When you arrive in a new country, you will be welcomed with new smells, noises, languages, food and people. Everything is new...everything is a culture shock.
So what is culture shock? When you travel to new countries nothing will be familiar and the term 'culture shock' basically means that things are different to the that at home. Culture shock can vary from slight to dramatic. When you arrive in a new destination where you have changed what you eat, what you hear, what you do, what you say, what you smell all at once, can be quite overwhelming. This can feel worse at the start of your trip if you have a bit of apprehension about the trip ahead and you are most likely jet-lagged, tired and trying to adjust to your new life. Our first stop on our trip was India and I would describe the culture shock as quite dramatic (but in a good and exciting way) and it made the rest of trip seemed easy to adapt to after the craziness of India. The initial culture shock can be daunting but give it time and you will settle into a different way of life.