I have lived in 3 continents (Africa [Nigeria], Asia [India], and North America [US]) and vacationed a few times in Europe [mainly England and Switzerland]. This, IMO is good advice.
Contrary to popular belief, people around the world are good. They are willing to help you out and are less likely to take advantage of the fact that you are new there. There is also a sense of curiosity - about who you are, where you are from and what you think of their lands of origin. It often gets a little tiring answering all those questions. :)
On the other hand, governments and officials especially in third world countries tend to be corrupt and agenda-driven. It's amazing how much money changing hands can do, and this I believe is a big deterrent to foreigners in many lands. You need to be a little street smart and know how to work your way out of a potentially sticky situations.
I agree with other comments on HN that you need to be careful of germs. I spent a year in the US before heading back to India to visit family, and I had food off of a street-vendor. I was sick for the next 3 days (God help me now that I have been here for a decade :D). Living in a very sanitary environment like the US can (potentially) weaken your immune system [1]. Ensuring that the food is sealed, or at the very minimum hot is a good way to avoid some of the pitfalls. On the other hand, I have eaten at locals homes in Nigeria, and don't remember having any issues (it's been a while since I was there).
This article makes me want to drop everything and take off for a few months. Sadly, that won't be happening anytime soon. But if you were to take away one thing from this article - it is that you should travel. Going to most countries in the world does not have to be expensive, and it will give you a good way to find out about other cultures, and potentially give you a new avenue into your own [2]
[1] - I am not a doctor, but this has been my experience. I tend to be susceptible to unclean water and food - even the pollution in big cities like Bombay affects me way more than it did when I lived there.
[2] I was raised in a western culture - watching NBA and CNN, listening to pop and rock music, and reading Archie and Mad magazine. But after coming to the US, I have come to realize that there is a lot of things the Indian and American cultures have in common - even more, that there is a lot they can learn from each other.
"Living in a very sanitary environment like the US can (potentially) weaken your immune system."
There are lots of vague hypotheses like this floating about, but IMHO[1] they're pretty flimsy. The fact that you don't have immunity to various foreign bugs doesn't imply (at all) that your immune system is "weak".
There's better evidence that sanitary conditions could increase allergy, which is an overactive immune system, not a weakened one.
Pollution, which you mention later in your comment, has nothing at all to do with immunity.
All that aside: boil it, peel it, cook it, or forget it!
[1] - Also not a doctor, but I am an epidemiologist.
This is purely anecdotal and may also be related to the two-page long list of vaccinations I received, but I've rarely ever been sick since being back from India (where I did get sick a few times, pretty badly) and when I am sick, it's usually something very mild I get over within a day or two.
I got sick a few times from street-vendor food in 3rd world countries. It turned out that they often reuse oil for too long. I now avoid deep-fried food, dirty or tap water, and things like ice-cream. I've been fine on my travels since.
This is a mild suggestion. Could we stop using the term 3rd world to refer to relatively poor countries? I think in a modern, globalized, and rapidly developing world, '3rd world' is unnecessary and carries a derogatory connotation to it, IMO. I can't speak for others from a so-called third world country, but it offends me.
My apologies. You are right. I will certainly refrain from using that phrase now on. It is a little ironic that I don't use that phrase in normal conversation, but that I used it today in my comment.
It's not so simple as 'developed world' vs 'developing world'. There's an awesome Hans Rosling ted talk [1] about that. Here's an quote from it:
"I find my experience from 20 years of Africa is that the seemingly impossible is possible. Africa has not done bad. In 50 years they've gone from a pre-Medieval situation to a very decent 100-year-ago Europe, with a functioning nation and state. I would say that sub-Saharan Africa has done best in the world during the last 50 years. Because we don't consider where they came from. It's this stupid concept of developing countries which puts us, Argentina and Mozambique together 50 years ago, and says that Mozambique did worse. We have to know a little more about the world. I have a neighbor who knows 200 types of wine. He knows everything. He knows the name of the grape, the temperature and everything. I only know two types of wine -- red and white. (Laughter) But my neighbor only knows two types of countries -- industrialized and developing. And I know 200, I know about the small data. But you can do that."
>It's not so simple as 'developed world' vs 'developing world'
Of course. These are just useful categories. Humans like to put things into categories so we can make statements about ideas. Saying it's "not so simple" is a strawman as I don't think anyone is claiming that a country is a data structure with the capacity of 1 bit (developed or developing).
Maybe if you said or quoted something about how the act of using this categorical construction in analysis when performed too often is the physical cause of some sort of injustice.
I've heard the tip before that you can eat anything in the world that is thourghly cooked and be ok, but anything raw is super risky. In practice this means if the street meat is steaming, it is safe to eat, but cold meats and even vegatables are out. This is the first I've heard about someone getting sick from cooked food, but it makes sense if the oil was bad. Thanks for the heads up.
Contrary to popular belief, people around the world are good. They are willing to help you out and are less likely to take advantage of the fact that you are new there. There is also a sense of curiosity - about who you are, where you are from and what you think of their lands of origin. It often gets a little tiring answering all those questions. :)
On the other hand, governments and officials especially in third world countries tend to be corrupt and agenda-driven. It's amazing how much money changing hands can do, and this I believe is a big deterrent to foreigners in many lands. You need to be a little street smart and know how to work your way out of a potentially sticky situations.
I agree with other comments on HN that you need to be careful of germs. I spent a year in the US before heading back to India to visit family, and I had food off of a street-vendor. I was sick for the next 3 days (God help me now that I have been here for a decade :D). Living in a very sanitary environment like the US can (potentially) weaken your immune system [1]. Ensuring that the food is sealed, or at the very minimum hot is a good way to avoid some of the pitfalls. On the other hand, I have eaten at locals homes in Nigeria, and don't remember having any issues (it's been a while since I was there).
This article makes me want to drop everything and take off for a few months. Sadly, that won't be happening anytime soon. But if you were to take away one thing from this article - it is that you should travel. Going to most countries in the world does not have to be expensive, and it will give you a good way to find out about other cultures, and potentially give you a new avenue into your own [2]
[1] - I am not a doctor, but this has been my experience. I tend to be susceptible to unclean water and food - even the pollution in big cities like Bombay affects me way more than it did when I lived there.
[2] I was raised in a western culture - watching NBA and CNN, listening to pop and rock music, and reading Archie and Mad magazine. But after coming to the US, I have come to realize that there is a lot of things the Indian and American cultures have in common - even more, that there is a lot they can learn from each other.