Why don't Americans travel

I dont travel for the sake of traveling, I do it because I love exploring new places and cultures. I realise not everyone does, I just hate it when people use distance as an excuse.
 
who_can_say said:
boo-fucking-hoo. I live in Australia, guess how long it takes to get to the US or Europe? Fuck I hate whinging Northern Americans who bitch about travelling times. So you have to sit in the one spot for 8 hours. Whack a few more on top of that, and that's how long I have to sit to get to anywhere half-way decent in the world. If you want to see a place desperate enough, you'll do whatever it takes to go there.
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Dude, you live about two seconds from dozens of other countries (NZ, PNG, all of S/SE Asia, India, etc....). You know how many countries Americans live near? About 10, many of which are pointless to go to, or we CAN'T go to (Cuba anyone?). Canada is nice, but it's almost exactly the same as WI, so I'm not going to go there for vacation. Mexico is... well... Mexico, so I'm not sure why I would buy a 300 dollar plane ticket and spend god knows how much on a nasty hotel to go there if I could go somewhere nicer that also has a beach instead (like, perhaps, the city i live in!!! Or FL even, where I can actually drink the water!). All that's left is the Caribbean, and that starts getting pretty costly to fly there during peak season. So again, to get to just about any other major city in the world, we have to fly 8 hours+. Boo Fucking Hoo to you that you can't get to the US or Europe. We can't get ANYWHERE.

Check the fuckin map dude:
WF1.WORLD.JPG



And for the record, when I went to Paris, people were nothing but polite and friendly - they even went out of their way to try to speak English when we needed help with directions. The only one on the trip that spoke a lick of French was me, and I'm a Spanish major... lol My grandmother has traveled the world - literally - and she has had nothing but positive things to say about everyone she has ever met. She even went to China right after the borders opened to Americans, and she said it was fine *there*! Yes, people may harbor some animosity toward America as a whole/concept/government, whatever, but when it comes down to it, nice people are nice people. Hardly anyone is going to give a hard time to a traveler just because of where they're from. (I guess the one exception to the rule is the one waiter in Paris that got mad at us for asking for ketchup. We ordered steak frite! Come on man! It's not like haute cuisine or some shit! lol)
 
vegan said:
geographically speaking, we agree that america has enough to see for a lifetime

but culturally speaking, one day outside of the US may be worth more than 10 years inside
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I guess as long as I'm being contrary, I should try to get it all out of my system:

I disagree, or, rather, I suppose I just don't place as high a value on the simple act of being some place different.

All the traveling in the world wont do anything for someone who refuses to open their mind first. I remember a classmate of mine in highschool who went to Hong Kong, had one "strange" meal, and spent the rest of the week eating at a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

If it came down between a couple weeks abroad, or cracking a couple culturally significant books, I'd recommend the books. If you have the means and the inclination to do more, excellent. I'm certainly not going to treat some jerk in a tshirt who's been all over Europe and still votes Republican like he's my intellectual or cultural better.
 
kittyinthedark said:
So again, to get to just about any other major city in the world, we have to fly 8 hours+. Boo Fucking Hoo to you that you can't get to the US or Europe. We can't get ANYWHERE.


WF1.WORLD.JPG


You may want to take note that I wasn't criticising your choices of holiday destinations, but your complaint about how long it takes to get to them. You may want to also take note I wasnt complaining about how long it takes *me* to get anywhere in the world; it's just something you deal with when you live where I do. I actually like plane trips. Oh, and you may want to note that I didn't say I couldn't get the to US or Europe - I've traveled to both numerous time in my lifetime.

So before you want to have a go at me, read what I fucking write.
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it's all about what you spend your non-essential cash on really.

I spend mine on travelling. Others spend it on cars, clothes, drugs etc.

If you are living on the breadline, then of course you won't be able to afford to travel. But in the same respect you shouldn't have any money for beer/drugs/cinema/clothes etc etc. If you do, then perhaps a reallocation of those funds for a year might see you better travelled.

There is a culture of foreign travel in the UK.
 
^^ i've heard my uncle say that too, that "english people are very good travellers"
he was working in afghanistan in a NGO called Solidarites in 2000-2001
and he said they "found" an english guy in the desert, reading his map, while the borders were closed, the country was partly at war, and travellers were definitely not expected to be admiring the landscape

All the traveling in the world wont do anything for someone who refuses to open their mind first. [...]

If it came down between a couple weeks abroad, or cracking a couple culturally significant books, I'd recommend the books
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of course some people will keep their mind closed anyway

but i'm convinced that in most cases, travelling may be the best way to open your mind in the first place

you may read about other cultures in books, and you will know about them
but that may not help you integrate and feel them and empathize with them

there are things we are very well aware off, but when we're actually confronted to them for the first time, it feels like a revelation and like we had never really realized what they meant before

I don't know any Americans that ruined Americans for Europe,[...] I don't think I should have to answer for their mistakes
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as i said, you won't have to

if you travel with an open attitude, people will judge you for what you do, not who you are

and in the unlucky case where you meet someone who can't forget his a prioris about americans, you can point out to him that he's as prejudiced as the people he criticizes for being prejudiced
 
Reading, seeing pictures, watching movies all are nothing but a substitute for actual real experiences. See your own perspective, not an authors, photographers or directors perspective, see your own.
 
who_can_say said:
You may want to take note that I wasn't criticising your choices of holiday destinations, but your complaint about how long it takes to get to them. You may want to also take note I wasnt complaining about how long it takes *me* to get anywhere in the world; it's just something you deal with when you live where I do. I actually like plane trips. Oh, and you may want to note that I didn't say I couldn't get the to US or Europe - I've traveled to both numerous time in my lifetime.

So before you want to have a go at me, read what I fucking write.
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Length = Cost buddy.
 
9mmCensor said:
Reading, seeing pictures, watching movies all are nothing but a substitute for actual real experiences. See your own perspective, not an authors, photographers or directors perspective, see your own.
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As though passing through a country as a tourist from another place gives you any depth of understanding at all. 8(

I wan't tlaking about reading about other places, I was talking about intellectually challenging reading from people with different perspectives than you. Something very few people do after they aren't made to do it in school.
 
atlas said:
In all honesty, Felix and Percy were actually part of the reason I'm not visiting Europe this Summer. I'm not interested in defending a country that doesn't particularly for me in the first place.
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Hey WTF??? 8( Please tell me you are joking, what have I said to offend you???

And please don't mention 'Percy' and myself in the same sentence. :|
 
atlas said:
As though passing through a country as a tourist from another place gives you any depth of understanding at all. 8(
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If you walk through a room in a rush, of course you will not learn much about it, but if you go into a room and stay a while and talk to the people in the room, look at the art on the walls, and listen to the music, there is much to learn.
 
....aaaand the nature of most holidays is exactly the former. A quick pass through a country, where you inevitably see at least some of the things you're "supposed" to see, according to other Americans.

As if being a Briton could be reduced to the Tate, Trafalgar, Piccadilly, a red double decker bus, minding the gap, and using adapters for the plug of your electric razor. ;)
 
I only travel to smuggle drugs, I assume the 7% of Americans with passports are all couriers. I'm not surprised US immegration is like the Gestapo, they probably think others visiting are all carrying =D
 
kappadaftie said:
I spend mine on travelling. Others spend it on cars, clothes, drugs etc.

There is a culture of foreign travel in the UK.
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i hear that. in just one year of total sobriety(last year) i saved up so much that i woulda spent on gettin high. n its such a trip. my oldest buddy hit me up randomly last night from italy where he is in art school n we thinkin of linkin up sometime in amsterdam. i was so stoked to see the pics of paris he took got me itchin to travel. shit the only time i see paris is the simple life.
 
vegan said:
the story of the wise monk :

a traveller meets a monk on the side of a road
the monk says hello and asks where he is going
the traveller explains he's going to the next village
and he also asks how are the people there

the monk says "i can tell you, but first i would like to know how was your experience in the last village"
"well" says the traveller "it was pretty horrible. no one was nice to me. those people are extremelly unsympathetic"

"well" says the monk, "i'm afraid the people is the next village wil be exactly the same"

later on that day, the monk ses another traveller on the side of the road
the monk says hello and asks where he is going
the traveller explains he's going to the next village
and he also asks how are the people there

the monk says "i can tell you, but first i would like to know how was your experience in the last village"
"well" says the traveller "i loved it. the people were so nice and sympathetic. that was really a gret place"

"well" says the monk, "the people will be just as nice in the next village"




we do like to tease americans about not being liked abroad, because a few ones with bad attitudes spoiled the reputation for you

but if you come with an open mind, you'll be greeted as any other foreigner
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Thanks for that story. :) I'm sure I'll have a wonderful time abroad ... I don't think there'll be any problems; I'm generally not an obnoxious person.
 
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