Pop quiz: Who has ever traveled with one of the following two people? The first, is the "once on vacation, I take advantage of everything/everyone person." This is the type of person who may or may not be an otherwise responsible individual in every day life.... Point is, they go to some country not their own and suddenly think it's okay to litter, tramp on priceless archaeological ruins, and/or become some obnoxious shell of themselves. Yep, this is the guy/gal who gives all travelers a bad name; shortening the life of foreign attractions, and giving a sometimes unforgiveable impression of our culture to other cultures abroad. Thanks for nothing.
The second person is the "site conquering, spastic, list person." Yep, you all know this type. This is the person who the second they arrive in a foreign country is operating off of some invisible list, which apparently gives high marks for crossing off as many sites/destinations as possible (in turn, not actually experiencing any of them). This person is the type who having stood for mere seconds in front of the awe-inspiring site before them is trying to rally the group to head off to the next place on their list. Talk about frustrating. The worst part about this type, is they're also the ones that return from a trip and talk about their "amazing experiences" despite the fact that they didn't take a chance to soak any of them up, learn a thing about the cultures in front of them, or take a deep breath before trying to jam another site in before closing time. As an aside, this is also the person that claims to have been to about 40 countries until you find out that 38 of them are just airports on layovers. Same mentality I suppose.
So, I have a few public service announcements to these two travelers:
1. Eating at a McDonald's in another country does not constitue a foreign cuisine.
2. Staying at a Holiday Inn and taking tours in which you never step foot off an air-conditioned bus, does not constitute traveling anywhere, let alone experiencing culture.
3. Embrace different.
4. If you can't in your own country: Throw garbage on the ground, touch pictures in a museum, climb all over priceless artifacts, don't do it abroad either.
5. Checklists are only good for buying groceries.
3 comments:
Okay first of all if you can't eat at McDonalds what are we supposed to eat? I'm not about to try any food from some foreign country. I'm there to take in the sites from the comfort of my fat a** bus with a Big Mac and fries. Globalization has offered me this opportunity to travel wherever I want and have all the comforts of home. Now why on earth would I not make a list of every place I want to see. As long as I have a photo in front of the place on my list I consider the trip 100% successful. Slide shows are way better with more places in them.
I am so lucky that I have never traveled with anyone like this. I think I would probably leave my traveling companion sitting at McDonald's while I took the first train outta there!
ok, i admit, i had a freaking cheeseburger from either mcdonalds or burger king (can't remember where). BUT, it was at like 8am and it was my third month in thailand and i swear if i had to eat noodles for breakfast one more day in a row i was going to vomit. so i caved. and ate a cheeseburger and i have to tell you, it was amazing that morning. but considering i don't even eat that crap stateside, i don't think i can be penalized for that one episode of caving to my western craving.
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