In last 3 years, the size of my passport has doubled. I have stacked up VISAs in 4 different languages with all kinds of ridiculous looking passport sized pictures, including a VISA rejection stamp on a country border. I traveled 6 countries in last 7 months. The trip duration has varied from 2 days to almost 2 months long. In fact, I am writing and publishing this blog on my weekly business train ride from New York to Philadelphia. Here’s the proof
My wallet has currencies from all of these countries. To an extent where once I ended up at a USA airport with having no US dollars in my wallet but only Indian Rupees, Canadian Dollar and Mozambiquen Meticals. Dam I couldn’t get the luggage cart at the airport. My accent changes depending on the country and stays with me even for few days if I am coming back from a long trip. Here are few things I want to share with you in this post, that I learned from my global adventures.
Listen Up
Not knowing the language may initially seem annoying but it truly increases your capacity to listen and pay more attention. My Portuguese listening skills have improved so much. In an entire sentence, if I could figure out 2 or 3 words and if I am aware about the context, I can figure out what the entire sentence was about. That’s how I almost picked up a foreign language at the age of 25. It also allows to be more empathetic to the differences that we share with people from around the world.
Being vegetarian is difficult but not impossible
Many of these countries – Mozambique/Switzerland in particular, finding good and cheap options for vegetarian food is extremely challenging. It certainly brings out the survival cook in me but it also makes me more resilient to not having many options. Eggs are great. And I still remember October 2012 in Mozambique, when my friend and I were fixed in a dire situation where we didn’t have access to any groceries/vegetarian food for 2-3 days and I needed to eat to survive. That I was the first time I tried eggs. And since then boiled/scrambled have been an amazing breakfast option with some bread on the side. It’s been 4.5 years that I have been traveling around the world – South Korea, Canada, Switzerland, Kenya, Mozambique, USA and I have had difficulties and limited options but never been forced to eat meat.
Don’t Assume
The most dangerous thing you could do to yourself in a foreign country is make assumptions about safety of a place, about social fabric of a community, about business hours of a grocery store, about public transport system and worst about hoping to find a toilet. Always be prepared. Backpacking guides, lonely planet books, peace corps blogs and internet give you information on almost everything you need to know about a place. While you may not get to see the google street view, for most of the places in African countries, or even see them listen on maps, you can still find a blog by a traveler. I highly recommend having offline access to this information in the form of print outs and also have a list of phone numbers copied to a small notebook – your phone can give up on you many times.
Carry a Book/Kindle
Traveling alone in new countries for work, meeting new people and exploring amazing new business opportunities is the romanticizing a global entrepreneur’s dream. However, it gets lonely on the road sometimes. With less reliance on internet and phone network, the best thing that comes to rescue is a good book. I have a habit of reading 2 books at a time. One contemporary business book and another classic. In Mozambique when the light faded away, the silence crept in (making mosquito buzzing prominent) and I had extremely limited internet package, I found a friend in Crime and Punishment (recommended).
Swizz Knife/Flash light is more helpful than a smart phone when on the road
From opening soda bottle caps to peeling off fruit skin that you just plucked from the tree to nail cutter to a small screw driver. I won’t lie that I also feel a sense of delusional safety carrying a Swiss knife.
Selfies are necessary but not mandatory
Often on this trips, I do not have a camera following me. And there are so many setups and stories that I wish to etch in my memories. Selfies come to rescue. The best part is when taking the selfie itself becomes a story. Like this one where I took out my phone to take a selfie, but then I got embarrassed because too many people were staring at me doing that. Two kids on the right side in the picture, said selfie. As I was trying to take selfie with them, others from the back shouted something in Portuguese. First I thought they didn't like me taking pictures. Then someone else translated it for me, saying they are angry that they are not included in the picture, so I took a GRANDE SELFIE trying to fit 50 heads in it. While the guy next to me was playing game on his phone.
Few rules for selfie
1. Don’t over pose for them
2. Be courteous to others privacy
3. Ask for permission
4. Don’t try stunts for selfies or take selfies when doing stunts, it is dangerous
Don’t just look for faces that look like yours
Traveling allows to meet new people. So meet them. In last 4 years, I have met so many people that are not on my facebook friend list, I don’t even remember their names or have no pictures taken with them. But I spent days with them at an event/conference or met them at a backpacking hostel. What I have from them is there stories. I met a school teacher from Texas in Mozambique, who is “exploring and discovering” along the east coast of Africa. He showed me his scuba diving pictures. I met a couple from a small island from Ireland and they told me when I visit Ireland I should visit their island. When I asked how do I find you guys there. They gave me their email ids but more importantly, they told me to just show up and ask anyone on that island using their family name. I am INTRIGUED. I met a high school student on my way back from Kenya to USA, he shared with me that he has never traveled outside Kentucky and now he just took his life’s first trip to volunteer on a farm in Africa. And he has decided he wants to be a vet and work with farm animals for the rest of his life. So many stories. The most amazing one was at this year’s World Economic Forum - Annual Curators Meeting in Geneva where we had people from almost 170 countries gathered for 3 days discussing global issues and prototyping solutions. Though I don’t get to speak every single one of them. I was part of a small group called “Tribe” which had people from Palestine, El Salvador, Luxemburg, Zimbabwe and of course me representing India and USA.
Thank you for reading. If you like this article, check out my Huffington Post page here. I look forward to reading your top favorite points and stories from your travels.