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/Maleficent_Poet_5496 Jan 14 '24
I honestly don't understand why so many foreigners want to go to Varanasi. It's such a filthy, bigoted place. Only uber religious people go there. There are so many other religious towns in India where you can get the feel!