2007-04-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

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After travelling for 6 months, now I can a little bit understand different type of travellers that are around the world. Travelling is a way of enjoying the life and maturing ones personality and perception at the same time. So there is absolutely no single right way of doing it. I will here explain the different types of travellers I met and explain what I believe are the advantages and disadvantages of travelling their way..

Traveller stereotypes:
1. Speedy Gonzales the Globetrotter:
These travellers have their round the world ticket purchased valid for a bunch of flights. They try to see as much from the ¨Best of the world¨ as they can.
cons: you see the best of the world =)
pros: you really do not get to see the culture of the people living there that much

2. Vagabond:
They live nowhere. Change cities as they feel like, live around 3-6 months in the new city that they arrive in. Then once they are bored they are gone for their new location.
cons: You get to live with the people and understand their culture much better than any other type of travellers
You get to live in a place just about enough time to start slowly getting bored
It is perfect preparation for deciding the place to live forever, gives you a much better base for comparison
pros: It is slow
It may be inefficient as salary you get from different jobs will probably be lower than what you can get else.

3. Volunteer for real:
They go on volunteer actions. They wander around a country and help the people in need. They keep this as a lifestyle. Even if they do not do it all their life, still they are always conscious about the environment and they are always ready for another volunteer action. Please do not confuse this with voluntourists, which I will explain at the end of this section.
cons: for a good cause
you see different aspects of the country you would not have seen otherwise
helps much more to your conscience and you are also paying back to the world.
pros: similar to vagabond , inefficient if purely for travelling and slower

4. Xtremaveller: Has his/her surfboard/parachute/bungee/kitesurf or anything you can imagine out there for having fun while travelling and exploring the world
cons: definitely fun =)
you get to see the best places in the world for the sport you enjoy
pros: the best places for sightseeing do not need to match with the best places for doing your sport
you also have less time for seeing the places around because you are focused on your hobby
this makes the travelling somewhat slower than it can be

5. Rock climber / hiker: They prefer to see the nature parts rather than the cities and lost civilizations etc. I will not be writing any cons and pros, obviously you decide to see something focused more on the nature and you get to see it. It is perfect for the nature lovers.

6. deeper explorer: Diving is one of his specialties, so he goes as deep as he can in different oceans of the world.

7. Regular boring backpacker (me =) ): Gets different penetrations to different countries, tries to stay in acountry long enough to have at least a basic understanding about culture and people.
cons: at least gets a slight idea about how the people feel and what are the reasons for certain behaviors they have
it is faster than vagabond
it is better penetration than speedy gonzales
pros: never learns a country the way a vagabond would understand
slower than speedy gonzales in terms of seeing the best
I guess this is a trade off point which I personally enjoy.

8. Dario the Philosopher: Yes, this stereotype is there because of Dario, it fits him the best I decided to put his name for it. This guy, is crazy =) .. Really... He buys a car in Mexico, drives with it to Argentina and ships it back to Mexico only to sell it later.... This helped him travel with a bunch of other people he met on his way.
cons: you get to travel more with the other travellers.
you get to know them better and even good enough to find, helps stronger friendships.
you can always stop your car whereever you want to take photos, you get much better of the landscape
you get to see the places that the other tourists will not be able to see
pros: you definitely spend more money (gas may not be so cheap) and more time (you are driving) than you would spend on your own with buses etc.

9. Motrovaller: Travels around with a motorcycle, lighter version of Dario =).. Cons and pros, similar to backpacker.. He is a backpacker in a sense with only a difference in transportation. Shares the sames cons and props with Dario the philosopher, but does not have the con of travellilng more with other travellers and having stronger friendships (of course this also depends on the size of motorcyle =)... And it is definitely cool to travel around with a motorcycle if you drive safe =)
This is what I will do personally for my asia trip... But this kind of a travel requires much more attention as you will be driving with a vehicle that is small and could cause injuries if you have an accident. Also you will have to be much more careful to not to have your motorcycle stolen... But for the fun of it, I will definitely try this one...

10. Crazy biker: I met those species in the border from Brazil to Venezuela =). Those guys have been biking for 3 months already in south america, they put their bike to buses sometime to go ahead for a little bit more when they are tired, but in general they had been biking around in various nature areas in south america.
cons: you get to see landscape better
definitely get much better squat muscles =)
it is a different kind of adventure
pros: the usual slower...

11. The sailor: Sails around the world in an ocean of his own choice. Mostly is rich, sometimes does not have to be. The perfect example I met was in Grand Canyon, working as a tour guide. He sailed to pacific ocean for 3 years with a sail that does not have a motor, funded his trip by fixing boats of rich people and met his wife in Hawaii. She was sailing too, and they started sailing together and got married. No cons or pros, sailing is a lifestyle, and I definitely admire them.

12. Luxury backpacker: They are backpackers, but with some more cash =).. So they get to stay in better places and eat in better of the restaurants and also get to take some more tours for the places where it makes more sense to spend a little bit more money.

The types that are not travellers:
There are two types of groups that I do not count as travellers, because simply they are not. Let me clarify this
1. Voluntourists:
These people pay for their volunteering. There are some companies that send you overseas and make you pay for doing some human aid and work in an exotic country. I am against this, this is voluntourism and it is different from the volunteer style of travelling I explained in 3 above. Firstly if you are paying for doing a volunteer work, this means that somebody is doing some more work than the worth of the work you are doing for people over there. This is also why it is called voluntourism. A volunteer work should never be paid for, if not getting paid (just the basic money to live around).
The general prototype (although there are obviously always exceptions for the rule) for those people are the rich kids who feel like how cool it would be to tell to their friends ¨I did volunteer work in Zimbabwe blah blah,,,¨ and show off with it when they return back... I even had a friend who met another voluntourist who thought that the regular backpackers were not the real travellers.. I mean, you can be seeing the country you are volunteering similar to a way that a vagabond does but having the ¨volunteer¨ work there is nothing but some factor that slows you down. And I apologize if there is someone who could not find any other work to volunteer and had to do it that way, but still technically a volunteer work in which you have to pay a company to work is nothing but voluntourism. Please keep the money for your own travelling later for a better travel, and volunteer in your own country for a good cause...

2. Sunbather:
Yes, I know, we all go holidays for 1 or 2 weeks sometimes just going to another country and staying in a 5 star resort, and spending our time under the sun and the swimming pool. This is fun, and a good way of getting out of our stressful working schedule. I have nothing against it. But the people should know that no matter wherever country you are going if you are doing this kind of a holiday, it is not travel. It is a holiday and relaxation and fun, but should not be called travelling, because you are getting absolutely nothing you would get with travel,
you are not sight-seeing. I have nothing against it, but I just want to clarify what is travelling and what it is not.
Do not get me wrong, there are some people who can get only 2 weeks of vacation and go to mexico backpacking for 2 weeks and turn back to their countries, there is nothing wrong about it and it is perfectly backpacking. The time is limited a little bit but you have to work on whatever constraints you have on this life. That one is travelling, the sunbathing is not.

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