TRAVEL CULTURE THAT WE CAN DO WITHOUT

TRAVEL CULTURE THAT WE CAN DO WITHOUT

Traveling is a great teaching experience. It's a highly enjoyable pursuit, a never-ending string of places and experiences and people whose lives enrich our own. But there are certain aspects of traveling which have become rather annoying. There are trends within the travel industry that tend to bug you after a while, that you really wish would just disappear like Congress’s dearm of winning an election in India or England's Ashes dreams! I hope and pray that this holiday season these travel dips would vanish and never be seen again.

So as 2017 makes its way over the horizon, and we usher in the potential greatness of another 12 months on this beautiful planet, it's worth pausing to consider the most annoying travel trends that are out there, and making a group pledge to get rid of them.

Begpacking

No, I have not coined this term. Many before me have seen this and felt bad, if not outright offended. This insane practice of travelers begging or busking for spare change in developing countries, leaning on the kindness of strangers in order to make their way around the world, has to stop. If you have the money and the luxury of time to travel from a first-world country to a developing nation, then you also have ability to spend a bit longer at home saving enough to pay for the whole thing yourself. Leave the charity to people who actually deserve it.

Selfie culture

A holiday today is no more for sheer enjoyment and experience. It has become a social statement and your ‘selfies’ in front of the Taj Mahal or on that death defying ride in Disneyland, when posted on your timeline in social media brings you a social ‘nirvana’! A holiday should once again go back to what it used to be. What you do on your holidays is really up to you – until, that is, it starts bugging everyone else. Who hasn't stood around at a viewpoint or monument or anything else of interest on their travels and waited interminably as a never-ending queue of wannabe social media stars spends a lifetime lining up the perfect pouty selfie? And we haven't even begun talking about the sticks…

Crowding the baggage carousel

I'm not actually sure if you can call this a trend; given travelers have probably been doing it ever since the first bag ever whirred around a carousel. Still, it bears mentioning. The entire luggage collection process would work a lot better if everyone just took a step back from the carousel and moved forward when they spied their bag. Is that so hard to get your head around?

Drones

I know that drone photos are pretty cool and not yet popular in a big way in India. However, when you're relaxing at a campsite, or on the beach, or anywhere really that's natural and peaceful and beautiful, and your world is suddenly invaded by the whining of some moron's drone as it zips past over and over again, you have every reason to hate these things. Why are western countries, which take privacy much more seriously that we do, and where you have to take an appointment with your own mother for lunch, not having laws against this blatent invasion of privacy?

White saviors

Yes, their intentions are good. However, white travelers who visit developing countries and think they're going to "save" the locals, who post photos of themselves posing with poor people, who perpetuate the stereotype that those in developing countries are hopeless, and those from the West can rescue them despite having no actual skills or experience in sustainable, long-term development strategies, are actually doing more harm than good. If you are really interested join a registered organization and extend help, it will be more than welcomed, but your random attempts will be both misplaced and misused and may even land you in trouble with the authorities.

Charging for Wi-Fi

It's an annoying quirk of the accommodation industry that every Rs. 500 -a-night hostel invariably gives away Wi-Fi access for free, and yet some Rs. 5000 -a-night five-star resorts still think they can get away with charging for internet -sometimes Rs. 300 or even a mind boggling Rs. 500 a night. Wi-Fi might once have seemed like a luxury, but these days it is essential for 24x7 connectivity and should just be a given like the toilet kit and the bath towel.

Bondage animal tourism

Thanks to the animal right activists this mostly seems to have stopped now. However, it's not just photo ops with drugged-up tigers that are the problem. Any tourism experience that involves animals – elephant sanctuaries, zoos, even national parks in some countries – should really be scrutinized closely before you commit to a visit. There are plenty of dodgy operators out there who don't actually have the animals' best interests at heart. In India visitors should choose a National Park for animal experience and not encourage the street show with monkeys and bears.

Saying you've "done" somewhere

I have visited Kerala six times but I still yearn to go back. I have stayed in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney for years but these places change every time I go back! You haven't "done" anywhere! You haven't "done" Asia. You haven't "done" Europe. No one has! Not even the people who live there. You could go back to the same continent, the same country, the same city over and over again for the rest of your life and still find new things, meet new people, and have new experiences. Nowhere, and nothing, is ever "done". That is the beauty of traveling!

Tourists behaving badly

Here's the rub, travelers. There are a lot of us out there. Many more than there ever have been. And the industry is only going to grow. If we want this thing to be a success, if we want to keep visiting popular cities and staying in apartments in the trendy suburbs and eating at local cafes and drinking at local bars and sharing in other people's lives for just a few days at a time, we have to behave ourselves. We have to treat other cities and other countries as our own. We have to be kind; we have to be respectful. If we do that, we all get to travel safely and happily for a lot longer.

Every country has its own culture, its own traditions and its own religious inclinations and we have to respect them. Certain places would demand head scarves, long skirts, removing footwears, silence, no photography and we will have to abide by these rules. If places of worship of one religion is out of bounds for the rest of us, then there is no point in arguing about whose religion is more open!

Complaining about all of the tourists

If you're in a place that's filled with tourists ... Surprise, you're one of them. Venice was far more crowded last Christmas than it was ten years ago…..why complain about it? Enjoy the variety of fanfare, food and music which the city has to offer because of its new immigrants. Anf honestly, is your own home town not a much crowded place that what it was a decade back?

Slum tourism

At their best, tours of slums and favelas and shantytowns will be run by residents, and will provide an accurate and respectful snapshot of local life to travelers who will be able to learn from the experience and contribute a little cash to the community. At their worst, however – and I encounter more frequently – these tours are pure poverty porn, like visiting some sort of zoo where you take photos of all the poor people and then leave, having contributed nothing. Do your research thoroughly before you get involved in something like this. My experience in Andaman with the Jaroa tribe was not very good.

Staring at your phone while walking

Commuters and pedestrians in all forms, around the world are doing this. People walk while staring at their phones. To be fair, this isn't just travelers, but if travelers are doing this they are depriving themselves of all the magic the place they are visiting has to offer. They're playing games on the phone. They're reading books. They're flicking through music. They're also really slow walkers, and they bump into other people constantly and are a walking talking traffic hazard. Locals hate them.

So, though travel is not easy and inexpensive, though it is not hassle free, though we have to deal with airport security, ash clouds, changing money, passports and visas, lost luggage, and even thinking about all that’s involved is enough to cause stress we travel bugs will continue to plan our holidays away from home. Today I just tried to share with you how we can make travel even more enjoyable.