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Things I've Learned from Traveling Around the World for Three Years

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Re: Things I've Learned from Traveling Around the World for Three Years

#51

Post by poutine »

seven wrote: post #10
lionhearted wrote: post #4

Careful, this is one is true until it's not, and then you're fucked: > 7) The rest of the world isn't full of germs. Many people travel with their own supply of water and an industrial vat of hand sanitizer. As a rule, yes, you'll be fine in other countries. But especially in third world countries, only eat food that is served in a sealed package from a trusted company or served hot - food that is served hot will be…

From my experience, you can not avoid getting ill. Sooner or later (probably sooner) it is going to hit you. Therefore my advice is, to jump right into it. Eat what the locals eat. Do what the locals do. By this you have at least a bit fun until you have to spend your time sitting and sh *ing. The human body is great in adapting to those situation. On my first visit to an development country I took more pictures from…

Bad advice. The body doesn't adapt to hepatitis, salmonella, spoiled meat and the like.

Don't think the locals are not getting sick and dying either. They are. Diarrhea is one of the leading causes of death in the developing world.

Re: Things I've Learned from Traveling Around the World for Three Years

#52

Post by xiaoma »

amirmc wrote: post #11
lionhearted wrote: post #4

Careful, this is one is true until it's not, and then you're fucked: > 7) The rest of the world isn't full of germs. Many people travel with their own supply of water and an industrial vat of hand sanitizer. As a rule, yes, you'll be fine in other countries. But especially in third world countries, only eat food that is served in a sealed package from a trusted company or served hot - food that is served hot will be…

What do you mean by 'third world' countries? In general, the best piece of advice I've received is simply "do as the locals do".

Malaria, dengue fever, amoebic dysentery and similar diseases have done in an awful lot of Europeans who followed that advice in the tropics.

Re: Things I've Learned from Traveling Around the World for Three Years

#54

Post by poutine »

lionhearted wrote: post #4

Careful, this is one is true until it's not, and then you're fucked: > 7) The rest of the world isn't full of germs. Many people travel with their own supply of water and an industrial vat of hand sanitizer. As a rule, yes, you'll be fine in other countries. But especially in third world countries, only eat food that is served in a sealed package from a trusted company or served hot - food that is served hot will be…

More specifically you should avoid the following:

- Street meat. Unrefrigerated meat spoils very rapidly. Bacteria build up toxins in the meat that don't go away even if you cook it. This can make you very sick and even kill.

- Cut fruit. You don't know if clean water was used to wash the knife or that the knife was not used to cut raw chicken or the like.

- Raw vegetables. Many places use human feces to fertilize the fields. You don't know if it was washed properly.

I lived recently in China for several years and got sick a lot and learned to become very particular about food. There seems to be a common perception among travellers that we're weak soft westerners and just need to toughen up and be like the locals who don't get sick. This isn't true, the locals get sick and die with alarming rates. Hepatitis, diarrea and various food born illnesses kill huge numbers of people globally due to poor sanitation.

Re: Things I've Learned from Traveling Around the World for Three Years

#55

Post by Locke1689 »

Ixiaus wrote: post #42
lotusleaf1987 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone can afford it, otherwise a lot more people would. Germans, Kiwis, the English, and Australians probably also generally have more secure employment and higher wages on average.

It's a farce to say you can't afford it. I backpacked through India for two months and spent a total of $1,534.00 (excluding airfare to and from the country). I was well fed, sheltered, and had a blast. Many occidental countries and developed countries in general, can be pricey if you resort to convenience. What's really funny, is, a hippie german couple I befriended in India came to travel through the US a year late…

It's nice that you have an employer who will let you leave for two months. Most people don't.

Re: Things I've Learned from Traveling Around the World for Three Years

#56

Post by evgen »

run4yourlives wrote: post #36
maxawaytoolong wrote: post #22

I used to travel. Africa, Australia, Japan, Europe, Mexico, etc. His point about Americans not traveling is valid. I wonder if part of the reason is that North America is so far away from everywhere else. It takes 11 hours to fly from Berlin to Thailand, but it takes 25 hours to fly from NYC to Thailand. Most Americans probably have to get to NYC or LA to get anywhere else in the world, which can be another 3-5 hours…

Canadians travel, so you can't excuse the distance. I think the problem is (I say this as a Canadian) that the US has a very insular streak to it's fabric that is manifested in ways such as this. This same streak that caused the US to join both world wars when they were half over. My guess is that it stems from the individual nature of the founders, along with the split from England. This isn't as strong in Canada an…

Another alternative hypothesis for you to consider: there is already so much beauty, novelty, and interesting diversity in the US that it takes a slightly bigger push to get past this local maxima. No offense, but if you chopped out and stitched together all of the interesting bits of Canada you would have a land mass that was about the size of California and with a similar population; in the US we have 49 other states to tool around in as well that present a much greater diversity in terms of environment and inhabitants. We get all that without needing to use a passport, exchange currency, or try to learn to speak like a tourist in another language. It is not the same thing as real international travel, but it is a close-enough approximation for some people that it serves as a reasonable substitute.

Re: Things I've Learned from Traveling Around the World for Three Years

#57

Post by [deleted] »

blizkreeg wrote: post #31
rivo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got sick a few times from street-vendor food in 3rd world countries. It turned out that they often reuse oil for too long. I now avoid deep-fried food, dirty or tap water, and things like ice-cream. I've been fine on my travels since.

This is a mild suggestion. Could we stop using the term 3rd world to refer to relatively poor countries? I think in a modern, globalized, and rapidly developing world, '3rd world' is unnecessary and carries a derogatory connotation to it, IMO. I can't speak for others from a so-called third world country, but it offends me. Plus, the true meaning of third world is something quite different, concocted during the cold…

[deleted]

Re: Things I've Learned from Traveling Around the World for Three Years

#58

Post by fgf »

poutine wrote: post #51
seven wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my experience, you can not avoid getting ill. Sooner or later (probably sooner) it is going to hit you. Therefore my advice is, to jump right into it. Eat what the locals eat. Do what the locals do. By this you have at least a bit fun until you have to spend your time sitting and sh *ing. The human body is great in adapting to those situation. On my first visit to an development country I took more pictures from…

Bad advice. The body doesn't adapt to hepatitis, salmonella, spoiled meat and the like. Don't think the locals are not getting sick and dying either. They are. Diarrhea is one of the leading causes of death in the developing world.

why don't you get a hepatitis vaccine?

Re: Things I've Learned from Traveling Around the World for Three Years

#59

Post by run4yourlives »

evgen wrote: post #56
run4yourlives wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canadians travel, so you can't excuse the distance. I think the problem is (I say this as a Canadian) that the US has a very insular streak to it's fabric that is manifested in ways such as this. This same streak that caused the US to join both world wars when they were half over. My guess is that it stems from the individual nature of the founders, along with the split from England. This isn't as strong in Canada an…

Another alternative hypothesis for you to consider: there is already so much beauty, novelty, and interesting diversity in the US that it takes a slightly bigger push to get past this local maxima. No offense, but if you chopped out and stitched together all of the interesting bits of Canada you would have a land mass that was about the size of California and with a similar population; in the US we have 49 other stat…

there is already so much beauty, novelty, and interesting diversity in the US that it takes a slightly bigger push to get past this local maxima

That statement though is illustrative of my point, though. Canadians and/or Australians will either view their country as boring or too large, and so they head overseas. Americans don't.

I don't think this speaks so much to the actual fact than it does to the way one looks at the situation.

Re: Things I've Learned from Traveling Around the World for Three Years

#60

Post by kroger »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #47
blizkreeg wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a mild suggestion. Could we stop using the term 3rd world to refer to relatively poor countries? I think in a modern, globalized, and rapidly developing world, '3rd world' is unnecessary and carries a derogatory connotation to it, IMO. I can't speak for others from a so-called third world country, but it offends me. Plus, the true meaning of third world is something quite different, concocted during the cold…

How about 'developing world' instead? Any other suggestions?

It's not so simple as 'developed world' vs 'developing world'. There's an awesome Hans Rosling ted talk [1] about that. Here's an quote from it:

"I find my experience from 20 years of Africa is that the seemingly impossible is possible. Africa has not done bad. In 50 years they've gone from a pre-Medieval situation to a very decent 100-year-ago Europe, with a functioning nation and state. I would say that sub-Saharan Africa has done best in the world during the last 50 years. Because we don't consider where they came from. It's this stupid concept of developing countries which puts us, Argentina and Mozambique together 50 years ago, and says that Mozambique did worse. We have to know a little more about the world. I have a neighbor who knows 200 types of wine. He knows everything. He knows the name of the grape, the temperature and everything. I only know two types of wine -- red and white. (Laughter) But my neighbor only knows two types of countries -- industrialized and developing. And I know 200, I know about the small data. But you can do that."

[1] http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_o...

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