

If it’s a list of things you really want to do, rather than a list of things you feel that you must do because everyone says so, then go and enjoy yourself while ticking off your personal bucket list.

But if you’re running around stressing to see everything, I don’t think you’ll get the most out of your stay, even if you saw more things than me.

What’s the point of living a life if it’s already decided by somebody else how you should live it?

Same goes with guide books and travel: What’s the point of exploring if someone else halve already told you all about it and what to expect?

What adventure is worth doing when you already know what’s going to happen?

It’s like opening a christmas present you knew you would get. It’s still fun and nice, but not very exciting…

What I love about online travel guides and guides written by fellow bloggers is that they’re brief, straight to the point and only write about the most necessary information.

They give some examples of things to do, places to eat and stay, but only enough for you to go and explore a little yourself…

So, let yourself go, trust and have a little faith in YOURSELF, not in the book – who knows maybe you will have fun!

I love the way Paulo Coelho talks about this in his book ‘Warrior of the Light‘:

”One can often ruin a good pilgrimage by reading all the leaflets, books, guidelines on the internet, friends’ comments, and arrive at the place knowing everything one ought to be discovering for oneself, not allowing room for the most important element of any journey – the unexpected.”

(photo credits: sunshinecity – savioseb – vanbest)

The post What Lonely Planet Guide Books And The Bible Have In Common appeared first on Travel Videos & Travel Blog - As We Travel Blog.

There is a guy I know, who spent years dreaming about everything he wanted to do – most of all he wanted to travel the world and do some crazy adventures. But life never seemed to work that way for him, and he never seemed to have any time to do all that he dreamed.

Today, he is in his 50′s and has all the time in the world – but now he instead talks about all the things he would have liked to do, and then finishes off by saying: “but it’s too late now…”

I think it’s sad that he feels that way, because it’s SO far from the truth. I personally think you are  never too old to backpack around the world.

You’re only too old to travel if you THINK you are – I truly believe that the possibilities you have are no less than what you think you have.

Yes, society tries its hardest too have control over people and make up silly unwritten rules such as when you’re too old to travel, when you should get married, when you should get a real job etc…

The only one who should have a say in what you do with your life and how you live it – is you!

Don’t listen to others, often they’re simply jealous that you’re brave enough to do something they would also like to do.

Many people can’t handle other people stepping out of the norm, and into the uncertainty of a new life.

I don’t think it is about the age, but about the mindset you have, which decides whether you’re too old to backpack or not.

If you’re 25 and need the comfort and certainty, chances are that you’re ALREADY too old to backpack.

If you start to make things over-complicated and worry about everything, not wanting anything to be left to destiny, backpacking isn’t something for you.

If you, however, are open for new adventures with an “open ending”, aren’t too fuzzy about the comforts and are unafraid to talk to make your way around by yourself rather than following a tour guide with his flag in the air, it doesn’t matter how old y0u are, backpacking will be fun for you.

During our travels we have met seasoned backpackers who are well into their 70′s, still sleeping in rooms with squat toilets, and exploring the world.

It might be hard to find other senior travelers, but just like with solo travelers, there are many forums where you can go and connect with other older travelers – and isn’t age really just a number?

What do you think about this? – Is there a certain age when you’re too old to travel?

(photo credits: mcgraths – sukanto_debnath – mcviewty)

The post How Old Is Too Old To Backpack? appeared first on Travel Videos & Travel Blog - As We Travel Blog.

My grandmother has a very specific view of people who travel a lot, especially old people.

She can’t understand how they can’t just be happy with staying at home, why their souls are so restless and unhappy with their current situation.

I hear and read this a lot:

If you travel all the time, you’re running away from something.

Is that true? Are we running away from something… if so, then what are we running from?

I believe that nearly all of us are running, but for two different reasons:

• Some have restless souls trying to find happiness in external things like adventure and experiences, in other words, they’re trying to escape from who they are right now – hoping to change.

• Some are dreamers running away from society hoping to find an escape somewhere else or to find an answer telling them that life doesn’t have to be the way people force it to be.

Running Away From Yourself

I both know and have met people in this situation: They are sick of traveling, tired of always being on the road, talking nothing but negative about travels but they still have that nervous restless look in their eyes, which makes them continue.

Some left home because they hated their life there, hoping it would be better somewhere else, only to find they brought their problems with them.

The only problem is that they don’t realize it, but continue to the next destination thinking and hoping that it will be better there, and then the next, and the next…

Instead of dealing with their problems – they try to find a way to escape them, which is impossible.

When traveling it is easier to block out your personal problems because of all the new, exciting, external things going on, but you will never escape them.

Running Away From Reality

If we’re running away from (leaving) a current reality or situation, and I believe this is true for many of us, then I can’t see why that would be such a bad thing?

- Why should we accept life the way it is? - Why can’t we look for something better? – Why can’t we widen our perspectives?

I say we can, and we should!

We don’t have to follow the rules of society like a bunch of numb robots, doing everything society tells us to do even though we haven’t seen much good coming out of it.

In fact, I think this is an awesome reason to travel.

Running away in this aspect, searching for something else in life is necessary for you to evolve, to develop and not get stuck in a current situation.

In a way I believe that you have to be looking for something to find something – although not necessarily knowing what you look for.

What do you think about all this? Why Do You Travel? Are you trying to escape from reality?

(photo credits: vincepal – stevendepolo – aarmono)

The post Do We Travel To Escape Reality? appeared first on Travel Videos & Travel Blog - As We Travel Blog.

People can love traveling, but have a deep fear of flying. Some dislike it more than others, but I’m sure that we all have that thought crossing our minds that an accident could happen.

For some people, the thought just passes quickly through the mind, while for others the thought won’t leave them until they have landed safely.

The fear of flying is actually more common than people think, and can be a real pain.

Here are 3 simple steps that can help you overcome the fear of flying, and make that nervousness disappear…

Step 1 – Prepare

Other than preparing mentally yourself, you also have to prepare those around you. If you’re very scared of flying, let the attendants know about it.

They will be more than understanding, and they will do everything they can to make your journey as comfortable as possible and try to make you feel that you’re in safe hands.

Before the flight, you can also politely ask if you can meet your pilot. The pilot can tell you what to expect on your particular flight.
Knowing who is flying you might make you feel safer as well, and make it easier to trust him/her.

Another side note that can make you feel any safer knowing is that pilots are known to be the biggest control freaks of all!

Step 2 – Breathe

A smart, quick and effective way to calm your nerves on a plane to eliminate fear of flying is to do some deep breathing. There are many ways to do this, but the importance is that you breathe deeply and relax.

Here is a routine we find effective in similar situations:

• Close your eyes.
• Put your tongue on the roof of the mouth, inhale through the nose as deep as you can (10 seconds).
• Hold for 2 seconds. Exhale slowly while drawing the number 3 three times in your mind.

Do this again, but imagine drawing number 2 three times – finally do this a third time, imagining drawing number 1 three times.

Step 3 – Remind Yourself Of The Four False Facts

We’ve all experienced our minds getting swept away and blowing things out of proportion, starting to picture accidents in the head. When your mind starts to mess with you and you get these uncomfortable thoughts that makes you nervous.

Below are some typical and common things people worry about (including myself), and after some research I found that there is no need to worry:

- What if there is something broken on the plane?

There are aircraft mechanics making detailed inspections between every flight, and they repair broken parts as needed. The mechanics never settle for a “quick fix”, but make sure to always do a very careful job, anything else is forbidden by strict laws – and nobody would want to stand for having done a bad job.

- What if the plane crashes?

Flying is safer than driving, and is actually quite safe compared to most forms of travel in general. The statistics of accidents are very low, and keep in mind that almost 30,000 people are up in the air at this very minute.

Every single flight is planned in such a way that if an engine was to fail, the plane must still have enough performance to fly safely. Pilots are trained to handle engine failures in every phase of flight.

- What if the plane engines stop in an air pocket?

A very common thing that worries people and is the reason to many people’s fear of flying is “air pockets”. Have you ever felt as though the plane fell into a pocket? I’ve heard rumors that the plane engines can stop spinning if the air pocket is too big, or if there are too many of them. This, however, I have now understood to be a myth.

There are no such things as air pockets, they are a complete myth. There is always air for support. Have you ever walked down the street and all the sudden found yourself in an air pocket where you can’t breath?

- What if the plane all the sudden just stops working and falls off the sky?

Planes simply cannot do this. There is always several backup systems, and even if none of them work (which is very unlikely), the plane can still glide for up to 100 miles from cruise altitude of 30,000 feet.

In fact, it’s actually pretty common that they don’t use the engines at all at times and let the plane glide to save fuel.

Learn To Let Go & Trust

There isn’t much more you can do now than to just relax your mind and body. Holding tightly to the armrests does nothing to stabilize the plane. The plane is already designed to fly steady.

When you find yourself tensing up, let go.

Do you have fear of flying, or do you have any tips to those who do?

The post Fear of Flying? Overcome your fear in 3 Simple Steps appeared first on Travel Videos & Travel Blog - As We Travel Blog.

Traveling as a couple has its ups and downs, and it really isn’t all a bed of roses. Something you have to be prepared for is having to cope with things you wouldn’t need to if you traveled alone.

For example, when I get really hungry I’m not that fun to be around, and Nathan has to deal with it. The same way I have to deal with the fact that Nathan gets restless and bored sunbathing at the beach.

Sounds a little annoying to you?

The upside of this is that when bad things happen and we feel like we’re slipping, the other person is always there to catch us.

We never have to deal with problems alone since there is always someone else there to share the burden, which takes some weight off your shoulders.

One of those times when I was so happy to have someone by my side was in Bali…

We discovered a little restaurant that served really cheap food, and since it was so cheap I felt like spoiling myself, so I ordered some fried banana with chocolate ice cream.

Three hours later I was lying in bed having the strangest dreams, sweating like crazy and feeling the nausea creeping up on me.

The next morning I was a total mess. I had never in my life felt this bad and I seriously started to wonder if this was the end.

The hotel owner was worried that it was something really dangerous and called the police and doctor to come over. I couldn’t eat, drink or even think clear.

I was far away from home and my family, had no idea what was happening and couldn’t understand a word of what the doctor was saying.

All that I could think of was how in the world I would be able to make it through.

Then I felt Nathan’s warm hand squeezing mine, and I suddenly felt like a stone was lifted from my shoulders.

Having his hand to hold when I went through this, having him there to support me, to hug me and tell me it will be alright, making sure that I wouldn’t give up, was worth more than any medicine to make me get better.

It’s at times like this when I realize how much traveling with my boyfriend really means to me. Going through something new and terrible is difficult enough, and having someone there who I love and who loves me makes it so much easier to deal with.

As much as I appreciate having someone to help me go through difficult times, I also feel like it means a lot to share the beautiful moments with someone as well. To me, there is something magical sharing a sunset with someone else.

Do you travel solo or with someone? What do you like about it?

(photo credits: yourdon – rachdavies)

The post Having A Hand To Hold While Traveling appeared first on Travel Videos & Travel Blog - As We Travel Blog.

There is one word which is more powerful than any other word, a word that makes you go either right or left – I’m talking about the “YES” word.

‘Yes’ is by far the most powerful word in the world. Saying yes to something can completely transform your life. It’s crazy to think that such a small word, one of only three letters, can have such an effect and impact.

Think about everything in your life that you’ve said yes to before knowing the consequences, and then imagine what would have happened if you hadn’t said yes – maybe a no?

Things would have been pretty different, wouldn’t they..?

Saying No so often leads to a dead end – it is safe, and it is certain. At least when you say yes things will change, you trust and you give life a chance.

Saying no to things is the safest thing you can do.

It is driven by certainty, by fear and often people say no to things they actually would have liked to do, but they’re too scared of the consequences.

While studying acting and film making a few years ago, I learned that what makes a story is the action of “yes”. If people said no to everything, the story would become boring pretty fast, since nothing would happen.

Do you want your life to be like a boring movie?

The impact of ‘yes’ shows even more clearly while traveling.

By saying yes to things – you never know where you’ll end up, you never know who you will meet, or what might happen – that is the excitement of life right?

Traveling equals changes and choices, and the choice of yes will most often take you to far more interesting places than if you say no.

I often think of the advice a woman once gave me. She used to travel to India at least once every year, and return with three full bags of clothes and jewlry.

She said that if there was anything she had learned, it was: If you hesitate, BUY!

My point is that often we hesitate when we really don’t need to – LISTEN to your gut, if it feels wrong, don’t do it, but if it feels good, say Yes.

And live the life of YOUR dreams!

The post The Power Of Saying Yes While Traveling appeared first on Travel Videos & Travel Blog - As We Travel Blog.

5 Reasons I Love To Travel

Luckily, the 5 things I hate about traveling don’t outweigh the 5 things I love about it.

Having the ability to travel around the world is one of the most amazing things in the world, there are so many awesome things to learn, and help us grow – I could probably name 100′s of reasons why I love traveling but for today here are my top 5 reasons for why I continue to be motivated to travel.

1. Meeting New Cultures

I’m almost obsessed with meeting and learning about new cultures, I absolutely love it. They’re interesting, often (to me) strange, provoking and always have something to teach.

I learn so much by visiting places with a different culture than my own, I also find that by understanding the culture you can understand why the people are the way they are – on such a deep level.

2. History

I’m not usually a big history fan, but when it comes to traveling I really love to know the history about every place I visit. By learning the history of a place I get a better appreciation and understanding of why things are the way they are there.

3. Food

Food (not just eating it) is a big part of travel for me. I love going to supermarkets, little boutiques and markets, and can literally spend hours just looking at strange new and interesting food items which I’ve never seen before.

4. The People

Often I meet travelers bragging about how many countries they’ve been to and all the ‘fun’ things they’ve done. To me, that doesn’t really matter that much, what matters to me is not the places you go to but more importantly the people you meet while you are there.

5. Using The Five Senses

Another thing I like to remember from my travels are the different smells, sounds, food flavors and visual colors you get to experience. My brain finds itself working on overdrive trying to take it all in, and long afterward I can think back to a place and still remember what  kind of vibe I felt. I’ll always remember the feeling a place gives me, whether it’s good or bad.

What do you love about traveling? And what KEEPS you motivated to travel around the world?

The post 5 Things I Love About Traveling appeared first on Travel Videos & Travel Blog - As We Travel Blog.

5 Things (Life Lessons) I Learned While Visiting Vanuatu From Hanging Out With Some Of The Happiest People In The World.

You learn a lot when you go traveling, especially from the people you meet along the way.

Out of all the places I’ve been, there is no place where I’ve learned so much about human beings as when we were in Vanuatu. Despite being one of the poorest countries in the world, these people have been rated the happiest in the world.

You shouldn’t believe everything people say about rankings, so we went there to check the out and have to admit that these people really do have something that most of Western society seems to have lost.

The way they lived reminded me of many things I already knew but so rarely actually saw, or did in real life, so for that I am so very grateful.

1. Trust:

These people will trust anyone and everyone for no apparent reason.

For example when we were going to buy some bananas from a market lady, she was lying under the table on a mattress fast asleep.

We had to wake her up, show her that we wanted to buy the bananas, but even then she just waved her hands towards the table and told us to put the money somewhere on her table, and fell back to sleep.

That kind of thing would never happen in a Western country, where the focus seems to be more on let’s make more money and trust nobody until they prove it.

2. Smiling And Saying Hi To Everyone All The Time:

My mouth was literally aching after spending a few days in Vanuatu. When you walked down the street at night, everyone would walk past saying ‘Goodnight, Sweet Dreams!’ – this wasn’t just because we were tourist either, they also acted the same to each other. They were polite and friendly without wanting something back.

Here in Europe, people often are only polite if they get something out of it, and they get very confused and at first a little suspicious  if you’re friendly and talkative to them for no ‘reason’. There it was more strange if you DIDN’T talk to the person sitting next to you in the bus van.

3. Take The Time To Enjoy Moments:

In the Western society I often feel like people judge you if you’re not always doing something, or always busy. The first thing people always ask me is what I’ve done lately and what my plans are for the future.

The vibe in Vanuatu was so chill. It really felt like time stood still, and you could find people just sitting under palm trees, laughing or sleeping by their food stalls in the middle of the day – enjoying life.

4. Take Your Time To Help A Stranger:

Taking the time to help a stranger is something that is so valued there, and I’ve never seen people putting in such a big effort to help you without asking for something back in return (like some tip). In many other places you will find people are simply way too busy with their own lives to stop and care for someone else’s.

5. Being Curious Of You As A Person:

Coming from Sweden, we ‘need’ a very large ‘personal space bubble’. Often we feel uncomfortable even when someone sits in the seat next to us on a bus.

Unless the bus is full, you will rarely see two strangers sitting next to each other when there are other free seats (I did it once to test, and the person next to me was very uncomfortable, and moved away).

Here in Vanuatu people sit right down in the seat right next to you in an empty bus, look at you with a big smile of their faces and starts a conversation right away. They are honestly curious about you, and really care to get to know you as a human being.

What are some lessons, and life reminders you have experienced while visiting people from other cultures?

The post 5 Things I Learned From Meeting The Happiest People In The World, Vanuatu appeared first on Travel Videos & Travel Blog - As We Travel Blog.