nedelja, 14. avgust 2011

Tourists, Travellers & Junkies

In Hakata I slept with a bunch of homeless Japanese in the park near the ferry terminal. In the evening I was already in Korea, sharing beer and travel stories with other guests at the Blue Backpackers hostel in Busan. Informations picked at times like that are usually worth more than the latest edition of Lonely Planet. So when a girl complained that she's expecting to have a hard time in China to obtain the visa for Tibet, I advised her - as I heard from many travellers - to try through Nepal instead of China, it's way easier. "Oh, no, we don't have so much time, we have only five days left, three for China and two for Tibet!"
I choked on my beer and wanted to laugh in her face. I didn't. Because it would be laughable if she had said that they have three days for Beijing - but no, they have three (3) days for CHINA. And that's pathetic. I suppose that the visa processing takes longer than that. Filthy tourists.
Tourists are like people that buy books, but never read them. Or like folks who have a cellar full of wine bottles from all over the world, but they didn't drink a glass of it. Tourists are mostly complaining. About prices, food, transportation, accomodation, people, weather - you name it, they will have a complain about it.
And then, there are travellers. They don't complain. They don't mind sleeping on the floor. They travel with a smile, they are willing to help, they are good company and a reliable source of information. No, I'm not talking about my virtues. I'm talking about people that I meet in hostels, on ferries, on the road. I'm lucky. I meet more travellers than tourists.
As for me, I belong to a third category. You see, tourists travel because they heard that travelling is cool and they can afford it. Travellers do it because they really like it and can afford it. We - the travel junkies - do it because we simply have to. Being affordable or not is not a question. We have to. It's an addiction.
Cleraly I didn't get any teaching job. Never will. There are too many plumbers and electricians from US here and being a native speaker is the best reference. Actually, the only one. Sure that between them there are some amazing good teachers, but I will never forget the guy I met at the Hong Kong airport. An electrician. Don't get me wrong - I really respect every trade, but electricians are supposed to work with wires, not with kids! When he heard I was heading for the UK, he was worried about me: "Oh, but in what language will you speak there? Is there a lot of people who understand English?" He wasn't joking about some cockney or other dialects, he simply didn't have a clue what language is spoken in that misterious country in Europe, called United Kingdom. Thank you, teacher.
Cabagge is waiting for me, starting this week. One good thing about it is that we'll be in Gangwon do, being the region where my princess lives. I can visit her on every day off.

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