This week, on Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #184, host Amy from The World is a Book… is having everyone reflect all the lessons past travels has taught us.

If my past travels have taught me anything, it’s expect the unexpected. These shots were from my 2017 trip to China’s Grand Canyon. This place is always raining. I believe it only has good weather a few weeks out of the whole year.

I went there in March 2017 and that day was so cold and wet. With the wind and mist, I was sulking wet and cold the whole time despite wearing several layers, a scarf, and a winter coat.

What was unexpected were the crowds, being poked and prodded with umbrellas, and people screaming and nagging, “what’s there to take a picture about?” I was poked in the arms, ribs, and almost in the eye. I cannot even begin to count the times I shrieked, “ouch!” or “Hey!”

So expect the unexpected and try to work around it.

The second lesson my past travel has taught me is wear sensible shoes.

Of all the things I expected when I was packing for my 2017 trip to China, I was not expecting frost and slippery paths but there I was, in Hunan in March 2017 at the top of Tianmen Mountain, afraid to take my next step because I was wearing a pair of tennis shoes and if there’s frost, there’s ice.

I learned this lesson. So when I went to Canada a few months later, I didn’t wear my tennis shoes, instead, I wore my hiking boots the whole time, though it’s heavy, it did the trick of preventing me from slipping on ice.