From one end to the other.
Within a period of one week, I've gone from being lost in the mountains and sleeping in a hut, to being on a cargo boat going down the Mekong, to... Starbucks. This morning, Marc and I found ourselves in Starbucks, and this afternoon - we ended up in a shopping mall in Thailand, complete with a Body Shop. We watched Superman in the movie theatre there. It felt sort of odd. We're up in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand which I hear is less Westernized than southern Thailand. It makes me wonder what the hell southern Thailand must be.
Thailand has all the modern conveniences of the Western world, so it's the perfect place for the beginning traveller. It's a good 'starter' country, much like Central America and South Africa and Australia. I was thinking about why the Thai aren't as grabby about Western money as the Chinese are. Locals in China will follow you down the street for 15 minutes, asking if you want a massage, long after you've already told them no. Touts will grab you as soon as you step off the bus, and follow you to your hotel, asking eagerly if they can take you on tours tomorrow. Usually they'll also be outside your hotel the next morning - asking again if you want to go with them.
China is this odd mixture of development and backwardness. Though it's more likely to be a superpower than Thailand is, China has had much less exposure to Western influence. This is reflected in the fact that they haven't created Western toilets or Western beds to accomodate the Western tourist yet. Squat toilets and hard wooden beds with bamboo mats are all we get, because that's what the Chinese use. The shopkeeper in Yangshuo told me that all this happened in the last 5 years. Just 5 years ago, he said with a wave of his hand, this was all dirt road. Now it's paved and thronging.
The Chinese see the sudden rush of tourism as a sudden windfall - and they're eager to grab some of it before it disappears into the dust. To them, tourism is relatively new. The Thai, have had tourism for year after year after year. They know that if you don't buy their services, it's okay because the next tourist will. There's a desperation about the Chinese locals that's simultaneously sad, and annoying. It bothers me that it annoys me, but part of me wants to tell them to stick up for their human dignity and stop begging tourists to go with them for tours. At the same time - when even public school requires tuition, desperation for your children to have a better future can drive even the most dignified of parents to extremes. With the years of tourism, the Thai have also a significantly better standard of living than the Chinese do. I suppose if you're already quite content with your life, you don't care as much about pushing your wares onto people. Meanwhile, the Hmong minority in Thailand who are among the poorest, do approach you at your dinner table while you're eating, and incessantly harass you to buy flower necklaces. I guess China is essentially a nation of Hmong minorities - but Han people. Just dirt poor.
Most interestingly, China has the largest population of self-tourists I've ever seen. The Chinese really tour their own country a lot. They leave Shanghai and Beijing, pile into these huge buses in groups, and go to the furthest reaches of China to snap a picture to take home. Though part of me criticizes them for their lack of independent travelling and their propensity to build a rash of hotels wherever the next "hot" spot is, part of me admires them for having so much interest in their own country. I rarely saw Costa Ricans vacationing in Costa Rica, or South Africans vacationing in South Africa. Let's just try not to destroy any more nature reserves for another huge dam, okay?
My brother reminded me the other day - that when your people are poor and energy-starved, the last thing you think to do is to preserve some forest so foreigners can come and say "Oooo, look how pretty." You knock it down so people can have electricity - something we take for granted every day. I suppose being concerned about the environment is really a luxury. You can only care about the environment when the rest of your needs are met. When your kids are fed, when you feel safe, and when you feel like you have a future. No one cares about preserving a river if preserving it means that their kids will continue to live in the same squalor, can't get an education, or don't have shoes to wear. It's tough - but in the end, in a battle between the environments' interests and the people's interests, people always win.
Thailand has all the modern conveniences of the Western world, so it's the perfect place for the beginning traveller. It's a good 'starter' country, much like Central America and South Africa and Australia. I was thinking about why the Thai aren't as grabby about Western money as the Chinese are. Locals in China will follow you down the street for 15 minutes, asking if you want a massage, long after you've already told them no. Touts will grab you as soon as you step off the bus, and follow you to your hotel, asking eagerly if they can take you on tours tomorrow. Usually they'll also be outside your hotel the next morning - asking again if you want to go with them.
China is this odd mixture of development and backwardness. Though it's more likely to be a superpower than Thailand is, China has had much less exposure to Western influence. This is reflected in the fact that they haven't created Western toilets or Western beds to accomodate the Western tourist yet. Squat toilets and hard wooden beds with bamboo mats are all we get, because that's what the Chinese use. The shopkeeper in Yangshuo told me that all this happened in the last 5 years. Just 5 years ago, he said with a wave of his hand, this was all dirt road. Now it's paved and thronging.
The Chinese see the sudden rush of tourism as a sudden windfall - and they're eager to grab some of it before it disappears into the dust. To them, tourism is relatively new. The Thai, have had tourism for year after year after year. They know that if you don't buy their services, it's okay because the next tourist will. There's a desperation about the Chinese locals that's simultaneously sad, and annoying. It bothers me that it annoys me, but part of me wants to tell them to stick up for their human dignity and stop begging tourists to go with them for tours. At the same time - when even public school requires tuition, desperation for your children to have a better future can drive even the most dignified of parents to extremes. With the years of tourism, the Thai have also a significantly better standard of living than the Chinese do. I suppose if you're already quite content with your life, you don't care as much about pushing your wares onto people. Meanwhile, the Hmong minority in Thailand who are among the poorest, do approach you at your dinner table while you're eating, and incessantly harass you to buy flower necklaces. I guess China is essentially a nation of Hmong minorities - but Han people. Just dirt poor.
Most interestingly, China has the largest population of self-tourists I've ever seen. The Chinese really tour their own country a lot. They leave Shanghai and Beijing, pile into these huge buses in groups, and go to the furthest reaches of China to snap a picture to take home. Though part of me criticizes them for their lack of independent travelling and their propensity to build a rash of hotels wherever the next "hot" spot is, part of me admires them for having so much interest in their own country. I rarely saw Costa Ricans vacationing in Costa Rica, or South Africans vacationing in South Africa. Let's just try not to destroy any more nature reserves for another huge dam, okay?
My brother reminded me the other day - that when your people are poor and energy-starved, the last thing you think to do is to preserve some forest so foreigners can come and say "Oooo, look how pretty." You knock it down so people can have electricity - something we take for granted every day. I suppose being concerned about the environment is really a luxury. You can only care about the environment when the rest of your needs are met. When your kids are fed, when you feel safe, and when you feel like you have a future. No one cares about preserving a river if preserving it means that their kids will continue to live in the same squalor, can't get an education, or don't have shoes to wear. It's tough - but in the end, in a battle between the environments' interests and the people's interests, people always win.
posted by ink at
3:53 AM
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