Do
not leave your homes
It's been
a gradual transition, but it's finally happened. Something
has replaced The Gap as my vote for the creepiest place
on Queen St. W. The glowing white sign with red, plain,
sans serif lettering: The Flight Centre.
The office
is always brightly lit, the sign with its prices visible
to passers-by any time of the day or night. It's hard
not to look -- the magic-markered-in numbers
could have dropped to a reasonable range, after all.
Maybe you could fly into Prague this weekend and surprise
your old girlfriend? Or why not check out Bangkok --
it's not too much more. Hey, Tokyo would be awesome,
wouldn't it?
As someone
who travels a lot, I am not only susceptible to thoughts
like these -- I've acted on them plenty. And while I
believe that there's many interesting things travel
can do to a person, it sort of freaks me out that everyone
agrees with that. Everyone from your anarchist trainhopper
to your stuffy ol' businessman agrees: travel is a good
thing.
What happens
when something is universally viewed as good? Well,
there's oversimplification going on, by default. It
also creates a social pressure to do it -- "doing Europe"
is an obligation, an experience without which makes
you a less interesting and whole human being.
Travel, the
complex and problematic entertainment that it is, is
most often split up into backpackers and tourists. Tourists
are picked on a lot for their chosen mode of travelling,
so I am going to pick on backpackers instead.
What's
Wrong With This Picture?
The backpacker
steps off the bus in a small town in Mexico. He ignores
the man who is telling him about a cheap hotel -- the
backpacker hates touts. He finds a phone booth and sets
down his pack, making sure the Canadian flag stitched
on it is facing out. He flips through his Lonely Planet
and starts calling the budget hostels and hotels until
he finds one with a room. When he gets there, the price
is a dollar or two higher than quoted in the book. This
bugs him, and he points at it a few times; the lady
behind the desk just shrugs. He doesn't want to be ripped
off but he wants to be a bigmouthed American type even
less, so he takes the room.
The main
thing wrong with this is not really what he did, but
why he did it. Why does he hate the tout? Not just because
they're aggressively offering a service, but because
they're proof that what he's not doing anything new
-- high in the backpacker's list of pretences is that
they're some kind of romantic explorers. Somehow this
is maintained even in the face of the ubiquitous travel
guide.
Why does
he have a Canadian flag sewn to his backpack? To show
that he isn't American, despite the fact that he talks,
looks and acts like one. All the advantages of the cultural
elite but none of the social stigma. He's certainly
just as much a missionary of the North American culture,
a tangible proof of the word spread by TV and CD: if
they can afford to send their kids on two month vacations,
they must be doing something right! Maybe if we learn
English we can get some of that...
Of course,
why we really can afford this leisure is due to us exploiting
the labour and resources of developing countries. Which
is why our backpacker's dickering over an amount not
worth his time back home -- on the basis that it was
worth something in Mexico, and worried that the hotel
owner was exploiting him -- was especially ironic.
A month later,
our backpacker is free of the bag of possessions that
laid on his shoulders like a cross, like a kind of obscure
penance for being there. He's in a bar in his hometown,
talking about Mexico. Talking about how surly they are.
How hard it was to eat vegetarian. How that stupid song
Livin' the Viva Loca was everywhere. But man, the beer
was cheap! And the way of life was totally different,
such a rich culture! Did I tell you about the pinyata?
The backpacker
is just the frontline in the tourist assault. They go
in first and bring back stories that are better than
any advertising. They get the natives softened up and
used to a tourist-based, emasculating economy.
I'm not trying
to convince you that travel sucks -- travel can be everything
they say it is, but nothing's without a cost. Why the
Flight Centre disturbs me more than The Gap is because
at least people acknowledge more of the truth about
the sweatshop sweaters, while everything about travel
is prozac positive.
Why do you
want to travel? Is it because your life is dull? Why
not try to change your life and the society around you
rather than escaping to a fantasyland? Why not microadventure
rather than macroadventure by finding the bizarre worlds
under your nose?
While you're
answering those questions, I'll be planning my next
trip.
#
This
article originally appeared in The
New Irregular.
|