So some background to my comment. I live in a tourist town. Tourists come for the weekend. Travelers come for 6 months to a year. There's a scene to traveli

So some background to my comment. I live in a tourist town. Tourists come for the weekend. Travelers come for 6 months to a year. There's a scene to traveling. Some people come, interact only with other travelers. Others interact with everyone. When I travel abroad, it's for months at a time. I avoid the 'scene', not for disdain for tourists or other travelers, but because you miss some things. Not gonna say I specifically avoid ex-pats, just don't seek them out either. Some ex-pats form groups because they want a social life and are too lazy to learn the language, I'm not about that. But if I meet one, that's fine too. I'm not traveling for Instagram clout, I just like it. My typical MO is to book a one way ticket, then spend months off the beaten path, working remote all the while. It's what I like. I meet people because I'm social (enough anyway, in many ways I'm introverted), not because I want something. And sometimes (usually) I just have a 5 minute conversation and it goes nowhere. Because people do have lives, yes. That's ok though. Same back home, if I sit at a bar and someone else strikes up a conversation, I engage or don't, depending on my mood. That's life. Truly good friends are rare anyway. And traveling 'friends' are usually just people who want a favour, in my experience. So I go places, am completely self-sufficient the whole way, I meet people, sometimes they stick around, often they don't.