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I experienced this in Macchu Pichu. I'm not sure what I was expecting, probably some out-of-body experience lol, but it was just crawling with tourists. I was so disappointed.
Be at the gates when they open early in the morning. All you've got is folks who stayed in town down the mountain or on the fancy resort waiting at the gate, so it's pretty sparse and you can get a nice spot up top to watch dawn burn off the clouds with amazing views then explore without the mobs.
The hordes from Cuzco start arriving on the train in the late morning, that's when it all goes to ****.
I think it's more about your own expectations. Especially with popular tourist sites. We often learn about famous attractions from a magazine article or TV show where they filmed at off hours and behind the scenes access, presenting the attraction in the very best light. Then you get there in person and see the hordes of tourists lining up, the construction scaffolding in places, and the vendors harassing you every ten seconds to buy junk.
Be at the gates when they open early in the morning. All you've got is folks who stayed in town down the mountain or on the fancy resort waiting at the gate, so it's pretty sparse and you can get a nice spot up top to watch dawn burn off the clouds with amazing views then explore without the mobs.
The hordes from Cuzco start arriving on the train in the late morning, that's when it all goes to ****.
Same at Chichen Itza -- great birdwatching before the tour buses arrive.
I always wonder why people just can't enjoy travel without all the criticism, expectations and comparing everything with things back at home.
If they tend to be disappointed with other cultures and the ways other people live, they just should stay home. Human nature isn't about the same everywhere. And human nature in the US isn't the only right way to live...
This seem to be a very hard to understand to many American travellers. If they want everything like back at home - they should stay at home.
Those complaints about smiles, customer service, politeness, food etc. get really old...
I agree. I think the only time I was disappointed in something was when we last went on vacation---constantly being harassed to not only buy things but to buy drugs (and I mean non-stop) is very off-putting to me.
I don't think it's always that people expect "smiles, customer service, politeness, food, etc." at US levels---we have all been at places where this doesn't happen here---I think it is more that people pay a lot of money for vacations and then have expectations based on that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oceangaia
I think it's more about your own expectations. Especially with popular tourist sites. We often learn about famous attractions from a magazine article or TV show where they filmed at off hours and behind the scenes access, presenting the attraction in the very best light. Then you get there in person and see the hordes of tourists lining up, the construction scaffolding in places, and the vendors harassing you every ten seconds to buy junk.
I agree. I never really look too hard into anything and build-up my expectations because it might be disappointing based on what I've built-up in my own mind. Then I can sort of go into an open mind about things.
I know there are going to be people on here who will disagree with me, but I visited Japan recently and although most of the people were polite, I wasn't amazed by it like I thought I would be.
I got some head bows and they are generally polite although reserved, but most of them were just ordinary people going about their business. Many of them seemed like they were in a rush. The only real over the top politeness I got was from a few service people, but they were being paid to be nice. I've visited plenty of other places with nice and polite people, like the southern and midwestern parts of the U.S., as well as other places in the world.
I just don't see how the Japanese are that different from other people. Human nature is about the same anywhere.
That polite but not fawning behavior is not good enough for you? If people seemed rushed, it probably had a lot to do with working many hours in a crowded, competitive urban environment. Just like it is in the USA! I bet you only visited cities or suburbs and tourist attractions.
I don't like New York City. It's filthy dirty, odoriferous, loud, dangerous, and both times I was there it was hotter than Hades and humid.
Unless you have a lot of money, there really isn't much to do there. There are other really tall buildings elsewhere to look at and be amazed. You don't have to go to NYC to see tall buildings.
In contrast to the city's reputation, I found the locals to be quite friendly, which was a surprise.
I love Stonehenge, but I would overhear youngsters and younger generations being disappointed and underwhelmed.
I suspect that they see so many huge buildings, built with heavy construction equipment, that it doesn't click that those are some huge stones to have been moved for such a huge distance without machinery.
A slight disappointment. I took a tulip tour of Holland, which was an excellent tour, but I expected to see vast fields of tulip flowers.
Well, the tulip fields are there and vast, but they mow the flowers off so that the plants will put their energy into forming large tulip bulbs instead of flowers. So the tulip tour consisted of driving past vast fields of tulip foliage.
The only actual tulip flowers we saw were inside a tourist trap where they had lots of nice flowers to see and they were taking orders for tulip bulbs to be shipped.
I know there are going to be people on here who will disagree with me, but I visited Japan recently and although most of the people were polite, I wasn't amazed by it like I thought I would be.
I got some head bows and they are generally polite although reserved, but most of them were just ordinary people going about their business. Many of them seemed like they were in a rush. The only real over the top politeness I got was from a few service people, but they were being paid to be nice. I've visited plenty of other places with nice and polite people, like the southern and midwestern parts of the U.S., as well as other places in the world.
I just don't see how the Japanese are that different from other people. Human nature is about the same anywhere.
You had odd expectations. Of course people are people. Of course folks were going about their business. Did you expect regular people to interrupt their daily routine to interact with a strange tourist?
We stood in line for the Blarney Stone. To anyone else, I would recommend : just SAY you saw it.
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