Travel?

The Story

Australia has become my new frontier to explore. I flew into Brisbane on November 16th and stayed with a couple from couchsurfer.com. It was a great experience to get to know Beni (Australian), a musician and factory worker, and Wencke (German), recent imigrant to Australia, as well as their friend Eva (German) who were so hospitable to let me stay at their apartment for several nights and show me around the city. We tramped through the city, enjoyed some view from several mountains, and highly appreciated the warmth of the Sunshine Coast (just north of Brisbane).

From Brisbane I hitchhiked north intending to go to Hervey Bay but ended up staying with a lady who picked me up that lived in a small beach town just north of the city. As her husband was at sea and her kids with their father, she was happy to have the company and show me around her small town. It is such a pleasant experience to stay with locals and obtain a glimpse of the similarities and differences with my experience of an American lifestyle.

When I arrived in Hervey Bay, a rather dull beach town, I made plans to set out on a four wheel drive excursion to Fraser Island which was right off the coast. Myself and nine other people rented a large jeep and explored the all sand island for a few days. The interior consists of mostly dense forest, with the occasional crystal clear lakes for swimming (Fraser's coast line has sharks and jelly fish that sting), and coast line has become the freeway for getting around on the island. Our group got along quite well, poking fun at each other's nationalities and enjoying our similar interests - a pleasant journey.

After taking an over night bus north I arrived in Airlie Beach, a beautiful but wretchedly touristy town. I took two day cruise into the Whitsunday Islands where were able to enjoy the warm waters of Whitehaven Beach (picture perfect beach) and snorkeled at several of the reefs. The scenery was nice but the company was mediocore; occasionally on group attivities you will get small two's and three's that have been traveling together and prefer to stay in their little group without meeting other people. My bus ticket allows me to ride all the way up the east coast, so I am leaving this morning for Townsville (what a name) to catch a ferry out to Magnetic Island and spend some time in nature, as I haven't really had the chance to do that thus far.

The Reflection

As I have been considering my vocation as a traveler for this time in my life, I have been vexed by some internal struggles with my exposure to other travelers (especially inspired by this over touristy town I am in that seems to be filled with only billboard travel advertisements and practically no locals).

I am confronted by a large backpacker community that prefer bus tours, partying day and night, and prefering only a slight taste of their new environment with no discomfort or risks. I have met a large majority of travelers who often leave a country remarking that they haven't met any locals, besides the bar tenders or tour guides yet had the "best trip" and love "traveling."

I am struggling to understand why I have feelings of disaproval and a lack of respect for their value system and style of travel. It seems the basis of differences is the varying value of embracing hardship and striving for that which is difficult to achieve. Is the difference between the words "tourist" and "traveler" really just a means of priviledging those that value their style of travel of the others? Often there seems to be a consensus of similar tension among those that travel in less convential ways with the camera addicted, bus touring, backpacker bar going, occasionally obnocious, tourist/travelers. Perhaps my frustration stems from the fact there are few people to relate with...

What does it mean to be a traveler? Is a true traveler defined by experiencing the new culture in as many ways as possible? Or rather is the term "true traveler" an individual expression for achieving personal growth in the breadth and depth of travel experiences? We are all tourists, whether or not we pay large sums of money to do preplanned activities that are more about excitement of the senses than experiencing a new land, people, and culture. I have many questions and no time left to finish my thoughts on this tension of traveler vs tourist, the ways power priviledges one term over the other, and how to better respect those of different travel styles choices.

The end
KS