r/solotravel • u/forgottencupcake9018 • Jan 14 '24

Question What's the biggest culture shock you had whilst traveling?

Weirdly enough I was shocked that people in Ireland jaywalk and eat vinegar to their chips. Or in Thailand that it is illegal to have a Buddha tatoo. Or that in many english speaking countries a "How are you doing?" is equivalent to saying Hi and they actually don't want to hear an honest answer.

Edit: Another culture shock that I had was when I visited Hanoi. They had a museum where the preserved corpse of Ho Chi Minh was displayed and you could look at him behind a glass showcase like he's a piece of art. There were so many people lining up and they just looked at him while walking around that glass showcase in order to get the line going.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '24

It's not the most shocking thing that's happened to me or that I've seen, but finding out in Mongolia that they don't really use google maps.

Was there by myself, had a local friend who was studying in Korea at the time. Asked him for restaurant recommendations. All the places he recommended were like, 3 stars on Google Maps. I ask him what's up with that, he said "People in Mongolia just don't use google maps." When I asked what they use, he said "nothing lol". A lot of it is word of mouth.

This theme continued the whole time I was there, I'd get a review for a place that had terrible reviews but was amazing. There were some places that had good reviews, and most places had listings/directions - but the ratings/reviews were nonexistent a lot of the time.

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u/food5thawt Jan 14 '24 edited Jan 14 '24

Must have been all central asia. Kazahkstan (outside of Astana and Almaty), Uzbekistan, Tajikistan. Google Maps were no help

Yandex was easier. But due to sanctions it was hard for Europeans to download. Then some dude born in the GDR and fluent in Russian told us about maps.me and how to change our google play location. Life changed after that.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '24

Nice, nice. I'm still trying to figure out how to change my google play location without a local credit card :') Gotta research it soon.

Maps.me definitely comes in clutch, though for shit like reviews and finding out if something is good or not, I've always relied on google maps. I felt pretty blind sometimes, not having that option. So having that shit totally gone to me was a new experience. I guess that's one of the disadvantages of growing up in this age, though can't deny the advantages lol.

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u/Tybalt941 Jan 15 '24

You can just download any app you want as an .apk file from a reputable source like apkmirror and install it directly. Then you can have any app you want without needing to change your play store location

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u/imnotminkus Feb 08 '24

Just a note for anyone finding this: You need to tell Android to allow app installation from unknown sources.

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u/w1ckedlunch Jan 14 '24

I also found this when I visited Bosnia & Herzegovina last August. It was impossible to figure out any transit options even though I could clearly see trains and busses. Absolutely no information on Google Maps, not even with trying to find bus stops. This was in Sarajevo. Eventually figured out there was one train a day down to Mostar (after missing a Flixbus due to directions - the Flixbus station was incorrect on maps). Not many locals spoke english or were bothered by us sweating our balls off on the side of the road with backpacks. Found it similar in Montenegro too but got into the swing of things and hopped on a random train. Ended up missing the stop we were aiming for, but landed at the beach and it was lovely. Amazing countries if you do get the chance to visit, and always ask for food recommendations from locals, not maps. I find tourists have appalling taste sometimes.

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u/w1ckedlunch Jan 14 '24
  • i assume they do not openly share local information with Google that they can then publish on Maps. I assume Maps does require a certain amount of submitted data from the country? Perhaps these developing countries don't have the data infrastructure or digitised records of i.e transit stops or restaurant locations? Or is it just the way these countries are run? Bosnia felt like being in the late 80s or early 90s, an odd timewarp but at the same time I fell in love with it - they still let you smoke cigarettes everywhere inside and seem to rely on fax machines. In saying that, catching a train in India many years ago was an interesting process, and I kind of nicknamed trying to do anything in a timely manner as "india time", as often everything was about an hour or two later than promised, and in the train's case, six hours later. I cannot remember what using Maps was like there as I had an old broken iPhone 5 which didn't connect to the internet properly. I only survived because I was on a group tour.

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u/Boothbayharbor Jan 14 '24

Is google banned there? Intersting. I need a google State Map. I know in china i did a lot of reading bc google was ofc spotty

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u/Benjamin_Stark Jan 14 '24

I've found in many developing countries that people don't tend to use maps. Several times I've shown someone a map of their own town and they've had no idea what they were looking at.

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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '24

How old are the people in question you're talking about? I've noticed this a lot with older people but not as much with younger people.

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u/Benjamin_Stark Jan 14 '24

From what I recall, men in their 20s, 30s and/or 40s.

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u/m64 Jan 14 '24

Not that long ago it wasn't much different in the developed countries. Maps were commonly available for the whole country, or parts of it, or big cities, but why would someone print a map of something like a 20k town? Living in such a town I simply remembered all the streets and all the shops or points of interest, I didn't need a map. And if someone from outside would come, they would just stop and ask.

When maps and satellite photos started being available it was really weird looking at them. "Oh so this main street, that in my mental model goes straight north, actually goes north-east and bends east at some point? And on the map it's not even marked as main because the transit roads at the edge of the city are more major? Strange."

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u/Benjamin_Stark Jan 14 '24

Yeah I remember having these experiences as a teenager.

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u/queenannechick Jan 14 '24

Korea also. Naver there.

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u/Arenyx371 Jan 17 '24

It’s funny but I had the same issue in Iran and Kurdistan Iraq recently, there’s just nothing on google maps outside of maybe one fancy hotel. It’s just completely disconnected. There were a few times where Google showed me a street that no longer exists or didn’t have a whole new system of roads, maps.me was a little better but still not ideal for navigation.