GreatGran wrote: I wasn't referencing you Mtn Gramma, I was more remarking about the places that just show people sitting around in the links.
And really how many people really learn anything about a culture with a taxi ride from the hotel to the airport. How many actually get out of their little enclave and spend time with the people. Not many.
A cab ride in Puerto Vallarta from the airport to Nuevo Vallarta is quite enlightening as to the norms of their society. A walk on the Malecon will have you rubbing elbows with all sorts of people, including the militia. Returning to the luxury hotel (enclave) to enjoy the ocean breezes, is just part of vacation. When we vacation we do get out and meet the people, sure we do the touristy things, but guess who the guides are? The people that live there. So your assertions are simply that, yours.
GreatGran wrote: I wasn't referencing you Mtn Gramma, I was more remarking about the places that just show people sitting around in the links.
And really how many people really learn anything about a culture with a taxi ride from the hotel to the airport. How many actually get out of their little enclave and spend time with the people. Not many.
What ever country we went to I always tried to get a local guide and see things other than the gut and tourist traps.
However there is something to be said for siting and enjoying the view. We had 4 days off and rented the best rooms in the place which were also the top rooms in the place. Even though I was decades younger I prefered room service to walking down to sea level.
Ohhhh wowww I'm impressed. Rubbed elbows or hired a local and I am sure they took you to where the real people live, you know in their shanties, etc. Sounds like typical Americans. I am sure you learned a lot from that experience. Must make you feel real good.
GreatGran wrote: Ohhhh wowww I'm impressed. Rubbed elbows or hired a local and I am sure they took you to where the real people live, you know in their shanties, etc. Sounds like typical Americans. I am sure you learned a lot from that experience. Must make you feel real good.
How did you know? During monsoon season I had to make sure I put my flip-flops on a table. Other wise they could have floated away if it rained that night.
GreatGran wrote: Ohhhh wowww I'm impressed. Rubbed elbows or hired a local and I am sure they took you to where the real people live, you know in their shanties, etc. Sounds like typical Americans. I am sure you learned a lot from that experience. Must make you feel real good.
Glad you are impressed. We also did the touristy thing and drove dune buggies through the "countryside" This included a trip around the municipal dump. People live there,salvaging what they can and building adobe huts on the outskirts of the dump. It never occurred to me that the people we saw were props. They did a lovely set design by hanging colorful clothes out to dry in the breeze. The agave farm was interesting as well. I guess I need to rethink reality and quit spending that evil American money in foreign countries.
lol Blondie and why you are called the Ugly American. You come and throw around your money and think you have seen the countryside and really understand. Yep they have your number.
GreatGran wrote: lol Blondie and why you are called the Ugly American. You come and throw around your money and think you have seen the countryside and really understand. Yep they have your number.
LOL.
"The "ugly American" of the book title fundamentally refers to the plain-looking engineer Atkins, who lives with the local people, who comes to understand their needs, and who offers genuinely useful assistance with small-scale projects such as the development of a simple bicycle-powered water pump. It is argued in the book that the Communists are successful because they practice tactics similar to those of Atkins."
You have to stay where the local stays, eat where the locals eat, get on the street and rub shoulders with the locals, dance and sing with the locals, take public transportation as much as you can, before you go understand what their current politics are like, talk to them about their worldviews, attend their live theatre and cultural events and stay out of American styled hotels and chain restaurants.
Stay in a no-star hotel. Stay out of the city, commute in to see your sights, make friends with someone over the internet and meet them when you get to their country/city, for god's sake learn enough of the language to make a decent effort, look at pictures of the way people dress where you are going, dress down, learn what is TOO familiar, "Hey you" in any language is TOO familiar, don't flaunt your money, go off season when you won't disappear into the hoards of nasty tourists.
Most important. Laugh with them. It's really simple.
And what most Americans rarely do RR. It does help to know someone who lives there or make friends over the internet. You amaze me RR. You are not the typical tourist.
Blazer Bob, it isn't a reference to the book although I figured it might be construed that way. It is what many cultures call Americans after they take their money. That's when they are using more cultured language.
Reverend Revelant wrote: And for the umpteenth time...
You have to stay where the local stays, eat where the locals eat, get on the street and rub shoulders with the locals, dance and sing with the locals, take public transportation as much as you can, before you go understand what their current politics are like, talk to them about their worldviews, attend their live theatre and cultural events and stay out of American styled hotels and chain restaurants.
Stay in a no-star hotel. Stay out of the city, commute in to see your sights, make friends with someone over the internet and meet them when you get to their country/city, for god's sake learn enough of the language to make a decent effort, look at pictures of the way people dress where you are going, dress down, learn what is TOO familiar, "Hey you" in any language is TOO familiar, don't flaunt your money, go off season when you won't disappear into the hoards of nasty tourists.
Most important. Laugh with them. It's really simple.
GreatGran wrote: lol Blondie and why you are called the Ugly American. You come and throw around your money and think you have seen the countryside and really understand. Yep they have your number.
Nope I am not an ugly American. I do vacation in foreign countries that spend a lot of money on their tourism boards to attract my interest. I dont throw my money around, however I do tip well for services rendered. I do eat the food that is grown locally, thus supporting the farmers. Gosh that cab driver that I hired has a family to go home to at the end of the day. Hopefully there is a steak on the table, because he does a days work. I do have the utmost respect for the host citizens wherever I travel.
Great Gran, perhaps you should wander off your mountain perch and throw some of your ugly American money at one of the shops in Bailey or Conifer. There is a lot of countryside to understand.
And what most Americans rarely do RR. It does help to know someone who lives there or make friends over the internet. You amaze me RR. You are not the typical tourist.
