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The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)

perceptivetravel.com

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Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)

#121

Post by telesilla »

bigDinosaur wrote: post #113
0xRusty wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Going off the beaten path in my experience requires genuine friendships with locals. I guess if you're super outgoing and adventurous you don't need that, but in my experience it has helped immensely to have locals (again, as friends, so they're not trying to scam you or at least mislead you) take me to cool things. I suppose it's not realistic to do this for a lot of destinations, but where it works it works well.

That's the key. I don't have the time anymore, but I'd often book a couple of days in a bnb or small hotel in an area I was curious about, then get to know the locals for where to actually go for a longer period, usually with introductions and instant friends.

I now know well a tiny village I go back to regularly where I'm part of the small summer swell of visitors, to go fishing and sailing without a crowd of tourists, because getting there is a bit complicated without assistance.

Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)

#122

Post by mysecretaccount »

jasonkester wrote: post #117
robga wrote: post #36

(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…

There’s a “revealed preference” thing going on among backpackers these days. Everybody says they want to see the unspoiled remote village, but they actually go to Vang Vieng. The rough and ready backpacker accommodation of the past with a cheap bed and nothing else can’t compete with the place up the road with the pool and air conditioning. There is remarkably little option to travel today like we did in the 90s. Bec…

There are plenty of beds for £5 in (to use your example) Laos. I had a room not too long ago for under $5, on the Mekong. I wasn't around for the 90s, maybe cheap rooms were much easier to come by, but they're not too difficult today in that part of the world.

Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)

#123

Post by snickerer »

netsharc wrote: post #67
Melatonic wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did Mongolia compare to other places you have traveled? I have been eyeing going there for awhile now - I was mainly planning to maybe spend a few days in Ulaanbataar since I would need to fly in there and then make my way over to the Altai mountains to do some backpacking and mountaineering.

Not OP, but Ulanbataar is a traffic jam. I guess walking is possible, but not great with all the rustbuckets spewing fumes... Was there in 2019, I'm not sure if I used Google Maps for buses or figured out the paper timetables, in any case there was a lot of waiting for and on the bus (due to the traffic). I think a whole day is enough for UB, maybe 2 days, and that would include a trip to a cashmere factory store (go…

The way to move in Ulaanbaatar is using locals as a taxi. Everybody does this and most people stop whem you give a sign. You have to know the current inofficial price per km and make clear you don't want to pay more before you start the ride.

The everybody-is-a-taxi replaces the missing public transport system there.

Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)

#124

Post by snickerer »

Melatonic wrote: post #56
snickerer wrote: post #45

I am very grateful that modern technology has led me to exciting places that I would not have found without it. I traveled for 20 months between 2016 and 2018 in Asia and Europe with my self-made 4WD camper. I spent months in the Mongolian steppe and an Iranian desert. Without the map data from the Openstreetmap project (and a satellite navigation device) I would not have found many fantastic places and wonderful rou…

How did Mongolia compare to other places you have traveled? I have been eyeing going there for awhile now - I was mainly planning to maybe spend a few days in Ulaanbataar since I would need to fly in there and then make my way over to the Altai mountains to do some backpacking and mountaineering.

Just do it. Being in Mongolia is easy.

Ulaanbaatar is ugly but nevertheless interesting. There is much to learn. I liked the big market with its yurt parts section very much.

The Altai is very far away from Ulaanbaatar. Very far. It is a 1.400 km tour mostly on sand tracks. I would use a car and plan a week for just the trip from Ulaanbaatar to the mountains. But only if you hurry and don't want to stop and have a look left and right of the main track.

To enter the Altai you need a special permit because it is border area. But you get that easily in the capital.

Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)

#125

Post by snickerer »

Melatonic wrote: post #56
snickerer wrote: post #45

I am very grateful that modern technology has led me to exciting places that I would not have found without it. I traveled for 20 months between 2016 and 2018 in Asia and Europe with my self-made 4WD camper. I spent months in the Mongolian steppe and an Iranian desert. Without the map data from the Openstreetmap project (and a satellite navigation device) I would not have found many fantastic places and wonderful rou…

How did Mongolia compare to other places you have traveled? I have been eyeing going there for awhile now - I was mainly planning to maybe spend a few days in Ulaanbataar since I would need to fly in there and then make my way over to the Altai mountains to do some backpacking and mountaineering.

About the comparison: Mongolia is the most 'democratic' state in the area. You don't have to face police corruption (robbers in uniform) or bureaucratic insanity like in man ex-Soviet states. That was very relaxing for me, because I hated the daily encounters with uniformed robbers in Kazakhstan.

And the Mongolians are nomads. So they have a tradition of traveling. Traveling is the most normal thing to do there. As a traveler this makes me somehow feel at home.

The key for Mongolia is time. The country is so big, you need time to explore and to learn how things are working there.

Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)

#126

Post by kortilla »

eezurr wrote: post #58

>In every culture the native costume is the first thing to go, native architecture is next. Food is one of the last to go, even in modern places where people are wearing blue jeans. So these days I like to go to places where there is still native costume and native architecture. Unfortunately these areas are shrinking. I'm not nostalgic about it; I understand the reasons behind the changes, and it's a net improvement…

> Humans are cursed to be discontent once they find out there are better options available.

Yeah, it turns out the “simplicity of famine” after a tribal territorial dispute destroyed food supplies isn’t so great after all. Or simple water sanitization problems causing severe sickness for 1/4 of your people.

That simple life is good when it’s the right ratio of work rewarded with reward (food, shelter, respect in your peers). Otherwise it’s life and death misery.

Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)

#127

Post by rakejake »

hans1729 wrote: post #23
golergka wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Must be nice to live in country stable enough for you to able not to follow the news.

Now I’m curious, where do you live? “News” are serving a very weird market, almost 100% about selling stories that satisfy the distorted attention span of demographic majorities who have no interest in going beyond the surface level of their groups model of consensus. It’s an omnidirectional intellectual wasteland, ignoring some pieces of economical (etc) analysis. What do you have to be informed about a priori? Afte…

Same here, got hooked to news during Covid and for a few months it was agony. Then I realized why I stopped reading news regularly in the first place.

Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)

#128

Post by rakejake »

julienchastang wrote: post #72

Interesting read though I think he focuses a little too much on the hardship of his travels and not enough on the joys of his journey. Or maybe his travels were not that pleasurable -- that is the impression I got anyway. Also unfortunately, the pictures do not have captions (where are those two fellows on their small donkeys?) and it seems the digital scan of the 35mm could have been a little higher quality. Lastly,…

The hardships are the joys, at least that is the way I read it. There is obviously a threshold, and getting robbed and having to work to get out of a country is unpleasant I'm sure, but the intrigue and friction in navigating a new culture is what makes traveling such a pleasurable activity.

Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)

#129

Post by Bhurn00985 »

dontbenebby wrote: post #86
jltsiren wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

The first Lonely Planet book, Across Asia on the cheap, was published in 1973 afaik, so there weren't many electronics around back then. So it has little to do with the type of traveler you discuss, not that these didn't show up in more recent decades.

You can find the original one on archive.org if you'd like.

Re: The Life of a Backpacker in Asia in the 1970s (2018)

#130

Post by dontbenebby »

deanCommie wrote: post #33

A lot of this stuff is so much more recent than people realize. I went to Southeast Asia in 2010: Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand. One of my stops was the famous "Lunch Lady" from Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations [0] There was no Uber, I had no data. I had printout of a map, but just look at the kind of map I had to go on in that URL from 2008. There were slightly better directions from Vietnamese-only websites.…

>There was no Uber, I had no data.

I went off to grad school as DADT was in effect, then Uber came into my college town, and I could see how things changed rapidly, in many ways, and not all of them good.

It's great people can get safe, cheap rides without DUIing all over the place, but it's at it's heart a jitney service propped up with Saudi money.

>Ubiquitous mobile access and data is what's really flattened most of our world. It's unquestionably an improvement for the people involved, but travelling definitely has a lot less charm and sense of discovery now.

I'd argue there's plenty of charm and discovery if you just turn off your phone and be mindful someone doesn't know if you're from North Dakota or North Korea if they haven't met you before or heard you speak.

I really enjoyed AB's show, but I worry people take the wrong thing from it -- they engage in low key herofication[1] of the specific cook or restaurant, rather than learn the names of a few dishes to try at a cafe where they might not give a damn if some American has a good experience or even comes back.

[1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heroification

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