The difference is not so clear cut for sure, but one can see a certain continuum of attitude from, let’s say at one extreme someone who goes to Tenerife, stays at the concrete hotel on the southern coast, communicates only in his own language, eats the same food as at home, couldn’t care less about the local people and is only there to because of the weather and probably the price.

At the other extreme let’s say is someone who burns all the bridges with his home culture, strips him/herself of the home mental framework and just immerses into a new culture with the deep desire to understand. That’s the magic of it,- opening new worlds. It’s like drugs, basically. Or reading books that take you completely out of your reality. It’s not about external attributes. It can be as little as someone who grew up in one neighbourhood of London venturing by accident into a completely different neighbourhood and realizing that there’s the whole different world out there just a couple of block away. I guess travel in its best form is a transformation of the self. It’s what all the people want, I guess deep down- a transformative experience.

Ya, I think this post was originally sparked by some attempted one-upmanship. I’d agree I’m both, too…

Since when did we all start making the division between the two? I guess I’ve been guilty periodically of differentiating- sometimes I abhor my tourist self & times I love it & yet, I love the DIY & occasional hobo way of a traveler… I feel like it liberates me from societal life and standards. I’ll always be both. Not comfortable with extremes.

It’s interesting, isn’t it, the point at which travel/tourism ceases to be a benefit and becomes a scourge? We have this big time in parts of England (also Wales) — the holiday home phenomenon, whereby villages empty at weekends. In Wales, it’s especially political because most of the incomers are English.

I’d like to say, though, that world travel (in some parts of the world) is, actually, cheaper than travelling your home country, for folk from the developed world. If you can work remotely (or have a private income, LOL!), you can travel for much less, because you can travel slower, and strip out the big costs (flights, essentially, but other stuff too).

Thanks for your comment, Alesha. I really recommend you try the crispy insects! They’re surprisingly nice, and a very touristy thing to do — it enables you to say that you’ve eaten insects. Though Thai food is such a cornucopia of delights anyway, that I wouldn’t start with the insects…

Yes! Hello! My name is Theodora, and I’m a tourist…

Thanks, Tom.