给旅行的43条建议
- 心态比目的地更重要。
- 旅伴比目的地更重要。
- 许多情侣交往几个月后会去旅行，但往往以激烈争吵收场。我觉得这是旅行的“应有功能”——本质上是测试感情的压力承受力。
- 只有大家都轻装上阵，轻装旅行才有意义。
- 别纠结“我是旅行者，不是游客”这种事，没必要。
- 各地文化在很多细节上不同，比如音量大小、排队方式、站多近合适、进商店的礼仪、气味接受度、擤鼻涕的时机等等。要学会适应，既别冒犯别人，也别因为“文化冲突”生气。
- 各地有不同的“餐桌规则”，比如点饮料的时机、咖啡的喝法、吃面条能不能发出声音等。这些规则其实没什么道理，但既然身处其中，还是遵守一下吧。
- 语言不通时，语气、手势、肢体语言和穿着会更影响别人对你的印象。
- 穿得比平时稍微正式一点会更受欢迎。
- “旅行专用衣服”看起来很方便（比如能变成短裤的速干裤），但真的穿起来舒服吗？我建议你慎重考虑。
- 旅途中用洗手池洗衣服很正常，只是大家不太说而已。
- 衣服用体温烘干更快。
- 偏僻小店一般会努力让顾客满意，但热门景点旁的餐馆更可能只是想“拉客”，因为游客大概率不会再来。别怪他们，市场环境决定了他们的生存策略。
- 主动拉客的餐馆，多半是只想让你进门消费，质量未必靠谱。
- 看起来不起眼但人很多的地方，一定有它的优势，比如味道、氛围、价格或地理位置。
- 当地人喜欢的店可能食物一般，但总有几样特别好吃的，他们知道点什么最划算。
- 菜品质量的差异比人的口味差异更大。
- 看餐馆评价时：①按最新排序，②多看照片，③留意评论者的背景，④如果某条评价特别吸引你，可以看看那人的其他评论来“校准”一下。
- 有些地方（比如纽约）在线评分很准，有些地方（比如巴黎）就完全随机，不明白为什么。
- 旅行不全是享受。除了飞机和机场，人在异地也常会有“格格不入”的感觉，别指望一直开心。
- 快乐这种东西，来得快去得也快。
- 花大价钱住豪华酒店的确能减少旅行中的烦恼，但你也会发现自己始终待在全球化商业的泡泡里，没真正融入当地。
- 澳大利亚人看似无处不在，明明全球人口才 0.3%，但旅游地好像有 10% 是他们。习惯就好。
- 别被“强行服务”绑架。酒店门童未经同意就拿你行李，你完全可以不给小费，他们心里有数。
- 想避开人潮，去安静的海滩或徒步的话，早点起床。
- 旅游指南上的自然景点人山人海，但附近往往有类似的地方，却没什么人知道。
- 大风天，海滩上的伞很危险。很多人不会正确固定伞，最好不要站在它们的下风口。
- 人喝水就得上厕所，如果接下来长时间没地方上厕所，那就别喝太多。
- 带点小药包，装些止痛药、抗过敏药、感冒药、活性炭片、创可贴等，关键时刻能救自己或别人。
- 人年纪越大，时间过得越快。旅行会打破这种感觉，因为新鲜感能让时间变慢。
- 旅行最大的意义之一是让你重新思考日常生活：为什么这样过？工作是自己想要的吗？是不是该写点东西？这些思考是好事，但好像跟旅行本身关系不大？如果真想激发这种思考，有没有更直接的方式？
- 彻底的野外徒步会让你更加珍惜现代生活的便利，但这种感激的感觉很快会消失，长期来看，可能得不偿失。
- 除非别人主动问，不然别老讲你的旅行经历。
- 不过，如果你去过别人家乡，他们可能会感兴趣。另外，聊共同去过的地方是个不错的话题。（第一名的可靠聊天话题：宠物。）
- 有些国家喜欢给外国电影配音，有些则喜欢字幕。大国更倾向配音（摊薄成本？），但也有很多例外。英语国家普遍厌恶配音，可能是因为好电影被配音毁掉的几率更大？
- 公交车的风景通常比地铁有趣。
- 时差不是“克服”的，而是每天最多调整 1-2 小时。如果可能的话，我更愿意先按原来的时间作息几天，比如早上 4:30 出门走走。
- 如果旅行后马上有重要事（面试、婚礼），可以提前调整作息。不然第一天状态可能还行，第二天就开始崩。
- 长途飞行最好别喝酒，会让本就糟糕的睡眠雪上加霜。
- 大多数人喜欢靠过道的座位，但他们迟早会意识到自己错了。别迟疑，现在就选靠窗的座位。
- 真正擅长旅行的人，往往是能沉浸在感官体验里的人，能放下内心的对话，让景象、声音、气味自然流过自己。我本性不擅长这个，但如果刻意去做，体验会很不一样。
- 不要把“稀有”误认为“珍贵”。一次真正悠闲美好的公园午后，可能就是人生顶配的享受了。
- 旅行揭示了稳定、归属感、规律生活、社区、人际关系和在家做饭的价值。
原文 （I found the following in one's blog, but I couldn't find the link now, will update it with his link shortly)
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Mindset matters more than where you go.
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Who you go with matters more than where you go.
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After seeing each other for a few months, many new couples take a short trip, which often ends in an apocalyptic, relationship-destroying fight. My theory is that’s the trip working as designed—couples do these trips out of an instinctual desire to stress-test their relationships.
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There’s not much point in packing light unless everyone is packing light.
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Some people have a weird anxiety about tourism— “I’m a traveller, not a tourist” or whatever. Don’t be like that.
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Cultures vary in lots of arbitrary ways—how loud to talk, how (or if) to wait in line, how close to stand to other people, how to behave when you walk into a shop, how to smell, when you can blow your nose, etc. It’s good to be aware of these both as a producer of behavior (not offending others) and a consumer of behavior (not being offended when you’re not “supposed” to be).
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Different places have different “rules” like if you’re supposed to order drinks before or after food, when you can drink which kinds of coffee, or if you’re allowed (or encouraged) to slurp when eating noodles. After seeing all these variations, it’s hard not to see them as silly, but life is short and I suggest you mostly just conform.
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When there’s a language barrier, non-verbal information (tone, gestures, body language, clothes) plays an increased role in others’ judgements of you.
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Consider dressing slightly better than you normally do.
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Some places sell “travel” clothes, e.g. “travel” pants made of quick-drying nylon with zippers so the pants can convert to shorts. While I maintain you should fly your flag high, I also really, really, really think you might be more comfortable if you weren’t wearing these.
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You can wash clothes in the sink. I think basically everyone does this but doesn’t talk about it?
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Clothes dry much faster with body heat.
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A restaurant in some out-of-the-way neighborhood will likely pursue a make customers happy strategy. But a cafe across the street from the Colosseum will probably use a get people in the door strategy—no matter how good the food is, most people will never come back, so resources invested in making them happy after they’ve committed to pay are “wasted”. Don’t blame them, blame the remorseless market forces they’re trying to survive under.
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A place that has staff trying to flag down people walking past is almost certainly pursuing a get people in the door strategy.
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A place that looks unappealing but has lots of customers is probably good along some dimension (food, atmosphere, price, location).
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Locals might love a place even though much of the food is mediocre because some is really good and they know what to order.
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Dishes vary in quality more than people vary in their preferences!
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There’s also the get good ratings onlinestrategy. When looking at reviews, consider (1) sorting by new, (2) looking at the pictures (I told you this would be obvious), (3) possibly—umm—possibly taking the ethnicity of reviewers into account, and (4) if one reviewer is really swaying you, checking out their history to calibrate for how effusive they tend to be.
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In some cities (New York), online ratings are unnervingly accurate while in other cities (Paris) they seem completely random. I don’t understand this. (I find inaccurate ratings frustrating and accurate ratings dehumanizing.)
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Travel isn’t always fun. Obviously, planes and airports aren’t fun. But just being in a foreign place is often kinda alienating. So don’t expect constant fun.
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Fun gets old surprisingly quickly.
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If you spend a ton of money and stay in very expensive hotels and whatever, you can eliminate almost all of the frustration and uncertainty of travel. But it also feels like you never leave the global capitalist monoculture.
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Despite being only 0.3% of the world’s population, Australians seem to make up 10% of overseas visitors everywhere on the planet. Do not be disturbed by this well-known optical illusion.
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Don’t be bullied. If you arrive at a hotel and an employee grabs your bag out of the taxi and carries it to the front desk without asking you, you should feel zero obligation to tip. They know exactly what they’re doing.
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If you like isolated beaches or hikes, get up early.
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In touristy places there are often nature things (hikes, beaches, views) that make it into guidebooks and become insanely crowded while there are almost equivalent things nearby that are nearly empty.
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When it’s windy, beach umbrellas are dangerous. Most people don’t know this and have no idea how to secure an umbrella. Avoid being downwind if you can.
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The human, after drinking liquids, must pee. So if you’re about to go somewhere where peeing is impossible, maybe don’t drink a lot of liquids.
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Get some tiny bags (I like paper foil resealable bags), and put a few painkillers, antihistamines, decongestants, activated charcoal, etc. in one. Put some bandages in another. Keep them with you and be a hero.
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Time seems to speed up as you get older. And you wonder—is it biological, or is it because life had more novelty when you were a child? Travel partly answers this question—with more novelty, time slows way down again.
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My favorite part of of travel is the perspective it gives on “regular” life. Why do I live the way I do? Is the stuff I do for work what I want to be doing? Should I blog about a “topic” instead of whatever shiny object last caught my eye? These thoughts seem healthy but also… not particularly related to traveling? If you designed an experience to create this kind of perspective, what would that look like?
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Brutal week-long backpacking/camping trips are amazing for helping you appreciate modern wonders like roofs and beds and stoves and showers and toilets, but this appreciation seems impossible without deprivation, and at least for me the half-life of improved appreciation is short enough that I’m pretty sure I end up behind on net.
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If in doubt, assume people would rather hear less about your trips.
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Though, people may like to hear about your visit to their hometown. And places you’ve both visited are top five on the list of reliable conversation topics. (Number one on said list: pets.)
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The world needs a theory for why some countries watch foreign-language movies with dubbing vs. subtitles. The overall trend seems to be that larger countries more often favor dubbing—perhaps because they can amortize the cost over a larger audience? But there are many exceptions and in the Anglosphere, dubbing is regarded as a horror that destroys all cultural authenticity. Why? Maybe because Portrait de la jeune fille en feu has more authenticity to destroy than Transformers: Rise of the Beasts?
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Buses have much more interesting views than subways.
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You can’t beat jet lag—you can only really adjust an hour or two per day. I prioritize being functional so when possible I just live on weird hours for a few days after changing time zones. It’s interesting to get up and take a walk at 4:30 AM.
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If you have to do something really important right after traveling (like a job interview or getting married) you can “pre-adjust” your schedule before leaving. If that’s not an option, you might actually be in better shape on the first day than the second due to having more “residual health”.
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You’re really, really better off not drinking alcohol on long flights. It screws with your sleep when your sleep least needs to be screwed with.
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Most people incorrectly prefer aisle seats to window seats. They’re sure to discover their error sooner or later, but in the meantime, use it to your advantage.
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Many of the people who seem “best” at travel seem to be really good at having sensory experiences—at shutting down the internal dialog and letting the sights and sounds and smells wash over them. I am by nature horrendous at having sensory experiences, but if I make a conscious choice, then it’s pretty easy and often quite profound.
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Don’t confuse scarcity with value. A really good afternoon in the park (a really good one) is maybe about as good as it gets.
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Travel reveals the value of stability, roots, routine, community, relationships, and cooking at home.