Time and time again, I had conversations with other
travellers on this topic. It seemed to get to the heart of why people do these
things, so this is why I left it to last, to sum up in a sense. Having had
these conversations, it seemed to me that it boils down to the theme of escape
vs integration.
Obviously how long you go for has a bearing on this: a short
holiday for a week or two makes it more likely that you’ll have the escapist
sort of experience, doing and seeing things that you wouldn’t be able to back
home, just relaxing or doing more adventurous activities outside of your normal
sphere of experience. But for now I’ll just talk about the longer journeys
people make. Most of these are also pretty escapist too: as I said right at the
start of this blog, that was the main reason I went. But I found myself
wondering if this was all there was to travelling.
Towards the end of the trip I felt a bit guilty in a way,
passing through all these beautiful places filled with friendly, welcoming
people, guilty that I was simply passing through and not really making a genuine
connection with anyone. Just looking in from the outside, taking in a few experiences
and then moving on to the next place, not giving anything back. But perhaps I
was being too harsh. I did have some interactions with people that felt worthwhile:
spending time talking to monks at the various monasteries and temples I came
to, the old woman who blessed me and a friend in Laos, wrapping our wrists in
string for good luck. I spent time making friends with students in the big
cities in Vietnam, having mass cultural exchange sessions where I felt we all came
away having a better understanding of each other’s experiences as a member of
that culture. Or playing with some local kids on a beach in Cambodia, at first
they came over just to sell us some bracelets or trinkets, but ended up
sticking around for a while playing noughts and crosses in the sand, piggyback
rides or hustling us at armwrestling (yeah I got beat). As I mentioned, a lot
of the kids seemed so vacant when interacting with tourists, just saying the
same phrases over and over, asking for money. So robotic, going through the
motions with each westerner they saw. It was heartbreaking. So it was amazing
to see these kids all laughing and genuinely having fun, just being kids how
they were meant to be, not beaten down and begging. The point is, this experience
really made me want to integrate with the local people more, rather than just
having interactions based around money, which is what you get most of the time.
While it’s usually friendly enough, it still feels somewhat false or forced,
like they’re only being nice because they’re getting something in exchange and you’re
doing the same.
I suppose that’s what you get when you’re moving on every
few days; your interactions are limited to a couple of hours at best, so it’s what
you make of it that counts. You can strike a balance I guess, I think I did ok
at that, but you can’t prescribe getting to know people; you can only make it
happen when the opportunity arises. But you can and do prescribe your dose of
escapism to an extent, so the balance you get is up to you.
This whole debate made me think a lot about going away
somewhere and staying in one place, doing some work and giving back a bit. Sure,
I helped in an economic way; bringing some money into whatever area I was in.
But it would be more worthwhile if I taught English or worked for a charitable organisation.
I’ve done a pretty escapist adventure, maybe I should go and be productive
somewhere. It probably boils down to a selfish act anyway; I’d just go and feel
less guilty about it.
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