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I'd love to have travelled Europe and Asia like that, before the current over load of tourists we are now at. (I see this first hand as my home city is major to

by pipes 2y ago

I'd love to have travelled Europe and Asia like that, before the current over load of tourists we are now at. (I see this first hand as my home city is major tourism destination ow, number of tourists has doubled in ten years)

postsantum 2y ago
Good news is that you can still have amazing places to yourself, at least in Asia. Vast majority of tourists flock to select few locations, the rule of thumb is if some place sounds familiar to you, it's overcrowded and has been for a while. You either need to do a little bit of research or just take a bike and ride a few kms I visited Calcutta a few years ago (albeit during low season) and I have seen 2 (two) western tourists in a week. Last year I went to Arunachal Pradesh and met exactly zero western tourists in 10 days
epolanski 2y ago
I have been traveling a lot and since the 1980s tourism, as in adventure, and exploration has been slowly but surely moved into the direction of being a theme park. Airbnbs further shoved locals out of their own towns so you get to places just to see few different buildings and monuments but at the end of the day there's no real touch with locals and their culture. Bar Madagascar and India I really cannot say I have seen many places where I didn't feel I was still where I left. Even Japan is strikingly different. Tokyo has changed tremendously (and shifted extremely to the west culturally) to the point Japanese culture in many areas seems a leftover for tourists. Kyoto suffered this brutal westernization a bit less, but feels like it's just slower. Anyway the homogenization of music, culture, language, habits, technologies, food and what not is definitely a con when it comes to traveling and wanting to explore a different culture and life.
- detourdog 2y ago
  We traveled by train between Florida and Pennsylvania in the 70”s. We would stay in Washington DC to go the miseums which were always empty during thanksgiving.
- pipes 2y ago
  Theme park is exactly how I describe the city centre of my city. I very badly maintained theme park with overflowing bins, over priced pubs, restaurants, shops and graffiti (though I can't blame the last one on tourists)
Marsymars 2y ago
Yeah, I'm jealous of my grandparents' ability to do that - my grandfather founded a company, cashed out to retire early, and spent a couple decades travelling extensively, prior to the age of social media.

by pipes 2y ago

postsantum 2y ago

Good news is that you can still have amazing places to yourself, at least in Asia. Vast majority of tourists flock to select few locations, the rule of thumb is if some place sounds familiar to you, it's overcrowded and has been for a while. You either need to do a little bit of research or just take a bike and ride a few kms I visited Calcutta a few years ago (albeit during low season) and I have seen 2 (two) western tourists in a week. Last year I went to Arunachal Pradesh and met exactly zero western tourists in 10 days

epolanski 2y ago

I have been traveling a lot and since the 1980s tourism, as in adventure, and exploration has been slowly but surely moved into the direction of being a theme park. Airbnbs further shoved locals out of their own towns so you get to places just to see few different buildings and monuments but at the end of the day there's no real touch with locals and their culture. Bar Madagascar and India I really cannot say I have seen many places where I didn't feel I was still where I left. Even Japan is strikingly different. Tokyo has changed tremendously (and shifted extremely to the west culturally) to the point Japanese culture in many areas seems a leftover for tourists. Kyoto suffered this brutal westernization a bit less, but feels like it's just slower. Anyway the homogenization of music, culture, language, habits, technologies, food and what not is definitely a con when it comes to traveling and wanting to explore a different culture and life.

detourdog 2y ago
We traveled by train between Florida and Pennsylvania in the 70”s. We would stay in Washington DC to go the miseums which were always empty during thanksgiving.
pipes 2y ago
Theme park is exactly how I describe the city centre of my city. I very badly maintained theme park with overflowing bins, over priced pubs, restaurants, shops and graffiti (though I can't blame the last one on tourists)

Marsymars 2y ago

Yeah, I'm jealous of my grandparents' ability to do that - my grandfather founded a company, cashed out to retire early, and spent a couple decades travelling extensively, prior to the age of social media.