Comments on: 6 Ways To Not Be A Holier-Than-Thou Traveler

By: Bhaskar Banerji

Bhaskar Banerji — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:40:47 +0000

We all know that gossiping is a bad thing or so we’re told (though some research suggests that gossiping is a stress buster) but we humans like to gossip because there’s something delicious about gossiping. The same goes with bragging be it about travel or any other aspect of life. From a spiritual perspective, bragging feeds the ego, and therefore almost all religions denounce it, but on the flip side, bragging is like scratching an itch, it’s very satisfying on some level, at least for a while, until somebody else scratches their itch harder then you and you watch them do it and it appears grotesque.

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By: Maggie

Maggie — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:38:12 +0000

I have a terrible holier than thou attitude, and I’m trying to break myself of it… I’m brand new in South Korea as an English teacher, and everyone keeps telling me to “be careful to do this”, or “I know this is annoying, but…” and before I can help it, I just blurt “Yes, I know. I’ve lived in Africa. This is pie compared to *that.*”

And every time I just want to slap myself in the face, but sometimes the “this is easy” attitude is what’s getting me through the day. Maybe it’s the same for these folks.

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By: N

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:33:09 +0000

“appreciate that you are dependent on the wifi they keep up and running, enabling you to blog”… that is an awesome point.

Without people who get up and go to the same job every day, we wouldn’t have taxi drivers, pilots, chefs, hostels/hotels, banks, cameras, you name it. We def rely on them on our travels and should be grateful that the world isn’t solely backpackers, or else we’d all be screwed!

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By: Carlo Alcos

Carlo Alcos — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:57:04 +0000

Oh c’mon Christine, you could teach the course!

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By: Christine Garvin

Christine Garvin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:55:12 +0000

I want to take a class on being lovely at the University of Lovely.

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By: Carlo Alcos

Carlo Alcos — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:48:22 +0000

Are micronations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronation) counted? Like the one Danny Wallance started up?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Lovely

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By: Stephen Hartshorne

Stephen Hartshorne — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:44:35 +0000

As associate editor of gonomad.com I see a lot of travel snobbery against guided tours or popular attractions.
Then there’s this one: “Last year this was a beautiful, unspoiled destination, but this year YOU showed up.”
p.s. You can up your country count with a visit to Transnistria, the country that doesn’t exist:
http://www.gonomad.com/destinations/0906/transnistria.html

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By: Gary Arndt

Gary Arndt — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:18:13 +0000

In all fairness, you can count more than 195 countries.
http://www.travelerscenturyclub.org/

They use a more expansive definition of “country” including non-independent countries and places which are geographically removed. French Polynesia isn’t independent but if you’ve been there you haven’t really been to France. Same with Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc.

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By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:18:27 +0000

Amanda, you also make a great point (thanks for the quote). I am usually the quiet one in the group as I prefer to listen to the stories of others more than tell my own. However, I need to remind myself that there is no shame in offering input of any kind to a conversation. Too often I find myself biting m tounge so as not to sound pretentious in some way but really, how offensive can a good travel story be?

As for some more additions to the list (this one is for traveler-traveler interaction)
1. You mean you went to ______ and didn’t do this?
2. Well if you are going to ______, the only way to do it is ________.
3. That’s a good story, but let me tell you about the time that I _______.

There is no “right” way to travel or “necessary” agenda for a certain place. Unfortunately, many of my fellow Americans seem to think so and have embarrassed me in international crowds. And for Pete’s sake people, please don’t try to one-up some one else’s story the minute they finish…it’s really off-putting!

Great article Christine (again). This is really a topic I think more people should read about. However, it seems that the most guilty parties are ignorant to the fact that they even commit these crimes and can’t be stopped. God help us! haha