Long-Term Goals

@jomp in my experience, most of the weird stuff and feral aussies live inland and up north.

It's where all the cattle stations are.

Squaredonutwheels wrote: You can't know what you don't know

It is actually the fact that I have travelled a lot is the basis for what I say.

salles wrote:

Squaredonutwheels wrote: You can't know what you don't know

It is actually the fact that I have travelled a lot is the basis for what I say.

I'm sure you have traveled a lot.
To a lot of tourist destinations.

Why else would you say something like "There are few places not overrun by tourists"
Because that is all you have experienced. Which means it's true for you.

Squaredonutwheels wrote:

salles wrote:

Squaredonutwheels wrote: You can't know what you don't know

It is actually the fact that I have travelled a lot is the basis for what I say.

I'm sure you have traveled a lot.
To a lot of tourist destinations.

Why else would you say something like "There are few places not overrun by tourists"
Because that is all you have experienced. Which means it's true for you.

It can seem that way, but because I am older I can compare the travelling experiences of late 80's to now, and it doesn't compare.
1. First trip - Lived and worked in France for 3mths. Their culture has become more globalised and no longer much different to any other country in the E.U.When I was there it still had some original character.
2. Lived and worked in Atlantic City for 6mths. Corruption , cocaine and lingering mafia presence made it seedy and exciting. It is all cleaned up now.
3. Hitchhiked around Australia for one year. Couldn't do that now 'cos of the knowledge of all the f'cking seriel killers there and backpacker murders.
4. Lived in Australia then for many years; northern territory, east, south, north NSW etc. before it became so expensive, so regulated and bureaucratic.
5. Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia ... where one could smoke their brains out with opium and hash and live cheaply in authentic little shacks and enjoy amazing food, which is no longer the case. Tourism is BIG in these countries now and they cater for what they think white people will like.
More recently, Spain and Portugal for short stays. V BORING. Admittedly I had to do the tourist thing there (apart from the occasional hike which entailed being part of a group for safety )
There is no sense of adventure to travel ( at least for me) anymore.

Perhaps I should have said travelling is no longer appealing to me because tourism is a BIG money spinner now. Everything is sanitised, regulated to cater for aging retired populations ie the demographic who can afford to travel.

Younger people seek more adventure and out of the way places; hiking, mountaineering etc.. but thanks to Lonely Planet and other such tourist guides, and social media, no where remains special for long.

But having said all that maybe its 'cos I am a girl on her own, less reckless and less naive than I used to be, and this has made the idea of travelling in the way I would like to, less attainable and therefore less desirable. Not sure now.

I'm from up north, capital area.
There are some tourists downtown, certain restaurants and bars, places advertising "authenticity". Those are the places me, and any other sensible local people avoid. Going to work and returning home - not a single tourist around.
There's a popular nature reserve area not so far from here. That is the one place I wouldn't go hiking.

Drive 1 hour away from the city and you're lucky to see any people around.

I think travelling makes you less naive. You're aware of the power of the media for one thing.

People have said to me, "Why would you go there, the place keeps getting bombed?" talking about places like Israel, Iraq, Saudi etc. Truth is, no they don't. Most of those countries are full of people trying to look after their families, and are often much friendlier than "safe" countries because they've learned to take care of one another.

You'll feel a lot safer walking through the streets of Tel Aviv or Riyadh than parts of London or New York.

I saw a news woman, I think from Sky News, standing on the corner of a street where I was sitting having a beer at a bar with some work colleagues. She put on a bullet proof vest and a helmet before doing her report to a camera, looking a lot more urgent than she had 10 minutes earlier when she was skulling her latte and checking her makeup.

Just stick a pin in a map and go. Flights and AirBNB are dirt cheap and make travelling to places off the normal tourist routes easy.

salles wrote:It can seem that way, but because I am older I can compare the travelling experiences of late 80's to now, and it doesn't compare.
1. First trip - Lived and worked in France for 3mths. Their culture has become more globalised and no longer much different to any other country in the E.U.When I was there it still had some original character.
2. Lived and worked in Atlantic City for 6mths. Corruption , cocaine and lingering mafia presence made it seedy and exciting. It is all cleaned up now.
3. Hitchhiked around Australia for one year. Couldn't do that now 'cos of the knowledge of all the f'cking seriel killers there and backpacker murders.
4. Lived in Australia then for many years; northern territory, east, south, north NSW etc. before it became so expensive, so regulated and bureaucratic.
5. Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia ... where one could smoke their brains out with opium and hash and live cheaply in authentic little shacks and enjoy amazing food, which is no longer the case. Tourism is BIG in these countries now and they cater for what they think white people will like.
More recently, Spain and Portugal for short stays. V BORING. Admittedly I had to do the tourist thing there (apart from the occasional hike which entailed being part of a group for safety )
There is no sense of adventure to travel ( at least for me) anymore.

Perhaps I should have said travelling is no longer appealing to me because tourism is a BIG money spinner now. Everything is sanitised, regulated to cater for aging retired populations ie the demographic who can afford to travel.

Younger people seek more adventure and out of the way places; hiking, mountaineering etc.. but thanks to Lonely Planet and other such tourist guides, and social media, no where remains special for long.

But having said all that maybe its 'cos I am a girl on her own, less reckless and less naive than I used to be, and this has made the idea of travelling in the way I would like to, less attainable and therefore less desirable. Not sure now.

Fascinating. Thanks for writing that and providing context.
I am under the impression that backpackers in the 80s such as yourself pioneered the culture of "backpacking" and carved out the routes that are now popular among younger generations.

Traveling back to these locations in a nostalgic way of wanting to experience all that again would lead to disappointment because it just won't be the same. I guess things change and mix. Cultures influence each other and the uniqueness of something different starts to go away the moment of contact. That being said, I still don't think it makes it less interesting or 'authentic'. It depends on how you look at it. What does it mean authentic? It's still got it's layers of real and illusory.

Take a look at the tourist traps in south east asia and look under the story of the story and you may find something else as well..
https://pastebin.com/N4MPVbVw

justonemoreperson wrote:I think travelling makes you less naive. You're aware of the power of the media for one thing.

People have said to me, "Why would you go there, the place keeps getting bombed?" talking about places like Israel, Iraq, Saudi etc. Truth is, no they don't. Most of those countries are full of people trying to look after their families, and are often much friendlier than "safe" countries because they've learned to take care of one another.

You'll feel a lot safer walking through the streets of Tel Aviv or Riyadh than parts of London or New York.

I saw a news woman, I think from Sky News, standing on the corner of a street where I was sitting having a beer at a bar with some work colleagues. She put on a bullet proof vest and a helmet before doing her report to a camera, looking a lot more urgent than she had 10 minutes earlier when she was skulling her latte and checking her makeup.

Just stick a pin in a map and go. Flights and AirBNB are dirt cheap and make travelling to places off the normal tourist routes easy.

That's so true.

But there are some places where being white is legitimately dangerous but you really have to go out of your way to get to spots like that.. and before you can really get too lost and get yourself in trouble, the countries own intelligence agencies will stop you going further because they themselves will think you're CIA. If it turns out you are a legitimately a tourist, they won't let you go further because they don't want a PR nightmare.

Squaredonutwheels wrote:But there are some places where being white is legitimately dangerous but you really have to go out of your way to get to spots like that.. and before you can really get too lost and get yourself in trouble, the countries own intelligence agencies will stop you going further because they themselves will think you're CIA. If it turns out you are a legitimately a tourist, they won't let you go further because they don't want a PR nightmare.

I remember the first time I was on the receiving end of racism and it's an odd feeling, not being used to it.

Being warned by police not to stop at red lights in parts of Jo-burg and being stared at as a curiosity in Nairobi for example.

Often it's the odd things that you remember the most. A local Egyptian I was working with took me around Cairo on the weekend to see some stuff and held my hand and arm at times, which is their custom to indicate friendship, but it was an odd feeling when you're not used to it.

The hardest thing to get used to in many of these places is they smell of stale sweat and bad breath.

Squaredonutwheels wrote:
Traveling back to these locations in a nostalgic way of wanting to experience all that again would lead to disappointment because it just won't be the same. I guess things change and mix. Cultures influence each other and the uniqueness of something different starts to go away the moment of contact. That being said, I still don't think it makes it less interesting or 'authentic'. It depends on how you look at it. What does it mean authentic? It's still got it's layers of real and illusory.

Take a look at the tourist traps in south east asia and look under the story of the story and you may find something else as well..
https://pastebin.com/N4MPVbVw

True.

From pastebin:

Shiet, even in the loosest whored out tourist traps that are designed to suck as much $ out as possible, there is interesting stuff happening...

Even in the popular "hiking and climbing trails" that are populated by tourists wanting to plant their ego on top of a mountain, there is history and hidden stories too.

good phrases here ! Nice article, appropriate and entertaining.

justonemoreperson wrote:I saw a news woman, I think from Sky News, standing on the corner of a street where I was sitting having a beer at a bar with some work colleagues. She put on a bullet proof vest and a helmet before doing her report to a camera, looking a lot more urgent than she had 10 minutes earlier when she was skulling her latte and checking her makeup.

justonemoreperson wrote:Just stick a pin in a map and go. Flights and AirBNB are dirt cheap and make travelling to places off the normal tourist routes easy.

'trusted housesitters' is another cheap option ... Looking after pets. Great locations....probably wouldn't suit some people though.