Making eye contact with another human being is a strong communication technique and communicates more than you might expect.
When talking to someone from a foreign country whose language you are perhaps not especially savvy with, you can make your point clearer by maintaining eye contact. This works because we communicate subconscious messages as we maintain eye contact, messages that are understood universally regardless of the language we are speaking.
If you are asking for directions, doing so while maintaining eye contact will show the person you are asking that you are inquiring about something. Combine this with a decent understanding of the language you are trying to communicate in and the other person is sure to be able to figure out the question you are asking.
Of course simply maintaining eye contact will not solve a lack of knowledge of a foreign language. You will need a basic grasp of that to at least ask a question.