11 Travel Faux Pas to Avoid

Touching is too intimate in some Asian nations
By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 21, 2008 1:39 PM CDT
11 Travel Faux Pas to Avoid
Western tourists visit the Museum in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.   (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

A great pleasure of this wide world of ours is the multiplicity of cultures and customs. That diversity can also get you into a heap of trouble. So, when traveling, here’s what not to do, and where not to do it, from Travel and Leisure.

  • Touching: Too intimate in Asia. And steer clear of that baby’s head in Thailand!
  • Eating with the left hand: a no-no in Africa. That hand’s for wiping.

  • Refusing a lei: akin to slapping a Hawaiian in the face.
  • Doffing shoes at the door: Do it in Asia. Don’t where it would be weird.
  • Not looking a German in the eye when toasting: ‘nuff said.
  • Talking: Don’t do it over dinner in some African nations. Or in a Finnish sauna.
For the complete list, click the link below. (More tradition stories.)

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