Well-travelled? Meh.

[st_99]

I traveled a bit here and there. Its nice to do, whatever.

This is my take on it when it comes to women.

If they emphasize it by throwing it in your face like its some kind of badge of honor, then that just makes her look stupid and her trying to build herself up (self esteem flag). If she tastefully mentions it as part of normal conversation then that is certainly fine because you have to talk about something right?

Its the rambling on and on about one topic that makes you look like you're trying too hard.

Its no different than the rich guy that never talks about money and the middle class guy that will
throw the rolex in your face to show that YeaH! i got it like that. Its a character issue.

 

[scrouds]

It's called developing/exploring cultural diversity

Ahhh one of the foundations of modern leftist ideology, cultural diversity as a value system. I vactioned in xxx, therefore i'm better than you. I send money to starving africans because starving africans > starving americans.

Beyond the world you see right now is something much more basic, much more raw. Living and/or understanding cultural diversity doesn't make you a better person, it makes you a more valued person in our modern social structure. Its status plain and simple. Its why chicks go to beach resorts in far flung places.

Give me 2 weeks, a tent and a bicycle and I will blow your mind riding through Appalachia. But that does not have anywhere near the status of getting blind drunk in a hostel in europe and hanging with all the other backpackers.

Trip to africa? Big status points in the libcom world. Oh you went on a safari and shot something, no status for you.

 

[Buddha_Mind]

I lived out of my car for two years sleeping in a rigged bed I made out of it and all my outdoor gear. I had some amazing times introspectively and in the general things I've seen.

But OP, I completely hear where you are coming from. A lot of people use travel as instant validation for making them interesting or super special. I mean I travelled in a rough way, and honestly it wasn't always glorious. There were some real dark times and lonely moments. But the truth is I experienced some sh!t that gave me perspective, and if anything, made me feel *less* entitled in this country.

There are just a lot of people who use their personal exotic travel to tout their ego and blow their horn. I see it all the time, especially because I work with traveling folk. People love to talk about their exotic treks in Chile and all sorts of sh!t. What they really want is 'oooo' and 'ahhhh' and maybe we're all guilty of it sometimes; but chicks who are so 'global' honestly bother me sometimes. It's just too much. Nothing is cool unless it's super cultural or exotic or handcrafted or something. I'm just as much against excessive consumerism as the next global-trekking woman, but truly I'm not a fan of ego-bloating and self-absorption.

Travel for your own reasons for personal growth! The best way is to do it unstructured -- ie, detached from your business! Just go on a whim Jack Kerouac style (well, maybe not the best life example to follow). But the best adventures are the obtuse ones.

 

[Wilko]

I lived out of my car for two years sleeping in a rigged bed I made out of it and all my outdoor gear. I had some amazing times introspectively and in the general things I've seen.

But OP, I completely hear where you are coming from. A lot of people use travel as instant validation for making them interesting or super special. I mean I travelled in a rough way, and honestly it wasn't always glorious. There were some real dark times and lonely moments. But the truth is I experienced some sh!t that gave me perspective, and if anything, made me feel *less* entitled in this country.

There are just a lot of people who use their personal exotic travel to tout their ego and blow their horn. I see it all the time, especially because I work with traveling folk. People love to talk about their exotic treks in Chile and all sorts of sh!t. What they really want is 'oooo' and 'ahhhh' and maybe we're all guilty of it sometimes; but chicks who are so 'global' honestly bother me sometimes. It's just too much. Nothing is cool unless it's super cultural or exotic or handcrafted or something. I'm just as much against excessive consumerism as the next global-trekking woman, but truly I'm not a fan of ego-bloating and self-absorption.

Travel for your own reasons for personal growth! The best way is to do it unstructured -- ie, detached from your business! Just go on a whim Jack Kerouac style (well, maybe not the best life example to follow). But the best adventures are the obtuse ones.

BM, have you read any of Fred Reed's essays/blogs? Amongst other things he writes about sleeping roadside as a long-haul hitch-hiker in the 60's, and cites Kerouac (I'm not at all familiar with him myself) as the inspiration for that phase of his life. The guy also writes like a So Suave veteran on the subject of American women and relationships which has made me wonder if he lurks around these kind of forums. He's now an expat American living in Mexico, which rules out Big Jimbo. If you're reading this Fred, big fan!

What I appreciate about the last couple of responses (yours included) is that having lived it, you don't pretend there's anything intrinsically virtuous about being poor or disadvantaged. Scrouds absolutely skewers the pious hypocrisy of the progressive-minded eco-tourist, nice job.

Always gratifying to find out you're not the only one who thinks something smells of bullsh!t.

 

[Burroughs]

Fred is a fvcking giant Wilco, nice call

read this next time you need a rebuttal on why women seem to be 'prospering' while men are 'falling behind'.

http://www.fredoneverything.net/SexualFuture.shtml

__________________________________

"The qualities that make life bearable for males have been squeezed out of society by angry women. In the schools, dodgeball is violence, and must be replaced by a cooperative game led by a caring adult. If a third-grader draws a soldier, he is led out of school in hand-cuffs. If he is bored to suicide by some witless gal from a “teacher's college,” he is drugged. This compulsory niceness is sheer female passive-aggression against males. It works.

The anger of women is real, easily noticed in the frequent snotty remarks and the portrayal on television of men as boobs and louts. Yes, there are among women exceptions and degrees. The anger remains. Why?

I suspect that that the reason is the abrogation of the implicit no-compete clause that once existed between the sexes. In the past, boys were certain things and did certain things; girls were other things and did other things. The girls didn't drag race against the boys, or think of challenging them at basketball. A girl would try to be valedictorian, but she saw herself as competing against other contenders, not the male sex.

Then came femlib. Women now explicitly saw themselves going head-to-head against men as a sex. It wasn't a wise fight to pick. Women of ability went into all manner of fields and performed well, as doctors, dentists, editors, reporters, and so on. But it wasn't enough. Since they were competing not as individuals but as a sex, it was crucial to them that women equal men arithmetically in everything. They couldn't."

_________

and also :

"The question becomes: Where is this leading? What does feminization accomplish? What can we expect of a nation run by and for women?

Fewer wars, just possibly. Declining international competitiveness as schools focus on therapy instead of integration of hyperbolic functions. Miserable little boys gagging down totalitarian niceness and Ritalin. Young men who see no point in going to fifth-rate universities rigged against them. And boredom. Oh god, the boredom."

 

[AAAgent]

i think people nowadays have this misconception of traveling the world as a means to making them more educated or well rounded. I believe it helps to a certain extent but when your traveling on vacation or just traveling with no purpose such as backpacking you don't really attain the point of traveling and being in that country.

I have never been on a plan until this past May. I flew to Hong Kong for work and worked for a week and took a week of vacay. It was awesome. I came back for a month and then had to fly out Albania for an Archaeology underwater survey project i volunteered for and got accepted to. It took me 3 planes and 2 car rides to get there and i definitely got lost. I did this to see if i really wanted to pursue archaeology and i realized i didn't. I came back and started my new job at my company as i moved into the account management position from an analyst. I think was once again forced to travel to Toronto, Canada by myself. I booked a hotel, plane, got a cab, found all my meetings with the directions i planned, etc.

My boss was supposed to come with me for my first trip as they always do but he was out of town and i had to do everything by myself. I learned quick. My next trip was to Texas and my coworker went a day apart so we met in Houston. I spent a week in texas for week 2 days in dallas and 2 in Houston. Once again all alone booked everything myself and got to all my meetings. I even rented a car in Dallas which was a pain.

I learned a lot from these trips compared to people vacationing to random countries to just be there. I had a purpose at each place. I learned a lot.

 

[omkara]

That is the conclusion I came to after living in India for 5 years and visiting Russia, Nepal, etc. Nowadays I still want to travel but I would have to have a purpose in being there, which isn't so easy. And I would want to know the language. These things will help you get immersed in the culture. I yearn sometimes to live in India or South America or Eastern Europe, because their ideals are closer to my own. But it will take years to get to the point where my skills are valuable to them.

The only exception to this is traveling for pleasure with a chick or a friend, where the scenic locale and culture is more of a backdrop. Even then I probably wouldn't want to do that often, unless I was super rich and super popular (ie a totally different person). Hey maybe that's why women like traveling so much! The average woman is like a rock star in terms of popularity, easy access to sex, and stuff they can get get other people to do for them lol

 

[scrouds]

He's a smoked out pot head, duh.

You put up the pics for status, not ego. Ego isn't the right word for this whole thing, although it does get thrown around a lot. In this case, ego is the investment a person has in their status as world traveler.

I can learn more walking around my neigbhorhood then on a beach resort in cancun. But if you walk and bike too much, people start thinking you don't own a car, and we know how that kills status.