Don & Kully's World Cruise on Viking Neptune

This is a post that falls in the “Lessons Learned and Pro-Hacks” category. I need to preface this by saying that I lived in Europe for almost five years in the early 1980’s and traveled overseas many times during my working career. “Ugly Americans” was a term we used when I lived in Europe for American Tourist who stood out because of their insensitive behavior. An example of this is an American Tourist exclaiming; “that’s not how we do it in the USA”, “it” being anything from tipping to checking into a hotel to using pay toilets.

Lesson 1 – Once we leave the good old USA we are the foreigner. It’s up to us to adjust to the countries we visit customs and way of doing things.

Lesson 2- Being curious about other places, cultures and religions is a good thing. However, it is important to be respectful in how you explore and ask questions. Many of the sites we’ve visited on the world cruise are religious sites from faiths that are unfamiliar to us; Hindu, Buddhist and Muslem. Many of the practices may seem strange and even excessive, but to the local followers of those religions the sites and the rituals are very sacred, as visitors we should respect that. I’ll give a couple of “Ugly American” examples that we observed. We were visiting a Hindu Temple in Bali. Hindu Temples are very ornate with many statues of various deities. Hindus also present many different offerings to the gods throughout the day ranging from flowers to food offerings. One American in our group stood in the middle of the temple and in her outside voice, while pointing at a particular statue said to the Hindu guide; “these offerings seem pretty excessive, what is their purpose?” The guide was clearly offended but provided a very gracious answer about the purpose of Hindu offerings. Had she asked the guide; “Can you please explain the purpose or meaning of all of the offerings”, the embarrassing situation could have been avoided. The other big example is taking photos when asked not to take them. Most of the places we visited allowed virtually unlimited photography, but there were a handful of places with areas of limited or no photography. In most cases, it was during religious ceremonies, or at sites that were considered sacred. Inevitably, someone would try to sneak a photo and get caught. The bottom line is– be respectful of the cultures and local sensitivities.

Try to attend some of the Viking cultural and historical lectures prior to arriving in areas you’ve never visited. They provide a great overview about the places we toured and gave us a heads up on what to expect. For example, a large portion of Micronesia is Muslim, and we visited the area during Ramadan, the month-long period of fasting. We knew very little about the Muslim traditions and practices, but we attended two lectures regarding Islam on the ship and learned that during Ramadan Muslim’s fast and aren’t allowed to eat or drink between sunrise and sunset. So, we weren’t surprised when we arrived in Langkawi, Malaysia, a predominately Muslim island, where all of the local restaurants were closed during day light hours. Needless to say, the “Ugly Americans” amongst us were upset and couldn’t understand why these businesses weren’t open to accommodate us.

Lesson 3 – English is prevalent, but don’t assume everywhere you will go that English will be spoken or that signs, menus and other documents will have English translations. Be flexible, you may have to order lunch looking at pictures.

Lesson 4 – They eat different food and use different spices and cooking methods in many of the places we visited. If you are planning to do overland trips or overnight stays off of the ship it might be a good idea to learn a little bit about the cuisine of those countries. If you’re a picky eater don’t just assume they’ll make a burger or cheese sandwich for you, because there’s a high probability they won’t. We did a seven-day overland trip in India — good thing we like Indian food. Our recommendation — if, for example, you’re thinking about doing an overland trip in India, spend some time at a local Indian restaurant learning about Indian dishes. Same holds for any of the other countries — set yourself up for success. If you have special dietary needs, it is possible that these needs may or may not be able to be met. We always travel with protein bars or other small snacks to set ourselves up for success.

Lesson 5 – Be gracious and kind to guides and service providers, they all our doing their best to provide a great experience. English is a second language for most, so a little patience goes a long way.

Lesson 6 – The US dollar is not the world’s currency and may or may not be accepted in all of the places we visit. Yes, many of the places we visited were very touristy and did accept dollars, and yes most everywhere we went accepted credit cards. However, there were many places, especially small “mom & pop” type places that only except the local currency. Think about it, do you think a local coffee shop in Toledo, Ohio or Tomah, Wisconsin is going to accept Australian Dollars for a cup of coffee and a pastry? Probably not, yet many of us assume that small businesses all over the world will and should accept US dollars.

There is no need to purchase foreign currency in the USA. The best ways to obtain local currency is through bank ATMs, meaning ATMs at the local banks. If you’re uncomfortable using ATMs, the second best choice is to exchange cash (US dollars or other currency) for the local currency at local banks or currency exchanges. Here are a few specific lessons learned about currency:

• Local guides will accept dollars, but they really appreciate being tipped in their own currency. Not always possible, but we tried to do so whenever we could. I asked a tour guide in South Africa about currency preferences, and she said she was happy to get tips in dollars because she saved her tips to us for travel money and the dollar was currently getting a better exchange rate than South African currency. However, she said the drivers and most of the younger guides relied on the tips to supplement their income and they would rather have local currency.
• Local currency for small purchases is really a good idea. While in Vietnam we didn’t get local currency, so we had a series of small purchases for coffees, snacks etc., all under $10 that were charged to our credit card. Our next stop was in Singapore where we tried to make a purchase of $300 in a shopping mall that the credit card company declined, because we had triggered the fraud algorithm. We were able to fix the problem with a phone call, but it could have been avoided had we not made the series of small purchases.
• We did spend long stretches in the same countries – over a week in New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, and were scheduled for longer in the European Union Countries. We also had multiple days in Vietnam, Thailand and India, so obtaining currency was easy and very practical.
• We allowed unspent currencies to accumulate as we moved from country to country and then used them to purchase other currency. For example, we had bought currency in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Micronesia and Singapore and had a few bills of each left, maybe worth $75 US total. We took those bills to a money exchange in Singapore just before departing and converted them all to Indian Rupees. We also used some of our Indonesian currency to tip one of our favorite bartenders on the ship who was from Indonesia — he was honored that we had taken time and interest to recognize him and his country.
• We also learned when using our credit card if the merchant offered to run the sale in local currency or in dollars it was best to have him run it in the local currency. We normally got a better exchange rate doing it that way.

Bottom line – Taking a world cruise is something that very few people get the privilege of taking. Remember what you learned in kindergarten — Say please and thank you, stand in line and wait your turn, and be grateful.