This week I am going to Sri Lanka and, outside a few facts I’d picked up by reading the news and talking to friends over the years, I recently realized I knew shockingly little about the country.

I knew it was once ruled by the British, there was a long conflict between the Tamils and Sinhalese, the country produces a lot of tea, it has beyond-delicious food, its capital is Colombo, and there are some amazing jungles and beaches to explore.

But, beyond that superficial understanding, I knew nothing.

I couldn’t tell you if the country was cheap or inexpensive, what to see, one famous ruin, safety issues, where is popular, how to get around, what their currency or culture is, or anything in between.

Sri Lanka was a blank slate to me.

That made me nervous.

While I have no intention of ever planning trips day-by-day or moment-by-moment, I never like to go somewhere blind — it’s a sure-fire way to get ripped off, eat the wrong thing, get sick, make a cultural faux pas, and generally have something go badly. Knowledge is power, and given that so much information about is available online, I feel like going somewhere without any understanding of that place shows a laziness in planning and a sign of an unskilled traveler.

*This content is not real and for Demo purpose only