The most unexpected and unforgettable Vacation I ever went on was for 4 months with my family in India and Nepal and Thailand

 Why?

Because in 1985 coming from California it was like going to another planet, not just traveling to the other side of the world. Nothing at all was as I expected it would be. So, culture shock from beginning to end especially in places like India and Nepal. In Japan and Thailand they were enough like the U.S. or Europe so I could sort of cope with this level of changes. But, in 1985 and 1986 going to India and Nepal I wasn't prepared for people who were not educated at all and who lived lives a lot like they had 1000 or 2000 years ago in every way. So, the culture shock of being exposed to people the way they basically were 1000 to 2000 years ago was something I was completely unprepared to face then in 1985 and 1986 with my family.

And the very worst culture shock was coming back to the U.S. to California, where people hid in their apartments and cars and didn't talk to each other. In Asian countries people didn't have cars or trucks that much then so they were forced to walk or ride bicycles or little karts that reminded me of Rototillers more than anything else only with wheels that dragged wagons with family's riding in them for miles and miles at about 5 miles and hour on regular highways they shared with cars, buses and truck of all kinds.

So, in Asia then so many people were close to death in many different ways all the time. This made them very alive and inquisitive in their lives in talking to one another. You might see fist fights or wife beatings on the street or kids being abused and crazy people everywhere or even dead people on the ground that were just left there. So, this was culture shock on a level I never really thought possible unless there was a war. Whereas I was witnessing a war for survival of everyone I met in India and to some degree in Nepal too. For 4 months or more my whole family was in a state of sensory overwhelm at what we were experiencing. And yet, we likely were safer there than in many places in the U.S. The biggest danger was that we could die if we weren't very careful what we ate there. The biggest risk of death was from food and water not carefully prepared for a western person's biology and immunity. This is likely what most westerners actually die of (at least then) in India and Nepal and Thailand.