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The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)
81–90 of 148 posts
Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)
#82sex tourism was also probably a thing back then
Yeah this is the elephant in the room that no one talks about. And it’s not just about old guys going over there and picking up prostitutes, young guys will go over there and pick up regular girls on Tinder, just because it’s way easier to get laid there than in the West, for a bunch of controversial reasons that we aren’t allowed to talk about.
It's mostly just money. If you're a caucasian-looking foreigner, most folks in developing countries will think you have lots of dollars/euros/pounds to spend, which goes a long way in these smaller economies. Same reason store vendors will probably try to charge you higher prices. As someone who's not caucasian but has traveled with folks who are, it's certainly an interesting sight to see.
Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)
#83(with the disclaimer that it has been 30 months since travelling widely) It's still possible. 99% of travellers proceed along narrow planks of tourist hotspots that represent 1% of what is interesting in the world. Once it was lonely planet trails, then tripadvisor routes, now instagram pin plots. It's so easy to step off those paths, and doing so is very rewarding. Use those guides as guides as to what what not to d…
Hmmm I'm afraid with my limited vacation time each year I'm now a firm believer in following the well trodden path most of the time. I've had too many trips where you try and do something completely unique like go to an island or a province "tourists never go to"...and then you discover why. There's nothing there. I went to a couple of the Pacific islands in Micronesia which don't get many tourists thinking I was bei…
The trick (unfortunately) is to slow down. If you don't have a tight schedule, and can sort of wander, you can start somewhere well known and end up somewhere off the beaten path pretty organically.
You'll also meet a network of longer-term travelers who exchange info about where to go (and not go). You don't have to go somewhere that literally no one has been to see something a bit unique, magical, and mostly devoid of casual tourists.
Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)
#84(with the disclaimer that it has been 30 months since travelling widely) It's still possible. 99% of travellers proceed along narrow planks of tourist hotspots that represent 1% of what is interesting in the world. Once it was lonely planet trails, then tripadvisor routes, now instagram pin plots. It's so easy to step off those paths, and doing so is very rewarding. Use those guides as guides as to what what not to d…
>Once it was lonely planet trails, then tripadvisor routes, now instagram pin plots.
Or a wikivoyage that tries to get you to drive through the most dangerous neighborhoods in Baltimore XD
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/The_Wire_Tour
(Every halfway edgy "tour" I did, I had a guide or was ready to handle things on my own, then did so.)
Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)
#85I went to Thailand on an Excite/Adventure tour in 1989. I was the only American in the group and it was mostly younger people. Checking into the hotel in Bangkok as a single man, they just assumed I was there for sex, and asked if I wanted a girl sent up to my room (the answer was no, in case you're wondering). We also trekked through the "native tribes" areas in the north, where the tribes had been "persuaded" not t…
There's a substantial Karen presence in MN now (I think these are Burmese refugees and not from the Thai side of the border). Wonder what those areas were like pre-internet and pre-social media. Do you have a blog post or pics somewhere?
I think I have some analog photos, but I never scanned them in. Anyhow, there were five tribes, so I don't remember specifics about the Karen, and these might be about the other tribes.
Details: we were told to bring gifts for the women & children, but not for the men. For the women, only threads & needles for sewing. For the kids, just wrapped candy.
When we got there, the kids all got together and sang for us. Then they said, "OK, now you sing to us!" The rest of the group was British, so the only song they all knew was "It's a Long Way to Tipperary."
They had a big hut that the tourists slept in. After dinner, the women would bring out their crafts and sell them to us.
It's not true that roosters crow when the sun comes up. They crow when it's still dark.
Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)
#86(with the disclaimer that it has been 30 months since travelling widely) It's still possible. 99% of travellers proceed along narrow planks of tourist hotspots that represent 1% of what is interesting in the world. Once it was lonely planet trails, then tripadvisor routes, now instagram pin plots. It's so easy to step off those paths, and doing so is very rewarding. Use those guides as guides as to what what not to d…
Wasn't the Lonely Planet era basically about hordes of Western backpackers going off the beaten path, while Lonely Planet carefully documented all the good things the backpackers found? It made many obscure places famous, but only a few of those famous places became touristy, because the others were too difficult to reach. Consider something like Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal. If you mentioned something about the Tran…
>Wasn't the Lonely Planet era basically about hordes of Western backpackers going off the beaten path, while Lonely Planet carefully documented all the good things the backpackers found?
It was about first generation international travelers showing up with thousands of dollars in electronics in places with much less tolerance for wealth inequality, feeling entitled to selectively decide when to follow local customs.
I got the sense it's meant to give you a sanitized experience, so that locals can have their own places, but you don't feel excluded.
(I visited Paris and London pre-Instagram, doing about 3 days in each, turning my phone off as much as possible and trying to stick to paper maps)
Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)
#87I went to Thailand on an Excite/Adventure tour in 1989. I was the only American in the group and it was mostly younger people. Checking into the hotel in Bangkok as a single man, they just assumed I was there for sex, and asked if I wanted a girl sent up to my room (the answer was no, in case you're wondering). We also trekked through the "native tribes" areas in the north, where the tribes had been "persuaded" not t…
The Karen (no S) you met were most likely refugees from Burma. For decades their lives have been very controlled by the Thai authorities, who use them as exotic tourist exhibits. The Thais don’t allow them to farm for themselves as they want to keep them dependent, subservient and profitable (I confer no judgment in the tourists who visit them as it’s complicated). So they tend to have secret fields in the jungle so…
There was definitely some farming among the hill tribes, but I don't know by whom.
We visited one tribe that was considered Bad by the missionaries, so we didn't stay there. They were thought Bad because they all chewed betel nut and consequently had red mouths.
Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)
#88I went to Thailand on an Excite/Adventure tour in 1989. I was the only American in the group and it was mostly younger people. Checking into the hotel in Bangkok as a single man, they just assumed I was there for sex, and asked if I wanted a girl sent up to my room (the answer was no, in case you're wondering). We also trekked through the "native tribes" areas in the north, where the tribes had been "persuaded" not t…
>Believe it or not, one of the tribes was called the Karens.
I found a source for others since I know I didn't :-)
(It's apparently "Karen people")
>The Karen, also known as the Kayin, Kariang or Kawthoolese, are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language–speaking peoples.
Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)
#89One of the biggest changes is that even in the 1990s in many places, you'd have minimal or no contact with anyone back home and probably even reasonably cut off from news. When I went on a few ~month long trips to Nepal around that time, you were just starting to see some terminals for email here and there towards the end of the decade. But you were pretty much cut off from most communications.
>One of the biggest changes is that even in the 1990s in many places, you'd have minimal or no contact with anyone back home and probably even reasonably cut off from news.
But did you grab english language papers as you traveled? Or truly just stop getting western news?
(I agree going offline can be cool and good.)
Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)
#90Although I maintain that a persistent travel itch is a symptom of dissatisfaction in day-to-day life which should be addressed, I backpacked Europe and the Middle East the summer after university. I was an incredibly enriching experience and one of those things people should do if they can afford it. I plan on doing Cape Town to Cairo in a few years.
Why dissatisfaction? Do pick up a book because I’m dissatisfied? Do I paint because I’m dissatisfied?