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!