Lessons in Travelling 1

I will now start to share some lessons I have learned in traveling, mostly, in other countries but it can also be applied locally.

1. Make sure to check and recheck the time your bus leaves.
I have learned this lesson the hard way. This story happened when my whole family went to a country where only a handful of people can speak English. I was working in an NGO there. Language was really a problem. I was still learning the language but I was daring and I made a big mistake.

One time, my family and I were about to travel from the place we were staying to another city through bus. I bought our tickets a day earlier. My wife was already asking me a lot of times on when we will be leaving. I confidently answered her on the time I thought we were leaving. She told me to check for I might be mistaken due to language barrier. I might be misunderstood as what she kept on telling me. I checked the ticket and totally misunderstood what was written there.

2. Get the right information
Since the official bus stop is another area and we will only wait in a nearby road, the time written on the ticket mentioned only the time the bus will leave the official bus station. In other words, we were an hour behind. When we arrive at our waiting place, I asked the vendor there if the bus has passed and he said yes. I panicked and I checked the tickets and showed it to the vendor. He showed me my mistake.

That mistake costs me a lot of money. My wife got angry on me and my kids were very very tired on traveling back and forth to our house. I bought another set of tickets for the late noon trip and I made sure we were ahead of time as not to miss the bus.

For those who are reading, don't be so confident or shy when you learn a little of a new language but just try to make sure to keep on asking until you are assured even if it is annoying to the ticket vendor. Somehow, don't forget to smile afterwards and say thanks to smooth the wrinkles from their foreheads. They will be kind to understand that you are still learning the language. (Hope so...)

Tips When You are Already Travelling

1. Try to remember the land marks while you are travelling. In this way whenever you are lost or you want to go back to that place, you can easily remember it.

2.    Always bring a guide map with you.

3.   Put all your important items like passport, money, camera inside your waist bag.

4.   Make sure that your waist bag should be tight enough so that it cannot be easily grab by anyone.

5.   Place your waist bag always in front of you.

6.  Always put a lock on your bag, back pack or shoulder bag while travelling at night.

7.   Don’t forget to have a contact number and address of the place you are staying just in case you encounter any problem you can call right away.

8.   Bring a copy of your passport and IDs always so you can present anytime when you are asked by the police or anyone in authority.

9.   Always bring your own water and vitamin C with you so that you won’t be dehydrated and easily get sick due to travel stress.  Children chewable vitamin C is best even if you are an adult.

10 .  Easily gets travel or motion sickness, always bring and drink travel sickness medicine an hour before travelling.

11 .  Don’t be ashamed to ask for directions from locals but make sure to ask someone whom you can trust to give you the proper direction.

12.  Be sensitive on the way of dressing, culture and traditions of the locals.

13. Learn some simple phrases of the local language to help you get by while travelling, like buying things, proper greetings, taking taxis and local transportation.

14 .  Know the exact rate of things and fares from one place to another to avoid overpaying.

15. For bargaining of prices when you buy something, always let the locals do it for you.

I’m Lost, HELP!!!

When I was in Hong Kong, one day, friend of my father invited me to visit their house and it’s an hour to be in their place. They had given me the instruction to get a train and they are going to pick me up in the train station.

As I went to the train station and waited for my train to arrive, all the instructions that was written in the station was in Chinese characters. So I was confused and I didn’t have any idea to which direction did I have to take. As soon as the train arrived, I quickly jumped in and watching the direction and destination I found out that it was an opposite place to where I am going.

By then, I decided to step down into the next stop and change another train. At first, I was ashamed to ask to anybody regarding the direction of the place where I was supposed to go. So you can just imagine from Hong Kong to New Territory, I changed train four times. I was embarrassed and ashamed to myself when I shared these to my host who waited for a longer period of time because of that long journey.

So when you travel alone, don’t be ashamed to ask for direction or make sure you have a map with you. That was my big lesson that I learned.

    

Tips Before Travelling

When you go to adventurous travels, there might be problems that you will encounter unexpectedly. So here are some tips to guide you  to lessen the hardships you might face. If posssible, that you will not face any problem at all.

1. You need to have a strong determination to where you are going.

2. Research in the internet or to any guide books concerning the area you are traveling.

3. Choose what kind of travel you are going to make. Ex. Trekking or kayaking or mountain climbing or simply city tours.

4. Prepare the necessary things you need to bring based on the kind of travel you are going to make, and on the number of days you gonna stay.

5. Bring handy kits for emergency use, like:
                          medicine
                          first aid kit
                          sewing kit
                          all-purpose tool kit like swiss knife
                          handy flashlight
                          plastic bags (for garbage and protecting clothes from getting wet)
                          candies or chocolates (for energy giver)

6. Choose the right bag. For city travels, trolleys is better but for outdoor trips, back packs are the best.

7. Always bring an extra handy sling bag for daily trips. Your big back packs and trolleys can be left behind in the hotel or inn while the handy sling bag is a carry anywhere type of thing. Here, your passport copies, credit cards, and other essential documents you can bring. Sling or waist bags are really good to keep away thiefs or snatchers from stealing your things away.

8. Always put your sling bag in front of you. Never at the side or back.

9. Carry important documents with you always to avoid hotel theft. you cannot trust hotels or inns, most of all. Hotel staff can be interested with your things, too.

10. Valuable items can be stored in safe boxes or in your hand carry bags.

11. Always photocopy all your documents in case of theft or from being lost.

12. Always bring ID pictures. Some countries will asked even when you buy a simple sim card for your mobile phone.

13. Make a list of things to buy and things to bring to make sure that you will not miss anything.

14. Don't bring everything. You can always purchase simple things in other places/countries. Unless you are not sure, just purchase the smallest of every kind, like sachets for shampoo or deodorant, and etc

15. Secure a map and a tourist guide book. These are very helpful, most of all, if you can't speak the language.