Why Should One Visit Exotic Countries?

There are many things one can learn from visiting exotic countries. Here’s the list of reasons why you should visit these countries. It is not too late to start!

I was asked by many:” Why would you want to visit such exotic country?” In fact, my opinion stands from the point that visiting such countries enables one to come out of his/her comfort zone and sees life from a different perspective.

You may have heard of the common tourist destinations such as Barcelona, Paris the Eiffel Tower, Bangkok the shopping city, Italy the falling Pisa, China the Great Wall, New York the city that never sleeps and many more others.

Some of the countries that I had stepped on which is deemed by others as exotic would be Laos, Myanmar, Mongolia, Turkey, Egypt, Kazakhstan etc.

Firstly, I would like to emphasis that no place is deemed boring and it is good to visit the city if you have not stepped onto since we live life only once. Perhaps we would like to look into what motivates us to travel in the first place. Is it to simply for sightseeing only? Is it to learn more of the world? Is it to understand the life of people out there on some part of the Earth who may be living a completely different life from yours? Or is it to do things that one could easily replicate at your home country especially if you live in a city.

Please do not interpret that shopping or going to the usual sightseeing attractions is wrong. All of us have different reasons for travelling and ways of distress. Shopping to distress is definitely not wrong and I am in full support of it if that is what makes one feel more relax.

Looking from another angle, travelling enlighten us and is the best form of investment for oneself.

Things I learn when visiting some exotic countries 

1. Media plays a big part  in the influence of how one view a particular country.

Seeing is believing and often people may say Country A could be dangerous as portray by the media, but the fact is that have you experience it yourself? Why not embark on a different experience and look at things from your own perspective.

Remember the media often hype up events that happened. But we cannot blame too as it is their job. For instance, when I was in Sri Lanka, there was internal conflicts. Media portrayed it as a dangerous place with reported bombings. However, when you are there, one will learnt that events are restricted to certain places only and no danger to tourists as long as one do not wander off to the affected region in that particular country.

What the country have to offer might be mind blowing experience which you will missed it if you trust the media reports entirely. Having said that, I am not suggesting you to visit war zone countries with basic common sense coming into play.

Below is the picture took in Sri Lanka, showcasing the amazing scenery of the island in the Indian Ocean…

2. Learn to respect people way of living & culture. 

Usually, exotic countries offers countless experience for one to get closer to the locals and better interaction. The locals may be more incline to share more of their daily life with tourists as they get far lesser number of visitors.

I enjoyed living with the nomads back in Mongolia, learning to ride the horses, chasing the goats home, helping to carry buckets of water from the deep well, playing the local games on the big field etc.

3. More appreciative of simple things back home. 

Truly, travel to these countries maybe entirely different from the usual travel within a large cosmopolitan city. One may get to see how food are grown, experience first hand on how rice is grown just like I did back in Laos. Under the scorching heat, break backing position with leeches on your feet, every grain of rice doesn’t comes easily.

You may use this experience to educate the younger generation on not wasting food and increases our general knowledge as well on how food is grown. You will be amazed at some amazing answer city people gave when asked how a particular food came about.

4. Able to meet travellers instead of tourists 

As I recalled the scene when I boarded the Trans-Mongolian Train, the foreigners I saw were travellers, not tourists. There is a difference between tourists & travellers as pointed out by my train mate. Guess he was spot on as travellers seek to soak into the daily local life, understanding the culture, learn more of the people way of living. Tourists simply have a checklist on the list of things to accomplish when visiting a destination. The usual photos that they have to take to prove that they had done that, been there.

And did I say, it was definitely more interesting talking to travellers just like we did on the 28 hours Trans Mongolian ride from Ulaanbaator to Beijing.  Tips on travel, mistakes they made, tricks locals use to con foreigners in many countries,etc. You will definitely learn more interacting with travellers and the likely place to spot them would be visiting exotic countries.

5. More friendly people in such exotic countries.

Unlike other countries which witnessed strong tourist number, the locals living in exotic countries have lesser opportunities to interact with foreigners. So when you are one of the “special” species among them, they are more curious to learn more of your country too, displaying high level of friendliness.

Some of the more friendlier people one may find would be in Iran, which is usually seen by the outside world as “unfriendly” as portrayed by the western media. The people I met in Kazakhstan were friendly too as I made quite a number of friends during my short stay there.

So keep on travelling and the next time if you are planning to visit an exotic country, you SHOULD! Happy discovering the world out there. Remember, the world out there is not as dangerous as it is deem to be. Friendly people and warm hospitality coupled with unexpected splendid scenery are usually the rewards one gets when visiting exotic countries!

Categories: Travel Tips