Those are my free thoughts and reflections about traveling, backpacking, and related topics, that have been stuck in my mind since I started my journey.
Eli, Eli
Edwin is a tourist guide in Manila. He shows his city to people who travel from different parts of the world. To be specific, his job is to show people the slum’s life. He takes western travelers, backpackers, photographers, journalists to slums where he used to live and where he grew up. People walk through poverty, through disabled, through extreme misery of humanity, taking photos, and saying to each other: “look, what a great shot I’ve made”. Of course after a great shot, a little poor kid gets his one dollar, or a cookie, and everybody is happy. A Western, photographer gets his perfect frame, a poor kid earns money for the rest of the week. The photographer will come back home and show his great pictures to his friends, and they will say: “You are so brave, you’ve been in slums” and he will say: ”Yes, that’s true. It wasn’t easy, but I did it.” Wojciech Tochman is a Polish reportage writer. A story of Edwin is a base in his last book. He is connected mainly with Wydawnictwo Czarne which published most of his books. His literature is not easy to read, but definitely worth any time spent doing it. There is no option that after reading this book, you will just put it on a shelf without any reflection. Tochman describes the history of the Philippines that he’s met. His histories are enriched with photographies of Grzegorz Wełnicki. They both reflect upon their job and the impact of journalism and traveling on local communities. Highly recommended
ELI ELI | 2013 from Jan Wąż on Vimeo.
Israelis
Eli, Eli
Edwin is a tourist guide in Manila. He shows his city to people who travel from different parts of the world. To be specific, his job is to show people the slum’s life. He takes western travelers, backpackers, photographers, journalists to slums where he used to live and where he grew up. People walk through poverty, through disabled, through extreme misery of humanity, taking photos, and saying to each other: “look, what a great shot I’ve made”. Of course after a great shot, a little poor kid gets his one dollar, or a cookie, and everybody is happy. A Western, photographer gets his perfect frame, a poor kid earns money for the rest of the week. The photographer will come back home and show his great pictures to his friends, and they will say: “You are so brave, you’ve been in slums” and he will say: ”Yes, that’s true. It wasn’t easy, but I did it.” Wojciech Tochman is a Polish reportage writer. A story of Edwin is a base in his last book. He is connected mainly with Wydawnictwo Czarne which published most of his books. His literature is not easy to read, but definitely worth any time spent doing it. There is no option that after reading this book, you will just put it on a shelf without any reflection. Tochman describes the history of the Philippines that he’s met. His histories are enriched with photographies of Grzegorz Wełnicki. They both reflect upon their job and the impact of journalism and traveling on local communities. Highly recommended
ELI ELI | 2013 from Jan Wąż on Vimeo.
Israelis
-Have you already been in mountains ?
-No, we are high for 2 weeks without mountains, If you know what I mean.
-Yeah, I know, tomorrow we’re leaving for a trek, You can join us.
-Nope my Polish friend, tomorrow we are going home.
Every Israeli has a duty to go to army. Men and women. Very often this duty leaves marks on young people, especially that tension between Palestine and Israel is always high. It’s rather common practice that after serving in the army, young Israelis buy a ticket to India. They, head directly towards the Himalayas and lower mountains, because Himachal Pradesh is India’s most famous hashish region. Once I’ve asked randomly met Israeli why they are so massively traveling to India. He answered me that: tickets are cheap, hashish cheap, why not ? It's not that I have a bias towards Jews, its more about the Israeli society whose members you can meet all over India. They even call Manali their second Tel-Awiw. And what annoys me, is some kind of stereotypical travelling attitude. You go to India to get more spiritual(which's often being mistaken with drugs), you can't pass Bangkok without a tattoo, there is a cliche about each country. There is this moment when you look at the whole backpackers’ community and realise that you no longer travel to discover the unknown world, you travel to follow the scenario of thousands of travelers with lonely planet guidebooks. The last and the worst in this topic. When Western people with their money travel to, let's say south-east Asia which has been so popular recently, they don't want to meet the culture, they want to stay high and have a tattoo because it's most common picture of Thailand.
Backpacking routine
You come to a town. Obligatory on the roof of a bus or at least hitchhiking. You search for the cheapest hostel, if there are no rooms left (you never book ahead, backpackers don't book ahead, because they don't have plans, everything must be spontaneous) you sleep in a train’s station. Generally the more hardcore place the better, in the end we have to create memories. Next, a roundtrip through the most common highlights and in the evening time for a few beers, and something illegal. If you can get the death penalty for drugs, it's even better, your story after coming back will be more exciting to tell.
Backpacking started long time ago, but lets say that the 70s was a golden era for Asia. Many people inspired by the hippie lifestyle started to travel through the so called “hippie trail” (from Europe to India). And 40 years later we still want to be like our ancestors, just a little bit hippie, and with our iPhones, we decide to be like them. This is the point where true discovering is covered by just a different kind of all inclusive vacation, with a little bit of adventure. I recommend this article, as a good historical reference of where the backpacking originates from.
Hippies, Hashish and Banana Pancakes: The History of Backpacking
I’m aware that it may sound stereotypical, but of course those are generalised opinions. I’m just in the moment that I l have lost the desire to travel and I wanted to share those thoughts with you.
There are also more links for those who want to be more aware tourists.
http://post-turysta.pl/
http://www.tomekmichniewicz.pl/poradnik/jak-nie-niszczyc-swiata/
Questions:
1. How do you travel ? All Inclusive, self-organized or travel agencies ?
2. Do you agree with the fact that everything has been discovered ?
3. Why do you travel?
Sources:
http://tochman.eu/ksiazki/eli-eli/
http://www.tripbase.com/blog/hippies-hashish-and-banana-pancakes-the-history-of-backpacking/
-No, we are high for 2 weeks without mountains, If you know what I mean.
-Yeah, I know, tomorrow we’re leaving for a trek, You can join us.
-Nope my Polish friend, tomorrow we are going home.
Every Israeli has a duty to go to army. Men and women. Very often this duty leaves marks on young people, especially that tension between Palestine and Israel is always high. It’s rather common practice that after serving in the army, young Israelis buy a ticket to India. They, head directly towards the Himalayas and lower mountains, because Himachal Pradesh is India’s most famous hashish region. Once I’ve asked randomly met Israeli why they are so massively traveling to India. He answered me that: tickets are cheap, hashish cheap, why not ? It's not that I have a bias towards Jews, its more about the Israeli society whose members you can meet all over India. They even call Manali their second Tel-Awiw. And what annoys me, is some kind of stereotypical travelling attitude. You go to India to get more spiritual(which's often being mistaken with drugs), you can't pass Bangkok without a tattoo, there is a cliche about each country. There is this moment when you look at the whole backpackers’ community and realise that you no longer travel to discover the unknown world, you travel to follow the scenario of thousands of travelers with lonely planet guidebooks. The last and the worst in this topic. When Western people with their money travel to, let's say south-east Asia which has been so popular recently, they don't want to meet the culture, they want to stay high and have a tattoo because it's most common picture of Thailand.
Backpacking routine
You come to a town. Obligatory on the roof of a bus or at least hitchhiking. You search for the cheapest hostel, if there are no rooms left (you never book ahead, backpackers don't book ahead, because they don't have plans, everything must be spontaneous) you sleep in a train’s station. Generally the more hardcore place the better, in the end we have to create memories. Next, a roundtrip through the most common highlights and in the evening time for a few beers, and something illegal. If you can get the death penalty for drugs, it's even better, your story after coming back will be more exciting to tell.
Hippies, Hashish and Banana Pancakes: The History of Backpacking
I’m aware that it may sound stereotypical, but of course those are generalised opinions. I’m just in the moment that I l have lost the desire to travel and I wanted to share those thoughts with you.
There are also more links for those who want to be more aware tourists.
http://post-turysta.pl/
http://www.tomekmichniewicz.pl/poradnik/jak-nie-niszczyc-swiata/
Questions:
1. How do you travel ? All Inclusive, self-organized or travel agencies ?
2. Do you agree with the fact that everything has been discovered ?
3. Why do you travel?
Sources:
http://tochman.eu/ksiazki/eli-eli/
http://www.tripbase.com/blog/hippies-hashish-and-banana-pancakes-the-history-of-backpacking/
Comments
I travel in various ways. It depends where I go and what the purpose of my trip is. When I just want to relax in a good hotel near the swimming pool I let a travel agency organize it. But when I go to a big city like Berlin or Amsterdam, I organize everything myself. It is cheaper to buy tickets or book hotels. It is also better to choose restaurants on your own and not eating every day in the same hotel bar. I prefer to stay longer in a place, for example for 3 weeks, because then you can really get to know the city like a local resident.
Now I travel by myself. Always its self-organized trips. For sure you can call me backpacker.
Sometimes I also travel by hitchhiking but nowadays I am a little tired of this kind of traveling.
Not short distances but going from Vienna to Porto than to Madrit was a little exhausting.
Now I concentrate on visiting Asia. But I wasnt in India yet ;)
It depends how you look at it. Of course everything has been discovered but not by you or me.
I am trying to avoid places full of tourists. Yes I wish to travel around the world in 70 but there are places without crowds and crazy Japs. Maybe you should try New Zeland?
I travel because I love it. I hate to sit in one place for a long time. Its really nice when I can combine
work and travel.
That said, I don't consider myself a true backpacker, but I know many, and it doesn't look that way. It's a great adventure, but it's also usually not related to illegal activities or risking your life severely.
My favourite to way of travelling is by plane. One can get pretty fast somewhere far away;) Currently my favourite place to visit is Italy, what is yours?:)
2. Do you agree with the fact that everything has been discovered ?
3. Why do you travel?
1. I don't travel a lot. Most usually my travel limits to around the city by a bus, tram and train. When travelling abroad, the most comfortable and the fastest form of travelling is by plane. When travelling a bigger distances, I do choose and recommend this form of transportation.
Regarding the form of the trip, I chose it to be rather random. I don't always go full inclusive, nor use travel agencies a lot either. Depending on where I want to go, what I want to do and see, I select appropriate options
2. It's a fact that everything has been discovered whatsoever.
3. To meet other people. To have fun. To do business. To relax.
I don't agree that everything has been discovered. World is changing I this is why we can't say that everything is discovered now.
I travel because me and people are interesting in discover other cultures
1. How do you travel ? All Inclusive, self-organized or travel agencies ?
I still travel by train, always self organised. Since I started stydying on PJWSTK I was around 15 times on holidays in different parts of Poland.
2. Do you agree with the fact that everything has been discovered?
Surely not, there must be still some islands, caves, maybe old cities which have not been found yet.
3. Why do you travel?
Because I love to visit new places where I can feel like home.
I disagree with the thesis that everything has been discovered. Travelling always increases our horizons and point of viewing the world.
And just like it i can say that i don't believe everything was already discovered, there is some extreme places where ordinary traveler won't go, but some enthusiast would. For ordinary, like me, there is also a way for rediscovering if you just make it right.
Why do i travel? Why, because i love too. I like discovering new places, new people and of course, new food. I am not a person who is chained to one place, that is why i like to know more and see more. Lately i can't do it because of personal reasons, but when I'm done with it I'm looking to travel across continents, since i never done it. (Unless we count syberia)
I don't agree with the fact that everything has been discovered. There is still wide area of cosmos to discover :)
I travel because... Well, I don't know. It is some kind of cool thing to do :) I would probably be able to not travel but when I can - I'm just doing it.
1. How do you travel ? All Inclusive, self-organized or travel agencies ?
I definitely travel more as a tourist than a traveller, usually on trips organised by travel agencies.
2. Do you agree with the fact that everything has been discovered ?
I belive there's still a lot of undiscovered places. And obviously, there's a lot of interesting places not known for tourists.
3. Why do you travel?
Because it's a great opportunity to meet new cultures, see new places.
I always organise travels on my own, going on trips with travel agencies is a waste of time. I hate sunbathing and laying flat on a beach, I prefer more active way of spending time during vacations. I love to combine sightseeing and photography.
Well, I don't care if someone before me had seen the view that I saw. What matters is that breathtaking feeling of seing something incredible. And you can discover everything again just by seing it from a different perspective.
There are two things that I would like to share with you:
1. There is a book I have recently stumbled across, it is called "Paragon z podróży" and it contains a lot of information on how to travel cheaply.
2. Have you seen this Greenpeace action which destroyed the historical site in Peru? Here is a link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/12/greenpeace-peru-nazca-lines_n_6315488.html
When I go on holidays I want to have beautiful and comfortable accommodation because one of my travel goal except for sightsee is relax. I will visit all capitals and real exoticism, especially exotic beach