Why is "traveling" such an admired or accomplished trait these days?

Get this: I told an old acquaintance that I travel and stay overseas cheap and they respond with "Cheap, yea right" like I'm a loser and I can't afford to stay in a villa or luxury hotel. This person is actually the loser. I found out they will never be able to travel anywhere probably forever.

tjndty wrote:

Get this: I told an old acquaintance that I travel and stay overseas cheap and they respond with "Cheap, yea right" like I'm a loser and I can't afford to stay in a villa or luxury hotel. This person is actually the loser. I found out they will never be able to travel anywhere probably forever.

Empty barrels make the most noise.

Thought this thread was about James Harden.

Traveling is great. Of course there are a lot of ways doing it.

I preferred to grab a Lonely Planet and a backpack and go somewhere for a month or two. Always traveled with public transport and used the cheapest hotels possible.

Great way to extend your horizon.

Of course this is a rare concept in a huge country where most have not been to Canada or Mexico and don't even own a passport.

Kind of sad really.

I know, right? I don't think James Harden deserves to be MVP either.

Happens in the NBA several times every game...

It makes me laugh that "Progressive" types are often the ones who look down on others for not traveling. Oh, you spent the summer before college hanging out in Paris while your classmate had to work full time just to have decent clothes to wear to school and some spending money in his pocket? Well how "woke" of you to recognize that this makes you enlightened and worldly while your poor classmate is an ignorant troglodyte.

Traveling is important to understand our diversity of cultures.

Remember how a feminist went hitchhiking to the Middle East, to prove that Islam is a peaceful religion? She ended up being raped and butchered to death.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippa_Bacca

que que what? wrote:

When you die the only thing you take with you are memories and the satisfaction of having experienced as much as you possibly can. You don't take any material things like cars, houses, or the money you accumulated. It's all about experiences baby. In my opinion, travel (especially international) gives you tons of different experiences in the small amount of time you're there.

Every year since 2010 I've taken a big trip abroad to a place I always wanted to go to in my childhood. I know I'm only on this earth for a short time, so I want to experience as much as I possibly can while I'm still breathing. That's why travel is important to me and I do admire those who have similar ways of thinking.

Yeah, no. When you die, that's it, lights out. Literally. The neurons and synapses etc., that contain your life of memory are gone, dead, ready to rot.

This idea of a matter-less soul that contains your life history of memories and personality is a MYTH.

From dust you came, to dust you shall be. Or ice, if you paid Valcor.

get that stuff out of the league wrote:

I know, right? I don't think James Harden deserves to be MVP either.

lol

Angry Willy wrote:

to a college girl, traveling to europe and getting banged by an italian sanitation worker is so much more romantic than getting banged by the guy who rides on the back of the garbage truck in jersey.

LOL

There was actually an episode of Jersey Shore about this. I think was Deena banged a pizza thrower in a closet when they were in Italy.

!%@$# wrote:

Thought this thread was about James Harden.

LOL

they don't call it anymore.

I backpacked through 50 countries in less than 5 years in my twenties and I'm pretty much the coolest person I know.

Few have done the same.

TAA wrote:

Disclaimer: I'm really young and don't know what I'm talking about

I think traveling is admired because it can be a life changing experience that a lot of people want to have. Going to a different place to experience a different culture is fascinating for a lot of people. A lot don't have the time, money, or energy to go traveling so they're jealous of people that do. Most people spend their adult lives doing the same thing day after day, month after month, year after year. Traveling allows someone to experience something different. Variety is the spice of life.

My $.02 anyway

Lol I love the disclaimer I wrote here. I can't believe I've been using this account for nearly 5 years. Time flies...

"These days?" Thorstein Veblen's "The Theory of the Leisure Class" addressed your question 120 years ago.

Or, you are a master troll, posting on a *running* website, because running is a more contemporary way to exemplify "leisure" than travel.

real life traveler wrote:

I backpacked through 50 countries in less than 5 years in my twenties and I'm pretty much the coolest person I know.

Few have done the same.

That sounds like a waste of time. What's the point? So you can tell other people you've been to those countries? You didn't spend enough time in any location to actually learn anything about the place. Nothing that you couldn't already learn on the internet. You're exactly the type of tourist cruce ranted about.

larry's acorns wrote:

It helps to distinguish oneself from monosyllabic basement dwellers.

^^Funniest post on this thread. Ah, the good ole days.

ScaryStuff wrote:

What a great quote. Unfortunately, "travelers" as broadly defined now,( be they U.S., German, Japanese, et al.), have no interaction with the locals and their culture in foreign countries or even at home, unless they're carrying their bags from a tour bus to the 4-star hotel. How "broadening" an experience can it be to look at "the sights" through a window from an air-conditioned environment and only interact with the locals at preselected locations where they speak your language? If you're not afraid to get dirty, sweaty, cold, insulted, scared, lost, confused and flustered once in a while, you should just stay home and watch the Travel Channel or Anthony Bourdain's program.

That's weird. You sound like someone that hasn't traveled internationally. Or if you have, maybe has always booked a guided tour? I've traveled internationally a lot and always have a lot of experiences with the locals. I don't usually stay in hotels. I find a room that a family is renting out for extra money, or stay in a hostel and meet travelers from all over. In the big cities, I'll get a hotel, but even then you see things as you walk the streets.

I just got back from Germany and two Turkish immigrants chastised me for not being fluent in German, and then when they learned I was American yelled at me about Trump leaving Syria for a while. I walked by people smoking crack on the streets, walked by brothels, was propositioned by several prostitutes. Apparently it's legal in Germany. In those same neighborhoods, I had a great meal at an Eritrean immigrant's restaurant with a polite server that gave me Eritrean beer out of what I would guess was a hollowed out coconut shell(?). He practiced his English with me and told me it was very important for him to be good at English. I rented a car and went 140MPH on the autobahn, and have a great respect for how serious Germans take their driving. It made me hate driving in the US even more than I did. And yeah, I went to museums and saw amazing art, and historical architecture too. I learned a lot more about Gutenberg and the Grimm Brothers. I walked through the National Parks, which are different in Germany. You're not allowed to drive in. You park on the boundary and are only allowed to hike from there. I appreciated the different architecture, and the care that Germans give to keep their yards and porches maintained and clean. I loved the precision with which they pour their beers and wine. I honestly didn't care for their food much, but it was definitely different from American food. I liked how serious they were about their work. Even the guy that cleared plates from my table looked like he took great pride in his work. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

I don't know how you travel internationally, but apparently, we've had vastly different experiences. And I would guess most "travelers" do it like I do it, rather than book a guided tour. If you open your eyes, there's a vast experience waiting for you if travel. That's why people want to do it.

And, at the same time, I somewhat agree with the OP. If you take on a new task at home, it can be equally rewarding. If you've never done anything with cars, buy a beater and throw it in your garage and rebuild the engine. It will be an amazing journey. This isn't a right or wrong question. Traveling can be an growth experience. Staying at home and doing something new can be a growth experience. They are both fun.

Staring at Facebook, or watching TV, or even replying to this thread are pretty much non-growth experiences most of the time. If you give me the choice between those hugely popular activities and traveling, I'll choose traveling.

Well, the difference between not traveling internationally at all, and traveling some, is huge. You see (or at least have the opportunity to see), first-hand, how other people live and what other countries are like; you are stripped of much (but not all -- you still likely have a giant economic/social safety net) of your day-to-day and then have to function in a different society; you see ways in which people are the same, and different (in some cases, surprisingly better) than where you came from.

You then have a framework to evaluate the day-to-day you've taken for granted; things you've never thought about before that could be better or worse in your own country; and stereotypes or outright falsehoods about other countries. (For example, visiting China, I saw people that were happy and quite friendly, consuming/buying often, driving new and even luxury cars, and internet/VPN/news that was nowhere near as censored as I was told).

The difference between traveling some, and traveling a bunch? Well, eventually I felt jaded like it's also the same: arrive in new country, figure out most people are nice/nicer than people back home (and way less fat); pay for things in local currency and eat local cuisine; travel on local transportation system; see local sites. Starts to feel the same. With internet, cell phones, electronic payments, online travel booking and reviews, etc., much of the 'work' of traveling has been simplified and lost.

Then I had kids, and it was a bit of a refresh to travel again, finding/seeing/doing things that interested them, and seeing how other people reacted to them (overwhelmingly positive and helpful).