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The land of milk and honey, the land of the free, paradise lost, heaven on earth: we've joined the hoards of people who've been lured from sleepy towns, desperate situations or plain idleness with dreams of exotic places, charismatic wanderers and adventure.
Nearing the end of our journey (final continent anyway!) we've experienced all of those things but Thailand has brought, to the forefront of my mind, a few less welcome things too:
1. Travelling for a long length of time means budgeting, which leads to haggling, shopping around and often going with the cheapest option and now, having felt so richly rewarded by these countries, I wonder if we are cheating them as a way of thanks and, like so many backpackers, have ourselves got the misguided notion that, 'they'd have nothing without tourists' embedded in our psyches always ready to help assuage guilt.
2. Some of the most beautiful places have become ground zero for local culture and traditions because of the ceasless onslaught of tourists. Phuket was basically Brits abroad, full of bright white beer bellies on display (or spectacular sunburn patterns) when Thai people, notoriously conservative in their dress, even swim fully clothed. Plus the food places, selling a shed load of pizza and 'Western' fare, (for all those people that bemoan a lack of McDonalds on every street in every corner of the world) are so pricey (comparatively) that locals avoid them like the plague making it impossible to familiarise yourself with their conduct.
3. The local people we've met have either held us in awe or contempt, neither position being comfortable! The reasons for this are probably beyond my grasp but at least in the crudest way Mat and I are both aware that the main reason is that British tourists don't speak local languages or respect local customs.
From the mouth of a Laos waiter, who incidentally couldn't have been more welcoming or eager to practise his English (to exacebate the situation even more), "you bring your culture here, and leave traces of it, we never get to bring it to you, the embassy doesn't even let us go to Britain if we can't speak English" and he's right. Have you ever met someone from Laos without being here? Yet, he is familiar enough with our 'party' (and I'm being kind using this term) culture to inform us of a bowling alley, on the border of Luang Prabang which has UNESCO to help enforce its 11:30 drinking curfew, that stays open until 3am so all the "Falang" can carry on getting wasted unimpinged by local rules.
In the same spirit, of never veering from believing we are from the most sophisticated countries and cultures, Westerners rock up to temples in hot pants and boob tubes and look peeved if offered a wrap skirt to don. Which leads me to...
4. Travelling for your own enrichment and entertainment, most likely our initial aim, seems at best shallow and irresponsible the longer we've been away. Take the mine tours in Potosi (Bolivia): pay a tiny amount (£10) get driven to mines, English guide in tow, tour a mine where children still work, and die, take some Coke to the workers (lining pockets of people who exploit those you're going to 'help') and buy dynamite to blow up somewhere safe, for cheap thrills, while the people who work there run the risk of dying by its hand. Does anyone really believe by passively imbibing the information on the tour they are making a difference? Does anyone really believe that such a tiny payment can actually help liberate the people from the mines? Look at the facts, tours have been going for years, the mines are getting more and more dangerous and people still work there. They pose for photos now though and end up as an anecdote in blogs belonging to people who marvel that jobs like theirs are done at all, and I wonder if the Gringo presence doesn't make it worse for them? If none of our perceived wealth and education can free them from abject poverty what hope is left to them? As for us, aren't we just voyeurs?
5. In both South America and Asia I have been disgusted at the obvious exploitation of vulnerable people on so many levels. The corporations: From the renowned Gap company managing to avoid paying tax in Peru, despite dominating it's main attraction, the Inca Trail, with tours for huge amounts of cash (£520pp when the entrance fee is about £40) and telling each trekker to 'tip' another £30 to the porters (who carry all your stuff, cook all your food and set up the tents) because they pay them such a pittance it basically subsides their wage!
The individuals: supporting 'sex tourism' (calling it that doesn't stop it being plain old prostitution!) and haggling over the price of women for sale. We were in a bar with a guy who asked the waitress, "what price you going for?" and when the beautiful woman responded with a price he laughed, including the whole table unabashed, "that's about 40 quid, I don't need to pay that darlin' 'cause I'll satisfy you in a way other man can't" and I swear, if I hadn't feared I'd humiliate the woman any further I'd have slapped him with all the force I possess. He was an ugly, dumb f*** who probably gets ignored in Britain and wouldn't have dared breathe near this girl, she was that pretty, if he'd been at home for fear of her thinking that he would even imagine they were in the same league.
A week later, we meet another Brit guy who's doing loads of voluntary conservation work in Asia and he too reveals a penchant for prostitutes (why would you admit this to strangers?) So, trees are more deserving of respect than women? Is it because they don't answer back?
With all this surging through my brain, I'm wondering why nearly every guy I know at home will think it's a right of passage to visit strip clubs on stag dos, or ping pong shows when in Thailand, or the red light district in Amsterdam but wouldn't marry the girls they see in any of those places, won't want their daughters to do those jobs (probably keeping a much tighter reign on them than their sons too, for fear of them meeting guys like themselves) and throw the word, "slut" around as if they are sexually conservative and the idea of women enjoying sex is disgusting. The hypocrisy makes my head hurt.
Needless to say, I'm feeling guilty. I can console myself with the knowledge that I haven't been buying sex or going on Favela tours (honestly, would you go on a tour of a council estate in the UK?!) but it doesn't make me feel any better. I might have taken the mick out of the 18 year old guy who said, "I'm only in Laos to go tubing, there's nothing else to see here" but at 27 I'm no less ignorant (even if I'm less vocal about it!) it took Lonely Planet to inform me, a week prior to my arrival, that Laos had two million tons of bombs dropped on it by the Americans during 1964-73 in the 'secret war'. MAG (endorsed by good old 'Elbow') have been clearing the unexploded mines, 30% of those dropped, and at the current rate of removal it will take 100 years to clear them. So the guilt comes that we stay in, and dominate, the zones at the greatest distance from the areas most affected and do nothing to help. Yes, it is our honeymoon, but in the face of children getting blown up when playing football does that really mean anything? Does giving a little here and there, way below what we can afford, really make up for the time, bodies and skills we could give?
It turns out I've finally found out why so many people say, "ignorance is bliss" because if you have conviction in the theory that all are born equal, like I do, then you need to stand up for those who are denied all that you enjoy because of a postcode lottery beyond their control. You have to be more like Malcolm X, minus the violence, who did free breakfast and book runs to more poor communities than the government! You have to want to be more like the unknown heroes, like Kyle Golden, an American guy we met working for the Peace Corps, who spent 2 years in a lonely corner of Paraguay with the aim of teaching a village how to manage a sustainable, cooperative garden. As kids, we all played games where the goodies won and the baddies were punished, we all assumed we'd grow up to be heroes (even if now you wont admit it!) Maybe we still can be? We can at least think about it a little more again, inform ourselves about the plight of others.
So, I guess I'm admitting, I left Britain without any desire to "find myself" but will return different all the same, without the burgeoning need to keep up with the Jones's in the UK or the dismal reporting on the magnitude of ills, frightening us into inertia, I've been quietly flexing my muscles and testing my skills, (in countries where it's unimaginable we should be so money orientated or that all your decisions are made with just you in mind, heedless of your families' or communities' needs) and I'm ready to do some good. What good? How? Well, I'll just have to find out as I go along. But I'll try harder... because it's me that owes the world something, not the other way around and I don't want to be another peson who says, "what can one person do?" without ever bothering to find out.
- comments
Joe Don't know where to begin really - it may be a stereotype but I don't think I have even thought of saying "you go girl!!!" until reading this. One line from my travels sums up Brits abroad for me....."I would have spoken to you sooner if I knew you were British!!!!" Have you seen anything on The Zeitgeist Movement or The Venus Project? Far more people, worldwide, with our views than I realised
Dermot you go girl love Dad
Lucus Riceus Good blog...glad you're having fun!
Marie Great blog kel, you're a really good person who cares and values things and people! I believe you'll do some good,oh yeah and YOU GO GIRLl!
Howard Hi Kelly They say travel makes you think and consider other people's perspective. It has obviously worked and knowing you only good will come of it. Don't get depressed about things that we as individuals can do little about. Carry on enjoying this fantastic experience and have a good think about how you can make a difference when you return. I have really enjoyed your blog and learned a lot myself. We have just returned from a narrow boat holiday. Great fun, a bit cold and it rained a lot. The philosophy is aim at the bridge (boat or lock) and miss the solid bits. very enjoyable once you have tuned in but a bit tame next to your tour. Keep having fun!
Steph Kelly, I love this and agree with you wholeheartedly. Loves to you both x
Sean Kelly this is a sad but a true end to the story - well summarised and obviously you have seen and experienced many things. I would have warned you against Phuket if I'd have known - some of the more remote areas of Thialand are amazing but I hear what you are saying and its so true. We felt the same.