Travel Tips from Semester at Sea Students

The college students who joined the Semester at Sea really got around last year, studying aboard a floating classroom that visited 10 countries and sailed 24,036 miles around the world. Los Angeles Times staff writer Janet Eastman traveled with them, and she asked the students for their best travel advice. Her story in Sunday’s paper features 110 tips, including these:

Don’t refrain from trying food from street vendors or anything that is “strange” to you, like frog leg soup in Vietnam. Varieties of food are an integral part of country and deserve a taste. You might get sick, but you’ll live.

Become the culture you encounter: Dress like them, act like them, even argue like them. Try as much as you can not to be yourself. You will experience a whole new appreciation for the other culture.

Sketch what you see to remember it rather than always using the camera. You’ll meet more people this way.

Girls: Be prepared to squat.

Go to a place of tragedy, such as the killing fields of Cambodia, Tiananmen Square [Beijing], Robben Island in South Africa, and the War Remnants Museum in Vietnam, and ask yourself how it makes you feel as an American, as a human being.

Remember that not everyone is out to [take advantage of] you and that the world is full of nice people who are willing to help, so stop being paranoid so you can enjoy your time even more.

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