quality of present-time "travellers"

[mazeno]

a short tale:
great alai valley, kgz.
a brand-new toyota fj cruiser (european plates) driving from the opposite. typical yuppies, a couple.
just stopped and we started to talk.
during the conversation there is an asking:
"...btw, where are we? 'coz we are led by the gps-track, but we don't exactly know..."
the end, closing credits.

another one:
murgab, tjk.
a party in their toyotas or so, met on the road.
"do you know, where we can find atm?"
the end, closing credits.

and another:
ak-tau, kzh.
teens from almaty on a bus-tour, a young boy spraying on the rocks in the gorge.
q: "if i came to your place and started to spray on the walls, what would you say?"
a: collective laugh.
the end, closing credits.

and more such tales, dating last autumn.
enough to make angels cry.

[AreWeThereYet?]

I have to admit to have gone around Murghab (and even Alichur) looking for either a money changer or an ATM. To my defence I have to say that I'd ran out of USD and I had only a wad of Kyrgyz currency, which no one wanted, and Euro, which no one understood. Everyone wanted either somont or green bills with Andrew Jackson's face...

As for the other cases, words fail me. Especially the chap spray-painting. What a tool.

[steven]

Last story is indeed very sad. I often wonder if this website isn't achieving the exact opposite of what I set out to do. I do believe there are benefits to tourism, and that it is not intrinsically bad, but seeing the issues we are currently facing, you sometimes wonder if it wouldn't be better if we all just stayed at home.

In any case, the genie is out of the bottle now, and we can only try to educate people in the hope it changes their minds.

[bwv812]

People have been leaving graffiti as long as they have been traveling. Persepolis is littered with foreign graffiti from hundreds of years ago. The pyramids in Egypt have some that are thousands of years old. It may be horrible, but it's not something unique about modern travellers. Maybe the biggest difference is that there are now more travelers than ever, giving more opportunities for graffiti to be struck.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... amids.html

[mazeno]

> you sometimes wonder if it wouldn't be better if we all just stayed at home.
> In any case, the genie is out of the bottle now
i think i also get it too late...
and i think the social media pressure to publish selfies from exotic places to make other envious is one of the main reasons of such conjuncture.
that's why one no more can find anything on my website for last two years.

> People have been leaving graffiti
people have been killing others as long as they exist.
what an argument!

i suppose knowing the difference between the art and shit is given to few.

[bwv812]

> People have been leaving graffiti
people have been killing others as long as they exist.
what an argument!

Yeah, if someone was so silly as to leave a comment about the quality of present-time people with the suggestion that murder is a new phenomenon somehow specific to present-time people, it would be a fair response. Thankfully I've never seen anyone make such a stupid argument.

[mazeno]

> disconnecting should be something you agree
you're right.