I think it's not a secret how much I love reading travel websites.
If fund is not an issue, I definitely will venture to far, exotic places all the time. Capturing pretty sights. See what the locals do daily. Writing it all up for people to read. However since I am a regular person, I have to save up like everyone else to do so while thinking of what place to go next. This changes all the time. Hence reading travel websites.
There are things that annoy me when I read them though. One of them is visitors from all over the world who visit Asia (South East Asia particularly) and complain that they lose things or how unsafe it is, when they actually pick shitty budget hotels/guesthouses/backpacker places to stay.
Look I get it, traveling is expensive. People want to stay longer at places because you have all these touristy popular places to see. But what do they expect from a room/place less than 30 bucks a night? An in-room deposit? A security? A nicer surrounding area where no shady people lurk in corners and probably plot to snatch your backpack/cellphone/whatever?
A lot of countries in South East Asia are developed, but a lot of their residents may be not THAT developed. There are still poor people everywhere and they may not be as educated as us. Not this justifies what they do (believe me, I had the 'pleasure' of losing my bag and its entire content, passport included, last June when a thief on a bike just snatched it out and I felt like I wanted to die) but this should make people be more careful and take preventive measures, such as NOT STAYING AT SHITTY UNSAFE PLACES, especially if it causes them to generalize the whole country (and probably the whole region) when something bad happens to them.
Last night I was googling Cambodia and read reviews where one of the tourists complained on how ghetto and unsafe Phnom Penh is. Well to be honest, it is one of the least developed places in the whole South East Asia region, but still I wanted to laugh when I read that he stayed at a 25 bucks/night hostel. He also complained about the less than clean water, sellers who hassled him to purchase souvenirs, and the nasty smell of the sewer. He then had the NERVE to say he couldn't expect anything from South East Asia and the whole region is pretty much poor.
Pretty interesting thing to say when you just visit one country and are too cheap to stay in one of the safer, nicer, odor free places (you can get a more than decent room in most 5 stars hotels in Phnom Penh for less than 100 bucks!).
I had the urge to personally email him, called him something nasty (cheap ignorant d*ckhead?), and told him if he took the time to travel outside of Cambodia to the South East Asian neighboring capital cities, he would see that a lot of them are probably way more modern, vibrant, and interesting than wherever it is he is from. Jakarta? Modern. Bangkok? Flashy and not at all like what people see in Hangover 2 where they only shot the slums. KL? Pretty. Saigon? Fun. And don't get me started on how Singapore trumps most of the capital cities in the WORLD in terms of modern technology and architecture, most likely one of the cleanest and safest too.
Anyway, in my opinion, people shouldn't expect all the countries they visit to be super clean, safe, and modern like the way they think a place is supposed to be. Beside, all the cities and towns in the world must have those shadier, less safe and less pretty places right? Plus, shouldn't a person be aware on how their destination is like before he or she decides to go there? With google and endless travel websites, everything is so easy to make necessary preparation.
So that guy, shouldn't he know from the very beginning that he visited Cambodia and read up on it? Did he expect Cambodia to be like, I don't know, The Carribbean? Shouldn't he expect the less fortunate but happy people (and hope that he does not meet any weird characters e.g. street thieves), exotic language, streets full of cyclos and motorbikes, crowded markets, hot platters of local food, and gorgeous temples? Those are part of the charm. That's exactly what makes a lot of people, including me, want to go there, to see a place absolutely different from where we live.
He and a lot of ignorant people just like him should really shut up.
If fund is not an issue, I definitely will venture to far, exotic places all the time. Capturing pretty sights. See what the locals do daily. Writing it all up for people to read. However since I am a regular person, I have to save up like everyone else to do so while thinking of what place to go next. This changes all the time. Hence reading travel websites.
There are things that annoy me when I read them though. One of them is visitors from all over the world who visit Asia (South East Asia particularly) and complain that they lose things or how unsafe it is, when they actually pick shitty budget hotels/guesthouses/backpacker places to stay.
Look I get it, traveling is expensive. People want to stay longer at places because you have all these touristy popular places to see. But what do they expect from a room/place less than 30 bucks a night? An in-room deposit? A security? A nicer surrounding area where no shady people lurk in corners and probably plot to snatch your backpack/cellphone/whatever?
A lot of countries in South East Asia are developed, but a lot of their residents may be not THAT developed. There are still poor people everywhere and they may not be as educated as us. Not this justifies what they do (believe me, I had the 'pleasure' of losing my bag and its entire content, passport included, last June when a thief on a bike just snatched it out and I felt like I wanted to die) but this should make people be more careful and take preventive measures, such as NOT STAYING AT SHITTY UNSAFE PLACES, especially if it causes them to generalize the whole country (and probably the whole region) when something bad happens to them.
Last night I was googling Cambodia and read reviews where one of the tourists complained on how ghetto and unsafe Phnom Penh is. Well to be honest, it is one of the least developed places in the whole South East Asia region, but still I wanted to laugh when I read that he stayed at a 25 bucks/night hostel. He also complained about the less than clean water, sellers who hassled him to purchase souvenirs, and the nasty smell of the sewer. He then had the NERVE to say he couldn't expect anything from South East Asia and the whole region is pretty much poor.
Pretty interesting thing to say when you just visit one country and are too cheap to stay in one of the safer, nicer, odor free places (you can get a more than decent room in most 5 stars hotels in Phnom Penh for less than 100 bucks!).
I had the urge to personally email him, called him something nasty (cheap ignorant d*ckhead?), and told him if he took the time to travel outside of Cambodia to the South East Asian neighboring capital cities, he would see that a lot of them are probably way more modern, vibrant, and interesting than wherever it is he is from. Jakarta? Modern. Bangkok? Flashy and not at all like what people see in Hangover 2 where they only shot the slums. KL? Pretty. Saigon? Fun. And don't get me started on how Singapore trumps most of the capital cities in the WORLD in terms of modern technology and architecture, most likely one of the cleanest and safest too.
Anyway, in my opinion, people shouldn't expect all the countries they visit to be super clean, safe, and modern like the way they think a place is supposed to be. Beside, all the cities and towns in the world must have those shadier, less safe and less pretty places right? Plus, shouldn't a person be aware on how their destination is like before he or she decides to go there? With google and endless travel websites, everything is so easy to make necessary preparation.
So that guy, shouldn't he know from the very beginning that he visited Cambodia and read up on it? Did he expect Cambodia to be like, I don't know, The Carribbean? Shouldn't he expect the less fortunate but happy people (and hope that he does not meet any weird characters e.g. street thieves), exotic language, streets full of cyclos and motorbikes, crowded markets, hot platters of local food, and gorgeous temples? Those are part of the charm. That's exactly what makes a lot of people, including me, want to go there, to see a place absolutely different from where we live.
He and a lot of ignorant people just like him should really shut up.
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oohh!! You spoke my miiind!
I just recently googled about Thailand and read some hotel reviews, I, being the poor cute little girl that I am, of course looking for some sufficient enough but not too flashy hotel, and yes.. I found those kinds of comments too --"
like they want the hotel to be less noisy when it's right at the heart of a night market :| or the room is too small and blah-blah-blah-blah and here, they were reviewing a hotel less than $30 per night -_____-" come on people...