Sarah Baxter, responsible traveller
Posted at 09:13AM Mar 20, 2008 by G-Woman
Lonely Planet community member Sarah Baxter hopes to encourage greater dialogue on the importance of being more aware when travelling.
To achieve this, she started writing her own travel blog, The Exotic Durian, which examines the good and bad impacts of travelling in Indonesia.
For Sarah, responsible travelling is being more conscientious about your travel footprint in a variety of ways.
"There is so much potential for travellers to have a beneficial effect on the local people, culture, and environment they visit, as well as potential to cause harm without even realizing it," she says.
"Responsible travelling is when travellers decrease the negative impacts they cause and maximise the positive." You might call it being travel-neutral.
Sarah tells us her favourite travel experience so far is "a very memorable night" in Northeast Thailand.
"I'd been teaching English in a village and staying with a local family. Somehow it was brought up that it would be great fun to have me participate in the local beauty pageant! The next week I was soon at the beauty parlor, along with other participants, being decked out in a traditional Thai outfit and makeup. Then, I found out I also had to perform a 'talent' so the mother and aunt were teaching me dance moves. It was a rather funny and crazy experience, but I will always remember that moment on stage dressed up like a Thai lady as the people from the area went wild with enjoyment."
Catch up with Sarah online at theexoticdurian.blogspot.com
Related Thorn Tree Forum Branch: Responsible Travel, Indonesia
Category: CommunityHighlight | Tags: blog community indonesia sustainabletravel
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Sorry my English is bad.
Thanks
Posted by Didi on March 29, 2008 at 03:17 AM EST #
However I must state that Indonesia,and by that I really mean the people,is a " trow away" society.
No incentives whatsoever are given by the authorities at any level of government to start behaving otherwise.
The expat community here in Bali to which I belong have for many years tried to get some kind of rubbish collection going and this has only been function of sorts in the last few years.
Plastics is the main culprit that is clogging the waterways of this beautiful Island and unfortunate to say that it is mainly the local population that are the perputrators.
myself and many of my fellow expats are well aware of the damage that is been done on a daily basis,yet the locals seem totally unconcerned,bar a few educated people that have had the chance to travel overseas and have experienced otherwise.
Posted by Bill van Eck on March 29, 2008 at 11:50 PM EST #