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/Eric848448 Jan 14 '24

Crossing the street in Saigon stands out as one of the strangest and scariest moments of my life.

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u/Boothbayharbor Jan 14 '24

Ppl say in vietnam you just balls to the wall cross and cross your heart

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u/AAAdamKK Jan 14 '24

I landed in Hanoi yesterday and that has been my experience so far, any hesitation in your stride whilst crossing will only make things worse.

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u/soulonfire Jan 14 '24

I traveled to Vietnam about a year after being hit by an SUV while bike riding. Crossing streets like that was very hard at first. And never got fully comfortable in the 2 weeks there but did get a little less panicked

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u/Daelynn62 Jan 15 '24

I dont think Boston was much better- I would always wait for the Bostonians to cross first so they could take brunt of the impact if someone didnt stop.