Saturday, March 14, 2009 @ 6:33 am
Recent trips to touristy places (ie Bali and KL) revealed to me the joys of being a tourist. And the best reason is not the trite excuse that I can get to see another culture, can have broader horizons and bla and bla and bla. The best, best thing about being a tourist is all the concessions I get playing the role of a tourist. Like I can wear anything I like, even if inappropriate or are mismatched and following the stares I get are silent thoughts of "Yucks her sense of fashion is disastrous. But well, she's a tourist. They don't know better." So I get away with being a fashion DON'T.
And I get away with taking pictures every step of the way, even when I'm blocking human traffic, or when I do funny poses. And people staring will be thinking, "Oh, tourists! How foolish can they get?" Or they laugh, wishing they can do the same and get away with it.
Best thing, people are more polite with tourists. Coz they think that as good citizens they should give tourists a good impression of their country, although every country is as bad and as good as any other. Just dress terribly, have a huge backpack and a camera slung over your neck, and walk around town looking at every thing and taking pictures of everything. People will become nicer if you ask for directions, if you meet their eyes they'll smile at you, just because you're a tourist.
And better still, you get away with spending a lot of money for overpriced things, just because you're a tourist and tourist souvenirs are overpriced and there's nothing you can do about it. So yes, retail therapy. Of course there's food therapy and you can get away (from yourself) with trying every type of food they have, sinful or not, just because you want to 'learn about the food culture'. And you don't care about getting fat coz you have to walk a lot and will burn the calories while traveling.
Ah, tourists.
-All the world's a stage...-