Make Travel Fun-Laugh At Yourself - By: Stuart Hely

To really make travel fun and make it easy to meet new people, you need to be ready to laugh at yourself. We think that a willingness to make yourself look a little silly is a quality that helps get people on your side.

Nothing is quite so "off-putting" as a stuffy traveler. In our family we call people like this "WLAs"... translated to "World's Leading Authorities". They are travelers who think that the way they do things in their own country is the best way. They don't have to be just the rich and famous... any traveler who holds himself apart from the culture he's visiting will miss a large part of what's fun about travel.

We love telling stories on ourselves about silly mistakes we've made... or situations what were awkward at first but turned out to be funny. We're trying to show you that you can make travel fun, no matter what happens, as long as you relax and go with the flow. Be willing to be an extrovert when you travel.

If you don't know the language, it's a little bit of a stretch to try and use those basic phrases you tried to learn.... You will make mistakes with pronunciation and grammar. Laugh at yourself and let the people you are visiting know how grateful you are that they can speak YOUR language.

Everywhere we go, people apologize for not speaking better English, but since we struggle in almost any other language, we will use a local phrase, then laugh at ourselves and tell them that their English is wonderful compared to our.... Japanese, Malagasy, Arabic, Swahili... you name the language.

Go ahead and use sign language. Sure you might look silly, but you'll get a lot of help. Should I even go into the sign language we had to use looking for a laxative in Taiwan? Probably not... I always say that story has to be preceded by three glasses of wine before I tell it.

If you don't know how to eat a local dish... ask. In Jordan we weren't sure how to eat Mansaf, the national dish. It's a communal dish, eaten with your hands.... and the children of the family we shared it with loved laughing at us as they taught us how to eat it.

Can't use chopsticks? Give it a try anyway... if you don't soon get the hang of it, they'll take pity on you and give you a fork, but you will endear yourself for having at least tried.

Be willing to make a little bit of a fool of yourself. We were just outside of Ranomafana National Park in Madagascar when my hubby and our travel buddy decided they wanted to ride on the wooden push carts the rural people use to transport goods.

We negotiated a small fee (which was probably at least a days pay)... and they took a 30 second ride down a small hill. All the village got involved. They thought we were very funny, but they appreciated that we noticed them and wanted to learn about their "equipment". And, someone who would not have earned any money from the National Park suddenly had made money from the tourists....

It's important that local villagers see national parks as good for them. Silly little memories like that make travel fun.

What we're trying to tell you is to relax and enjoy the travel experience.... Make travel fun. Learn to extend yourself, and most of all learn to laugh at yourself... you'll have a jolly good time if you do.

About the Author

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