Whatever else has been said about the ‘developing’ country you have just arrived in, it never ceases to amaze those who think exotic is a country in Europe. Its history as a cultural crossroads has produced a fascinating multiethnic mosaic of a people ready-made to have cameras up in their face; you will be hard-pressed to find a warmer and friendlier place on earth, with a genuine smile accompanying every scam and request for money. With its snow-capped mountains, tropical beaches, vast deserts, dense jungles, desolate steppes, lush valleys, rugged canyons and pretty much any other landscape you could possibly imagine, the sheer diversity of the land is unparalleled on the continent- even though we say pretty much the same thing about every other country on the continent.
After decades of revolutions, civil wars, dictatorships and disastrous experiments with various economic systems, real optimism is at last in the air as ‘globalization’ worship becomes the latest ideology to screw the overwhelming majority of the country’s inhabitants. And nowhere is this more visible than in the country’s teeming megacities, where impoverished people haul garbage past expensive cars and shiny glass buildings in cliché photo opportunities. Experience this fascinating collision between old and new- often literal, given driving habits – and watch as the country strives to embrace a mythical ultra-modernity by bulldozing anything that looks old and poor. Soak up these westernized metropolises with their bright lights and well-dressed people- ‘western’ because any wealth, sophistication or infrastructure obviously cannot emanate from any other culture than our own. Settle into your hostel and listen to other travelers’ spiritual experiences carving flutes and surviving on berries in a remote village in the “real” part of the country, despite the fact the city you are sitting in is home to half the country’s population.
Pay triple the local rate to see overrated historical sites, bad-mouthing other tourists for being tourists while battling throngs of touts. Visit a famous marketplace that has become a caricature of itself due largely to its immense popularity with your lot. Avoid the large majority of the city that isn’t mentioned in your guidebook. Experience the wonders of a smoky internet café, filled with other travelers and local teenagers playing loud computer games. Indulge yourself in the city’s vibrant nightlife, world famous for consisting of bars, clubs and people drinking alcohol. The truly adventurous might want to sample a beer not available in their home country. Order by yelling in English over bad 80s music played at ear-splitting levels.
When you’ve had your fill of the skyscrapers and traffic jams, the ‘real’ country awaits- the part that is rural, materially poorer and more in step with your stereotypes of what a ‘developing’ country should look like. Make sure to “step back in time”, because rural subsistence lifestyles don’t exist in late 2006. Visit a village, take pictures of dirty children and witness traditional life as it has been for centuries apart from the motorcycles, burning garbage, industrial trucks, cell phones, Snoop Dogg t-shirts, sheet metal roofs, blaring televisions, Nestle products, power lines, girls dressed like Britney Spears and cat-calling loiterers. Chat with a smiling, toothless old man, basking in the genuine cultural experience until he asks you for money. Insulate yourself in the bubble of a backpacker hostel, meeting more Europeans than locals. Listen to a self-righteous dinner companion decry how tourism is destroying local culture as you both dig in to standard Western fare ordered from a badly translated menu. Go further off the beaten track and discover a place largely untouched by the outside world except for the hundreds and thousands of people who bought the same guidebook you did.
Whether you are looking for photogenic poverty or exploited historical sites, mind-bending traffic jams or religious temples shrouded in the ‘mist’ of a nearby chemical plant, you will not be disappointed. From the isolated reaches of a remote province that you will never visit to the various bus stations and airports where you will spend most of your time, this ‘developing’ country has got it all. With its smiling people carrying baskets on their heads, strapping live animals to vehicles and selling things in markets, there is enough to keep your digital camera busy for days and your stereotypes perpetuated for life. By preserving the more superficial aspects of its cultural traditions to cash in on them while madly industrializing for the benefit of a small elite, the country will leave you breathless (and we aren’t only talking about the air quality). But then again we’ve also said the exact same thing about dozens of other countries as well.
Wow – never read a such comprehensive description of tourism in Asia! Amen…
What the Lonely Planet Doesn’t You…
ApeRifle’s flipside rant to counter the glowing PC-ness of LP’s China guide.
Worth a look….
Absolutely brilliant writing.
Have you ever had the misfortune to bear witness to the process known in travelling circles as “tearing”? This is where hippy backpackers travelling light only bring the pages from the Lonely Planet guide which concern the cities they wish to travel to. If they change their itinery halfway through, they then have to find other hippies to exchange pages with. The cheap deodorant-less scum.
La plus ca change . . . .