I love to travel, and I’ve been fortunate enough to visit 10 different cities around the world. While each city has its own unique charm and attractions, one thing that I never really thought about before was the impact of time zone changes on my travels.
As a computer science student, I’m pretty familiar with time zones and how they work :) But experiencing them firsthand can be a totally different story. Each time I traveled to a new city, I had to adjust to a new local time, which could be anywhere from one to several hours different from my home time zone. This made for some interesting experiences and challenges.
To give you an idea of what I mean, here’s a list of the cities I visited and their local times with respect to London local time because of its zero meridian:
- New York local time is 5 hours behind London, in the Eastern Standard Time (EST) zone (UTC-5).
- Paris local time is 1 hour ahead of London, in the Central European Time (CET) zone (UTC+1).
- Tokyo local time is 8 hours ahead of London, in the Japan Standard Time (JST) zone (UTC+9).
- Sydney local time is 10 hours ahead of London, in the Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) zone (UTC+10).
- Rio de Janeiro local time is 3 hours behind London, in the Brasilia Time (BRT) zone (UTC-3).
- Cape Town local time is 2 hours ahead of London, in the South Africa Standard Time (SAST) zone (UTC+2).
- Bangkok local time is 7 hours ahead of London, in the Indochina Time (ICT) zone (UTC+7).
- Dubai local time is 4 hours ahead of London, in the Gulf Standard Time (GST) zone (UTC+4).
- Mumbai local time is 5.5 hours ahead of London, in the India Standard Time (IST) zone (UTC+5.5).
- Vancouver local time is 8 hours behind London, in the Pacific Standard Time (PST) zone (UTC-8).
The first time I experienced a time zone change was when I traveled from New York to Paris. The six-hour difference really threw me off, and it took me a few days to adjust. I was waking up early and going to bed late, which made it hard to enjoy everything the city had to offer. Plus, I kept forgetting to factor in the time difference when calling or messaging family and friends back home.
My next stop was Tokyo, which was nine hours ahead of New York. This was a huge adjustment, and I found myself feeling jet-lagged for several days. I also had trouble keeping track of what time it was back home, which made it difficult to schedule calls or meetings with people in other time zones.
When I arrived in Sydney, the time difference was only one hour ahead of Tokyo, but I still felt disoriented. It didn’t help that I had trouble sleeping on the plane, which made it hard to adjust to the new local time.
Rio de Janeiro was a little easier to adjust to, as it was only one hour ahead of New York. However, I did have some trouble with scheduling, as I kept forgetting to factor in the time difference when setting up meetings with local contacts.
Cape Town was two hours ahead of Rio, which wasn’t too bad, but I did find myself feeling more tired than usual. Bangkok was seven hours ahead of Cape Town, which meant that I had to adjust my sleeping schedule significantly.
When I arrived in Dubai, the four-hour difference felt like a welcome relief after some of the larger jumps I had experienced. However, I still had to be mindful of the time difference when communicating with people back home.
Mumbai was only a half-hour difference from Dubai, but it still took me some time to adjust. Vancouver was a full 11-hour difference from Mumbai, which meant that I had to reverse my sleep schedule completely.
Overall, my travels taught me a lot about the challenges of time zone changes. While I enjoyed each city I visited, I also had to be mindful of my own physical and mental health, as well as the challenges of communication with people in other time zones. It was an experience that I’ll never forget, and it’s given me a new appreciation for the complexities of time zones and the challenges they can pose for travelers.