It's Okay to Eat Ice Cream Twice a Day and Other Savvy Travel Tips
A frequent traveller tells how to get the most from your holidays - great food, local colour and authentic experiences - without spending a lot.
I've got two words for you: es campur.
That's Indonesian for, 'mixed ice.' This wonderful concoction of shaved ice, coconut, pineapple, jackfruit, sweet jellies, avocado and condensed milk may be the strangest, most delicious delicacy I've ever ingested and I owe it to one of my most sacred travel principles: Try it - pretty much whatever 'it' is. This has included riding an elephant in Thailand, taking a toke of the local tobacco from a hookah in Istanbul, eating snake in China, turning off the highway to visit the Corn Palace in South Dakota, USA, and taking a break from a Balinese bike ride to approach a roadside stand and taste a spoonful - and then a bowlful - of es campur.
There are, of course, exceptions: skydiving has, so far, been beyond me. Some things are too dangerous or unappealing. I won't eat dog, no matter what the local custom. Nor will I fire, or even touch, a gun, even at a supervised firing range for nothing. (This has actually come up.)
'Try it' is only the most general of the essential principles I've learned in my years on the road and it's one of the most important things you can take on a trip. Here are five more specific tips that can quickly elevate even the most novice independent traveller to the savvy heights of a seasoned globetrotter.
- Eat the Food on the Train
In many countries, food sellers will climb aboard a train during a station stop and quickly walk down the aisles announcing their delicacies. I've had some of the most scrumptious, inexpensive meals of my travels this way.At dinnertime on a trip from Bombay to Goa, an old woman climbed aboard and sold me three vegetable samosas, still warm from the fryer, potatoes tender and steamy, for a few pennies. In the morning, stewards on the train prepared hot chai - sweet, spicy milk tea - and served it in clear glasses. At a stop another old woman appeared selling a breakfast pastry, a rice-pancake with dhal inside, wrapped in parchment. Standing in the open air at the end of the car as the train began chugging south again, sipping the chai and eating the pastry, I felt wonderful - the sun dancing, the world a place of surprise treats lavished on the open heart. I've never had a finer breakfast.
And no, I did not get sick later. I have never once been ill in India. Perhaps thanks to...
Subrule a: Look at the Person Selling You Food
I didn't invent this rule, but I have found it to be infallible. You can assume the waiter or the guy running the kiosk eats the same tasty grub they are selling you. If they look healthy and clean, the food they're selling is probably fine. Keep in mind that one of the biggest issues with food contamination is the local water and lack of refrigeration, so cooked hot local dishes are better than European-style salads anyway.
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