Finding out the facts about your destination

Facts About the Destination

Most travellers on holiday or business are hoping to find out success stories, how another country does things well, or better, or differently. 

Many countries have a newspapers giving different views, with a popular newspaper first giving the governments news, which you might call PR or propaganda. 

When I travelled from Singapore to Malaysia, I discovered that in the case of any negotiation or dispute between the two countries, you got more information, different information, when you looked at a second newspaper from the same coutnry and then two more from another country.

I would expect the same from any two countries which share borders. Or are in dispute. Obvious neighbours. Countries recently at war. Groups recently at war. And speaking to older people who recall WW2 or their parents accounts, or grandparents stories of WW2 and WW1. The Japanese and Singaporeans would have different information on WW2.

North and South Korea may see things differently. Or even faraway places and those whose capitals are far away, such as the |USA and Russia. I would expect to see different accounts from newspapers in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.#

 Different accounts from Greece and Turkey. Different news stories and different accounts of the same story from Belgium and France, Portugal and Spain, Israel and Arab countries (Jerusalem Post and Al Jazeera). India and Pakistan. 

You may find the same food and drink on the menu under different names. Thick coffee, served in a small cup, appears as Greek coffee, Turkish coffee, Cypriot coffee. You need to know the local name to make yourself understood.

Fun Food

You also need to know the local names to bland in to local culture, and avoid giving offense. Even regions can have different language for the same or similar food. In France the pain au chocolat and the chocolatine are both a breakfast bun with a crispy or thicker outside with softer inside with a chocolate filling.

Sometimes it is a great pleasure to find that your familiar and favourite food or drink is available, but listed on a menu in a different name. 

Other times it is a delight to find a new variation on a familiar dish. Or many variations. 

Lonely Planet and Wikitravel have useful advice on how to avoid touchy subjects.