Real Travelers general

Stayed overnight with local peasant families in rural China who refused to let me pay on 5 or so occasions while on my motorbike trip last year. Drank spirits and ate fruit with the men while not really being able to communicate, though they all made sure they got a picture with me for their version of fb. Always sounds a lot more impressive and RealTraveller™ when I say it out loud than how it felt at the time †bh.

>>1211538
>>1211538
Why do realtravelers use the word Namaste constantly?

>>1211563

Apparently, travelers equate Hinduism with being enlightened.

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This is the real traveler experience. Don't even call yourself a real traveler if you haven't married a local women who then subsequently tried to murder you

>>1211563
Cause people that do yoga say it every day.

Realtravellers (tm) do yoga.

My latest real traveller experience was hitching a cargo boat from satun to ko lipe in Thailand

>>1211574
Or Tai Chi.

I went to India last year, first time overseas. Namaste! I went for my friend's wedding, very colourful, didn't understand a fucking thing that happened.

Next time I saw him back in Australia I threw some rice at him, lel

Once beat a stray dog to death

>>1211573
>submitted by maddog

>>1211574
What infuriates me more than Namaste, is when people like that use "be well" as a way to say good bye. Fuck just say "bye"

>>1211761

Isn't that shit from Star Trek or something?

What is the RealTraveller™ meme?

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>>1211547
I'd like to ask some questions about your trips if you come back

>>1211761
And when they say Shalom or some other bullshit to sound cool. Especially the ones who say Bonjour or Konichiwa. Pretentious wankers.

>>1211782
A Real Traveller™ are hipsters who don't like the 'mainstream' attractions and go to more obscure places where tourists don't usually go just so they can call their 'experience' unique on social media.

While they do so they engage in local culture to try and become enriched by it. They practice yoga or tai chi or are Buddhist and say bullshit like Namaste everywhere they go to look special or unique.

They're also usually;
Vegan
SJW's
Coffee addicts
Have a blog
Post every detail of their trip on social media

And the worst part is that they act like they're better travellers than anybody else, but in reality they are every stereotype of a modern millennial traveller ever. Their entire life is a Meme.

>>1211796
Yeah I don't get people's automatic aversion to something 'touristy' its like not wanting to eat at a restaurant cause it's popular. Granted there are better experiences to be had if you put some extra effort in, but just cause a place is popular doesn't mean its bad.

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>>1211796
The first sentence didn't seem too bad to myself but as it went on i got more and more disgusted

>>1211796
This is crap.
Maybe it applies to some real travellers but it's a gross generalisation

I consider myself a real traveller and I think Buddhism and yoga are retarded third world crap
I never learn more than a few words of the local language (the real real traveller knows that locals don't expect anything but English)
I love meat
I am right wing
I sometimes drink coffee
I don't blog
Don't have Facebook or any other social media

I am a real realtravellerTM who hitchhikes, lives with locals, and I don't fit any of your meme stereotypes

>>1211783
Sure, what do you want to know?

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Namaste

Here was the typical meal I had while backpacking through Laos and Cambodia

It's called "Thali" and is actually so niche and rare, that even the locals here didn't know what it was. I had to search for hours to find an Indian restaurant that sells it.

>>1211562
*cringes*

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I cycled from Germany to mainland Russia last year and crossed the Estonian-Russian border by land without a passport or visa. Spent about 10 minutes on Russian soil before fucking off to EU territory again.

The trip was about 3600 kilometers, and I did it primarily to add administrative subdivisions to my version of the official /trv/ approved Real Traveler's™ Collectors Map©. Collecting subdivisions is unironically the main reason I travel; every single one of my itineraries is mostly based on unlocking new subdivisions, not sights or things that interest me. I try to keep my map as aesthetic and coherent as possible, and dat delicious RARE Pskov Oblast just caught my eye last year. I just had to go there.

>>1211801
if you unironically feel the need to call yourself a realtravelerTM then your truly are a Real Traveller™.

>>1211797
It depends, a lot of shit is touristy for no fucking reason and are completely overpriced.

>>1211900
Then dislike it because it's overpriced. Disliking something because other people also like to go there is moronic.

>>1211901
Not if you don't want to spend the entire day in fucking queues and surrounded by people with zero fucking interest in whatever the attraction is who just want to take a photo of it to show that they were there. Things get ruined by tourists because they only go because they feel they should. the place is only popular for being popular so it becomes less enjoyable.

>>1211903
>just want to take a photo of it to show that they were there.
and that's somehow different than a bunch of hobos who just want to take a photo of themself doing stupid meditations or smiling with a bunch of shitskin kids?

>>1211904
Did I say that you fuckin imbecile? It's entirely possible for more than one thing to be shit at the same time.

>>1211890

That's fucking autistic

>>1211903
So then you dislike a sight which has long queues, you don't just dislike it because other people go there, which is a key distinction to make. When most RealTravellers™ say they don't like "touristy" places it's because they think it somehow makes it less authentic or "real", not because of queues or prices.

>>1211913
It can make a place less authentic or "real" as well and that is a bad thing if you're hoping to visit a country rather than just see the plastic renditions of it's culture.

Many pubs in Ireland are sold as a traditional experience when they couldn't be any further from the truth. This happens with a lot of shit both because of tourists and people wanting to make a quick buck. Does it affect everything? No, but definitely some things.

Everybody saying tourists don't ruin some aspects of travel are just as bad as RealTraveller™ for refusing to see the nuance in the subject.

>>1211903
> the place is only popular for being popular so it becomes less enjoyable.

Why? Who cares what anyone else is doing or thinking, if a place is worth seeing it's worth seeing. I feel sorry for drones who force themselves not to enjoy something just so they can feel like a snowflake.

>>1211914
You can't seriously be suggesting that everything tourists go to see is plastic and fake? It's you who's refusing any nuance, you have yet to explain how a site worth seeing, if queues are fine as is the case in many places, is made worse by lots of other people being there other than that it impacts your ability to feel special.

>>1211915
I'm not talking about a place worth seeing. I'm talking about a place that attracts people just because it's known as a place to go. There is a difference.

>>1211918
I'm not suggesting everything that tourists go to is plastic and fake. I'm saying that a lot of tourists can make a place become plastic and fake because people use the popularity to sell shit to them and it does turn a lot of attractions into homogenized empty shit. Again it's not always true but to say that large volumes of tourists are a neutral thing is nonsense. Ask anybody who lives near a touristy area.

>>1211922
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g187791-Activities-Rome_Lazio.html#ATTRACTION_SORT_WRAPPER

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g186338-Activities-London_England.html#ATTRACTION_SORT_WRAPPER

Point to something on either of these lists (the most popular things in 2 of the most popular tourist destinations in the world) which isn't worth seeing "because people use the popularity to sell shit to them." How does a building or museum having a gift shop and other people make them less impressive at all?

>>1211922
>I'm not talking about a place worth seeing.

Yes but what you're saying is that a place isn't worth seeing if other people are around you who just go to go. What the fuck does that matter? The Pantheon isn't made any less impressive a feat of ancient engineering because Pam from Tennessee doesn't appreciate it properly.

>>1211890
>I try to keep my map as aesthetic and coherent as possible
>grey spots everywhere

n-no u.

>>1211930
>because Pam from Tennessee doesn't appreciate it properly.

I would dispute that -- there is no intrinsic "proper" way to appreciate it, or anything else. "Pam from Tennessee," you condescending wanker, gets what she gets from it, I get what I get from it, you get what you get from it.

Anybody who travels to get some mythic "proper" experience that somebody else thinks is the way to appreciate the journey is a moron. Don't travel to appease somebody else's notions.

>>1211971
Read the full conversation, I'm agreeing with you.

>>1211796
I really loved walking the Camino del Norte, but damn I met a lot of realtravellers.

People who unironically were acting so goddamn cringy, especially about their own experiences or them indulging in yoga or likewise, that I really sometimes was wondering if they were pulling a really long prank on me and others, but they weren't.

People who are so "good" in their own eyes, but who are really vain and obnoxious.

>>1211797
>>1211901
>>1211904
"Touristy" is essentially a term that refers to the long queues, annoying, disrespectful people, etc. I'll definitely go and see something, even if it's popular, if it seems very interesting, but I might drop it if it's such a famous site that I know it will be full of tourists. Why? Because that makes it feel like fucking zoo.

It's not that I feel superior or anything.

>>1212007
Same here.

Idk why some people above don't get this.

(Probably they haven't seen Prague before it went Disney.)

I god drunk on homebrew alcohol with a Pinoy ladyboy in a run down hotel at Nana and we fucked for hours. My ass hurt like hell for 2 days and I couldn't shit without pain too. I never realized that Pinoys can have such big dicks.
I consider it Real Traveller experience.

>>1212007
I get that, crowds do ruin stuff. It's why I prefer Sequoia Natl park to Yosemite. However, the main attractions at Yosemite are totally worth seeing.

>>1211857
how much you budgeted and how much you spent per day
How difficult was it to find a working motorbike
Any place you'd recommend as a must see
How long did you go for
And how was your trip?

>>1211890
praying this is real

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"Real travelers" are the fucking worst cunts ever. Dread having, parachute pant wearing, dirty fucks with their distorted sense of elitism. You do know the locals laugh at you when you try and practice yoga or tai chi with them trying to find your "enlightenment". They think you're the goofiest fucks ever, you want to have a cultural experience? get drunk with the locals talk some shit and realize they do or want to do 90% of the shit you are running away from at home by doing your overseas travel. Their way of life is not more wholesome or spiritual than yours, you are just a shit person.

>>1212082
More so
How hard is it to get a driving licence in china
Is it smart to buy a motorbike in china or in a neighbouring country and bring it in? Seems like a pain in the ass to bring it in from home

>>1211538
>Be me, tall white dude, with a few other white people in Southern China
>Couple of the girls on the trip are the enlightened "real travelers" who think they're above us because they learnt 3 words of Mandarin
>THey keep chiming about how they're going to experience the "real" China, and how great it's culture is
>Oooohhhhhhh boy
>hopefully I at least nail one
>Go to a Chinese wet market
>They groups's travelers are excited to see how fresh it is
>A few are vegetarian and expect some sort of vegan heaven
>Rock up, and the smell hits them like a sledgehammer
>Pretty sure our guide is smirking; she ended up being a total bro
>Met with a skull with bits of flesh on it
>See a turtle get killed
>Multiple eels getting skinned
>Lots of other gruesome stuff
>The travelers are pretty much going into shock at this point
>Me and the others are a tiny bit surprised, but manage to accept it as other cultures, and see the logic behind it
>The travelers with their preconceived notions are talking about animal abuse and how this should be reported
>So much for embracing the culture
>See a bunch of people carrying backscratchers
>Get one and enter the world of bliss that they are


So I'd say the most cultural thing I've experienced recently is seeing a turtle being murdered then buying a backscratcher to the sound of my fellow spoiled westerners crying.


I've got a few other stories of experiencing culture shock-ey things too, if anybody is interested. There were 21 people on this month long trip including me, so there was a lot of laughable moments when people saw some odd stuff.

>>1212114
Again stereotypes

The REAL realtravelerTM is the one getting drunk with locals, not the one 'seeking enlightenment'

>run out of money in India
>work for a scam tourist agency in Paharganj
>rent an apartment in South Delhi
>learn how to ride a motorcycle and almost get hit by a cow
>socialize exclusively with Indians while in India
>stay in hostels and avoid white people smoking charras and painting pictures of Lord Shiva on the wall
>order Pizza Hut instead of chicken dinga donga ponga tikka masala
>scrape my cigarette butts back into the box instead of tossing them on the ground
>tell Indians to get bent when they cut in line or push me on the Metro
>get free alcohol at all the clubs in Hauz Khas because I know a Russian guy who knows an Indian guy
>pick up Northeast Indian women and make three of them ride on the back of my motorcycle for two miles
>get drunk and have my dick pulled out and sucked in the back of a fucking auto-rickshaw with two other women present
>am a published author in India but not in my own country
>give brown people directions on the Metro
>friend working at a call center gets lost and calls me so I can explain to the cab driver how to get from Gurgaon to Ghaziabad
>kek heartily at white people who can't read Hindi menus and are being ripped off at vendors before telling them the real price so they don't get scammed by a conniving little weasel-man

>literally just don't give a fuck any more

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>>1212134
Some things are best left unseen it seems

>>1211797

>why do people pointlessly hate popular things?

Brother, you just went against the foundations of 4chan as a whole in your post.

>>1212137
where to learn hindi?

>>1212137
But why would anyone want to live in Nurgle's domain in the first place?

>>1211930
>>1211929
If you both believe that large volumes of people being at a place has no impact on the experience I have very little else to say to be quite honest. It is baffling you believe that though.

>>1212082
>>1212122
>how much you budgeted and how much you spent per day
>How long did you go for
Went for 4 weeks, spent around $800, how much I spent per day varied a lot but that seems to even out at about $27/day. That doesn't count the bike, which was $300 itself, I could have gotten one more cheaply, but it was in very good nick so I was ok overpaying.

>How difficult was it to find a working motorbike
Not hard at all, bikes are only banned in the capital of the province I went to. The laws vary a lot about what kind of bike is allowed where place to place so just makes sure you know what you're doing where you are.

>Any place you'd recommend as a must see
I took a loop around Guangxi, which no joke is stunningly beautiful, and by far the most beautiful part of China I've been to. It's quite poor and sidelined by the central government but super friendly and well worth going to if you can, not many do unfortunately.

>And how was your trip?
Great, the parts that stand out most are the mountain scenery and the stops for lunch where I would chat to kids in my broken mandarin and they would practice their english with me. So much energy and joy.

>How hard is it to get a driving licence in china for a tourist?
Ok to get the licence itself, but even if you get that, you'll need insurance to be driving legally, which is quite a pain with no Chinese. If you can get somebody to help though it should be possible.

>Is it smart to buy a motorbike in china or in a neighbouring country and bring it in? Seems like a pain in the ass to bring it in from home
It basically isn't possible to import one into china, not without spending a lot of money and time. Buying a new bike is also not possible without a permanent Chinese address you've registered with the police, so 2nd hand chinese bikes are the only thing which isn't a complete nightmare as a tourist.

>>1211871
Looks delicious!

>TFW got through the gap
>The gap was closed

>>1211538
I got drunk and pissed on the streets in the center of Moscow. Does this count for 'cultural thing'?

>>1211903
>surrounded by people with zero fucking interest in whatever the attraction is who just want to take a photo of it to show that they were there.

Nigger, people don't go to tourist attractions just to take pictures if they have 0 interest.

>Hey wanna see the Statue of Liberty?
>No, not at all, but let's go anyway!
>Yeah, we can take pictures too while we're there!

>>1212157

In India?

I don't know. I'm good with languages. I learned how to read and write in Hindi by matching announcements on the Delhi Metro with their scrolling text counterparts in the trains.

There are plenty of language institutes in the NCR and other large cities. The ones which are geared towards foreigners tend to be obscenely expensive, especially by local standards. I think I remember seeing tuition rates of up to $500 per week. For comparison, my university charges about $400 per credit hour. There's really no way that an Indian company should be charging Rs 1,20,000 per month for language courses, but they do it because some tourists are willing to pay.

Finding a reputable tutor or a smaller, locally-geared institute might be better. Otherwise you can download Rosetta Stone or purchase a textbook off eBay. I can't remember which book I bought, but it only cost $30 or so and taught me a lot.

>>1212206
Cheers lad

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The Mannequin Pis is one of the top tourist attractions in Brussels. It's a tiny statue of a boy pissing.

You wouldn't pay any attention to it if it was in your own hometown, but because the guidebook tells you to visit it you flock to it like all the other clueless plebs tourists. 99% of other tourists make me cringe hardcore.

>>1212462
Is it therefore more RealTraveller™ to avoid tourist traps simply because it's more popular?

>>1211538

>take shitloads of photos when I go on holiday
>I'm barely in any of them, 95% of them are of the things I've seen rather than selfies

is this /realtraveller/ tier? I don't make a point of doing this it just happens

>>1212475

it is if you're doing it deliberately (and tell everyone about it constantly)

Ate at a pizza hut in India.

Pizza was OK.

>>1212523
This is realtravelerTM right here
The Real realtraveler knows that most non-European food is crap

>>1212573
Nothing on this earth beats (well made) Italian cuisine.

>>1212577
I will agree with this but i'll also add Chinese food is top tier if it's made by actual chinese people

>>1212134
>A few are vegetarian and expect some sort of vegan heaven
topkek. Please post more stories if you find the time.

>>1211890

Did we meet on a big table Riga?

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I'd love to go hiking but none of my friends are into it and I was thinking about going alone but I absolutely can't stand a minute of talking to those neo-hippies that apparently now call themselves RealTravelers. They always remind me of The Inbetweeners 2 movies, they do a great parody of those fuckwads. Should I still go hiking alone anyway?

>>1212134
How do you kill a turtle btw?

>China currently has no animal-welfare laws.[1][2][3]

Guess your fellow travellers should have read up on that little fact.

>>1212134
>>See a bunch of people carrying backscratchers
>>Get one and enter the world of bliss that they are
10/10 finale, would read more stories.

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I traveled to Ukraine this past summer to better understand the conflict and inform myself of the world because I was tired of reading about it from propaganda narratives. I also didn't tell anyone about it, only stayed with locals, immersed myself in the local culture, and made no mention of it on any of my social media platforms.

Does this make me a RealTraveller™?

>>1212462
Ayyy, I walk past there every now and then on my way to work. Oddly enough, the ones that are interested the most are the Japanese, for some reason.

>>1213331
>Should I still go hiking alone anyway?
Of course, buddy. Bring a couple of books (or an e-reader). A 1-person tent is pretty cheap.

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>>1212462
>>1213336
>be me
>staying in a hostel in Brussels
>think I've seen everything, fly out tomorrow morning
>chatting up other travellers in the lounge and kitchen
>"WHAT?? OMG you haven't seen manneken pis? What's wrong with you it's like the coolest attraction in Brussels!!!"
>think I might have missed something
>the entire hostel goes on an excursion just to show me Manneken Pis
>coming up the street
>see like 200 people crowded around a street corner
>think to myself "oh this might be something cool that I skipped over"
>get there
>stand there in silence trying to wonder why so many people crave over this
>"omg isn't this awesome haha"
>mfw it's a fucking mini fountain shooting water

I hate tourists

>>1213340
To be fair, they dress him up every now and then. Of course, if you haven't seen Brussels' Balls of Steel™, can you really say you've lived life to the fullest? :^)

>>1213335
Unless you actually travelled straight into the Donbass, that's pretty pretentious.

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>>1213351
Been there done that too.

If it wasn't for the view I'd say it was a total waste of money. The forced photo with some duface dressed up in a child's costume for 18€ is the icing on the cake.

>>1211890
anyone have a template?

>>1213355
But I did

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>>1213374

>>1213335
How do you get better information from locals, who probably are more immersed in one of the two propaganda narratives, depending on where they are, rather than doing research based on multiple different sources?

Also, if you don't know Russian/Ukrainian, I fail to see how you would gain anything from staying with locals.

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How much of a real /trv/ler™ are you?

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>>1213410

Here's the template

>>1211797
I just like going to non-tourist places because the local girls tend to view me as more exotic there desu. Everything else sucks and is more of a pain in non-tourist places, generally there's a reason why they haven't been "discovered" yet.

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>>1213380

>spot the weaboo, mexico edition

>>1212517
RealTravellers get locals to take pictures for them.

>>1211801
you seem like a bit of a prick, don't fit any stereotypes? meat loving right wingers are memes as much as vegan SJW coffee addicts. wake up neo

>>1211871
Why is your coffee boiling?

>>1213411
>that resolution

>>1213778
water not safe to drink
coffee only added to mask flavour

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>>1213374
here its.

>>1213380
is horribly outdated.

>>1213340

>still took a picture of it

Yeah, I hate tourists too

>>1211720
go on...

>>1212377
Tell me some more about living in India my man I'm interested

>>1211538
Got hammered with some roadside dudes in Laos, betting bottle of beers while playing pétanque. Went back to the hostel drunkdriving on a shitty motorbike and flipflops, with someone on the backseat.

When it comes to actual RealTravelerTM BS, I had bought a krama (a sort of thick Cambodian scarf), and wore it like a Sikh turban for weeks while traveling in Vietnam and China, for no actual good reason. I also wore fake round John Lennon-like sunglasses, flipflops constantly and a shitty chinese flax vest to complete the look. I'm white, obv.
I actually thought it was quirky and cool somehow.

>>1213973

It's the highest I've ever seen on /trv/. I'm sure there's a higher res somewhere though.

>>1211890
Sounds like a typical German to me, nothing wrong with that.

>>1211576
i didn't know we have any import/export with Saturn, wow!

>>1211898
this. In fact I believe that it's the most important if not only actual symptopme of being one

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>>1213994

Ask me a specific question, senpai.

>that resolution

Kekkitus Maximus

>>1211797
I think it's the appeal of having your own adventure and your own unique experience. Everyone who visits the main tourist attraction will have a similar experience, shit, how much diversity is there to seeing the Eiffel tower? If you go exploring the lesser destinations then you will have a more interesting tale to tell. Eiffel Tower is pretty neato though.
>>1211801
maybe you're not a realtravellertm then.
>>1211890
I did a similiar thing when I played WoW. made it a mission to explore every god damn corner of every map in all the worlds.

>>1213340
In my city we have a clock that blows steam off. Back in the day it used to run on steam, now it's electronically controlled to blow off every hour. whenever it does a couple hundred tourists get their selfies with the damn clock. I was walking past it when I was pretty drunk and laid out a drunken rant at the clock regarding it's fraudulent appeal and the fact that it is nothing more than a fuckin clock.. WHY DOES ANYONE CARE?!

>>1214257
>I think it's the appeal of having your own adventure and your own unique experience. Everyone who visits the main tourist attraction will have a similar experience, shit, how much diversity is there to seeing the Eiffel tower? If you go exploring the lesser destinations then you will have a more interesting tale to tell. Eiffel Tower is pretty neato though.
This. But some of the popular attractions are pretty cool as well. The locals all told me how cold and lame the Golden Gate Bridge was, but it was pretty amazing walking down and realizing just how huge it was.

>>1214268
vancouver?

>>1214270
Some tourist attractions are worth checking out, no matter the crowds or amount of exposure they get. Some, like the pissing statue or
>>1214278
>>1214268
The steam clock in vancouver are nothing more than a watered down tourist trap that you could probably see anywhere on the planet. There's plenty of saturated tourist attractions on this planet that are worth seeing just to experience it. What really waters it down is if you check out these sights in the same friggen way that everyone else does, taking the seven o'clock tour, getting your selfy on the bridge deck, visiting the souvenir shop, ignoring all the plaques.

>>1214257
Or maybe a sensible non-meme definition of what it is to be a realtravelertm is needed

>>1213379

why, eastern Ukraine was a shithole even before the war

>>1213411
Does being deployed in the military count?