Just curious.

Independant travel - not backpacking though...

Ok I'll bite: What's the difference? (Assuming that the characteristics of the actual vessel that contains your belongings while travelling is not the deciding factor of becoming a backpacker.. Like, I always used a sports shoulder bag, but if you still carry 5 baht water bottles around and refill them at the water cooler at bank buildings to save an additional 5 baht then I'd say I still qualified.

The term "Backpacker" takes on a whole 'nother conotation for most folks, chanchao. For example, the ones who's main destination is KS Road and Hotels like the old Malaysia back in the late 70's.

Just my humble opinion...

other - fugitive from the asylum

Work - actually a temporary 2 month posting.

After returning to falungland I realized I had been bitten, and did everything possible to get back here again.

After 3 months of desperation, luck paid out and I received an invitation to work here again.

Never looked back since...

I see.. BTW, don't you two ever confuse yourself with each other, having such similar avatar images?

I see..  BTW,  don't you two ever confuse yourself with each other, having such similar avatar images? 

Mine doesn't have a pole on it.

I see..   BTW,  don't you two ever confuse yourself with each other, having such similar avatar images? 

Mine doesn't have a pole on it.

And Boon Mee's also wobbles a bit.... age I guess!

Other................................I was drunk when I got on the plane in CPG and drunk when I got off in BKK. It was great when I found out just where I was.

I see..   BTW,  don't you two ever confuse yourself with each other, having such similar avatar images? 

Mine doesn't have a pole on it.

And Boon Mee's also wobbles a bit.... age I guess!

But it's bigger!

Backpacker. Even although i live here. When i travel i still see myself as a backpacker. No harm in that.

Business. After a 6 month wrap the bizz up assignment in Japan (I hated that place), they offered me a transition assignment in LOS. (as I was in the neighborhood).

Still here, although mostly only on the week ends. Why? I really don't know. In the beginning it was a rational decision. Bkk had good connections to the rest of Asia and a relative cheap cost of living, with enough choice of food and entertainment. An old expat then told me I should wait a couple of years to make a decision. He claimed I would end up with 2 possibilities : 1. I would remain totally enchanted with the country and its people and disappear somewhere on the country side. 2. I would become totally disgusted once I learned to look behind the niceties and the frontage and leave.

Now after 10 yrs, with the recent developments, I feel myself sliding towards the second.

I see..   BTW,  don't you two ever confuse yourself with each other, having such similar avatar images? 

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Mine doesn't have a pole on it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well he did have the two month posting :-)

I voted 'other' becuase when I first came here it was for a visa run from Japan!

Meeting with my parents for Christmas, they lived at the opposite side of the world, we tought we'd meet halfway, it was Thailand. Since then, my parents retired here, and I followed them

I don't mind admitting that I was a backpacker when I first came to LOS in 1977. I had quit work and was trying to see the world on a very limited budget. And, yeah, my first night was at a typical, LP recommended hovel, the old Thai Song Greet which was just around the corner from Hualompong.

I don't have to travel that way any more, but I still admire those who who go about "on the cheap" and manage to avoid both Khao San Road and the sterile luxury hotels that are the retreat of the wealthy.

I think there's a real and important distinction between "traveler" and "tourist". I prefer to think of myself as the former.

Transit I guess, I was on my way to NZ to pick up one of the company aircrafts from a major overhaul, we spend 3 fantastic weeks in Bangkok (patpong) and when a condo came up for sale in Phuket I bought it, 12 years now and I'm still in love with Thailand.

TRUE STORY!

More than 25 years ago.

Stayed 1 night in BKK and than off to Phuket, Patong Beach; the most beautiful and almost deserted place you can imagine. (not anymore though )

There was only 1 hotel, The Patong Beach Hotel, but we (friend of mine and myself) moved to 2 small bungalows right on the beach, each of us a motorbike parked against our 'own' Palmtree....WOW what a life.

The FIRST evening we arrived, we walked along the beach and we had the most UNBELIEVABLE EXPERIENCE we ever experienced in Thailand.

There were some open bars right on the beach and with 3 of them they called our names..... Hello Khun J....hello Khun J (both our names start with 'J'), please come and have a 'dlink'. We looked around...and gasped, since we didn't know anybody on Patong Beach....

Still a mistery to us.

But when we phone each other we still call each other: Hello Khun J....how are you

LaoPo

I guess I was an independant traveller come backpacker.I stayed in Khao San, and loved it at the time, although not now. I know some guys, one 70 years old who loves to stay in KSR when he goes to BKK from the sticks. Why do some feel embarassed when they say they were a backpacker??? On the whole I prefer backpackers than expats, although obviously not all.

Actually, India was my first Asian stop but had to leave after 6 months for a new visa. When I came here, I got a visa then went off travelling around Asia. So glad I did and didn't came straight here. When I went back to India my visa had actually run out and I got deported, very embarrasssing! 2 policemen escorting me onto the plane. I found that as I had nearly ran out of money, I had to work, and couldn't in India so started working as an English teacher here. Over a decade later, still here, although changed my ways of earning cash.

Solo Backpacker

Explorer

Assigned to the 6924th Security Squadron (USAF) Ramasun Station (down the road from Udorn RTAFB). Jan 75.