This Drives Me Crazy....

[kkf123]

"The first time I went to, and fell in love with, Luang Prabang I hitched-hiked atop a rice barge for two days down the muddy Mekong River until finally stepping onto the solid gleaming white stairs that led up to this then much-forgotten city. Over a dozen years ago, I must have been one of the first droplets of backpackers that would soon turn into a faucet of rucksack toting, flip-flop flapping youngsters that have worn down a now much travelled Lonely Planet-led trail to Luang Prabang."

http://www.chiangmainews.com/ecmn/2005/oct05/lovely.php

So the first foriegn travelers arrived in Luang Prabang a dozen years ago? And of course, he didnt take a flight to get there, nope he hitch-hiked atop a rice barge. Then again, he maybe he didn't but just lied about it.

Whenever I listen to people complaining about tourists ruining everything I can't help but think to myself:

Wait, aren't you a ######ing tourist yourself? Doesn't that mean you yourself are apart of the tourism problem? You self-righteous, self-centered, egoist!

[cdnvic]

"The first time I went to, and fell in love with, Luang Prabang I hitched-hiked atop a rice barge for two days down the muddy Mekong River until finally stepping onto the solid gleaming white stairs that led up to this then much-forgotten city. Over a dozen years ago, I must have been one of the first droplets of backpackers that would soon turn into a faucet of rucksack toting, flip-flop flapping youngsters that have worn down a now much travelled Lonely Planet-led trail to Luang Prabang."

http://www.chiangmainews.com/ecmn/2005/oct05/lovely.php

So the first foriegn travelers arrived in Luang Prabang a dozen years ago? And of course, he didnt take a flight to get there, nope he hitch-hiked atop a rice barge. Then again, he maybe he didn't but just lied about it.

Whenever I listen to people complaining about tourists ruining everything I can't help but think to myself:

Wait, aren't you a ######ing tourist yourself? Doesn't that mean you yourself are apart of the tourism problem? You self-righteous, self-centered, egoist!

Well if he told two friends, who told two friends, who......

Maybe he should have shut up about it years ago

cv

[English Noodles]

I don't understand your point. Did you read the full page or just the first paragraph?

[saeb]

I don't understand your point. Did you read the full page or just the first paragraph?

Don't know! - Didn't read it - backpackers doing the ethnic thing man.......

I was first there in 92' before the Australian Government coughed for the loot to finish the 'Friendship Bridge' over the Mekhong.

Weren't nowt to do in Luang Prabang. The wats were nice. The people were nice.

The climate was cool.

Most of the population were stoned or drunk.

A nice place to catch up on reading and relaxing.

Thaket is less 'ethnic traveller' as is Sakhamavet - i.e. they don't take the piss trying to make money out of you being a person never liable to return.

(Oh - my and my great Thai pal will retire to Laos. We decided that many a year ago.

With multiple wives and kids, cats, dogs, to watch the river go by............).

[skylar]

I don't think the author of the article was being condescending towards the new wave of tourists, but was just asserting that they were more unique in that the author visited the area when it was largely unknown.

Many people like to think that they are individuals, so instead of becoming inflamed with comments of this nature, take it with a pinch of salt.

[Sing_Sling]

Reminds me of Monty Python's Life of Brian:

BRIAN:

Look. You've got it all wrong.

You don't need to follow me. You don't need to follow anybody! You've got to think for yourselves. You're all individuals!

FOLLOWERS:

Yes, we're all individuals!

BRIAN:

You're all different!

FOLLOWERS:

Yes, we are all different!

DENNIS:

I'm not.

ARTHUR:

Shhhh.

FOLLOWERS:

Shh. Shhhh. Shhh.

As KK said, we all like to think of ourselves as individuals, when in truth the only individuality we really possess is the feelings we have about what we experience.

Edited April 14, 2006 by Sing_Sling

[meadish_sweetball]

Hey, those pesky travellers drove me crazy first!

...back when you had to fight three guerillas, crocodile jump 26 miles up the Chao Phraya river and win a minimum of 2 out of 3 chess against Kasparov just in order to get to Ayutthaya from Bangkok.

[Sing_Sling]

Hey, those pesky travellers drove me crazy first!

...back when you had to fight three guerillas, crocodile jump 26 miles up the Chao Phraya river and win a minimum of 2 out of 3 chess against Kasparov just in order to get to Ayutthaya from Bangkok.

. .Days of the Raj, please come back .

Edited April 14, 2006 by Sing_Sling

[Kruang]

I always remember Paul Theroux's remark about every traveller's trip being different. And earlier is not always better or more difficult.

A few years ago I recreated Norman Lewis's trip down on the Irawaddy River in Burma that he describes in Golden Earth (1952). I took the same kind of riverboat as Lewis and followed the same route. But where Lewis travelled in luxury in a first class cabin in the bow, being served his meals by English-speaking waiters, my trip demonstrated just how far Burma had slipped back into the past. That first class cabin had been converted to squalid crew quarters, and the waiters had been replaced by a smoky kitchen in the hold, serving greasy curries. By the third day I was unable to eat a thing. I shared a tiny cabin with a forest service officer, whose snoring overwhelmed my industrial-strength earplugs. No one could tell me when or where the boat would dock (it eventually arrived, 2 days late). But I did see Irawaddy dolphins late one night under the moonlight.

I was tempted to write Lewis a letter about how difficult the trip had become. But when I got home I found out he had just died at the age of 95.

[thatguy]

i understand what you're saying.

on another level:

who is an environmentalist?

the last guy (most recent ) to build a house in "paradise",

therefore all development should stop now.

[Boon Mee]

Where's DJ Pat?

Know he's got something to say about backpackers...

[sylvafern]

I don't understand your point. Did you read the full page or just the first paragraph?

I don't understand either ... if you read the whole article then you would know it ends like this ....

"So while, in my youth, I plied the potholed streets of Luang Prabang in my flip flops and fisherman pants, slurping noodles from market stalls, and sitting on the banks of the Mekong sucking Beer Lao from a bottle, now in my thirties, with a few little shifts in attitude and preference, I am still doing all of those things, but also have the option of returning to a scrumptious hotel room, dining in candlelight with a fine bottle of wine, and having my aching muscles pampered by a lingering massage. I am finding Luang Prabang, although visually nostalgic, evolved into a maturity which while to some may be sad in its innocence lost, to me, is inevitable, and still very appealing."

Doesn't seem much like he's complaining about the effects of tourism to me!

Edited April 14, 2006 by sylvafern

[taxexile]

Norman Lewis's trip down on the Irawaddy River in Burma that he describes in Golden Earth (1952).

travel writing just doesnt come any better than that by norman lewis.