Travel Fearlessly | Conquering Intimidation Abroad

Travel Fearlessly | Conquering Intimidation Abroad

Welcome to no borders with Brian and Carrie in this week’s episode what we want to discuss with you is the intimidations that you might experience while traveling especially as a firsttime traveler outside of your country um there are a lot of different things that people have concerns of of

How they’re going to tackle them yeah well it’s scary out there the unknown is what’s scary that’s the scary part it’s the unknown that will get you every time and we’re going to discuss those unknowns what we experienced um as we got out there for the first time not

Just on um our full-time travel uh experiences that we’re we’re going through in the last 2 and a half years but when we went on vacation prior to this uh what we experienced and what we do now um to avoid those things yeah the

Good news is is that uh two and a half years in we have plenty of moments now where we so we just had one the other day where we kind of Pat ourselves on the back because it’s like wow imagine uh two and a half years ago we wouldn’t

Have even gone into that situation or we would have and we W would have walked out of that uh same Market uh empty-handed because we wouldn’t have known what to do we just didn’t know any better and and you know for those of you that have traveled extensively overseas

You might think well yeah just go for it just do it but for those of us that hadn’t or haven’t um it’s a real thing it is easy to get intimidated it is it’s easy to be unsure of yourself and we’re here to help you think about those

Situations and work through them yeah so the first area that you are going to tackle right out the gate and probably be a little bit concerned about is the language barrier now I know when we were first getting ready to go we were um actually using Babel we were using uh

That language app which was actually a lot of fun to learn on we did it for about three or four months we felt like we had actually learn quite a bit of language and it was one that we would actually really highly recommend if you are looking to learn a language it was

Super interactive fun to do and took a few minutes per day right um we’ll have that link down below if you are interested in it but anyways so we finally we get to our first stop which is Valencia Spain now we had been learning our Spanish quickly out the

Gate we realized they don’t speak the same Spanish that we had been learning which was not really necessarily our mistake they just speak their own dialect they speak their own dialect you know part of the problem might have also have been um I wasn’t pronouncing things

Maybe as fluently as maybe I needed to um but we quickly got intimidated at the markets uh trying to figure out what to buy how much things cost now Spain is on the Euro so that’s pretty close to the US dollar so that was simple there have been other situations where it hasn’t

Been that simple but our first time out it was all about the language barrier it was the language barrier and that started pretty much right out the gate because we got off of the airplane we take a train um into to Madrid and at this point we had been up for a good

Over 24 hours and I want coffee so I walked to a little stand while we’re waiting for our next train to come and I asked for coffee my mistake I didn’t say Cafe um and they looked at me a little dumbfounded really like what I don’t understand you

Now in my defense if I was in the states and some came up and said I want could I have a cafe I would know what they’re saying to me so I pretty much can guarantee you they knew what I was saying but when we go down to the whole thing of

Intimidation that really took my intimidation Factor up because it’s like oh my God you know I mean this right out the gate I’m like I’m not I can’t even go get a coffee right um she bullied you you bulled I was bullied get my I did

Get my coffee but um yeah it kind of gave us right out the gate kind of this feeling of oh crap what are we in for what would you do now now it wouldn’t even phase me I’d be like Cafe you know or whatever but it wouldn’t even phase

Me so those are those little moments that when I look back now we almost chuckle because the way we would handle it now and our the way it would make us feel is nothing we would just it doesn’t even we just don’t even B an eye at it

Where before it was like oh God I have to go order something yeah yeah we we’ve learned that um even though there’s a language barrier there’s also hand gestures a smile Point um you know how much everybody understands how much and we have found that um people are very

Willing to help sure you’re going to run to a few uh rude people that maybe just tired of tourists in general it’s nothing personal towards you they’re just overwhelmed at the moment that could very well be like the uh the the baker lady when we were trying to get

Our bag that was our other experience yeah she was the The Soup Nazi if you’ve ever watched Seinfeld which I’m sure you have she was the bread Nazi and I’ll tell you what uh we didn’t want to go into that Bakery but it was so convenient it was right by Airbnb well I

Would send Carrie in I go you go in we would trade off whose day it was to have to go in because if you haven’t been to Spain one of the things now at the time you’re like I just wish I could just grab bread at the grocery store cuz it’

Be so much easier but they have a bakery pretty much on every block because you buy your bread fresh every day and that was wonderful but we dreaded going to get our bread every day and so now once again we would just walk in and very

Comfortably be able to say beg at and point at what we wanted and be in a way I guess a little forceful not be so I don’t know so shy about it um and not in a mean way I’m not saying that but you know we were so

In we were so timid would be the word we were intimidated yeah we were timid of the whole situation and not understanding what to say and come on in Spain they have like 20 different baguettes up on the wall where we are from we have one baguette it’s called a

Baguette yeah you might have a Sourdough baguette and a plain baguette those are your two choices yeah but you go to Spain you’re going to have a lot of choices and and let me tell you they want you and you’re not going to be able to pronounce the names of them I don’t

Care what language app you use you’re not going to know the name of them all so yeah so that would be uh probably the biggest intimidation right out the gate for us was dealing with the markets and dealing with the language barrier you know and and you know there are also

Cultural differences that we had to get used to right away uh the biggest one uh for us I think was simply um going out to lunch and finding that most restaurants had been closed or were closing in the middle of the day they ate dinner in Spain about 9:00 at night

And that’s something that we never got used to we never got used to it in the 3 months we even tried we’re like we’ve got to embrace this and take on this whole eating at 9:00 thing and that just did not happen we were watching out our window people eat dinner with their

Young children which we didn’t quite understand to each their own we’re not judging to everybody’s culture is different but I was like what time did these kids go to school in the morning because it wasn’t a weekend it was just a weekday and it would be like 10 11:00

At night and they were still at the restaurant so that was such a weird change for us because we to this day and by the way we never embraced it we tried but we wanted our dinner at 5:30 6:00 we’re getting older we like our dinner

Early right um so so the the market was intimidating uh the cultural differences were a bit intimidating because we couldn’t eat at 9:00 at night so what do we do we go to the grocery store MH and everything is in Spanish of course um you have to read the labels you’ve got

To figure out uh what you’re going to do now a lot of time you know noodles are you can look at the package you can look at tomato sauce but there are a lot of things that we had to figure out as we went right and you know you can use

Google Translate on your phone which is very helpful um but we started doing a lot of that but that kind of took us out of uh kind of the purpose we’re there right we we want to eat the local food we want to go to the market we want to

Do these things so we have to get over our intimidation M you know and eventually we did but it didn’t happen right away no and walking into the grocery stores CU I know we had some questions from people like certain aspects of these you know you walk into

A grocery store where you were from and they going to have the check stands they are going to have the self check they actually have that as well just like we have told everybody it’s like every place around the world is the same as where you’re from they they they’re just

You know speak a different language so we walk into the grocery store and we decide to go to the self check because then you don’t have to talk to anybody but the problem with that is we didn’t understand how to use a self check because it’s in a different language so

Thank goodness in that moment we did have one lady that worked there that was very kind spoke no English at all but she was able to show us how to put it the screen onto English um and then kind of walked us through cuz anybody who’s done self check there’s always little

Hiccups and problems with it and she walked us through those right you know to our offense you know since then it didn’t have the little British flag in the corner for English yeah we know where that’s at it didn’t have that so for those of you that think oh there’s

British flag up there you just hit that for English you didn’t have that no I don’t like using self check anyway I love my weight’s always off or I get a or they want to see my ID cuz I’m buying beers or something something’s always a hassle so I always go through the

Checkline now this time again I was intimidated so I thought I would just go through the self check super nice lady she walked us right through it she did um now one of the things about grocery stores then this has been every single place we have traveled to in whatever

Language they are speaking they’re going to ask you a question when you first get up to the register and we have learned the question is the same thing every single time would you like a bag right so you can just pretty much guarantee they’re not asking you have you had a

Great day they’re not asking any of that they’re asking do you want a bag we always carry with us a bag so I actually try and avoid that question and I get my bag out before I get to the the stand so that they see it in my hand and then

They just don’t even ask they might also ask a second question which is also know do you have a rewards card right say no smile because they’ll usually pull one of theirs out so you’ll get the discounts yeah we we have managed just fine at the grocery store they’re going

To ask you questions in another language you’re not going to know the answer they’re going to see that you don’t know the answer and you’re going to find your way through it it’s really it’s fine it’s I mean you use the the they might be asking you if you are going to be

Paying cash or a credit card um if you once again we pay with card or if you’re paying with cash just have that money out or the card out so they visually can see it so you’re already answering the question ahead of time so there are kind

Of ways to get around it right okay navigating Transportation trains buses um there’s Uber just about everywhere or grab or whatever it may be um are those things intimidating I would say yes they are um you know I I’m not a fan of taxis period because when I don’t

Speak the language I’m one of those I immediately always feel like I’m being taken advantage of and one area where it’s just commonly done is the taxi drivers so you know that’s one thing that we try to do if we can is we try and use the Uber app uh in places even

When there aren’t Ubers they have the taxis are on the Uber app so at least you know what you’re paying uh you don’t have to sit in negotiate price you don’t have to try and figure out and show them where you’re going you’ve already set that location on your map so by using

That it has eliminated for us some of that feeling of intimidation because we know we already have the price set we already know that they know where we’re going uh we situations where we have pulled up the cost on the Uber app knowing there’s not an Uber in our

Immediate area but there’s a lot of taxi cabs uh we asked the cab driver how much and they tell us a price higher MH than the Uber and we simply show that to him and he says okay I take you for that amount that was really common in um in

Vietnam yes they did that we would just be able to show them what we were going to pay and then they did it for that price they just did it for that price that just takes anything out of the equation that you might get uh I just

Don’t like sitting in that taxi while I watch their little meter going or they don’t have a meter and it’s just like this mystery price when you arrive and then you wonder all those corners and turns that they’re taking if you really needed to take them or not so yeah that

I would say transportation and then also getting on buses you know when you don’t speak the language or you show up so some of the bus garages that we’ve or the bus stations we’ve gone to um a good example would be Toronto probably the most disorganized Bus location that we

Went to most intimidating and most intimidating but I do remember when we arrived to this it’s not even a bus station it is a gravel parking lot with buses just all over the place they’re not even buses they were more minivans you have no clue where to go and you

Feel immediately when we got out of our taxi intimidated and we didn’t even barely get out of our taxi and the guy comes walking over to us which immediately you feel like oh he’s trying to scam us there’s some there’s something going on the guy was just some

Guy he wasn’t in a uniform or outfit or anything like that he was just so we had no idea cuz he’s like where or where are you going you know we’re like oh well you know I mean in the any other situation like that it’s usually a

Driver who’s like oh I’d take you I’ll take and so we told him where we’re going he goes oh okay come here and he processed our ticket for us for the bus um and then he walked us over to our bus it was the most disorganized but organized bus

Area they were doing we didn’t know what we were doing so they got us to the right it was organized chaos it was organized chaos right but it turns out we were intimidated walking in but we had no reason to be intimidated it was actually very easy um the thing that

Intimidates me the most I think even to this day is the train situation um what car are we on um I what one of the first trains we took this was just on a trip this was on a this was no this was when we first started I think was no it was

Portugal it was our first trip in Portugal when we just traveled to Portugal because we were got on the train remember and I’m talking about the silent box the oh this one was when we were traveling yes yes yes we’ll go back to the other story in a minute we we got

On the train and we we got our seats and everything was Grand and I like to talk I’m a good talker that’s one of the best things I do is talk as I’m talking this this kind old lady uh comes up to me rather rudely

And and she she puts her finger up to her mouth and she says sh and I and I was taken back I was a bit intimidated by this old lady and I look over and there’s a kid probably in his 30s looks over at me and smiles and

Quietly says you’re on the silent cart this yes we were on the silent cart we bought tickets for The Quiet car which we didn’t pick them they just put them on put us on that one but it was so funny because so we had to be quiet

During that time and at the time that felt so odd to us right especially to this one here because you do like to talk and when it was done though it was like okay that wasn’t bad and then on future rides where they talk a lot in

Certain countries a lot and very loud and they’re on their phones and they’re really loud there were so many different times that we were on trains wish we were on that silent cart like is there a silent train option that would be or silent cart that would be nice so then

The other experience that we had uh with trains so I think trains are one of those areas that we probably are never going to fully figure out because they are all over the board and it’s not one of those things that you can totally fig figure out because if the trains aren’t

On time or they don’t put up the right information or it’s not even available for you to find how are you supposed to know so this is one of those kind of gray areas where everybody is going to to run into some hiccup I know a story

You’re going to tell just occurred to me yeah so we go and we are just on our trip in Portugal and we get on a train now the train was it was in the right spot it was the right time and but it didn’t say yet the location it was going

To because it doesn’t say the next stop or it doesn’t say your stop it says the Final Destination so you never really for sure know and so we get on to it and at this point it doesn’t even say the Final Destination it is at this what we

Know going the totally other direction right and quite a ways away right and so we’re questioning and questioning we get on the train cuz somebody had told us that’s the right train we get onto the train we’re sitting there and we both are looking each other like what do you

Want to do cuz it still is saying the wrong direction no you said is this the right train and I said I have no idea and so they both jumped up and G what do you want to do and it’s like we we should get off

The train so we get off the train and as the doors close and it takes off the little readerboard changes to our destination yeah that was the right train so it was the right train so miss the train in hindsight I don’t know if we would really do that any differently

I think we probably would still do it the same way probably we got on the wrong train in Italy for a short for a short C cost us maybe a half an hour of our time no big deal um we’ve been on trains before well we were right um a

Family got on they started packing their luggage up they got all sat down and then they realized they were on the wrong train and the train was about ready to leave so they had to get all their luggage and jump off the train I think the number one thing you want to

Do is just ask uh the the employees on the platform the conductors just the conductors or whatever they’re called just ask them they’ll point you in the right direction we were in Romania and we had no idea where we were going how to pronounce where we were going I

Simply showed the ticket to the gentleman on the platform we were on the wrong platform we were on the wrong platform by like three different platforms well these ones aren’t just a crossover you actually have to go down below and then over so we pop up on the

Other side he tells us to keep going and we keep going now he’s like 50 yards away and he’s still yelling in Romanian keep going keep going and and he was smiling the whole time yeah um and we got there we got there I think the whole point of the transportation

Story for us and what we’ve taken away from it at this point is just relax about it honestly um if you if you get to the point where you get so nervous worst case scenario you miss your train worst case scenario you’re delayed by a little bit but you’re going to get on

Another train you’re going to get on to another bus uh not saying that’s the ideal situation but what we have learned is the day will go on it’s going to work out okay so the more stressed out we’ve gotten about transportation and where we’re supposed to be and all that can

Really make it can really ruin a day okay now on to the next topic and this is something that we get asked quite a bit on our YouTube channel um is it safe right have you ever felt unsafe I have not felt UNS safe um the only time

Honestly that we’ve had any situation and that was really just for me because it was a first and it was a big issue was that a war had broke out not far away it’s a war that is still continuing on um and we were in an area where there

Were a lot of protests and it was kind of a really big protests and Americans weren’t really welcome um and so at that moment I felt uncomfortable and uh but in hindsight I think we were completely fine we would have been just completely fine but that was a first for us right

But other than that I think again that was that unknown thing what could happen right yeah well and I think that that’s always the case you want to still Veer on the side of being cautious right right so I I think on safety I mean we

Get we get is it is it safe for solo Travelers is it safe for women is it safe uh just in general and honestly uh we’ve been to 21 20 countries now and there’s never been a situation where I felt like we shouldn’t be here no no and

That is we do get a lot of questions especially from female solo Travelers asking me um have I felt safe would I feel safe traveling in an area by myself there has not been one location that we have traveled to yet that I would not like excluding that situation because

That’s a rarity um I would totally return to any of the countries that we have been to by myself and feel comfortable traveling them safely right um the one suggestion I always make to people is you know the one area where if it’s not in place really well that you

Could feel unsafe is if the infrastructure is not in place so if the buses are hard to to to find they’re not real good um there’s not a train system there’s not Uber that you can grab things like that those kinds of things I feel like that’s when I feel maybe a

Little more isolated right so Albania was that location where it was hard to get around um but other than that I mean Spain was super easy to get around I’ve never felt like you’d be unsafe um nowhere in Southeast Asia did I feel uncomfortable or unsafe no I I think

That um again when you when you’ve never traveled you’ve never been out of the United States or you’ve only been to Mexico or Canada or wherever it’s the unknown yeah and and uh I’m here to tell you that I I guess going someplace um like I don’t know someplace in Africa

Might be something that would intimidate me even to this day but even then I have learned that you know people are the same just about anywhere you go yeah one of the things that we have very much learned is that people are not the politics and so even though you have

Maybe you’re reading a lot of things in the news about a certain location that is the government that isn’t necessarily the people and so we’ve walked into places kind of with that idea thinking we might not be welcomed um because their government may not really be fond

Of Americans uh we’ve come to the we’ve had moments where we’re like we’re just going to say we’re Canadian CU everybody loves everybody loves Canadians yes um but we have honestly just found that the people have been so incredibly welcoming there has never been a situation where

We didn’t feel welcomed by the people um you know some areas are more friendly than others but that’s part of a cultural thing not so much guarant or dist directed towards us so I think that you know there’s certain things you can do to feel more comfortable with before

You’re going into a place you can do a lot of research you can see if there’s any specific warnings in place you know of don’t travel to a specific area of that country right or even a specific uh area of a city uh research where the

Best neighborhood is to stay say in in Bangkok we stayed in the Ari District very comfortable it’s a beautiful little area we loved it and there’s a place like that in every city around the world just use your common sense is is my best advice yeah and then another thing that

You can do that we do is that when you’re going into a new country especially if it’s a country that you feel and it’s not even if it’s a country that you feel at risk it’s just a smart thing to do is there’s through the US government there’s a a program called

The step program I believe is what it’s called and you just register on there from the time you’re going to be entering the country and the time that you’re exiting the country and then they know your contact information they have an emergency contact in the event so you

Know take War out of the situation or anything of that down those lines but say there was an earthquake or something like that and you have family that are trying to figure out where you’re at or whatever at least somebody knows like your actual whereabouts yeah so I would I would

Recommend doing that the other nice thing about that program was is that we did have that when we were say in Turkey When The War had broken out in uh Israel and we were getting notifications on our phone immediately when there was any concerns right and so it kind of can set

Your mind at ease because you’re not always questioning like what’s going on what’s going on they’re going to let you know of anything major yeah yeah and you know that that brings us up to the next point of um U Healthcare you know in any given country um kind of along the same

Lines is know your health care know where the emergency rooms at um know that emergency uh phone number right now we don’t always do that we we used to we’ve kind of got away from the emergency phone number we don’t necessarily do which is our bad um we I

Do always look up a local clinic and hospital to know the whereabouts of that um so in the situation that we do need to be able to do that um I think with the local like actual emergency number I just feel like you know with without speaking the language and calling those

Yeah so I think it’s sometimes almost just more important to know where your consulate is located have that that information be registered with your government so in the case of an emergency situation right and and you know this this is all about intimidation and how you feel when you travel if you

Have these things in place it’s just less intimidating I always feel like if I have at least a like because I’m I’m feeling like if I have a medical facility looked up or a dental facility looked up and that way something bad happens say I fall I break something I

Can say to Brian get my phone I have it stored in there this is where you need to take me and so I’ve got that information you’re not trying to do it in the the heat of a moment where you’re hurting and you’re trying to find

Someplace to go so I do like having those places kind of nailed in yeah so make sure you do that make sure you know uh the currency beforehand yeah that’s another important one now when you when you go somewhere it’s easy to figure out

You go to Turkey we know how much uh the Turkish what is it the Turkish L is to the US dollar we obviously know how much a euro is to the US dollar you know make sure you know those things beforehand um and even even then it might be a little

Bit complicated but I’ll tell you we were at the uh Farmers Market here in fedia where in Turkey where we’re at now and uh we’re not going to be intimidated we’re done with that we’re going to buy some eggs we’re going to get some uh uh

All kind of all kinds of good stuff fruit vegetables I feel I feel healthy today and we we we know about how much it’s worth so so one little tip that I would give people because I know that’s a confusing part for people so first off you can always use a currency

Converter app but the other thing that I always do before we get to location I just say to Brian okay so for instance in uh Turkey right now the US so 10 L is equal to 31 cents us and so when we walk into say a grocery store it’s very easy

To look at price of something so 10 is 31 and so 100 is going to be $310 right so you can always kind of with those two very easy numbers in your head 10 and 100 it’s very simple to kind of do that math Euro we just don’t even do the

Calculations on because we’re talking it’s not that far different so we just kind of figure it’s going to cost a little bit more than what it is you know right well the nice thing about you know back to the the market that we were at um there is still that language barrier

M uh so when they tell you how how much everybody understands how much and you pull your money out they tell you but you can’t understand them so what I always do what I’ve been doing is I’ll grab a a larger Bill than I think that

It’s going to be and I just hand that to them hoping they give me change I can tell you right now they always give me more change than I think they’re going to give me in this situation in in Turkey I mean that was such a great experience at their Market because

Everybody was so helpful and not a teeny bit of English spoken there was none but we went to oh my gosh probably eight to 10 different booths and um bought stuff and our s our experience in was the same for every single location where it was

How much and they said the amount which we had no idea what they were saying and uh we handed them some money and there was one time we handed him not enough and then he told us how much and they were so great though because I think

With the strawberries and with uh the mushrooms there was an amount and they would like add they told us the amount but then they’d add a couple to it to bring it up to the right amount you’re paying it was like they were going with kind of they add a couple mushrooms and

A couple STW couple strawberries to get an even balanced number now rewinded while we were in Spain when we started out we we wouldn’t have done any of that we would have been too intimida to do any of that and what we should have done is just ask the question ask

The question or you know the thing is as if it’s that challenging because I think in those situations so going back to the market in Spain or other markets that we’ve gone to the question for us is is like okay well it’s a kilogram every place is a kilogram they don’t deal in

Pounds I don’t want a kilogram it’s like 2.2 pounds of something so when you’re buying olives what amount do you tell them that you want olives is probably an easy one but when we get into some spices and stuff like that how do I tell them you know well what we have learned

Is you can use hand gestures like I want this little bit make a sign of like a little bit um or get out your Google Translate type in what exactly you want to say and show them your phone so there are so many ways around it but just jump

In there and start doing it uh and you’re going to be so happy that you did don’t be intimidated don’t be intimidated it’s not really that hard now there’s only been one time I can think of where I was intimidated to eat the food yeah and that was that was in

That was in Bangkok and they were they were serving up grubs and um scorpions and all kinds of bugs and you know I I thought about doing it I thought about this would be great on a YouTube video and then I I I chickened out K didn’t

Even think about it I wouldn’t call that intimidated I would just be grossed out like that doesn’t even I wasn’t intimidated I just wasn’t going to do it I no desire to eat a grub or a bug but now intimidation what I thought you were going to say right out the gate street

Food was a bit intimidating for us when you see all of this food being cooked right there on in these little cards oh let’s face it the cleanliness factor is out the window in comparison to what we are used to um and so that to me was very intimidating but something we knew

Right out the gate we wanted to tackle because we were going to be there for we’re going to be there for for a while and when you say um cleaning this compared to what we’re used to uh what we’re used to seeing when we go to any given restaurant you know we don’t

Always see the back Kitchen in our favorite restaurant sometimes that’s a good thing so we don’t know how clean it is what I liked about it and why I wasn’t intimidated was the simple fact that I’m seeing all the ingredients in front of me I’m watching them cook

Everything right in front of me and uh for me it wasn’t intimidating at all um for me I loved it I enjoyed it yeah now I think one way that we avoided or I avoided some of that intimidation Factor was by you know there’s plenty of food

Carts like we said they’re just stacked one after the other which was so awesome but if you make sure we made sure that we were going to those food carts that were getting a lot of customers they were busy because now there were some that we did walk by that we were like

Yeah we’re not all day it’s been sitting all day long and they just had those little like fan things going above them so flies didn’t land on you know as long as you were careful um unfortunately I mean we’ve heard stories from people that have gotten sick we did

Get our shots before going we don’t know if that helped us but we did we were there for 6 months we were not that careful we ate all the time at food carts uh and neither one of us got sick so and then I think that the intimidation other people have said to

Us about the we go back to Southeast Asia again I think that one just raises a lot of flags for people the heat factor of how hot their food is and I’ll agree the food is hot but I love hot food I love spicy spicy food spicy

Spicy food that’s another thing um a lot of these places ask you uh how much spice little bit of spice or lots of spice yeah um if you say lots of spice you’re going to get lots of spice but that’s something that I really don’t think um you necessarily have to worry

About now there’s other food allergies you may have to worry about peanut allergies might be a thing in Southeast Asia that you might want to be aware of peanut and Seafood were lot of dish you didn’t have an option my favorite dish which I can’t remember what it was called now um the

Co I can’t remember anyway we had that numerous times it was more popular in Northern Thailand um and that one you just kept we just kept eating it even though your eyes are watering you’re sweating tasted so good but it was so good I it sounds so good right now but

Yeah so there is um there can be some level of intimidation with dealing with the food we’ve had people asking us about you know going to other countries and say they’re gluten intolerant or like you said with allergies or say you’re vegan or whatever your concern is

I get it there is that concern but I think across the board we have found that you can find all of those we gluten gluten-free we have been surprised how much gluten-free we have seen not saying it’s like on every street corner but we have seen it accessible we have found it

Just about every place we’ve gone um we also found besides the food in Southeast Asia southeast Asia itself um wasn’t intimidating at all no either um again the transportation systems are all in place they’re easy to navigate and boy we expected it we were like we were like

Mentally prepared we had held off going to Southeast Asia for a year right uh even though we both really wanted to go but we were we were so intimidated to go um just expecting everybody tells you like the mopeds and it’s going to be loud it’s all the horns are honk and

Okay yeah we went to Bangkok and if you watched one of our videos on YouTube about um some of our favorite places Bangkok is way up there which surprises us so as changai right both Tha so there you go um don’t be intimidated by by southeast Asia like we were um as soon

As we landed we knew we were okay yeah now another area where people are somewhat concerned is that loneliness factor and just being homesick and kind of just feeling like how am I going to navigate that yeah you know social media is a wonderful thing um I enjoy it

Thoroughly yeah you know texting is always available Zoom or any uh got a video chat video chat on on your insta yeah you always kids are using call you know but yeah there there are ways to really keep in contact there are now there are there are times like right now

We’re 11 hours ahead of our us um friends and family for the most part um so that makes it a little bit complicated but you know it’s their morning it’s your evening um you can navigate that as well well and I think other people have had the comment of you

Know I have grandkids and you know and they’re like well I just is how are you able to be away from your kids and your grandkids and that you know that really is a concern um and we’ve navigated that to where we’ve now adjusted our schedule

We’re now going to be going home three times a year instead of two times we’re going to stay shorter period of Time Each time we’re home but we’re going to go home every 3 months which will seem to me like I’m not leaving for so long

Each time um and so those go goodbyes are a little bit easier you don’t feel so far removed um and I think the good thing to just remind yourself is is your schedule is your schedule so it’s completely adjustable um if you’re finding it’s not working then adjust it

You know I think that people get too set on the idea that they have to lock in like specific dates and we’ve kind of adjusted ours to where we go home during key holidays we know we would like to be home at Christmas we know we like to be

Home around we love the summers in in B Bellingham where we are from right and then we also like to be home what in well we like to be home in the summer we like to be home for Christmas and then we’re going to add a third one yeah so

We’re doing April yeah so we’re kind of around that time so you know just kind of those favorite key times that you want to be home for whatever event it is a family thing a holiday or whatever it is and so you don’t feel like you’re

Missing out on as much yeah okay now one thing that I’ve always gotten a bit intimidated over it’s easy to do it’s easy to do is the TSA agents the border patrol the Customs guys they’re always scary yeah and you know they they kind of they’re trained to be a little bit

Aggressive you know what I found anyway um that has subsided substantially yeah I don’t I don’t worry about it anymore I know how to put my luggage on the cart I know how to pull my computer out I know how to do everything now but I think

Back to when I first started my heart would start RAC a little bit like it’s like an interrogation you’re waiting for it you’re worried about it I use my TSA preapproved liquid bag it’s easy to pull out I throw it down never had a problem with that um but that is something that

Can be in intimidating it can be I think that what one thing that has changed for me is is that we’ve become so more so much more relaxed in the process there used to be not only just the intimidation of them questioning you you know especially for us because when we

Are coming back I mean there’s times it’s been we’ve been gone seven months like where have you been it’s like okay well let me start the list and you start listing it off and then they really start looking at your passport closer they want to make sure what time you

Were in the shenen what time you were out of the shangan they’re just doing all their all this then they start asking us more questions so there can be a level of that but we would also be worried that we are going to possibly miss a plane connection or something

Like that that area for us we’ve just become a little more chill about we realize worst case scenario once again just like your transportation your train whatever you miss it you’re going to figure it out so just there’s nothing you can do to rush the process you’re

Going to have to wait in that line you’re going to have to go through it so we just have kind of I guess just learn to be relaxed about it relaxed about it we’ve also taken a few precautions we we we make sure if we do have a layover or

Connecting flight we have sometimes 2 three hours uh sometimes you know Carrie gets really crazy and does like a six hour layover not by choice just to make sure that we get through customs uh but there was a time leaving the United States we flew from Seattle to Atlanta

And we had about 45 minutes yeah to get our connector now there’s no Customs to go through or anything like that which was fortunate for us because we got to our gate we thought we had about 15 minutes to spare we hustled to our gate hustled we ran to our gate got there

Found the gate and there was a bathroom right outside of our gate and we both had to go to the bathroom right so we turned around and I hear a lady go hey you going to Dublin and I said yeah she goes well where are you going

Everybody’s on the plane yeah so so we weren’t on the plane so I don’t know there was a good 20 some minutes before we were supposed to be leaving and I know when we got there we thought well maybe they’re just running behind like cuz nobody was in line yet they weren’t

Boarding it didn’t look like cool we we found it we need to go to the bathroom so yeah when she said that it was like what the heck so we get onto the plane and everybody’s already on board uh which has never happened before everybody’s looking at us yeah like so

It ended up working fine but another thing that you want to make sure and do that will help kind of ease all of those uh concerns when you are going to be going through the anxiety yeah that anxiety when you’re going through is make sure and do all of your research

Ahead of time as far as what is required of you for your passport uh when you have all of that stuff already lined up then any questions they ask you you’re going to have the answers for so uh one of the sites that we use is the sherpa

Site uh once again we’ll have any of those links down below for you if you do want to take a look at them but you can check for your passport what country you were flying into and it’s going to let you know do you need need a visa how

Long is your Visa good for what other documentation we started using it during Co and it was absolutely necessary at that time because we needed to know but now we use it just to know uh what visa is required do you need to show any because we get a lot of questions from

People about a uh exit ticket you know are you going to need an exit ticket um things like that so just go on there you’re going to have all your answers you know and and make sure you do it we were we stood in line in Vietnam uh we

Were in line for about 45 minutes to an hour just to get through customs just to get to the custom agent to to stamp our passport to let us through and there was people in front of us that did not have a Visa M you have to get it when you get

There you can’t get it on arrival you are not supposed to get on to they’ll let you do it if you forget but they stood in line for 45 minutes to an hour found out that they needed a Visa they had to walk back through everybody go to a Visa yeah where

They go get a new Visa get a visa and get back in line so make sure you have that taken care of before you uh well and also some of those I mean the Vietnam being a good example of that is that it wasn’t a Visa that you just

Could go online and boom some of them like turkey we had it like immediately but in Vietnam it took I believe it was 72 hours before we got the Visa emailed to us so some of these you do have to prep and plan a little bit for so you

Don’t want to save these things for last minute or uh it’s going to definitely make you a little more uncomfortable one of the areas for us that has probably caused I wouldn’t say arguments but it’s probably been one of those areas that pushed a little bit of buttons for both

Of us mainly because you’re usually tired you’re hungry it’s hot all those things is navigating and getting directions and you know there’s often time we say you do have SIM SIM card in your phone and you should have data but you’re out of connection area or whatever or one thing we’ve experienced

Is like go gole Maps will direct me wrong on my phone uh and so we will walk not a long ways but we’ll be walking a direction I’m like now it’s totally navigated me a different direction so you know I would say that getting directions places getting lost uh that

Is an area that can be a little intimidating when you’re trying to navigate yourself around a foreign country yes now my navigational system on my phone works so I don’t know why we don’t us just use mine I don’t know either and not hers uh but we we will

Walk a couple out of the way now that’s not a big deal we did that just the other day as a matter of fact and and and it’s kind of fun because we never car and I have never walked from point A to point B in a straight line yeah it’s

Actually become quite a joke we never ever get their the fast easy way right we’ll zigzag but Google Maps is your friend it is your friend and the thing is is that you can download the location that you’re going to so say you’re not going to have coverage at all you can

Downlo download that map for that area so even if you are out of coverage you have that map um and we have utilized that as well and like I said mine will navigate me a little bit off sometimes but at least I still have the map and we

Have the general G where we where we’re at you know I think it’s that feeling that you can’t just walk into say a store and say hey I’m looking for this place can you tell me which way to go so there is kind of can be that feeling at

Times because you know we had the situation in Port where we were looking for our Airbnb uh once again we were just on a vacation and we could not find the Airbnb we spent an hour and a half walking through the streets we both had connection on our phone it didn’t matter

We did the same thing in s yeah we had the address but the address was not directing us to the location we were supposed to be and after an hour and a half of searching and me pulling it up on Airbnb to see the railing of the

Balcony what it looked like we were able to find the place um so yeah I would say that that can be an area when you are in a new area new location and you’re like oh we want to go to wherever um it can be a little intimidating to try and

Navigate yourself there knowing that there’s nobody you can go ask for directions right and you know I use Carrie a lot of the time I follow her wherever she’s going now I did a lot of that in Florence because I got turned around we’d step outside of our our

Airbnb and I got turned around every time I think and we were there for a month I just could not figure it out now she did the same thing in Sevilla right Spain so she was following me every time we left rbnb she would take a right yeah

Where you going so so there is that you do kind of get turned around you’re in location move we move enough and you move enough and you just for some reason sometimes it just never clicks the direction you’re supposed to go sometimes it’s great sometimes right out

The gate we’ve figured it out and we’re so proud of ourselves but yeah other times it can be a struggle the I think we’re getting better I think we’re getting better so I really feel like to sum all this up um it’s not intimidating and it certainly doesn’t have to be

Intimidating it’s just the fear of the unknown that that makes a little bit scary right well and I think that that fear of unknown is we all paint this picture of the most worse situation possible and nobody’s going to help us and I don’t know I I know that’s how we

Were we had no clue what to expect and what we have found is you’re going to figure it out you’re going to find yourself around your way around you’re going to learn how to navigate those markets it’s going to be easy to go into that restaurant and get a table it’s not

Hard to do you just ask point two people you use your hands you you know I mean it’s they really work with you it is not going to be hard and a challenge and you’re going to figure it out people are friendly all over the world yeah so to

Wrap this all up one of the best things that you can do to eliminate as much of that intimidation Factor as possible is do as much research as possible ahead of time make sure that you have your accommodations organized you have screenshotted the address just in case

You don’t have service um make sure you figured out the currency before you get off that airplane or out of that taxi cab um just have as much ahead of time organized because that is going to make your trip so much better okay so if you

Want to find us anywhere else you can find us on all the social media we are on Facebook Instagram and uh obviously on YouTube and you can find us there at Brian and Carrey you can also find us on our website which is Brian and Cary

Travels.com and uh we will catch you on the next episode Cheers

Join us as we embark on a journey to conquer travel intimidation abroad – covering common apprehensions faced by world travelers, retirees, and full-time adventurers alike. Delve into strategies for navigating language barriers, embracing cultural immersion, and mastering budget travel. Hear personal stories from our travels abroad and expert insights on overcoming intimidation while traveling, building confidence, and planning for a nomadic lifestyle. Join us as we unravel the excitement of adventure and exploration while fostering resilience on the road. Whether bargaining in Türkiye or indulging in street food in Bangkok, this podcast equips you with practical tools to transform travel jitters into empowerment. Tune in for fearless exploration and embrace your wanderlust with courage and curiosity!

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