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Originally Posted by iblade
What do you mean? I mean, of course you can stay in hotels. But if you hit the road, you will eventually be invited by local people to sahre their lives. That is irreplaceable.
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This is a rather whimsical idea. Largely what happens is you will stay in hostels rather than hotels and you will hang out with other tourists.
You see the thing is, in many eastern countries, in the smaller villages, much of the things that we consider private actions are done in public (food preparation and eating being two big ones). I have friends who tell stories of wandering into a small town or village and stumbling on peoples activities... they have pictures and anecdotes galore...
For a time, they though, "wow, we are having an authentic experience". Ultimately they came to see this for what it was, being nosy and ultimately exploitative.
Maybe I am being cynical but in my mind the only tourism that isn't exploitative is business travel. A business person arrives and has goods or services to exchange with the locals. There is a purpose to the visit.
I could be wrong on this and may even change my mind with more thought but it's the way I am seeing it these days.