However, having the chance to work in the Travel Industry, you got the change to listen to "Feedbacks" & "How It Feels Like To Travel Around", I heard it all from REAL travelers, by "REAL" means really make their vacation a "vacation"!! They leave home for like 14++ days, and have multiple destinations, not only from Kuala Lumpur-Cameron-Penang-Langkawi, I meet some that fly from Hong Kong-Macau-Kuala Lumpur-Penang-Manilla- Bangkok-Home. Their passport is surely full of chops. You would think: "OMG! ! So nice!! I want it too!!!". Yes, everybody wants it, but before you start your challenge to fill your passport with chops, here are
Some Facts Of Traveling:
1) Be Prepared For Culture ShockAn Australian guy once told me: "We Australian, like to go slow, relax, and enjoy the ride~" And he told me his story when he is in Hong Kong. "Everything there is so busy, and fast" "The taxi driver drives fast, wants you to get down fast, unload luggage fast, drove of fast. You have to be FASTER to not get yell at." In case you dun realize, "RELAX" & "RUSH" dun cope so well with each other. He then add one more fact: "That is why we travel around, we wanna experience something different!!" So when you plan to go somewhere, be prepare for something different from where you are from, it would be fun and also shocking enough to electrified you.
2) Communication Problems
One thing for sure, dun expect everybody to speak your language. As a lot of people feel that English is very useful seen it could be used in a lot of country but when you are traveling, once you step out of the hotel, not everybody can speak English. This I experience personally as well, that is when talking to Arab guest, it all depends on body language, there is also once that open an online dictionary ask him to type what he wanted to tell me in Arabic and let the dictionary translated it into English. It is an extreme problem when people can't understand you!! Especially when you are traveling since you need information form locals. So if you are planning to go place that speak languages you dun understand, better prepare all the information you needed before you step your foot in their territory, or at least learn how to said :"Anybody here speak English?"
3) Money
You see, even if you are in a vacation and plan to put your worries aways while you are in your vacation. It is still hard when money is in concerned. What most travelers fear while they are in vacation, is that they spend the wrong amount of money on something. They go around, ask for prices, compare prices, then only decide go for it or not. To put it in a nice way, it is of course good to compare and make sure you are not exploited. But if you have so much concerns while on vacations, I won't say you vacation would be a REAL "vacation". So be prepared to spend, if you wanna go for a vacation.
4) Plan Before You Go!
This would be the most important thing to do before you go for traveling. Make sure it is all planned out and arranged before you start it. A lot, a lot of those "REAL" travelers that I mentioned, they DO NOT like to plan their travel, to them it is flexibility, meaning they can stay if they like the place, leave if they dun like the place, go back home anytime they want. But this could also bring problems, "Hotel fully booked" & "Flight fully booked" are the common problems that they would face, not to mention the how annoying it would be if you can't get a hotel to stay and things doesn't goes as you wish it would be. Furthermore, last minute rushing for bookings could be really tiresome, trust me, even me as a agent rush hotel bookings for guests are tiring enough. It really sounds good to come and go anytime you want, but it is still good to stick to grandma's law: "Prepare your umbrella before it rains "
Travelling could be really fun, but you should also prepare a few things to make sure your holiday would be a good memory. Happy Traveling!! =3
Mr E signing out, it also hurts when you see people traveling around and enjoy their vacation while you are working because of their holiday. FML.