Europe isn't usually a place of culture shock for Americans except when they speak a language you don't understand other than English. And even English is differently spoken in England, Ireland and Scotland and Wales than it is spoken in the U.S.
But, generally speaking the differences are quaint rather than culture shock for most people because their ancestors originally came from Europe in the first place.
So, arriving in Bangkok Thailand at 1 Am in the morning after about 20 hours of flying and waiting for the next flight at Narito Airport near Tokyo was quite a culture shock, the first major culture shock of our trip to Asia (but not the last).
We were greeted at the airport by about 20 Taxi drivers that all wanted to take us to our destination which was Sweety's Guest House in Bangkok. This was good because some Americans, Canadians and Europeans spoke English there as well as the owner of Sweety's. We made friends with a California nurse traveling with a German Carpenter who was traveling around the world for a year. They told us that the first week you travel to you usually get ripped off financially the most. (Obviously we were not trying to travel on a tour.)
More later (going kayaking) it's too hot!
Back from Kayaking on Castle Lake. The smoke was so bad you couldn't see Mt. Shasta at all from the lake. But, it was heavenly to have the lake to dunk it because it was pretty warm up there too. But, without the smoke likely it would have been much hotter than the 99 degrees it actually was.
As I was paddling I felt sort of strange and wondered whether it was the heat or the altitude 6000 feet where the lake is. Finally, rather than passing out I rowed towards the shore and dunked me feet first over the sides as well as my hands to cool down. Then I got out on shore and waded around some and felt a little better and blew up one chamber that must have had a leak on one side of the inflatable kayak (Sevylor).
Then since my friend in another kayak was talking to a beautiful girl out on a float in the middle of the lake I sat meditative style in the water up to my shoulders and just gazed with sun glasses and hat on across the lake. Castle lake is likely my favorite Alpine lake in the world because there is no one that lives above it to pollute it. So, it is fed with Snow and glacier water from nearby mountains and the only thing above it is trails to Castle Crags and places like that.
So, this was the most peaceful meditative day I have spent on Castle lake in a very long time.
Back to Thailand 1985
By using then the Lonely planet Guide which is good for people who want to custom create their own experiences (usually a lot less expensive too) you soon learn that when you go to any new area around the world it takes about 7 days to learn the ropes so you don't get ripped off financially.
At that time there were never set prices for anything you buy at a market. So, if you were a tourist and asked for a price you likely were going to get gouged. So, the first 7 days you will learn how not to get gouged (pay too much) wherever you are staying on earth.
Our technique after we developed it was to hire someone (usually a college student) to travel with us to bargain for us who actually knew the real prices for everything so we wouldn't get gouged. Often we would send this student out with money to buy things so we wouldn't pay 10 times more than the going rate for locals.
In India we did the same thing with the Tibetan Lama who traveled with us along with his Darjeeling English translator who was also Tibetan by genetics and family line.
Since we were traveling for almost 5 months from December to April this was very important to learn this throughout India, Nepal, and Thailand. However, we found Japan was too expensive on this trip because there were 5 of us. So, at that time Thailand 20 bahts to the dollar, India 10 rupees to the dollar and Nepal (also I think about 20 rupees to the dollar like Thailand, it was relatively inexpensive to travel for us Westerners from the U.S. The biggest expense was actually just flying over there and back in the first place (which with discount tickets then was about 6000 dollars) pretty reasonable then for the 5 of us.
In both Thailand and South Korea it is difficult to find someone who speaks enough English to communicate with you. So, unless you are traveling with a Bilingual person in the languages of that country it is important to be aware of this when traveling anywhere but India and Nepal in Asia. In India and Nepal, English is the least offensive language most places so people speak it everywhere.
This is because for example, in India there are at least 300 languages spoken and rivalries of a thousand years or more often exist that you as an American are often unaware of.
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