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There's just some set of travelers who finds bizarre virtue in being able to say they only brought two pairs of underwear on a trip and they just washed them out in the hotel sink every night. Me, I pack to avoid doing laundry along the way
I don't think it's virtue as much as a tradeoff. For some the advantage of traveling light outweighs being the person with the huge roller bag, for others not having to worry about doing laundry is more important. No right or wrong answer.
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Originally Posted by MarisaMay
Also, I have read that the main temples and sites in Cambodia are completely inundated with groups of Chinese tourists in particular, making it hard for people to see them properly
Just set your alarm clock. Most Chinese in Cambodia are on organized tours so they take some time to get their free breakfast, load onto the bus, etc. if you arrive when the site opens and bang out the main spots before 9:00 am you'll be fine. By late morning though they are coming in force, it would probably give Korean War veterans some flashbacks.
You're conflating being interested and being able, those are two entirely different things. Someone working as a waitress in Omaha might love to go see Paris, it doesn't mean they will have the opportunity to go..
That's the point that is lost on many people. Many people will never have the opportunity. For Americans, its not like living in Europe and getting a Eurail Pass to see five or six countries in a few days.The geography here in America doesn't allow for easily visiting lots of other countries in a short time period.
I feel I shouldn't have to even explain that to someone. But many people in other countries don't get it. They prefer to maintain their bigoted viewpoint that Americans are simply uninterested in other cultures.
I am the daughter of immigrants who came from a place no one wants to “haveto” live. My parents didn’t speak English.
I was born a US citizen in northern New England. I am not considered an underrepresented minority, either now, or back then (1980) but still went to Harvard.
I traveled all over the world in my career, first on Wall St, then Silicon Valley.
My passport expired years ago, and I have zero desire to renew it.
It makes me laugh how those who were born to privileged parents here in the US use international travel to lord over those who haven’t traveled. Yet they’d never move to my parents place of origin.
It’s cool to have visited there, but totally uncool to have originated from there. Get over yourselves.
If you think about it, USA is made up of 50 "countries" so it makes sense to see these 50 countries first. Laos? Vietnam? Those are like the size of Minnesota and New Mexico.
It makes me laugh how those who were born to privileged parents here in the US use international travel to lord over those who haven’t traveled. Yet they’d never move to my parents place of origin.
I might have missed it but I think you're the first to mention privileged parents. Cool speech though.
1) More than most (but not all) countries, America has a "live to work" culture instead of the other way around unfortunately. We get less vacation time, more "pressure" to not take all of it or lose our job due to some BS "performance" reason (and a "performance" reason denies us unemployment). Oftentimes when Americans travel abroad, it's on business.
2) We are a very large country in a part of the world that is relatively isolated from other cultures. In Europe, countries are mostly the size of our states and each one is often a vastly different culture from the other.
For these reasons, traditionally (and to some extent still today) most of the Americans you would see abroad were either students on special trips or cultural exchanges or more likely retirees. Unfortunately, retirement is becoming a tougher proposition in the US than it used to be so in coming years you will see even less of them abroad.
Its not just the cost and time anymore, although that is a good reason. When one reads the news of the violence-prone "immigrants", most Americans are used to a system that at the very least, allows us the right of self defense and even using a weapon to do so. In England, you can't even carry a pocket knife, much less a firearm. Can you even carry pepper spray legally? Why would an American want to risk their lives in countries that are no longer what they were 30 years ago?
Its not just the cost and time anymore, although that is a good reason. When one reads the news of the violence-prone "immigrants", most Americans are used to a system that at the very least, allows us the right of self defense and even using a weapon to do so. In England, you can't even carry a pocket knife, much less a firearm. Can you even carry pepper spray legally? Why would an American want to risk their lives in countries that are no longer what they were 30 years ago?
Well we have spent thirty weeks travelling in the US and never given a thought to carrying any sort of implement for self defence. Nor have we in any other country we have travelled. The most potentially dangerous thing that has happened to us in our travels is having a giant kangaroo nearly jump into our car in Western Australia and nearly coming through the windscreen. Oh and taking a wrong turn onto the freeway in the middle of a severe snow storm Colorado.
. When one reads the news of the violence-prone "immigrants", most Americans are used to a system that at the very least, allows us the right of self defense and even using a weapon to do so.
Yes, safe to say that the vast majority of paranoid Americans are not likely to travel internationally.
However, they don't comprise a very large percentage of our population-do they?
Its not just the cost and time anymore, although that is a good reason. When one reads the news of the violence-prone "immigrants", most Americans are used to a system that at the very least, allows us the right of self defense and even using a weapon to do so. In England, you can't even carry a pocket knife, much less a firearm. Can you even carry pepper spray legally? Why would an American want to risk their lives in countries that are no longer what they were 30 years ago?
One would hope that this was written as a sly piece of tongue-in-cheek satire.
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