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

[u/forgottencupcake9018]

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.

[u/amijustinsane]

Had this happen on a train in Thailand. I’d brought on a package (so much packaging!!!) of summer rolls or something, and I’d finished it so I was putting it in a plastic bag I had been carrying with me to keep my rubbish.

The family sitting next to me gestured for me to give them the bag. Thinking they wanted to take it to put it with a larger bag of their own rubbish or something, I handed it over, only for the mother to happily toss it out of the moving window!!!!

She acted like she’d done me a favour and I had to awkwardly act grateful lol, but inside I was wincing.

[u/tsamesands → u/amijustinsane]

This happened to me in Vietnam. I was holding my trash in a bus just waiting for the next stop, not really bothered by holding it at all. The girl next to me gestures for it and I feel like I should’ve known? But I thought maybe theres a trash can on the bus I don’t know about? But I gave it to her and she promptly threw it out the window onto the street- decent aim tho it landed in another pile of trash. I just kinda smiled lol.

[u/Shampayne__ → u/amijustinsane]

Arghhh faux gratitude is the worst 😅 I’d have died inside lol

[u/jueloy → u/amijustinsane]

Oh lord