Backpackers

[Boo]

heh heh heh, the avatar confuses a lot of peeps who don't know me

[ben01]

I was at around 28/29 a bit older than the average backpacker, so was well used to travelling and not feeling like I "had" to do it in a crowd - I still remember down in Oz, where a group of guys and gals in a Hostel were all excited about a trip they had purchased for 100 bucks each and invited me along. The idea was that they got provided with a jeep and a tent and were "allowed" to camp on a beach for the night and could have a party. I tried to explain that I had in my life already been to Beach parties, already driven on Beaches and had already been camping - so the idea of PAYING someone to do all this in addition to Beer Money was quite a strange a concept - but I guess at 20/21 ish and you come from somewhere where their are no beaches then I can see the attraction, but still someone was making very good money from this!

fraser island eh...???sleeping with the dingoe's.......on a koala tour..???

[RAZZELL]

I think this thread proves one thing...

A lot of TV members are getting old !!!!

[Jersey_UK]

Ben 01

fraser island eh...???

Pretty sure that was it! - a nights stop off for me for some reason (I was enroute from Brisbane to Cairns by bus - never again! MMFA - Miles and Miles of ###### All )

No doubt their are tons of things to do in the region...........but for me I like the sea AND the bright lights and cold beer.

sleeping with the dingoe's

Thailand.

.

......on a koala tour..???

###### - I missed the Koalas

Razzel

A lot of TV members are getting old !!!!

Yeah I guess so.............

[Fast Eddie]

i had a mate who "before" he went away travelling, "had" to get his tongue pierced and a couple of tatts done... cos - and i quote "because im off travelling and i wanna look the part"

Whilst backpackers come in all shapes and sizes, i think the behaviour and appearance of the ones that DJPat, and others, are talking about is best summed up by the above quote.

A lot of people have an innate need to fit in and associate themselves with some group or other, and this consequently gives rise to the comical stereotype that most of us have laughed at, at some stage. They arrive with an idea of what they want to be, 'a backpacker', and then look around to see what backpackers wear and how they act (by observing Khao San Road), and then the metamorphosis starts to occur. Some of those who are more serious about it undergo the change prior to arrival. It is a very true stereotype of a prominent subgroup of backpackers, and it's okay to laugh and take the piss (but not to verbally abuse them or beat them up ). Many of them are okay, but i have met many who give the annoying impression that they look down on you if you don't conform to their stereotype.

When i first travelled in Thailand i arrived with a backpack in toe, but was quick to disassociate myself from the dreadlocked, fisherman's pants crowd. Not my scene, but each to their own, i'm sure they have an enjoyable time, and like other posters have said, they're bound to get more from the experience than sitting around at home.

Edited January 5, 2006 by Fast Eddie

[ProfessorFart]

My bugbear with backpackers is the 'culture' issue. They seem to think that by staying in cheap digs and strapping a large piece of luggage on their back they are automatically projected closer to 'the culture' which is of course nonsense.

I will relate one issue which for me sums up the whole thing. Expats and backpackers are as bad as each other.

I was on Thanon Phra Arthit at the Peachy GH sat in the lobby listening to a typical backpacker conversation about the costs of this and that and about how wonderfully cheap everything was etc.

Later that evening I was in Hua Hin sat with a group of expats who were all tring to brag about who had the cheapest rent, could find the cheapest bread, beer etc.

No difference at all if you ask me.

[mittheimp]

The worst people you meet in Thailand are the:

'ex-pats' who think backpackers are losers

'tourists' who think they are better than backpackers

'backpackers' who think they are better than tourists

'backpackers' who think all ex-pats are dodgy

Pretty much anyone who thinks they are the heat and bothers to write a post slagging off another type of foreigner in Thailand. Especially of a group they clearly know nothing about.

You forgot about those who slag of those who slag of backpackers for thinking they are better than tourists! You could even include those that slag of those that slag of those that slag of backpackers for thinking they are better than tourists, hang on, mmm thats me!

[thaibebop]

Could the sadder species be the one who keeps recycling the same topic over and over again?

cv

So, how many times have you seen this one?

[Backpack_thailand]

Could the sadder species be the one who keeps recycling the same topic over and over again?

Absolutely! Do we really want to go down this path AGAIN Mr. DJ...?

[Neeranam]

Those who slag off backpackers are usually sad old gits, usually here for the women only, with no thought of the culture. At least BPs try.

Give them a break. These sad old gits are jealous that they were working in a dull no-end job when they were that age, going to Spain was probably as adventurous as they could handle at that age.

When I was a BP, I was disgusted by those old guys with young girls. Little has changed - except I can usually tell the ones who are both happy(amongst the crowd).

[DJ Pat]

Absolutely! Do we really want to go down this path AGAIN Mr. DJ...?

How about a topic on soi dogs? Hmmm it's been what over a year now?

[khall64au]

Absolutely! Do we really want to go down this path AGAIN Mr. DJ...?

How about a topic on soi dogs? Hmmm it's been what over a year now?

Hey Mr DJ.... how bout some original tunes from a rehash of the past? Is that not your job? Be creative

[JSixpack]

Ask yourself this question...which do you find more offensive.

1. The average "cheap cheap cheap, its must be the cheapest backpacker

or

2. tattoo'd skin head berk in tennis shoes and footy shirt with huge gut and nasty cockney accent with half slugged Chang welded to right fist blagging on about ICF in the 80's whilst grappling some 20 ish Isaan money grabbing ho, in just another cheesy bar with plastic chairs and vinyl tablecloths and loud euro techno pop trash hits blasting out of cheap speakers.

Give me the great unwashed any day!

Me. too. Why single out the fairly innocuous backpackers when there are other groups, of which perhaps DJ Pat is one himself, so much more stereotypical, not to say offensive? Where's the perspective?

[Slim Chance]

Dear Mr. DJ, Oh Oppinionated One:

What would you say about the mental state of a self-described EXPAT who has spent a solid year and a half writing 1,853 letters to post on this forum? That’s, I believe, as stated in your profile, to the tune of 3.4 PER DAY. What’s the motive? A need for attention and recognition? Boredom? Delusions of grandeur? Wouldn’t the time spent reading by these people you ridicule for having the audacity to carry books seem well used in comparison? And isn’t your argument just the same old rant against the hippies that has been repeated for 40 years now? And against the beatniks 10 before that? Were you always un-hip, or did you go through a little phase, once?

Being no fan of the lonely planet cult I can agree with many points of your statement, but when you start in with the holier-than-thou we be high-class old farts routine, if forced to choose, I’ll hang with the KhoaSarn babies. At least most of them have youth as an excuse.

1853 posts???

My non-back-packing son says 'tell him to get a life'.

[DJ Pat]

Oh Oppinionated One:

What would you say about the mental state of a self-described EXPAT who has spent a solid year and a half writing 1,853 letters to post on this forum? That’s, I believe, as stated in your profile, to the tune of 3.4 PER DAY. What’s the motive?

My non-back-packing son says 'tell him to get a life'.

I'm bored, sad and lonely as well as having a lot of time on my hands... What did you expect? Serious denial? An attempt by yours truely to appear to have lots of mates and is always out on the scene? Sorry to disappoint.

I've no shortage of mates but I'm still trying to find a life.

[JSixpack]

I don't claim to be pure as the driven snow but when was the last time you heard me boast about college girls? A long time ago. I am in a relationship at the moment so you're wrong there.

If I'm not an expat then what am I? And, how else can I describe what backpackers say to expats????

Leave me alone kringle!!!

Oh, so DJ Pat himself has boasted about conquests with college girls (non-backpackers, presumably)? Yet comes to sneer over some putative "upper class" backpackers' observation that for expats the nightlife scene in Thailand is for 'dirty old men,' a member of which group, it appears, he once was himself.

Note that you say that you are in a relationship merely at the moment, implying a possible reversion.

How else then can you write your description? Well, you can write with a tone bereft of the derision and hypocrisy that now permeates it. If backpackers don't particularly approve of dirty old men, so the majority of your countrymen back in blighty don't either. Do you need their approval? Is it just terribly irksome that the backpackers don't need yours? Sorry, but I can't see how your snide, bigoted little rant against backpackers is justified by the triviality of your main complaint: their supposed reading habits.

Why not rant about the yobs roaming around Pattaya? Why not rant against all those stereotypical football fans staring at their tellies? The latter is one rant we just never see around here, so there's your fresh topic.

Good work, Kringle.

[DJ Pat]

My rant about the idiots in Pattaya is in the Pattaya forum, about the post office and dole office opening in Thailand.

[cdnvic]

I think this one is dead. Pat, next time post an original thread and it may turn out better.

/closed