Travel Tidbits

Travelling can be good, bad and ugly, so just being a little mindful of where you’re travelling to and what their cultural characteristics are would go a long way to avoiding potentially embarrassing.

I trawled a few travel blogs to find out what some dos and don’ts are when it comes to travelling abroad and here’s what I found out…

- Don’t ask a chef for salt and pepper in Portugal; it’s considered rude and an insult to his cooking. count

- In most Asian countries, if you accidently touch the lower part of your body (don’t know how you would do that), you touch the person’s arm and then your head with your hand by way of an apology. 

-  In Japan, you should never fill up your own glass with alcoholic beverages; wait for the person sitting next to you to do this for you. And never leave your chopstick in the rice where it’s upright – that’s the way it’s offered to the dead. 

- In India and the Middle East, be careful of what you use your left hand for; the left hand is considered unclean and handing over gifts or eating with your left hand will be considered offensive. 

- In Russia, you should never give an even number of flowers to someone; this is a funeral custom, so you should always count your flowers before giving them to people. 

- In Thailand it’s okay to pick your nose while talking to people; it’s considered good hygiene. 

There are a number of websites that talk about foreign etiquette and gestures so you should always do some research before travelling abroad so not to offend! 

You can email Terence Pillay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @terencepillay1