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After coming back from my honeymoon, I was reminded that there are some amazing places and wonderful people in countries outside of the United States. With everything that we got to see and experience on this trip, my favorite things were the hospitality and kindness of the people that we met along the way. That made this a rich experience.

My wife and I saw some beautiful scenery from mountains, cliffs, and waterfalls, to ocean views with breathtaking sunsets. We were lucky enough to be able to try so many great foods and taste some nice wine. We had adventure days and lazy days. All of this was wonderful, but the people we met put this trip beyond anything we could have planned.

Meeting Strangers From Far Away Places

It can be scary to go to a new place, especially when you don’t speak the language. People can be very off-putting and offended. They certainly had every right to be when I went up to them in their country and spoke to them in English rather than their national language. We Americans are very good at doing things like this. (Not a trophy I’d like us to win.)

I could tell it went a long way when I tried to learn basic words/phrases like “Thank you” and “Do you speak English?”. These were helpful to start the conversation and showed that I was trying. It was very clear to see the difference in how people responded when I started a conversation in English versus their language.

On a side note, traveling to a place that speaks a different language than me was made 1,000 times easier with the help of the Google Translate App. Not only can I type words, but it will also say them out loud for me to learn. It also has a feature that allowed me to point the camera to foreign words on a sign or a menu and it would translate them for me within the picture. It was truly amazing and a great example of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning being useful in daily life.

People Didn’t Have to Be So Nice

While on this vacation I read a book that I absolutely loved, The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos by Christian Davenport. Being an engineer, reading a book about the start of the commercial space industry was one of the coolest things I could read.

As Jeff Bezos was growing up, he seemed to be described as a bit of a know-it-all. Being extremely intelligent, like his grandfather, it was easy for Bezos to continually correct people. Smart people love to be right and therefore, want to correct those that make mistakes. One day, his grandfather had enough and said to little Jeff,

One day you will understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever.

The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos by Christian Davenport

This made me think, especially since I was surrounded by strangers that were being so kind to me. People could have talked about me behind my back or even in front of my face, I wouldn’t have understood them either way. But I don’t think they did.

Instead, they talked with us, explaining which dishes were authentic cuisine that we should try. We actively asked questions and were trying to learn about their culture and traditions. We made friends with as many people as we could to try to experience everything they could offer.

Meeting great people, that were once strangers, enhanced our adventure and helped us have a rich honeymoon.

What Can We Learn?

One thing I can learn from this trip is to be more tolerant of tourists when I’m back home. Living in the Washington, D.C. area, we are always flooded with tourists coming to the city. Most are from the United States, but a lot are from other countries speaking different languages.

In the past, I have viewed them as invaders into our city that are either protesting and destroying the city for whatever reason, or are oblivious to where they are walking/driving. I don’t work in the service or hospitality industry so I don’t know what they are like when they go out to eat.

In general, I will be more patient and kinder to those that are from out of town. Even though it is much harder than thinking about how late I will be for work, it goes a long way in making their experience better.

Thinking about other people rather than only myself is not easy. It takes an elevated mental state and a level of maturity that not everyone has. Most people take the easy road to try to prove that they are better or more important than everyone else.

Let’s focus on taking the road that is probably a little harder in the beginning but will pay off if we keep going down it. Continuing to be kind to others, no matter who they are or where they come from or if you’ll never see them again… now that is a rich habit.