<story><title>Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?</title><text>In light of the pandemic and countries slowly opening up again, I thought I&amp;#x27;d ask this question that appeared back in 2015 [0].&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=9439286&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=9439286&lt;/a&gt;</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>DanielleMolloy</author><text>They are probably used to closed-minded arrogant Westeners whining aloud about not getting their cornflakes. Unfortunately.&lt;p&gt;I also don&amp;#x27;t get people who won&amp;#x27;t at least &lt;i&gt;try&lt;/i&gt; local customs like eating cooked fish on rice with green tea in the morning, but there are plenty of them. These people usually don&amp;#x27;t do well in really different countries and complain and whine and compare to home all the time instead of curious observing &amp;#x2F; understanding. Real travelling, which is about learning and immersing and broadening your mental horizon, and not about conquering some beach with your ass is just not for them.</text></item><item><author>gwd</author><text>&amp;gt; A bit obvious, maybe, but I&amp;#x27;ve met many people who insisted on only eating Western food[...] At that point, why even bother traveling?&lt;p&gt;Whenever I have a guide (either professional or a local friend), this is often strangely a lot of work.  Particularly the tour companies I&amp;#x27;ve gone with in China insist on trying to get me a Western breakfast.  If I wanted pancakes and sausage I would have just stayed at home and cooked my own!  Give me the stuff you like.  I may not end up liking it, but there&amp;#x27;s a pretty decent chance I will.</text></item><item><author>keiferski</author><text>Absolutely worth it, however I&amp;#x27;d offer a few short tips:&lt;p&gt;1. Try to stay in one place for a few months, minimum. If you can stay a year or two, do that. Jumping from city to city every week seems exciting at first, but it quickly makes everywhere feel the same.&lt;p&gt;2. To quote Lao Tzu, &lt;i&gt;when your work is done, forget it.&lt;/i&gt; If you work remotely, actively disconnect at the end of the day. It&amp;#x27;s too easy to be constantly plugged into the English-speaking media world and ignore what&amp;#x27;s right in front of you.&lt;p&gt;3. Try to blend in and adopt local clothing, culture, foods, etc. Read books by local authors, watch local films. A bit obvious, maybe, but I&amp;#x27;ve met many people who insisted on only eating Western food, reading Harry Potter, and watching Netflix while abroad. At that point, why even bother traveling?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gwd</author><text>&amp;gt; They are probably used to closed-minded arrogant Westeners whining aloud about not getting their cornflakes. Unfortunately.&lt;p&gt;Others have pointed out that lots of cultures have this problem: I read a Chinese newspaper article a few years ago about mainland Chinese bring suitcases full of instant noodles to eat when traveling abroad.&lt;p&gt;But while there are certainly Westerners like that, I don&amp;#x27;t think they were the cause of my problem.  First of all, lunch and dinner on these tours was typically &amp;quot;Chinese&amp;quot; food, but something which was clearly targeted at a Western palate (which was perhaps even more frustrating).  I think ironically, it was probably people who &lt;i&gt;did&lt;/i&gt; want to try &amp;quot;authentic&amp;quot; cuisine -- or thought they did -- who were causing some of my problems.  My guess is that they had people say they wanted &amp;quot;authentic cuisine&amp;quot;, but when given actually authentic cuisine, didn&amp;#x27;t like it -- it didn&amp;#x27;t taste like the &amp;quot;authentic&amp;quot; cuisine in the Chinese restaurants at home.&lt;p&gt;Secondly, it probably does help people to deal with the new thing if they have &lt;i&gt;something&lt;/i&gt; familiar.  If you want to try something new but have never been outside the US, &amp;quot;three genuine Chinese meals a day for two weeks&amp;quot; is really throwing you in in the deep end.  &amp;quot;Western breakfast and pseudo-Chinese lunch and dinner&amp;quot; probably is a much better way for those kinds of people to experience something new.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs to travel the world, how did it go?</title><text>In light of the pandemic and countries slowly opening up again, I thought I&amp;#x27;d ask this question that appeared back in 2015 [0].&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=9439286&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=9439286&lt;/a&gt;</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>DanielleMolloy</author><text>They are probably used to closed-minded arrogant Westeners whining aloud about not getting their cornflakes. Unfortunately.&lt;p&gt;I also don&amp;#x27;t get people who won&amp;#x27;t at least &lt;i&gt;try&lt;/i&gt; local customs like eating cooked fish on rice with green tea in the morning, but there are plenty of them. These people usually don&amp;#x27;t do well in really different countries and complain and whine and compare to home all the time instead of curious observing &amp;#x2F; understanding. Real travelling, which is about learning and immersing and broadening your mental horizon, and not about conquering some beach with your ass is just not for them.</text></item><item><author>gwd</author><text>&amp;gt; A bit obvious, maybe, but I&amp;#x27;ve met many people who insisted on only eating Western food[...] At that point, why even bother traveling?&lt;p&gt;Whenever I have a guide (either professional or a local friend), this is often strangely a lot of work.  Particularly the tour companies I&amp;#x27;ve gone with in China insist on trying to get me a Western breakfast.  If I wanted pancakes and sausage I would have just stayed at home and cooked my own!  Give me the stuff you like.  I may not end up liking it, but there&amp;#x27;s a pretty decent chance I will.</text></item><item><author>keiferski</author><text>Absolutely worth it, however I&amp;#x27;d offer a few short tips:&lt;p&gt;1. Try to stay in one place for a few months, minimum. If you can stay a year or two, do that. Jumping from city to city every week seems exciting at first, but it quickly makes everywhere feel the same.&lt;p&gt;2. To quote Lao Tzu, &lt;i&gt;when your work is done, forget it.&lt;/i&gt; If you work remotely, actively disconnect at the end of the day. It&amp;#x27;s too easy to be constantly plugged into the English-speaking media world and ignore what&amp;#x27;s right in front of you.&lt;p&gt;3. Try to blend in and adopt local clothing, culture, foods, etc. Read books by local authors, watch local films. A bit obvious, maybe, but I&amp;#x27;ve met many people who insisted on only eating Western food, reading Harry Potter, and watching Netflix while abroad. At that point, why even bother traveling?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>RegnisGnaw</author><text>It’s not just Americans. My parents used to travel with a mini rice cooker, small bag of rice, and canned Chinese food when they travel. They have lived in Canada since 1990.&lt;p&gt;They stopped doing that after the Boston Marathon bombing cause of the airport security.&lt;p&gt;One of the highlights of their trip to France in 2002 was in Nice. Their hotel was near a Chinese Grocery and was able to get BBQ Pork and Soy Chicken.&lt;p&gt;Five years ago they went for a two week tour of Australia from China (after visiting relatives in China). Every meal on that tour was in a Chinese restaurant.</text></comment>