My very first blogpost will most probably be the one that matters to me the most. It’s all about respecting cultures while traveling. Respect towards people from other countries, cultures and ethnicities. Buying a planeticket is easy to do. But the minority of all people take a step back and spend some time to inform themselves. Local traditions, habits and etiquette that are groomed a in your country of destination are only a few things that you can read about.
During my 6 month of living in Bangkok I sadly had to witness disrespectful and naive behavior shown by tourists. They obviously haven’t done their homework. It starts with welcoming the locals and giving tips at restaurants as well as an appropriate behavior when visiting cultural and religious sites.
Believe me, the locals will thank you for respecting them and their culture. My tips are as follows:
Inform yourself
Good behavior is welcomed all over the world and opens many doors for you as a guest. It is therefore even more important to know the etiquette in the holiday country to avoid embarrassing faux pas moments. I know that traveling is about letting things go and going with the ‘flow’ for a relaxed journey. Nevertheless, it is important to inform yourself thoroughly about the etiquette in the travel country before the trip. An app that could help you with this is, for example, the free for Android and iOS app “culture competence”.
Be curious but not pushy
Sounds a bit contradictory to talk about curiosity while traveling after preaching restraint. When I talk about curiosity in this context, I mean curiosity to learn more about the culture. Even if you leave your travel destination in a short time, the experience you gain is priceless. No app or website in the world can teach you more about the traditions than the locals themselves.
Restraint is a virtue
You have already arrived in your destination country and do not really know what to do or how to behave?Then you can ask local people if you are traveling with one. If that’s not the case, I’ll advise you to hold back and practice respecting, because in these moments what you think may be right could not be what’s appropriate. Which brings us directly to the topic of photography. Questions like: “Am I allowed to take pictures of strangers like that? If I want to take a picture of her, do I go to the person first? Does not that destroy the magic of the photo?” are questions that are always buzzing through my head, the answers would probably have to be written down in a separate blog post.
