I came here all grumpy and ready to rail at the article, but you nailed it so I don't have to. Thank you.
You touch on a very important point about travel... That, ultimately, it's an ineffective method at changing yourself. I've seen so many people, both travelers and expats, who, consciously or unconsciously, ran away from their problems abroad. And the thing about living in a foreign culture is, you're allowed a wider margin of asocial behavior as a foreigner. It can be "liberating" because you're much less exposed to the negative reactions of the people around you.
This is especially true in developing countries, especially those with a large influx of tourists. Thailand, for instance, is filled with foreign weirdos who don't give a crap what the Thais think of them, and thus can be "themselves" at the expense of ever having any semblance of a connection to the locals.
Actually establishing links with your host culture takes time and effort. A friend of mine once described it as going through your awkward teenage years again, except you've been through this shit already. It means not expressing yourself well, behaving in ways that are strange to others, not having as many resources to cope with day-to-day problems.
I came here all grumpy and ready to rail at the article, but you nailed it so I don't have to. Thank you.
You touch on a very important point about travel... That, ultimately, it's an ineffective method at changing yourself. I've seen so many people, both travelers and expats, who, consciously or unconsciously, ran away from their problems abroad. And the thing about living in a foreign culture is, you're allowed a wider margin of asocial behavior as a foreigner. It can be "liberating" because you're much less exposed to the negative reactions of the people around you.
This is especially true in developing countries, especially those with a large influx of tourists. Thailand, for instance, is filled with foreign weirdos who don't give a crap what the Thais think of them, and thus can be "themselves" at the expense of ever having any semblance of a connection to the locals.
Actually establishing links with your host culture takes time and effort. A friend of mine once described it as going through your awkward teenage years again, except you've been through this shit already. It means not expressing yourself well, behaving in ways that are strange to others, not having as many resources to cope with day-to-day problems.