Tired of Reading Travel Crap

Sorry, maybe I am just in a grumpy mood.

But it seems that in line with the ever-increasing travel coverage in blogs and media, there is also a growing amount of crap spouted. After earlier grumping in the comment section of Gadling, it was this feature that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

From MSNBC, entitled "Tourist Written All Over You".

It starts:

"Have you ever wondered how local people always seem to know you're a tourist when you are traveling abroad?"

Well, when I lived in Vietnam, a handful of expats aside, being white was a dead giveaway.  In Nicaragua it's still pretty obvious.  They fail to list this most clear cut hint.  However it carries on:

"Clothes make the tourist. White tennis shoes almost always announce an American tourist, just as black socks with shorts identify a British tourist. Sweatshirts with university names...blah blah blah"

The white tennis shoes  (as opposed to the white face)?  Really?  Brits wear black socks and shorts?  Really?. Sweatshirts with University names? You don't say.  A name of an American college on your chest suggests you're an American?  No sh*t Sherlock

There's more:

"Wallet check. Americans like to keep their wallets in their back pockets. This is not a safe practice, and they seem to be aware of it, because most Americans abroad have the habit of tapping their wallet every so often.."

What do the rest of the world do with their wallets?  Carry them between their teeth?

It goes on:

"Creatures of habit. Whether it is McDonald's in Greece, The Olive Garden in Rome, or Starbucks in Lebanon, Americans tend to flock to familiar names when hunger or thirst sets in abroad. Once in a while, I do it too. Comfort food, I guess.."

Really?  All the kids with the Asian features that I saw in Hanoi's KFC?  All Americans? You sure?.

You want more?

Super sleuth. Before committing to a restaurant, many American tourists will pass by it several times, each time scoping out the menu, sizing up the clientele, and taking notes on what the customers are eating.

So let's get this straight.  Walking backwards and forwards in front of a restaurant and peering in it suggests you're a tourist.  Hmm, so in other words, if you don't already know the restaurant then the chances are you aren't local.  To put that simpler still, local people know local restaurants, non-local people don't.  Can't we work that out for ourselves?

Oh and do Americans really take notes on what customers are eating in restaurants?   If so then the dude is right, that is one huge give-away.

The article goes on in a similar vein.

Sorry, I guess we are all guilty of it.  Becoming link-fueled and RSS driven.  Posting for the sake of posting.  Filling space, chasing ad revenue, links etc etc.  But I'm tired of this no-brainer approach.

I know this short, coffee break stuff, goes down easily but is anybody out there writing the beautiful travel stuff or are we all descending into dumbed-down hell?  Is anybody still writing about actually traveling or are we just giving advice to others?

The whole list thing is getting very tired too.

I was going to ask where the good stuff was and then I remembered Chris.  A man still being moved by his experiences and, as a result, questioning his whole approach to life and travel.

Good to see there is someone out there who still gets it.

Comments

[Clare Lynch]

Thought I'd swing by after you left a comment on my blog but am beginning to regret it as I think you might have brought on a late-30s crisis in me. From here in property-obsessed London it looks like you're having an absolute blast.

Good to meet a fellow grouch!

[Chris Mitchell]

Ironically the Web seems to be much better as a research tool for travel - dispensing practical advice etc - than for travel writing in the classic sense i.e. recording the impact of a journey on your own ideas and preconceptions.

Certainly I know the stuff I post on my own travel blog in the classic 1500 word travel article format barely gets read, even though it's what I'm most proud of.

I think travel books and magazines still lead the way here - it's difficult to get immersed in a long form travel narrative from a screen. Plus, of course, a lot of travel blogs essentially repeat the same ideas about the same destinations, so there is definitely a lesser quality to most travel writing online rather than print published. (Don't get me wrong - there's a lot of travel crap printed too).

For a travel writing blog to truly work, the writer would need a fresh angle to attack it from (not just "my round the world trip") and actually be able to write pithily about their experiences...

OMIH is actually a good example of that ;-)

[Willy Volk]

I just read the MSNBC piece, and I agree that it's lame. The writer promulgates stereotypes and provides silly commentary.

However, you write in your post that tourists ARE easy to spot, so maybe his column is at least partly accurate. He just tried to outline what makes them so obvious. In your opinion, what makes tourists so easy to spot? How can people avoid looking like them?

However -- and I'm not defending his article -- there's lots of different *kinds* of travelers in the world. Some are super-experienced (like you), and don't need these kinds of generic articles. Other people, however, can benefit from this "Travel 101" piece. If nothing else, maybe people will re-think where they store their huge wads of cash when traveling through unfamiliar countries.

Finally, it IS fair to say that a lot of the writing on "travel sites" is watered down. However, there is a lot of good stuff out there. Your site is among them, though I would've liked to see you *add to* his piece, rather than just tear it apart. Critical is okay; constructive is better.

Thanks for the "Traveling Chris" link, BTW!

[minxlj]

What a load of tripe. I'm guessing the reason we Brits stand out is 1) we're white 2) we speak English. Yet they fail to mention this.

But aside from that, if Americans are creatures of habit and flock to the same old names when we're hungry, why would they case a restaurant walking past several times and sizing up the menu?

Such broad tarring of tourist stereotypes does nothing to help anyone and isn't any kind of advice. I'm not surprised it pissed you off.

As a tourist I like to do several things when abroad:
1) Speak the language, or at least try. Show some respect people, and don't expect them to automatically speak English.

2) Get off the 'tourist trail' to find good restaurants and shops. McDonalds is shit, wherever it is in the world.

3) Wear whatever the hell you want (as long as it's respectful and practical). If like me you're white with blonde hair, wearing local clothes is NOT going to convince anyone you're Vietnamese...!

And British people definitely do not wear black socks with shorts. Maybe they got mixed up - we all wear white socks with stupid sandals and hankies on our heads, and spend the trip searching for PG Tips and HP Sauce (jeez)

[ourman]

Clare..I am, but property obsessed London? YOu have no idea... this place is full of Americans trying to invest in a slice of Nicaragua. It's all they talk about.

But good to have you stop by.

Chris, I think you are right. I know why everybody does do the lists and the short snappy pieces. But it's like always snacking - sooner or later you fancy a steak.

The sad thing is that the best bits of writing should be on the blogs of people actually traveling. Instead though we get Lost Girls style accounts of managing to find spas and chocolate.

I guess if I am honest I was expressing some dissatisfaction with my own blog. I stand by everything here but my real experiences are yet to start. For a number of reasons my initial introduction to this place has been staggered. As fantastic as it all is there has been nothing to move me in the way that Vietnam did.

I am very proud of what I wrote on OMIH. OMIG has a lot to live up to.

Willy, I think the point is we will always stand out. Sure wear a Hawaiian shirt and people will know you're an American. But wear what the locals wear and you're still going to be pretty easy to spot. It's a lame piece. Written, no doubt, in 10 minutes flat to fill space in a blog.

You can't go unnoticed in a foreign country, the best you can do is be respectful of it and try to keep your impact on it as minimal as possible.

What really makes local people laugh? Foreigners wearing ethnic garb that they bought in the mountains and pretending to be so "down" with the local people. We are foreign. We are different. No apologies necessary. I can do without over loud voices and perpetually clicking cameras but after that...just be nice.

Minxlj, point 3 - spot on. We're fooling no one - wear what you like. Actually, in someways a more interesting article would be the difference between expats and tourists.

The main one is the ridiculous travel gear that tourists wear. Way too much of the stuff and gizmos they bought at the travel shop.

Expats wear what they are comfortable in - weather allowing the same as they wore back home. A whole lots less khaki for starters.

[Mike]

I'm with you, ourman. I read a great deal of travel blogs, forums, etc. and it takes time to separate the wheat from the chaff. I'm constantly pruning my RSS subscriptions with a vengeance.

With the advent of Blogger, Typepad (no slam intended), et. al. blogging has virtually zero barrier to entry. I believe Technorati or some other such service released stats showing that over 100,000 new blogs were launched every day. There's bound to be a lot of chaff in that heap.

I really make a conscious effort to resist the urge to comment on anything and everything on my own blog. This cliche is most certainly true: quality over quantity. Write 1 great post a week if that's all if you have in you, rather than 1 mediocre post every day.

[ourman]

Mike (and all)

I've been giving it some thought..

To be honest, a lot of the chaff is not the new kids using free blogging facilities. It is from people who should know better. Concierge's coverage is absolutely terrible. Just crap turned out with little care of whether it is correct or whether it is the best advice.

That piece that I grumped at on Gadling was a link to their Budget Beaches feature. It listed accommodation as from over $30 in Koh Phi Phi (in reality neither the nicest beach nor the cheapest accommodation). Some of the accommodation it listed was way over $100 a night. That is not budget. Two minutes on the internet and you find better information.

Incidentally the place it did recommend was far from universally approved by people who had left comments on the various hotel-rating websites.

So like I said, I have been giving it some thought. I believe that good travel writing, strangely enough, isn't about describing what you see. Or certainly not the blue ocean, the high mountains, the white sand etc. It's in the detail. More importantly it is how it effects you. This stuff should be personal.

That is why I included the link I did. Here was a kid who was moved by his experience. He could come across as naive but he blogged it. He was honest. When the Lost Girls move onto another place where they can buy chocolate and cocktails and complain about the service, this guy's experience will still be vividly with him.

From a personal point of view, I am a little cut off from Nicaragua right now, despite actually being here. My Spanish is virtually non-existant and I am working from home. I can churn out all the links and snippets I can but I could do that from back home. You have to be living it and you have to be honest.

As ever, what made me angry was that I wanted to change what I write. I intend to carry on daily posting but I also want to write something that makes me people think occasionally. I want to live it so I can write it. I want to put down something that has stirred emotions in me and will hopefully do the same in other people.

And while you can generalise that people don't read long posts - they do if it's a good read.

You want proof, check this out:

http://tinyurl.com/3x9s2a

Okay not a blog but it was read in just the same way. And how long is it? Maybe a couple of thousand words.

[Melby]

Hey, are you the guy who's checking out my blog? I couldn't figure out how to contact you, so I just Googled your name. Thanks for the comments!