1

Interesting article but I don't necessarily agree with your premise that 'so many of these people (looking for something less touristy) are the folks that are ready, waiting and searching for a WiFi connection, waiting to eat a pizza and stay in their flashy hotels.' I think a lot of people looking for something less touristy would forego those luxuries, at least for a short time, for the chance of experiencing a culture outside their own. I think you're being a bit too cynical.

2

Ashley, thank you for another thought provoking article. I have always believed that visitors to a country should visit a country or places therein out of curiosity. If you visit a country to rediscover your own country you will learn what you already know. So many posts on travel forums are downright depressing, ranging from the cultural void of tripadvisor.com where tourists are the second French colonialists at Angkor Wat-it's about the only place they talk about. Also discouraging are the NGO or voluntourism pimps. I am proud to say I have been thrown off their travel forum at least three times. It is too complicated to explore here but please think twice before you decide "to give back" to a country that has taken nothing from you. I do not write as knee jerk reaction or as someone who detests tourists. No, I dislike "tourons" my neologism made from combining "tourist" and "moron". Again thank you and may all your travels be stimulating.

3

i dont travel with a guide book either.. I travel with a computer.
do they still sell paper guides?

"tourons"
nice one!

4

Uomo Have you travelled around SE Asia recently? This is slightly where I got the inspiration to write that article from and I am now in Kathmandu, Nepal and similar things are happening here. We have people following guidebooks subconsciously and believe me there are people who think that WiFi exists in the Himalayas. Yes I may be generalising a large crowd but if there weren’t that large crowd to generalise then I wouldn’t have written that article in the first place. Too many people are heading out on “adventures of a lifetime” but not actually what I would call surrendering to the country itself, which is what I consider travel to be all about.

Sonuvcdouille thanks for the reply and it’s good to hear from you! I couldn’t agree more, there are some serious misconceptions out there with so many peoples ideas and views upon different countries, such a shame and unfortunately there is serious cash behind it so that it is marketed this way as a “2 week RISK FREE ‘ADVENTURE”. Volunteerism is an interesting one and I could go on all day about that! HA! Because it is something that I really don’t agree with especially English language volunteers that are not trained as teachers and are simply there to “help out” the misfortunate. It is almost like some sort of warped neo-colonialist idea about the white man helping the poor struggling person. Don’t get my wrong I do think that volunteering is important, but it should be for volunteers that specialise in areas and have solid training or qualifications. “tourons” Another great word to add to my vocabulary!

Doctornono I am the same! I actually took a look at the latest LP Vietnam while I was in Vietnam a couple of months back and I was looking closely at what they considered budget these days and in some cases the cheapest “budget” hotel was costing minimum $20+ per night. Well if that wasn’t saying something about marketing their books towards yuppies, then I don’t know what is!

5

People travel for different reasons. Discoveries come in different forms. I think the article was too cynical because it judged tourists who said the were looking for "non-touristy" areas in terms of what the author looks for in a non-touristy area.

6

Rasheeed I am well aware that people travel for different reasons and there are a lot of reasons. My argument was yes taken from a personal point of view, with personal bias. Can you say that it being too cynical isn’t biased by your opinion? I wrote it to challenge mainstream thought, which comes as a rarity these days. And I did say in the conclusion of my argument that … “touristy or not is what you individually make of it” and … “find those places that are waiting to be personally discovered by you, because you are the only person that is in charge of what you consider to be “non-touristy”.”

7

you dont need LP guides anyways, so whats your point?

who knows,, maybe your donation button will kick into action and allow you to live the life of a yup..
theres nothing wrong with $20 rooms!!..lol

8

I was just looking at it out of curiosity, if there is something i want to find out that is probably one of the last places I'd look these days, the internet works pretty well as a good substitute. However, I don't think that the life of a yup appeals to me that strongly haha

9

So a place with a lot of tourists can be non-touristy and a place with no tourists can be touristy, because I "am the only person that is in charge of what [I] consider to be touristy." Ok. Makes sense to me.

"One thing I have realised is that a large sum of the folk that demand, want or crave a non-touristic experience are very close-minded and to put simply not that adventurous to start with."

While everything I write is my opinion, I believe you being too cynical has a decent bit of factual basis.

'sheeed

10

In reference to the first statement you quoted: You essentially are the only person that considers a place to be "touristy" or not. It is your own perception. Hell I could find a deserted beach and say it's too touristy if i really wanted to, but I obviously wouldn't. That statement was more focused upon people like myself right now am in Kathmandu's Thamel area (a pretty developed area) and while I consider it "touristy" I am not going to moan and complain, like some do, which is why I also asked "Why are you here?" ..."Find an alternative". You've obviously opened that statement from my post up for interpretation.

In reference to your second statement that you quoted: This is a personal observation from being on the road, this is by no means a broad range of research conducted on the matter, so whether you think this is cynical or not it is based on the things I have heard and observed and you may have had different observations.

But in good spirit, thank you for your input.

Ashley

11

Keep writing Ashley, you take critique well and spiritedly. Happy travels.

12

One would be naive to think that only he is right!

Cheers

13

But I am, and you would be naive not to know that. Spend more time on the forum and you will see...

14

yes, Kathmandu is a hub, a capital city no less..
Kathmandu is an exciting place with lots of other travellers, for sure..
I enjoy the energy of Kathmandu and the opportunities to mingle and meet so many other well travelled folk..
She must be a lonely place if you have the shits with every other traveller.