That defining moment...

Undertow

I've been chatting elsewhere about travelling in a country, and with all our preconceptions, all our hype, all our expectations, just when does it hit you that you are indeed in that country you've dreamed of travelling to?

What happened that made you stop and think "Hey, I really am in India,Mongolia,Peru, Costa Rica , etc, etc." or wherever you are?

Kicking this off.

You know you're in Namibia when you're struggling up Dune 45, your best friend gives up, and you struggle on to the top far in the distance, just so the oldest on the tour is up there with the youngest!

Or hey, you get your nose up out of your beer, and find a big bull elephant chewing the tree you're sitting under!

Or you know you're in India, when you climb into this old taxi after arrival at their international airport ...and it won't start. But there's 100 people milling and yelling around while they all push start you...

zagmund

You know you're in Ireland when the handle falls off the door of the taxi at the ferry port and the driver is surprised when you just take the next taxi instead of waiting for him to re-attach his handle.

You know you're in China when no matter how appallingly badly the day before went, the tour guide insists on starting the whole thing over again the next day . . . because if it's on a list and hasn't been ticked off as completed then they have not done their job (apparently).

You know you're in China when you are driven 2 hours to something called "Monkey side face cliff" and it looks like the side of the face of a monkey. And that's it. That's the entire experience. And then you hear "visit Monkey side face cliff" being ticked off a list.

Germany/Austria/much of northen Europe - when the train you are scheduled to be on arrives at the right time and the right part of the right platform that was printed on your ticket 3 months earlier.

z

sebcity

You know you're in Jamaica when your very responsible pool lifeguard in your 5 star resort tries to sell you weed and will smoke it with you on his break!

retalivity

You know you are in -
Thailand when you first lie down on a triangle cushion in a bar/restaurant
Hanoi when you are chased down the street by a couple of guys with glue to fix your flip-flops
Japan when you see loads of geishas nonchalantly walking down the road and no-one bats an eyelid
The U.S. when the first complaint pops up about tipping for a beer

rosie16

Great idea for a thread!

You know you're in Uganda when you're on a boda boda (motorbike) and you reach a river. A group of men run up to you and offer to carry you across for 1,000 shillings.

You know when you're in rural Uganda when you use the shared taxi between villages. Like human tetris: 4 in the front, 4 in the back and 2 in the boot!

You know you're in Tanzania/Uganda when the matatus and dala-dalas (public transport) are crammed full with people.

In contrast, you know you're in Rwanda when everyone has a seat in public transport.

duffman13

You know your in Bangkok when your in a taxi with no seat belts on a 4 lane highway that at rush hour actually has 8 cars abreast sitting in traffic. You know your in Thailand when you can't walk down a street without hearing "you want suit" "Massaaaage" and "Hey sexy man"

You know your in Laos when your in a minivan doing a 100mph around the edge of a mountain surrounded by debris of other minivans that haven't been as lucky.

sarkozy

Those Namib dunes will get you, alright!

You know you're in Namibia when you're dinner consists of a mixed grill of ostrich, kudu, oryx and zebra.

You know you're in Swaziland when a taxi driver tries to settle a taxi fare disagreement with a handgun.

You know you're in Lesotho when you're driving through a flash flood, seriously fearing your bakkie will be pushed off a cliff, or when your helicopter nearly runs out of A1 aviation fuel.

You know you're in South Africa when you're invited to a house party by strangers in Cape Town, and your friend is murdered in Johannesburg.

You know you're in Bolivia when the bus you're in has a tyre blow-out in the middle of nowhere, it's getting dark, and you have to wait hours for a replacement wheel, and you're sitting halfway down a 3,000 metre high Andean valley over coca and coffee plantations and it's the post beautiful place.

You know you're in Argentina when a friend invites you to a local folk music and dancing night in a poor neighbourhood social centre.

You know you're in Berlin when you go to a bar called 'The Hole' where the entrance is literally a hole in the pavement where you climb your way down into a dark, humid, dusty cavern.

You know you're in China when you see an elderly peasant person who just keeled over and died outside Beijing central train station and nobody does anything.

Stuff like that.

zagmund

Sarkozy - those Berliners are into all sorts of freaky stuff. I would be wary of going into anything named after an orifice in Berlin.

On the China front - I definitely got the impression when I was over there (2007ish) that they still hadn't fully got past the communist collective thing and your thing about the old person rings true. I got the feeling that if ever any of the people we dealt with were injured or died or whatever they would simply be replaced by another member of The Peoples Tourist Guide Reserve Force #54 and everything would continue as before (other than an exchange of paperwork).

You know you're in China when you go to the zoo and they put on a live performance of a chimp cycling a monocycle across a high wire with someone pointing a sharp (or electric) thing at them, instead of having a chimp that has been rescued from that sort of thing. Ditto for all the other live animal "acts".

z

ProudDUB

I had been living in the US for about 6 months, when I went out to LA to visit some friends. It was my first time in California. Saying that it was very different to Georgia (where I was living at the time) would be putting it very mildly.

On the way home from the airport, we stopped off a drug store to pick up a few bits and bobs. While waiting in line to pay, I noticed some forms that you could fill out to enter yourself into a competition. It was sponsored by one of the big health care companies. Third prize was a nose job worth $5000, second prize was a boob job worth $10,000 & the first prize was a full facelift, worth a whopping $25,000.

I fell about the place laughing, as the only competitions I'd ever seen in Irish or Atlanta chemists/drug stores were for free nappies, or something equally dull. I thought it was hilarious and oh so very LA !