We had a long transition into our first destination…. a very long transition. Our international flight went from NYC, to Egypt, to Sudan, to Kenya, to Johannesburg, to Durban and finally arrived in Cape Town South Africa 44 hours later. While we were both exhausted from the travel, it only took us a day to get our bodies and minds on South Africa time. How? I’m still trying to figure that out but I think it really helped that we recognized the time change we would be dealing with days before our first flight and slowly adjusting to the time change a few hours every day. The two nights before we left, we got as little sleep as possible so that when we got on our overnight international flight, we would sleep most of the way and be awake and alert when we landed in Egypt the next morning.

As for the culture shock, it was important for us to recognize that fact that we were new to the city and we weren’t used to the lifestyle some people live. I find it much easier to spend the first day settling in, grabbing coffee, speaking with the locals, learning a few key phrases in their language, and wandering around the city aimlessly to acquint yourself to the area. This way, you have no set agenda and do not have the stress of having to find a certain place or be somewhere at a specific time. Half the battle for me was fighting the stress associated with unorganized road traffic, foot traffic, tourist traps and hagglers. This is where I have to remind myself to breathe, find flexability, appreciate the fact that I was able to take vacation time, and accept that this lifestyle works for other cultures. It may take some time to fully embrace the new culture, but the sooner you can stop fighting the abnormality of everything around you, the better off you’ll be. And should this still not work, find a local who can show you around, explain their lifestyle to you and introduce you to some of the magnificant things the culture has to offer.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 5:02 am and is filed under Travel Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.