Hop On In!

Public transportation can seem scary enough in the U.S.. Now imagine hopping on a train in another country. Where people pile in like cattle. You are literally pressed against a human being that you don't know and may not even be able to communicate with.

But, aside from the general strangeness of having so many people in your bubble, public transportation can actually be a really fun way to get from place to place in new countries. And you can meet all sort of fun people during your ride.

Public transportation can greatly differ in each country. (Luckily for Americans, Uber is in over 60 countries.) In India, a lot of people use rickshaws. RICKSHAWS ARE SO FUN.

India also has trains. Not bullet trains, or subways, or anything remotely luxurious, but like legitimate cattle cars. The seats are metal, the doors and windows are open the entire time, beggars wander around the cars, people jump on while the train is moving (one of those people being me...), and no one cares about your personal space.

Japan's public transportation system was TOTALLY different from India's. While people do overcrowd the trains, they don't talk to each other (or on the phone), the trains are air conditioned, enclosed, and actually clean. They also have an app for the subway system in Tokyo called Tokyosubway.

These are just my experiences with public transportation, and I know there are people out there with far more experiences. But, when traveling try it out sometime! 

I've Got Friends in All Places

In my last post, I mentioned meeting locals so you can learn more about holidays that are occurring while you're visiting, but there are lots of reasons why you should befriend the locals. Here are what I think are 3 of the biggest reasons to engage with those who are a part of the culture:


Reason #1: These people could become lifelong friends.

Whenever I travelled to India and Japan, never did I imagine developing friendships with people that might go beyond my time there. I thought I would go there, make friends with people who would teach me about the culture, hang out with them and then just move on with life. I am so thankful that I was wrong!!! I am now friends with people that I met while overseas on every form of social media that I have so I can keep up with their lives and we still text each other every once and a while to catch up.

Reason #2: The friends you make can teach you more about their culture than you will learn on your own.

In Thailand, I tried to learn about the culture without really engaging with the people there. I learned little to nothing about the country whenever I was there. Looking back I could kick myself for neglecting the impact that their input could have had on my trip.

But, in India, Japan and even L.A., I talked to locals and spent time with them which really helped me to understand the culture of each place. (They were also able to show me different places that only people from the area would know about.)

Because I developed friendships with people in India, I was able to explore street markets I never would have found, attend engagement parties and visit historical landmarks I didn't know about. I was even invited in to the homes of some of the friends that I made.



In Japan my friends taught me about Purikura (hilarious and awesome photo booths), themed restaurants, Snow (basically Snapchat but with like a million more filters) and Japanese karaoke. All of my favorite memories in Japan were made while doing these things and I totally would have missed out on them if I wouldn't have befriended people from Japan!

I didn't necessarily make lifelong friends with people in L.A., but I did start conversation with all of my Uber drivers and they were extremely helpful with restaurant suggestions, places to visit that weren't "touristy", bars to check out and areas to make sure to stay away from. 

Reason #3: You have a reason to re-visit those places.

Now that I've made friends in each of these locations, I have someone to go see! If I ever decide I want to experience more of any of the cultures, I have someone to stay with and my own personal tour guide.


So be friendly, step out of your comfort zone and talk to those around you!

Party Like a Local

Something I never thought of whenever I started my travels was to be aware of the holidays happening where I would be. To really experience whatever culture you're going to be diving in to, research the holidays that are happening. They can make for some great memories with new local friends!

Click here to check global holidays!

Whenever I visited Thailand, I stayed in Hua Hin. Once I got there, I found out that Hua Hin is actually the vacation spot of the king. In Thailand, the king is EVERYTHING to the people. (Citizens have gotten jail time for speaking poorly of him.) I also found out once I got there that the king was celebrating his birthday, along with the WHOLE ENTIRE country of Thailand. There they call his birthday "Father's Day" because they all love him so much. They also wear yellow shirts to honor the king. Because I was uninformed, I was surrounded by a sea of people in yellow, while I was walking around in gray. How embarrassing...

Luckily whenever I was in Tokyo some friends that we made informed my group and I that there was a holiday coming up. This was awesome because we got to celebrate it with locals. Tanabata, the Star Festival, actually originated from a Chinese holiday. They taught us all about the holiday, why they celebrated it, and how they celebrate. Thank goodness we met people cool enough to keep us informed about what was happening in their culture and that invited us along to celebrate with them.

So if you really want to enjoy and learn about the culture that you're already immersing yourself in by traveling there, MEET LOCALS AND CELEBRATE THEIR HOLIDAYS!

Don't Go Chasin' Waterfalls

TLC said it best when they warned everyone about chasing waterfalls, but I just can’t seem to resist adventure. So part two of my Thailand jungle safari included hiking a waterfall.

In preparation for this hike (which I didn’t know I would be going on whenever I was packing, but thankfully I had my Chacos), we had to eat. Really carb up, you know? Being with a large group, we had very limited options for food. We ended up stopping at four restaurants before we finally found one that would serve us. I’m using the term restaurant very loosely too because this place was no more than a hut in a tiny village.

Being the lover of Thai food that I am not, I stuck with the basics. Pad thai. And I even thought I was getting a little crazy with it by adding shrimp to the mix. (I made sure to point at the picture on the menu because heaven forbid that I receive any meat other than shrimp.) But my sweet waitress, who didn’t happen to speak any English, brought out squid pad thai. SQUID. Tentacles and all.

As she placed my dish in front of me I remember thinking, “Well this isn’t shrimp. I’m not sure what this is. Wait, those are tentacles! Dear Lord, please let this be someone else’s dish. Oh no, she just brought out four more of them. She thinks we all wanted squid! Okay, I’m going to die in this hut in this random village.” (When it comes to my food I can be a tad dramatic and I have no problem admitting that.)

Once I moved past the trauma of eating squid instead of shrimp, I hopped back in the van with my group and went through border patrol. Yes, border patrol. The waterfall that we hiked was in national park that bordered Myanmar so it was necessary.

When I was told that we were hiking a waterfall, I expected something grand like Niagara Falls. So I was practically running through the trail. Which was a little dangerous given how tropical the area is, every rock is slick, the dirt is mud, and there are vines hanging everywhere. Really thick vines that could potentially knock someone out if the ran in to them. And that’s exactly what happened to one of my friends that was trying to keep up. She nailed her forehead on one of the vines and had to sit out for the rest of the hike.

Because of our excitement to see the Thai version of Niagara Falls, my friends and I ended up wandering further than what the trail went. As we were climbing, we couldn’t figure out why everything was getting so difficult for us. We were slipping constantly. One of my friends even slipped off of a boulder into the water. After that we decided the waterfall was too dangerous so we turned around.

As we were hiking back we saw a sign that said, “Danger! Don’t go any further!” Conveniently it was written in Thai so we didn’t pay any attention to it on our way up.

Turns out, the waterfall we were looking for was just a small drop in the river. But wow was it a fun experience.