AITAH for not allowing my daughter to travel to India?

Naturally this was removed by a moderator. But the valuable insights in the comments (including from Indians) remain, even if some have been deleted by mods:

AITAH for not allowing my daughter to travel to India? : r/AITAH

"Indian woman here! Growing up with men constantly leering at you or molesting you, it’s definitely not safe. I’m sure she’ll be able to take care of herself but it’s genuinely not worth it! You should watch Angry Indian Goddesses with her. Beautiful movie, based in Goa, has a message she needs to see. Indian men are absolutely intolerable to be around, they won’t give you a moment to breathe 😭😭" 

"Indian guy here, I'd strongly urge you to stomp your foot down and say no to her. Traveling to India as a white female without any males, that too at the age of 19 is a very bad idea. Goa isn't that safe either. One has to do quite a bit of research before coming to India & also have that wit and presence of mind, which your 19 year old daughter surely lacks. Better to be safe than sorry." 

"I saw a comment last week on a different post about how a friend had admitted that her and her friend had been raped on two separate occasions on their trip in India. People had warned them not to go but they didn't listen. It is just a simple fact that it is not a safe country for women, especially white foreigners. Do not relent on this one." 

"if you search for rape cases involving foreign women in Goa, there are a staggering number of articles from over the years." 

"SIL was assaulted in Goa while jogging. Don’t let her go"  

"I absolutely agree with you. I'm a white woman who was married to an Indian man. When we went i was always swarmed by men the second my ex-husband left my side it was terrible honestly. Unless her father goes with her i would probably not allow her to go either. The problem is that no doesn't mean no there and women are not held in high esteem. My in-laws absolutely believed that white women were easy and they were looked upon as sluts, unfortunately. I may get downvoted for this but this is what I was told." 
"What your in laws believe is a very common association even now and even among the youth. In dharamsala I met a half french half african (I don't remember which french colony) woman who struck up a friendship with her Airbnb hosts son, who took it as a sign of she wants to sleep w me (yay), and his mother the host took it as a sign of this foreigner wants to ruin my son and suddenly kicked her out and this girl had nowhere to go in the middle of the night. It's wild to me because even that excuse of Western porn can't apply anymore but it's all within that fetishisation of whiteness. Justice is also very hard for foreigners when our system is so slow and requires them to spend personal funds to return for multiple court dates. I'm very sorry about your experiences, hope you've managed to have a better visit."

"I'm an Indian man and I'd say no to this as well. India is not a place of spirituality like people think it is. I had the chance to travel around India and...it's just men. It's just groups of men roaming around." 

"I can't speak to the safety of Goa, but my gf grew up in Delhi, where these days if you're a lone woman driving late at night and the police try and pull you over, you officially don't have to stop - because there have been so many incidents of women being raped by the police"
"there are horrific stories of women being attacked and getting sent to the hospital, only to have doctors and staff alike continue the abuse. It’s literally the rape capitol of the world…" 

 

"dude, a Korean travel youtuber said the SAME exact thing your daughter said. All her friends and family were like " yeah don't go, it's very unsafe " and she just brushed it off and said she's going to have a fun week in India.

Second she landed she just kept getting stared at, followed, and talked to. I think she gave a few hugs that lingered a little to long. Guys just walking up to her asking for selfies. At one point she got hit by a moped and the police actually responded by forcing the moped driver to take her to the hospital. Just the constant vigilance and guys walking up asking for s3x and grabbing at her was just too exhausting for her. So she took the next flight out of the country and was just crying as she left.

Oh yeah she would have to run into hotel lobbies and ask the staff to tell the men following her to leave her alone.

Plenty of stories of lone female travelers who STUDY the culture and speak the language getting harassed and assaulted. Even local women who travel randomly get assaulted."

 

"Compared to other places it's safer. But it's like saying rat poison is safer than cyanide. At the end of the day, both are poisonous.

I'm from South of India and my friends have done solo trips to goa, but they were ogled at, catcalled and approached by random strangers. But nothing bad happened.

I had travelled in mixed groups, but never saw any issues with the females in our group. Guess people leave mixed groups alone"

 

"Goa is one of the relatively safer places but keyword being relatively.

I was born and raised in India and I wouldn't recommend going there to anyone (white or not, male or female). I have friends and family there and go back once in a while but even then bringing a friend back there isn't something I would do.

Tell her to pick another beach location, there's a billion places much better than Goa and safer."

 

"Goa is I think geared a bit more for tourists.

Hand on heart I would not allow my young adult child whatever their sex to go to India.

I hate saying it, I have family in India. And it’s not a safe place, especially for women.

And you’ve got to bribe everyone to function.

And if god forbid anything happened, where would your daughter even think of beginning to get help from? Where would you?

If she honestly had wealthy friends with family there it would be fine. But not as two female white western tourists. Teen bravado will not get her far there." 

 

"I am indian (grew up there). Yes, goa is safer than most of India. No, Goa is not safe. It's known for parties and foreigners so while there is a lot of tourists, there are also creepy men who are there specifically to sleep with foreigners. I would also not let her go to India at 19.

It is a difficult stance to take but I absolutely think it's the right one. She can go when she's older and more well travelled.

My friend (white American man who is 6ft tall) had some terrifying experiences while in India. Not in Goa, but enough that he won't go back without a guide he trusts."

 

"Goa isn't proper south though. Lots of tourists from all over India. And most men think White women are characterless and therefore fair game. I'm Indian and believe me, I went to Goa as a ninth grader with family. The stares I got even as a child is kind of disturbing.

South Indian states like Kerala and Tamilnadu are considered quite safer than the Northern States."

 

"I just recently came back from India had to go there due to work. I am "kinda white" petite and young looking. Honestly I plan on never coming back not even if my work says it is mandatory. I was in danger at least 6 times. I highly suggest not to let your daughter go.

Show her videos or testimonials so she can see that it is for her safety."

 

"Indian woman here. I have a 17 yo niece and there's no way she's going to Goa until she's 25 and has a massive group of friends that I've personally vetted.

Controlling makes sense if she wants to go to countries THAT HAVE LAWS AND CULTURES THAT PROTECT THEIR WOMEN.

Forget about who's paying, it's India. Unless the host family can assign bodyguards, NO.

I hope OP sticks to their guns. His daughter can be big mad now but one day she will thank him for standing his ground."

 

"Hi, so I’m an Indian girl and i moved to the UK when I was younger and I’m in South India currently - I would not recommend for your daughter to come here at all because even though the south is considered safer it’s not as safe as she might be thinking. Goa is also known as the party place which in itself is fine but definitely not safe especially if it’s two young girls travelling alone

(For context: when visiting extending family they never let us travel alone even in a taxi, without a male relative)"

 

"I wouldn’t let her. My mom is very high up in the tech world and it’s one of the only countries that they give her a full time security teams when she goes.

She also spends a lot of time in Columbia and they don’t do that. I actually can’t think of another country she currently goes to that they do this."

 

"Im from New Zealand, I'm white and I went to India in 2016 with my sister who is also white. We went to attend an Indian friend of her's wedding. I was 19 at the time and she was 21.

I made sure to be with her 24/7 when we were in public but bad things still happened. On one of our final days there we were going to walk from the place we were staying to the home of her friends family which was about a 10 minute walk. I was still putting on my shoes and she was waiting impatiently before deciding that she would just leave start and I could catch up. So she left a few minutes before me.

This was the only single time I was not with her in public.

I didn't catch up to her, I couldn't find her on the streets to the friends house so I show up there and there is a crowd of people in one of the bedrooms and I hear hysteric crying.

Turns out that while she was walking to the house, some men had approached her and asked her for sex. She said no and they began to chase her and were joined by other men in a van. She sprinted to the house where they zoomed after her and even chased her inside the property and tried to smash down the front door. Fortunately in many Indian homes there is the front door but behind it normally there is a second large steel gate that is much stronger and while they got through the front door the gate was locked and they didn't get past. The house was also filled with people for the wedding and so heaps of the men chased these guys off the property but they just got into their van and left.

This was not the only incident. I went with her to go to dress fittings, but obviously as her brother didn't want to be in the changing room with her, but I had to be because at the first dress fitting she was groped and 'touched' by the man doing the fitting.

In Jaipur we also had men try to break into our hotel room one night.

I would not recommend travelling to India under any circumstances if you area woman."

 

"This might work for a white male but would never work for a female (even if she's indian) it's the men who are the problem, no matter where you travel across India. But as a man, I don't expect you to get it, unfortunately.

Edit: enriching experience be damned, safety comes first. I'm saying that as an Indian female btw. 

Edit #2: In a good country no one has to be that street smart and cautious 24x7. People travel to enjoy and relax not be on their fucking guard 24x7. Seeing her daughter is white and 19, India shouldn't even be considered as a tourist spot. Maybe, if the father was travelling with her, but definitely not with another female friend. The OP is not a racist, most people calling him so in the comments are just blind to see the problems with their own country. The latter should pick a newspaper once in a while. 

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-lodged-average-86-rapes-daily-49-offences-against-women-per-hour-in-2021-government-data/article65833488.ece

A simple search will tell you the truth, and these are just the reported cases, there is not even a concrete number for the numerous harassments and cat calls on a daily basis. Not to mention, the cases which go unreported because alas, it's the women's fault if she gets raped in India as she will be blamed constantly one way or the other."

 

"I’m an Indian who was born and raised in a Western country. I come off as Arab, Turkish, Malay, or even White due to my extremely pale complexion and ethnically-ambiguous features. I cover up from head to toe but every time I visit India with my family, it doesn’t stop the stares.

Actually, the men on the streets there stare at any women who pass by. Old, young, literal baby. They don’t discriminate- but it’s 1000000X WORSE when you have fair skin, as an Indian I can say that the people there obsess over it. Men will flock to you unsolicited and ask for photos or hit on you- you can even see this gross behaviour on vlogs where female YouTubers are visiting India.

When I was 14, I got my hair pulled “flirtingly” by a group of men behind me at a random street, this was with my entire family at my side btw.

When I visited this year, a random girl came up to me in broken English and asked me for my number, saying she wants to be friends. I gave her a fake number because I didn’t trust her, she didn’t know that I spoke the language or even assumed I was Indian and had been saying some very odd things in my language under her breath, all of which I understood.

Immediately after giving a fake number, I saw her walk over to this creepy group of guys at a far distance and hand the paper over to them. My mum’s best friend got raped when she was a teenager. I’ve been harassed more times than I can count, leaving me feeling extremely disgusted even now. My little sister almost got kidnapped when she was 2. It’s an extremely scary place there- and no it doesn’t matter what area your daughter travels to. I’ve travelled to all parts of India and they’re all extremely unsafe with men varying in levels of danger. Some take photos, some cat call, some outright harass and some rape.

Keep her out of that country at all costs."

On the Ground in Africa

/pol/ - Politically Incorrect » Thread #64398540

"Reminds me of this MPC post: 

(I can't make a new topic, so I'm posting in this one, for reasons that will be clear very very quickly. I'm disappointed though, because I had a great thread name ready: I Miss the AIDS Down in Africa - Gonna Take Some Time To Explain Away Race for You.)

So many people wanted to hear about my time in Africa, and I want to talk about it, but I’m not really sure which angle to attack it from. You see, not only was I living there, I was a…
Peace Corps Volunteer.

Yep. The pozzed of the pozzed. Actually, it was a good experience, and it started me on the path of the shitlord by exposing me not only to Africans, but also to people so far to the left you need to pop a Truveda just to have a conversation with them. The whole thing was extremely eye opening, and I could write another entire post about international aid generally and Peace Corps specifically, but I want this one just about Africa, Africans, and the way they live.

First, a caveat. Africa is huge, and I can only speak for the little corner I was in. I was assigned to a remote village in the Sahel, basically the transition between the rainforests of central Africa and the Sahara desert, in francophone West Africa. I was in a very stable country (though we had some terrorist scares), and I would not only go back in a heartbeat, I regularly recommend that people go on vacation there. It’s a beautiful place: cheap, on the Atlantic, and open to (French speaking) foreigners. I have tons of shit to talk about it, though, but I’ll lead with the positive 

The good:
As I mentioned in the post that spawned this one, tribal African society works for them. They’re not smart, but they have strict, specific rules that they follow and that make things sorta work. By sorta work, I mean the power is on 6-8 hours a day, there is running water sometimes, and the roads have potholes so big it’s safer to drive in the bush next to them. But in the small town/village I was in, there was basically no crime, it was very safe to walk around at night, and people got along really well with each other.

How did they achieve this? If Asians are ant-people, well adapted to SCALEd societies, Africans are the opposite. They can’t handle scale, at all. When they live in villages of 100 to 1000, though, things are “functional”. They need familial hierarchies to function, though. Blacks have no morality, they don’t feel bad for doing anything the way you or I do. Their sense of shame and moral compunction is hierarchically imposed. There were a million little niggershines going on every day, and if they got away with it, it was all good. But if an elder catches you, you’re in for a world of hurt. Literally, because all punishment is corporal. They don’t mess around with stern lectures. It’s straight to the beatings, from a young age on.

The system also puts a huge premium on family and community, and nobody there had any desire to ever leave for good. Everyone wanted to get out to get paid, but nobody wanted to emigrate permanently to France or the US. They just wanted to make money, ship it home to “support” their family, and come back to have a little empire of dirt in the bush. 

They are also front-line fighters against shitlibs. They didn’t stand for that shit, at all. If you wanted to come into their villages and build some shit, great. If you wanted to give them lectures about how they needed to accept gays or change their ways, mobs and rocks were in your future. Luckily I worked in Agricultural development, so I mostly got to give away stuff. At the time I felt bad for the ones getting the rocks, but looking back I just laugh. Take that, striver poors!

The bad:
1. Once, a friend of another volunteer wanted to earn some money by baking bread. He got a little bit of money together and used it to buy ingredients. He built a mud stove himself, and cooked 30 loaves of “village bread” - basically misshapen, doughy baguette. He took the bread to the road, and started to sell them, until his father came by. His father said, “You have bread! The family needs bread!” and took 20 loaves for himself and the rest of the kids (this particular father had 4 wives and 8 kids per wife). Our enterprising African friend was left bankrupt. He lost his entire initial investment and never made bread again. 

This is the basic story of Africa: communalism gone insane. It is completely unthinkable to refuse a demand of an elder or a family member for money or food. People hid any small money they had, because if anyone knew they had it, there would be a line around the corner asking for loans and favors, and they would be honor-bound or whatever to say yes. I told my friends over and over to say no, and each time they politely explained to me that it was impossible. The whole system is built to pull people down to the lowest common denominator.

2. Every day, I ate the same meal – a huge communal bowl of rice, with fish and some vegetables. Every day, the family I lived with spent a good amount of money (for them) to buy bitter tomatoes and okra to put in the rice, despite the fact that nobody liked bitter tomatoes or okra. I asked, why do you waste so much money on these vegetables that nobody eats? They told me, because we don’t want anyone to think we’re poor.

Africans are all about face and presentation, to the point of self-ruin. We’re talking about people for whom buying a couple vegetables has a huge impact on their bottom line, but they still do it. Saving money is basically impossible. I’m convinced that they have no conception of the future, aside from a vague idea that tomorrow will come. Cause and effect seemed to have no meaning. People who planned well, saved money and invested were not lauded or emulated, just dismissed as flukes or having received the blessing of Allah. Actually, Africans probably took to Islam like flies to shit because in Islam, everything flows directly from God – it is a religion that gives people permission to believe that everything is out of their hands, which they believe anyway. 

3. A man asked me if I could give him 10 hectares of land and a diesel-electric water pump to irrigate it. This was not uncommon. The first thing people usually asked me when I told them I was an Agriculture Development person was for tractors, cars, livestock, anything. Completely shameless begging. Men in expensive silk clothes with nice black sedans would shamelessly beg for gimmiedats when they learned what I did. Anyway, I asked this particular guy what experience he had farming or gardening. He said none. I asked, then why do you want such a large scale enterprise? Why not get a small garden from the village chief and a used gas-pump to see how it goes? Maybe you’ll even earn enough money to upgrade in a year or two. He said, well, my cousin got 10 hectares and a diesel-electric pump from the government, so he was going to wait until he could get it too.

Gimmiedats are international. It’s disgusting. Every single cent of international aid is wasted on either bloodthirsty warlords, sniveling SWLP striver salaries, or gimmiedats for the underserving. In case you had any illusions, never give money to any international charity, ever. It breeds a mentality of helplessness and “mana from heaven”, not to mention an entire caste of African hustlers whose only job is to pitch their villages for various causes. The worst thing about this story? The man was completely right to not try a small scale enterprise. He’s African, they have infinite time. One day a government project will come to his village and give him his pump and his 10 hectares. He won’t do shit with it, but he’ll proudly show off his pump and everyone in the village will respect him for his achievement of receiving some gimmiedats. 

4. During the festival of Eid al-Hada, a ram must be sacrificed because blah blah who cares. After killing and stringing the ram up into a tree for butchering, a gaggle of boys (they are always around in groups of 10-50, usually begging for presents and money because idiot white people always give it to them) rushed to the dying animal with a pair of scissors, snipped off its balls, and ran away with their prize. I asked the closest mother why, she said they’re going to grill it – the balls are a prized treat for the boys. I asked, do the girls eat it too? Of course not, she said. They would get pregnant with a goat.

Africans are dumb as shit. Basically, they never grow up. You are dealing with 200 pound children. If you go into interactions with that mindset, things go alright, but if you expect anything adult from them, you’ll be disappointed and frustrated at every turn. They believe in everything you can list – ghosts, angels, demons, curses, charms, blessings, and magic. Oh, and magic. They love it. I was party to a number of village magic battles, where charms and counter-charms were buried at people’s doorsteps, protective wards were made, and potions were snuck into tea. It’s a huge deal, and everyone pays big money (for them) to the local shamans and witch doctors to get all these magical trinkets. Yes, even in Islamic Africa, it’s just like this. African Islam is the same as South American Christianity – totally fucked in the head. They are pagan savages first and moon-worshiping goatfuckers second. They just slap a varnish of Islam on it – the magic charm has a Koranic verse in it! – and go about their lives happily as before. 

5. A volunteer once fronted enough money for the farmer he lived with to buy fertilizer. They spread it together, and the yield was recorded. In total, it was 9 fold over the year prior. Instead of taking the money back for the loan, said volunteer forced the farmer to buy fertilizer for the next year, and save it. The next year came and they used it again, and again the yield was 10 fold over the first non-fertilizer year. This time, though, the volunteer had left the country. The farmer didn’t buy any fertilizer, and instead blew through the money he earned from his crop on frivolous crap and gifts to every extended family member who cast a shadow on his door. The next year his yields returned to the original level, and everyone went on with their lives as happy as before. The end.This is my penultimate Africa story. There’s a bit more to it – the Peace Corps showed graphs and charts of this particular case as a successful intervention. I only found out about the little coda because I specifically asked what happened the next year; they didn’t decide to share that little fact in the larger meeting. It brings together everything - the waste, the stupidity, the lack of foresight, the inability to see cause and effect, the massive importance put on frivolous crap, and the way communities tear down their best members. Here’s the takeaway: nobody who wasn’t white on that farm saw the connection between the yields, the money they were making and the fertilizer. Nobody stopped to think hey, we should buy more of this. 

That’s the insanity of Africa. 200 pound children, blowing huge stacks of cash on magic charms while they grind out a subsistence livelihood on the border of the desert.This is already super long, and I could really go on and on about this subject. There are more stories - the myths of the African family, more stories of faux-communalism, stories about crazy African religion and politics, and so on. The long and short of it, though, is this: they’re not terrible people, they just shouldn’t be anywhere near us. Africa is no shit the Garden of Eden. It’s no mistake that the people living there are giant children. Despite tons of diseases and ferocious animals, they want for nothing. Trees growing fruit are everywhere. Every weed is edible. Before the Western-induced population bomb, I’m not even sure they even required agriculture to feed themselves. If we’re going to live a world where complete ethnic cleansing and colonization is off the table, just let them have their little paradise and leave us alone. They have absolutely nothing to offer us nor anything to gain by interaction with the west. They’re a people frozen in time from tens of thousands of years ago, and I have no trouble leaving them like that."

/pol/ - Politically Incorrect » Thread #30209571

"A fragment from a blog of a Russian man who went on a business trip to South Africa, translated for your convenience.

http://tannen.livejournal.com/66587.html

Me and my friend had to spend roughly 10 hours in Johannesburg. We asked Mikhail and he convinced some kamikaze driver to take us on a tour through the city center. We, the two retards, thought that they were exaggerating about the danger just to frighten us. We thought that we'd get to the center, take a long good stroll through it and show everyone that Russians aren't afraid of anything.

We ended up not even coming close to doing any of these things.

Reason?

We nearly shat ourselves. 

The descent to Johannesburg from the plateau made the city look great. Beautiful, big, modern. Some skyscrapers here and there, some nice Victorian-style buildings. Green lawns, blue sky.
Upon actually entering the city, the picture changed drastically.
It looked completely abandoned.
There was no electricity.
Piles of trash just lying in the streets.
Burst sewer pipes flooding several spots.
The only thing clear of debris was the main road, the only functional electrical devices were the traffic lights.
And this was the city center, the relatively safe part of the city.

Prior to riding into the city, the driver appointed by Mikhail read us a short "do's and don'ts" lecture. He seemed very tense, gulping often and suspiciously looking around as he spoke:

"If you cunts want to survive this, do exactly as I say.
After we enter the city, NO LOUD NOISES, do not ATTRACT ANY ATTENTION!
NO FUCKING IPHONES OR CAMERAS flashing through the car windows!
DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT with ghouls! (that's what he called niggers)
And no matter what happens, DO NOT OPEN THE WINDOWS!
Because suddenly a lamp post can fall and block the way, and the ghouls will fucking siege us.
And remember that I have kids, so at least follow these rules for my sake..." 

We spent two hours riding around the city center.
It was quiet enough in the bus to hear a pin drop.
To understand what happened to the city, a small historical flashback is needed.

After the apartheid was over, a two-million swarm of Africans flooded the city, opening the era of African Reqonquista. They were not natives, they just left their usual places in the desert and went wherever life was better. Mikhail, the guy who got us the driver, lived in Johannesburg at that time and told us the following:

In the middle of an ordinary workday, something happened.
The office center's doors opened and an unorganized crowd of several thousand blacks rushed in, carrying their belongings in huge bags. They asked us not to pay any attention to them and continue working, while they were spreading around the building and occupying every bit of territory that was available. Armchairs, stools, sofas, restrooms and hallways - they were everywhere, happily chatting and wasting no time in taking whatever shiny things the building's original denizens had on them.
The office became filled with commotion. Chickens were butchered and gutted in the hallways, tables in audience rooms turned into cooking tables, restrooms became bathhouses.
The polite question "What's going on?" was answered with "This is our home now".
The subsequent, less polite question "What the fuck?!" met a reply "It will be better for everyone".

Mikhail called the cops.
Cops didn't come.
They apologized and explained that exactly the same thing is happening across the entire city.
Then everyone who could started to quietly flee the city, headed towards the suburbs and Cape Town, while erecting barriers to block the paths - hedges, moats, electrified fences. The last district of Johannesburg where you can meet a white man nowadays is the Pretoria suburb. 

After a massive exodus, owners of the buildings started thinking of what to do.

Bingo! They decided that if they switch off the electricity, water and sewer access to the buildings, the ghouls will leave them and return to the savannah.

So, they switched them off.
Ghouls didn't even notice.

Of course, in the savannah they had neither of these modern conveniences. "Where do they shit, then?" I asked Mikhail.
Mikhail replied that the office owners were also puzzled by this - and completely shocked after they found out.

You see, after invading the buildings, none of the ghouls could figure out what elevator shafts were for. Once they ripped out the elevator doors, they spent a few days scratching heads and spitting into the darkness, until it finally occured to them.

"Bless the white man's genius", thought the ghouls, and the shafts became both toilets and garbage dumps ever since. According to Mikhail, it takes roughly ten years for an average ghoul horde to shit up an office building to the point of complete unliveability. After that, like in good old prehistoric times, the horde migrates, occupying another building.  

We rode on through Johannesburg's streets, glued to the car windows, devouring the scenery with our eyes. Fashionable modern houses with boarded-up windows passed us by. When we came across a rare open window, we could see fires burning inside, with ghouls lying or walking around them.

(Once again) According to Mikhail, a new, albeit informal service appeared in Johannesburg. Bunches of tough guys go around offering to take the buildings back from ghouls. It happens like this: in the middle of the night several trucks drive up to the building, and hundred or two of armed thugs goes inside.

Quickly, they grab the sleeping ghouls and simply start throwing them out of the building, trying not to wake the whole horde up. Before the horde completely comes to its senses and starts expressing its displeasure, the thugs weld shut all doors and windows on the first floor and put up an electrified fence. After the building is cleaned and refurbished, it turns back into an office.

That's how the remnants of Johannesburg's white population live and work. In the evening and during the night they keep safe behind armored doors and private guards. In the morning they get into their cars and quickly, without stopping, ride outside their fortresses to work. After a short ride through more-or-less safe streets, they dive into one of the heavily guarded foxholes that leads to the underground parking garages. And that concludes their arrival to the workplace.

Another funny thing I noticed - if two "live" buildings are nearby, they are often connected by an aerial passage at the 10th or 11th floor. So office workers can even visit each other if they want to. The only trick to it is not to look down. Down there is ghoul territory."

 

Related:

 

South Africa fire: What are Johannesburg's hijacked buildings?

"Many buildings in the centre of the South African city of Johannesburg, where a horrific fire has killed more than 70 people, are deemed unfit to live in.

Yet these old blocks, abandoned by their owners or the city authorities, are full of families often paying rent to criminal gangs who run them.

The buildings, which lack running water, toilets or a legal electricity connection, are then said to have been "hijacked".

Scores of people often live in one room, often former offices. Fires are common - though nothing on the scale of the one that went up in flames overnight...

Following the exodus of businesses, the CBD became a no-go area with a reputation for crime and violence, and some buildings were reportedly abandoned by owners as rates owed to the council exceeded their value."

Hijacked Buildings and 'Shock and Awe' Tactics in Johannesburg's Low-Income Black Neighborhoods

"The Kiribilly building is in a desperate state. The floors and walls are filthy, the smell of urine wafts up from the disused elevator shaft. Residents on the upper floors have no water and run a hosepipe through the corridors and over the balconies in an attempt to get water from the ground floor. “My youngest child was staying here this year,” said Gqokoma. “Then I had to send her away to her grandmother because of the situation in these flats.”...

Section 26 of the South African constitution states that everyone “has the right of access to adequate housing” and that “the state must take reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources to achieve the progressive realization of this right.” The South African Human Rights Commission further elaborates that “the State must create conducive conditions for all of its citizens, irrespective of their economic status, to access affordable housing.”

The constitution and the courts seem to be the last line of defense for low-income inner city residents."

There's a lot of material, so I will continue this in another post.

Entering and going around Singapore during Covid - boosters

Original post from 17th February:

In Singapore, receiving a primary course of covid vaccination may not be enough to qualify you as "fully vaccinated" (for most intents and purposes).

You are only considered "fully vaccinated" for the purpose of vaccine-differentiated safe management measures (VDS) for 270 days after the last dose of your primary vaccination series.

For VTL purposes (Vaccinated Travel Lane - i.e. to enter the country without quarantine) you only need "the full regimen of WHO EUL vaccines at least two weeks before arrival in Singapore" (i.e. no booster is needed). But VTL requirements are different from VDS requirements.

The first time you enter Singapore you get temporary "vaccinated" status for 30 or 180 days. But this will not be renewed when you exit and re-enter. You are supposed to register your overseas vaccination into the National Immunisation Registry at any PHPC clinic in Singapore (you may need to take a serology test, especially if your overseas vaccination record is not digitally verifiable).

If you haven't gotten and won't get a booster, you can still be considered fully vaccinated if you have previously gotten covid, since "There are currently no recommendations for the following groups of persons who had completed their primary vaccination series to receive booster vaccination: Recovered individuals* who have completed their primary vaccination series".

However, if you got covid when you were outside of Singapore, to prove that you had previously gotten it, you'll need to take an Anti-N serology test from any PHPC clinic in Singapore. A positive PCR test from overseas is not accepted. On the upside, it's only $48.15 at Raffles Medical (https://www.raffleshealth.com/total-antibody-n-protein-tanp-test.html). But note that up to 1 in 5 who get covid won't have their infection show up on this test.

 

The full response from MOH to an enquiry I made about overseas infection and exemption from booster requirements in Singapore is below:

"We refer to your enquiry made to the Ministry of Health website on 13 February 2022...

We wish to inform you that all individuals who have been fully vaccinated overseas with any vaccines approved under the WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) can get their overseas vaccination records ingested into the National Immunisation Registry (NIR). This includes Singaporean Citizens (SC), Singapore Permanent Residents (PR), Long-Term Pass Holder (LTPH) (e.g. Long-Term Visitor Pass, Work Permit, Employment Pass, S Pass, Dependent Pass, Student Pass) and Short-Term Pass Holders (STPH).

This can be done at any PHPC clinic participating in onboard on this initiative. You can also refer to https://phpc.gov.sg/ for a listing of clinics who may provide such services. We advise you to call ahead and check. Once they clinic has review the your overseas vaccination documentation - either the original hard copy vaccination certificate or digital vaccination certificate (with translated document where applicable) and serology test result is positive, they will update your vaccination records into the NIR. If you are a holder of vaccination certificate from selected countries, you may be exempted from serology testing. The Healthcare provider will scan your certificate to verify authenticity and update into the NIR accordingly. You may refer to our website for the list of counties whose vaccination certificate is eligible for exemption for serology testing here: https://www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19/vaccination/faqs---post-vaccination-matters. Do note that the charges involved are borne by the individual.

Separately, to ingest overseas COVID-19 records, you may request for an Anti-N serology test from any PHPC clinic as mention above. Please call in advance to check that the clinic is able to support serology testing. Thereafter, upon receiving positive results for your serology test which would indicate a past infection, your vaccination status should be updated. Do note that all charges are to be borne by the individual.

You may refer to our website https://www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19/vaccination/faqs---booster-doses for booster recommendation for recovered individuals."

 

Actually, it looks like tourists or other people without status in Singapore are not able to get their vaccination records updated in the National Immunisation Registry. So these people will practically only be able to visit Singapore once, since on subsequent visits (30/180 or more days from their first) they will no longer be considered "vaccinated" and will be subject to covid apartheid (this is even if they've had a booster). So the VTLs are not compatible with real opening up to the rest of the world.

 

2nd April update:

With Singapore's abolishment of VTLs from 1st April, temporary vaccinated status has been standardised to 30 days.

I also realise that short term pass holders includes tourists and short term business visitors. Though I imagine that many people might not want to take a serology test and/or get a covid booster just to visit Singapore more than once.

Pre-covid Vaccination Immigration Requirements - A Survey and Comparison to Covid Vaccine Passports

Someone on Facebook claimed that covid vaccine passports were no big deal, since many countries require or recommend vaccinations already.

She said 154/195 countries in the world have some sort of non-covid vaccine requirement or recommendation, citing the WHO.

I decided to investigate.

The only WHO source (List of countries, territories and areas: Vaccination requirements and recommendations for international travellers, including yellow fever and malaria) I could find on this does not list the number of countries with vaccine requirements or recommendations.

There're 108 places which require yellow fever vaccination - but only if you arrive from a place where there's a risk of the disease. And some of them exempt certain yellow fever risk areas. A few more recommend yellow fever vaccination - but a recommendation is not a requirement.

Only 16 places require yellow fever vaccination of everyone (Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, CAR, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, DRC, French Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone and Togo).

Myanmar requires nationals and residents to have the yellow fever vaccine if they're going to a place with the disease.

As for polio, 8 places - India, Indonesia, Iraq, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles and Sri Lanka require arrivals from places with polio to be vaccinated against that. Iraq requires that of travellers going to places with polio too. Saudi Arabia will give you the polio vaccine even though you must already be vaccinated to enter. Pakistan gives polio to all departing travellers and incoming long-term travellers. Syria requires polio vaccines for visitors from certain places and for departing travellers.

As for other vaccines, Saudi Arabia requires incoming pilgrims to have a meningitis vaccine and Bosnia requires *departing* travellers to have various vaccines.

So all in all, only 24 places have some type of mandatory vaccine for all incoming travellers, and 2 more require that of all outgoing travellers, and most of them are in Africa so most travellers are not likely to be affected by them.

On the other hand, covid vaccine passports seem likely to be adopted by many or even most countries in the post-covid landscape.

Another relevant consideration is that the yellow fever vaccine has been around since 1938. The most recent polio vaccine came in 1961. In contrast, covid vaccines are less than a year old. It is reasonable to have different standards for longstanding vaccines compared to new ones.

Plus, all of the above is just for international travel, which is relatively infrequent and relatively discretionary. Covid vaccine passports, on the other hand, are proposed for much more mundane things.

In New York, the Excelsior Pass is being used to control entry to some dance performances, comedy shows and bars. These are all venues that most people would visit more often than they would engage in international travel.

In the UK, until recently, there were plans for vaccine passports to be used to enter pubs (and these plans may return), even if this might have been ruled to be unlawful discrimination.

Israel has just scrapped the green pass, formerly used for sporting events, cultural venues, restaurants and more. But who knows if they'll panic about the latest variant and bring it back?

The EU, at least, is showing more restraint.

In France, for example, health passes (pass sanitaire) are only going to be used for big gatherings but not (at least for now) for museums, movie theaters, libraries, theme parks, big markets, zoos, places of worship, camping places, department stores, big public places open to the public and educational sites. Indeed, such places asking for health passes can be legally sanctioned. Notably, too, vaccination is not the only way to get a health pass (ergo why it's not called a vaccine passport): you can also get one if you've tested negative for covid or recovered from it.

The EU in general has the EU Digital COVID Certificate, with the same 3 criteria for getting it, and it seemingly will only be used for travel.

Indeed, if the aim is to ensure that you do not pose a risk to others, including those who test negative or who have recovered from covid seems sufficient, especially since we know that the vaccinated can still infect others. Indeed, ensuring people test negative is actually more important, since then they would be unable to infect others (for as long as they remained negative, at least).

This suggests that vaccine passports might be more about coercing people into getting vaccinated than protecting others.

Why I'll Never Return to Vietnam Explained

Vietnam Travel: Why I'll Never Return to Vietnam Explained

"No one ever wants to return to a place where they felt they were treated poorly. When I was backpacking around Vietnam, I was constantly hassled, overcharged, ripped off, and treated badly by the locals.

I constantly met street sellers who tried to openly overcharge me. There was the bread lady who refused to give me back the proper change, the food seller who charged me triple even though I saw how much the customer in front of me paid, or the cabbie who rigged his meter on the way to the bus station. While buying T-shirts in Hoi An, three women tried to keep me in their store until I bought something, even if that meant pulling on my shirt.

On a trip to Halong Bay, the tour operator didn’t have water on the boat and had overbooked the trip, so people who paid for single rooms suddenly found themselves with roommates…sometimes in the same bed!

One of the worst experiences came while in the Mekong Delta. I was catching a bus back to Ho Chi Minh City. I was thirsty, so I went to get a common drink in Vietnam — water, lemon, and some powdery, sugary substance in a plastic bag. The woman making this concoction looked at me, laughed at her friends, and then started laughing at me while clearly not putting in all the ingredients into this drink. I wasn’t born yesterday and knew I was being blatantly ripped off. She was cheating me right to my face.

“She’s telling her friends she’s going to overcharge and rip you off because you’re white,” said a Vietnamese-American who was also on my bus. “She doesn’t think you will notice.” “How much should this really cost?” I asked my new companion. I gave the vendor the correct change, told her she was a bad person, and walked away. It wasn’t the money I cared about — it was her utter disrespect.

I wondered if it was just me. Perhaps I simply had a bad experience and Vietnam travel was really amazing! Maybe I just had bad luck. Maybe I just caught people on an off day. But after talking to a number of other travelers, I realized that we all had the same stories. Hardly anyone had a good one, which might explain why 95% of tourists don’t return. They all had tales of being ripped off, cheated, or lied to. They never felt welcome in the country either.

I witnessed other people having problems in Vietnam... Two of my friends lived in Vietnam for six months, and even they said the Vietnamese were rude to them despite becoming “locals.” Their neighbors never warmed up to them. My friends were always outsiders — strangers even to those they saw every day. Wherever I went, it seemed my experience was the norm, not the exception.

I’ve encountered many travelers who thought the people in Vietnam were really nice and enjoyed visiting Vietnam. I’ve often wondered why there’s such a disparity in experiences. Well, there’s one common difference between the travelers who have liked it and those who have hated it. Most of the people who had a good experience traveled in luxury, while those who didn’t were backpackers and budget travelers...

The Vietnamese are taught that all their problems are caused by the West, especially France and the United States, and that Westerners “owe” the Vietnamese. They expect Westerners to spend money in Vietnam, so when they see travelers trying to penny-pinch, they get upset and thus look down on backpackers and treat them poorly. Those who are spending money, however, seem to be treated quite well...

I don’t care that they tried to overcharge me. It’s not about the money. I’m happy to pay more — a dollar goes a lot further for them than it does for me. But just because I’m a backpacker doesn’t mean I deserve any less respect than anyone else.

I wasn’t looking for the royal treatment, just basic respect. And I never felt respected in Vietnam. I felt like people there looked at me not as a human being but just as someone who could be ripped off. There are rude people everywhere, but it was so disproportionately bad that if I never went back to Vietnam, I wouldn’t feel too bad about it."


(Some) Comments:

"one of my worst experience was trying to take the local bus instead of the tourist bus. I found it didn’t really matter. My friend and I were treated pretty badly."

"That’s a really bad idea you took the local bus, they don’t even treat Vietnamese right."

"Travelers have to be on their guard for ripoffs throughout SE Asia, not just in Vietnam. Having traveled through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, I have experienced attempts at short changing, deception by tourist agents, aggressive begging and other annoyances in several countries."

"In Thailand you will get charged 3 times the price for a T-shirt then a local would , and in India the chai is double the price for westerners"

"An American in Vietnam complaining about being treated rudely? That’s a bit rich. Remember who you are and where you’re from and that the Vietnamese have every right to feel wronged and to not hold you in high regard."
"I don’t buy that. I didn’t bomb them. Should the Germans owe me because their grandfathers put Jews in camps? Germans today that they don’t bear that burden, it wasn’t them. They apologize and move on. Do young Australians have to bear the cross for what was done to the Aboriginals in the early 20th century when they had no control? I don’t believe that we bear the sins of our fathers."

"scams are everywhere in SE Asia. It’s a matter of rooting them out."

"The Vietnam War museums are great! Such great communist propaganda about how brothers and sisters beat back the imperial dogs of the french and the americans! Loved it!"

"My wife is from the Mekong Delta and we lived in Vung Tau for the last 6 months. Because Vung Tau is populated by mostly northerners, none of our neighbors would speak or even look at us. Whenever my wife went to the market I could not go, the prices increased dramatically. When we traveled to Hanoi because my wife had a southern accent and the words were different she was ridiculed and made to say things over again while the street vendors would snicker. The level of prejudice in some parts of the country is saddening. We are now back in Saigon(HCMC) now and I have been subjected to every scam so I am no longer a target but the tales of woe are abundant and I have seen people loose everything they owned."

"I don’t mind the scams- you find them all over the place. I just found the vietnamese a bit open and rude about it. Whereas in Thailand it’s a game, in Vietnam it was more like “HAHAHA I rip you off!”"

"The Vietnamese have every right to hate Americans. Who are you in your comfortable world to tell them how to behave now."

"Oh man, you described my experience to a T. I was there for 15 days (during Tet 2009, which made things about 10,000x worse) and I couldn’t WAIT to get out. I made my way from the Phu Quoc island, through Saigon, Nha Trang, Hoi An, and finally Hanoi.
Seriously, I have no idea why the people were so rude there. They constantly tried to rip me off, laughed at me while doing it and some bastard even tried jumping my cab meter... it’s not just the white man, I’m asian and I still got treated like crap."

History According to Bob - Vacation to Greece and Egypt (2019) (aka the joys of being swindled in the Third World)

Part 4:

[On the wonders of conmen in the Third World {Egypt}] "I said. I think we're going to go across and visit the Sphinx. He said, okay. He said, I will come with you. I will show you where the tickets are. And want to give you some advice. We tell this to everybody.

Do not talk to anybody… If you want to go somewhere, if you want to, you know, do something, let us know. We will go with you…

I was aware that they were going to be aggressive from selling you. Do you need a taxi? Do you want to buy this? But we've been to Turkey and the Turks are pretty aggressive. And Sherri had been to Jamaica and the Jamaicans can be pretty aggressive. So we thought, okay, we'll just walk out, we just simply say no, which in Arabic was la la. And, but we ended up saying no all the time. Because everybody spoke English. We thought we’ll be okay…

And then I made a mistake… there's a gentleman standing at the top of the steps and he comes down and he's got a lanyard on with a identification card. And he says, well, welcome to to Egypt. I'm a government, I'm been hired by the government to show people around. And you know, both Sherri and I realized that that was not what he was. He's simply another guide like individual. But neither one of us said no, and we continue talking with him. And he was a nice gentleman. Course he was, and he ended up guiding us around on several occasions. We tried to escape, I tell him, we were done, and we'll go back and it didn't work out…

The guidebook said that in all of Egypt, you would face no greater gauntlet of scam artists, toots and manipulation than at the site of the Great Pyramid. It said that the they tried to control it with undercover police and whatever. But for the most part, nobody's getting robbed, nobody gets a r-, you know, it's not that kind of crime. They just assume that you don't know what the prices are. And they're trying to be your friend and get as much money out of you as possible. And I had not read what it costs to do - camel rides and a variety of other things. So to some extent, part of our problem was I put the value of what we were doing based on what I would pay for it in the United States, when in reality, I was paying, oh, I don't know, 10 times, 20 times what it actually cost. And I'll tell you right up front, I paid $60 for Sherri and I each, that’s $120, for about an hour camel ride:


Part 5:

We met this gentleman who told us that he was a representative of the government and we got attached to him. And he was a really nice guy, he was excellent. He's probably one of the best scam artists if you want to call it that because you know in the end it didn't really cost us that much and we did a lot of stuff - we were just overcharged a little bit and we should have said no thank you early on or at least talked immediately about how much it was going to cost. Because if we had done that then we would have been left alone.

If we hadn't talked to him like our guy, our people at the hotel said, we wouldn't have had this happen… we never actually go into the Sphinx compound. I had a ticket for it but I think he thought if we went in with the ticket that would separate us because he couldn't go in with us. And then we would be free


Part 9:

[On Egypt] Sometimes when you're in a situation where they say no pictures, your guide knows that if you bribe... give a couple of bucks to the guard, they'll let you take non flash pictures


Part 10:

They try to engage you, that’s the whole idea. They want to know where you're from. Well, he told us that they think everybody from America is rich. So don't tell them you're American. They know the English have money. They know the French have money. And the Germans have money he said, but they don't think the Canadians have any money. So just tell them you're Canadian. Well, I didn't try that for a couple of days. But I did try it. And it worked.

Part 14:

I got almost to the temple... as I walk into the main area, another gentleman comes up and he says it's closed today because it's Friday. It's the Muslim holy day. But the market’s open, let me take you to the market. And I said, nice try. But I know it's open today. It's only closed two days out of the year. And then he kind of shrugged his shoulders.

Part 15:

They show all the different methods of counting victory. Piles of hands, piles of heads, piles of bodies, piles of penises. It's one of the few temples that actually has penises piled up and depicted because these are great victories

Getting to the Hawar Islands in Bahrain

There isn't a lot of information online about this, and what information there is seems mostly outdated.

FWIW, I went to the Al Dur Jetty (aka Ad Dur) as one site (from the Bahraini government - http://www.mofa.gov.bh/Default.aspx?tabid=134) said the boat left daily from there at 10am.

The guard at the Jetty told me to go to Durrat Al Bahrain instead (quite a way further south).

When I called the hotel on the islands (https://www.facebook.com/Hawarislands/), at +97317641666 the lady told me that for day trips the only option is to go on Friday at 8am and return at 3pm.

Otherwise you must stay overnight and leave at 2pm and return at 3pm the next day.

She said the only other way is if you have your own boat; there seem to be companies offering tours there but information is a bit skimpy there too so YMMV.

Point of Information: Museo de la Coca y Costumbres, Puno

Contrary to the third party information online (as of the time of this blog post), the Museo de la Coca y Costumbres (Coca and Costumes Museum) in Puno, Peru is no longer located at Deza St. 301, but at Ilave St. 581 (behind the cathedral).

This comes from personal experience retracing my steps halfway across central Puno.

Grr.

(Museo de la Coca. Coca Museum. Museo de Costumbres. Costums Museum. Museo de la Coca y Costumbres. Coca and Costumes Museum.)

Why New Zealand Sucks

Friend who was there:

"Where to start? The towns and cities are fucking hideous, people are generally rude, ecerything is totaly makeshit, a total cultural wasteland, everything is super expensive, the entire urban environment is built around cars. The scenery is why people come here. It is 90% shit, 10% breathtaking. The 'Southern Alps' are amazing, and so are the fiords. But I can see the original Alps for less money, and go to Norway for Fjords. Finally, the car was broken into.

I met so many other travellers who are doing the South Island loop who all really want to love NZ, but after some honesty talks have often admitted it's failed to meet their expectation.

Basically it's a shit country."

How to Avoid Getting Swindled by Taxi Drivers in the Third World

Flagged a taxi on the street. "150 baht to MBK"... - Sylvia Giacinta A:

"Flagged a taxi on the street.
"150 baht to MBK"
"Can you use meter, please?" I pleaded.
"No, I don't use meter"
"Kthxbai" I said as I jumped out of taxi.
Called an Uber.
Reached MBK in 16 mins without breaking a sweat.
Invoice: 70 Baht, already including 1.4x surge price."

India: Land of Scams?

From a New Delhi hotel:

"Scams & Schemes in India upon arrival
Verified video by Ministry of Tourism Govt. of India"



"India: Scams & Schemes

Dishonest Taxi Drivers at the Airport - Taxi driver from airport try to misguide you in many ways providing wrong information about your hotel. His plan is to direct you into a fake tourist office as he gets good commission for this job. Don't trust him. Arrange from the hotel to send you a taxi is good idea.

New Delhi Train Station Scam - If you have booked a ticket, you reach the station and someone approaches you to tell you the train has been cancelled, its a scam to get you to book a car at high prices. Don't fall for it.

Tourist Office Scam : Private tourist offices will often try to arrange the whole trip for you. Be aware. Better not to believe all the proposals they make. Sometimes they tell you trains are full booked so they can arrange private taxi for you. Also check the prices of trains, buses, hotels,... before you deal wit a tourist agency.

Train booking scam : When you ask for the booking office in the train station people send you to a private tourist office to sell you more expensive train-tickets or even tell you the trains are full booked and you need to book a private taxi to your destination. Don't believe that."


Delhi scams | About Delhi | Rough Guides

"Delhi can be a headache for the first-time visitor because of scams to entrap the unwary – even down to dumping dung onto visitors’ shoes and, then charging them to clean it off. The most common wheeze, though, is for taxi drivers or touts to convince you that the hotel you’ve chosen is full, closed or has just burned to the ground so as to take you to one that pays them commission. They may even pretend to phone your hotel to check, or will take you to a travel agent (often claiming to be a “tourist office”) who will do it, dialling for you (a different number); the “receptionist” on the line will corroborate the story, or deny all knowledge of your reservation. The driver or tout will then take you to a “very good hotel” – usually in Karol Bagh – where you’ll be charged well over the odds for a night’s accommodation. To reduce the risk of being caught out, write down your taxi’s registration number (make sure the driver sees you doing it), and insist on going to your hotel with no stops en route. Heading for Paharganj, your driver may try to take you to a hotel of his choice rather than yours. To avoid this, you could ask to be dropped at New Delhi railway station and walk from there. You may even encounter fake “doormen” outside hotels who’ll tell you the place is full; check at reception first, and even if the claim is true, never follow the tout to anywhere he recommends. These problems can be avoided by reserving in advance; many hotels will arrange for a car and driver to meet you at your point of arrival.

New Delhi railway station is the worst place for touts; assume that anyone who approaches you here – even in uniform – with offers of help, or to direct you to the foreigners’ booking hall, is up to no good. Most are trying to lure travellers to the fake “official” tourist offices opposite the Paharganj entrance, where you’ll end up paying way over the odds, often for unconfirmed tickets. And don’t believe stories that the foreigners’ booking hall has closed.

On Connaught Place and along Janpath, steer clear of phoney “tourist information offices” (which touts may try to divert you to – a typical CP tout chat-up line is to inform you which block you are on, so be suspicious of anyone who comes up and tells you that unasked), and never do business with any travel agency that tries to disguise itself as a tourist information office.

Finally, be aware that taxi, auto and rental-car drivers get a hefty commission for taking you to certain shops, which will be added to your bill should you buy anything. You can assume that auto-wallahs who accost you on the street do so with the intention of overcharging you, or of taking you to shops which pay them commission rather than straight to where you want to go. Always hail a taxi or auto-rickshaw yourself, rather than taking one whose driver approaches you, and don’t let them take you to places where you haven’t asked to go.

"

On being Swindled in Burma

Pris Yeo - It's easy to lose yourself in Bagan, along dusty roads...

"It's easy to lose yourself in Bagan, along dusty roads where thousands of pagodas along the huge river stretch as far as the eye can conceive. There's practically no Internet, no connection with the outside world, no politics and no one who seems to care or know what's going on beyond the bubble of the city. Slowly though, you begin to realize how artificial it all is, that every outwardly friendly person only wants something from you, as tourist dollars feeds the beast.

You're ever the outsider, so they stiff you on prices, or give you inferior products, and send the children begging you to buy their goods so they can go to school. Everyone attempts to speak the same few words in French after finding out where you come from, with identical accents, only to badger you to buy a painting or souvenir. Canned answers and speeches attempt to garner your trust and sympathy, only so you pay exorbitant amounts for what amounts to garbage, or end up overcharged after the fact, insisting that they offered you more than what was originally agreed. You are offered the history of the place, only to be guilt-tripped into buying afterward. People pretending to wipe the same spot over and over, just so they can ask for a cleaning donation as you pass. Shameless, shameless pandering, and ever a sense of falseness. In the land full of dusty sand and ancient stupas, garbage covers the streets and fields, plastic and styrofoam are indiscriminately thrown out of windows and blown along the streets. Unsustainable tourism at its worst, and I can't imagine how it'll turn out in 5 years with no intervention.

My iPhone was stolen in a moment of distraction, and the greatest annoyance are the lost photos and inability to communicate with friends. Then I tore my ligament again, coming over a particular bumpy road where the bike heaved and threw me off in protest. A few new scars to show, and no longer guided but the trusty google maps or a clock, we lost sense of time and place. We meandered away from the tourist populated areas, to quiet pagodas, some left to mounds of dust and it's own ruin.

The sunrises and sunsets were amazing, and perhaps the saving grace was a night spent on top of an unguarded pagoda, the Milky Way slowly blinking into view as we made new friends and drank and smoked and laughed about all kinds of weird adventures along the way. Our guesthouse was another bright spot, manned by the most lovely genuine ladies that we'd met, so different from all the artificial smiles and manufactured sad faces.

Naturally, the night we leave was the one where the sky decided to paint a show, and we had to miss it to catch our transport. Perhaps we should have miss edit anyway. The bus ride back to Yangon was a new kind of horrifying, ear splitting pop-techno songs played at full volume, only interspersed by screeching soap dramas. The road was so bumpy, three locals even sicked up, one unfortunately just right next to us. All I felt when the plane left and touched down in Bangkok is relief.

Myanmar, I'm glad to be out in one piece, but if I ever see you again, it'll probably be too soon."

Don't date a girl who travels

Friend on 21 Reasons Hong Kong Is The Only Place To Live:

"Read on at your own peril....Disgusting horse-shit spewing out of the mouth of what appears to be yet another privileged white girl. Ughh......I hate these privileged wander-fuckers. Anyone with a quarter of a brain would realise that Hong Kong is a pretty fucking miserable place to live for anyone who's not on an expat-package or in the top 5 percent income level.

Okay I'm about to go off on a tangent for this rant.

Traveling to new places in the world is an incredible experience, and I enjoy it very much myself. Most people enjoy it - that's the reason why it's one of the most popular interests amongst young people today. And it's seen a much higher take-up rate for our generation because we have unparalleled access to leisure/pleasure travel. 70 years ago when a 20 yo man goes overseas it might be Normandy and it could very well be his last trip overseas.

That said, our generation's preoccupation with travel has led to a slew of upper-class kids developing severe cases of wander-fucker syndrome. This is a lethal combination of demographics and upbringing - young people who are affluent enough to visit a large number of countries without feeling the financial ramifications and who retain the inability to relate to the concept of "struggling for a living". The key component to put this all together is smugness. A wander-fucker inadvertently has an overwhelming sense of smugness about how well-traveled he/she is, and will let you know it. This is often doubly patronising as the wander-fucker will usually be talking down to someone far less privileged than themselves, and the disparity in travel experience is simply a result of the inequality in starting resources available to the two individuals.

Here's the typical narrative from what I have termed "the privileged wander-fucker". Ooooh look at this quaint little third world country, filled with all these impoverished creatures, how exotic and interesting. Wow, look at how simple life is here, with their lack of proper healthcare or clean water supply. This place is so beautiful and serene, I can't understand why these people are so poor and struggling to survive. *exaggeration included

A few months ago I met this girl who epitomised what I've been writing about with regards to "wander-fucker syndrome". She said, "I hope you won't be intimidated by how well-traveled I am". I kept waiting for her to break out into laughter but to my horror, she was dead serious. And then she started talking derisively about how people who have traveled little are myopic and limited in their thinking, too afraid to step out of their comfort zones etc, before going on about how the many different stamps on her passport accorded her a distinct sense of moral and intellectual superiority over her less-traveled peers. Don't date a girl who travels =p...

Btw the girl was Singaporean Chinese. Context seemed to imply she was not targeting Americans."

50 tips for Backpackers travelling to China

"The four most overrated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics" - Christopher Hitchens

***

From EDMW:

"1.不要接近峨眉山的和尚。（烧香就是烧钱）
2.不要接近崂山的道士。（要求捐的香火钱数目不小）
3.不要买九寨沟的牦牛肉。（牛肉卖出天价，好多是马肉）
4.不要买三峡船上的玉器珠宝。（因为买过后多不知为何种材质）
5.不要在西双版纳参加“抢亲”游戏。（洞房就是“陷阱”）
6.不要在西安的古玩一条街购买古物。（多以假乱真）
7.不要在大理购买所谓“老乡”的便宜珠宝。（假货居多）
8.不要在阳朔的酒吧里消费。（结账时会发现价格高得惊人）
9.不要招惹泰山景区的当地人。（山上山下好汉多）
10.不要参观少林寺时走“捷径”
11.不要逛十三陵“***”玉石店。（品质参差不齐）
12.不要单独去海南旅游
13.不要在坝上草原骑马。（骑马容易下马难）
14.不要在吐鲁番买葡萄。（贵得离谱）
15.不要在深圳中英街购买任何物品。（多山寨）
16.不要参加北京当地的长城一日游。（很多都是只到水关，而非八达岭）
17.不要在张家界住便宜小旅店。（安全得不到保障）
18.不要在井冈山为“老区建设”捐款。（骗局，流进个人腰包）
19.不要在杭州的娱乐场所消费。（结账账单会让你目瞪口呆）
20.不要在苏州的茶楼喝茶。（茶昂贵、糕点无味）
21.不要在丰都鬼城照“免费”像。（天下没有白吃的午餐）
22.不要在北海乘坐摩托艇。（摩托艇宰客纠纷多）
23.不要在北戴河吃海鲜。（活的海鲜多被偷梁换柱）
24.不要在三亚海边接近小商贩。（强买强卖）
25.不要随导游在呼伦贝尔草原上吃烤全羊。（要价高）
26.不要在庐山乘个体出租车上山。（若有价格纠纷没保障）
27.不要在黄山市黟县宏村的路上坐出租车。（不跳表）
28.不要去黄山让人“免费带路” 。（会极力鼓动你参加旅行团或推荐你住宾馆）
29.不要在千岛湖码头的排挡吃鱼。（味道确很一般）
30.不要参观乐山大佛景区周边的付费景点。（乐山大佛老远就看得见，没必要花冤枉钱）
31.不要在郑州黄河游览区骑马。
32.不要到恒山算命
33.不要随旅游团环游青海湖
34.不要买神农架的土特产
35.不要在敦煌的夜市吃地摊饭
36.不要在花果山的海鲜一条街吃饭
37.不要随导游逛清明上河图
38.不要在南京做“免费美容”(先做一半，另一半要钱)
39.不要在上海滩让人给你照数码像
40.不要买“便宜票”看黄果树大瀑布
41.不要随导游在香港买名表和珠宝
42.不要投大钱在澳门赌博(有去无回，血本无归)
43.不要在威海韩国城购买没经狠杀价的商品
44.不要在丽江洗桑拿浴
45.不要到五台山的五爷庙烧香
46.不要在平遥摸“鱼洗”
47.不要在武夷山景区买茶叶
48.不要在白洋淀景区买鸭蛋
49.不要在乌镇让道士“免费看相”（多以消灾为幌子）
50.不要去太阳岛坐“热心人”介绍的船 （付两倍的船钱也看不到岛）

Its been 12yrs since i first take my backpack and travel to China alone.."

Turns out this list is all over China forums (About 55,100 Google results)


Someone: Summarised into 1 rule

1。不要去中国

Translation: "Don't go to China"


The thread is full of people complaining about China and complaining everyone is trying to rip you off.

So it's not just me!


Attempted translation from Yours Truly:

"1.Don't approach monks from Mt Emei (burning incense is burning money)
2. Do not approach taxis from Laoshan (in Qingdao, Shandong) (the incense money asked in donations is a lot)
3. Do not buy Jiuzhaigou Yak Meat (Beef that's sold for a heavenly life, much of it horse meat)
4. Do not buy jade treasures onboard the Three Gorges Cruise (because after the purchase you don't know what material they're made of)
5. Do not, at Xishuangbanna (in Yunnan), take part in the "chasing kin" game (the bridal is a "trap")
6. Do not, at Xi'an's Guan street, buy antiques (lots of fakes are mixed with the real goods)
7. Do not, at Dali's wholesale centre, buy supposed "old hometown" baubles (they're mostly fakes)
8. Do not, at Yangshuo's bars, waste your money (when you pay the bill you will find that the bill is shocking)
9. Do not provoke the natives of the Taishan area (there are many people on and at the foot of the mountain)
10. Do not look at Shaolin Monastery's "shortcuts"
11. Do not visit the 13 Ming Tombs' "***" jade shop (goods are of uneven quality)
12. Do not go to Hainan Island alone for a holiday
13. Do not ride horses on the steppes (it's easy to mount the horse but hard to dismount)
14. Do not, at Turpan (in Xinjiang), buy grapes (the prices are out of this world)
15. Do not, in Shenzhen's English Street, buy anything (they're mostly Shanzhai pirated knockoff products)
16. Do not go on daytrips to the Great Wall in Beijing (many only go to Shuiguan and not Badaling)
17. Do not, at Zhangjiajie (Hunan), stay in cheap hotels (they are not safe)
18. Do not, at the Jinggang mountains (Jiangxi/Hunan), give to "old quarter restoration" funds (it's a scam and it just enriches them)
19. Do not, at Hangzhou's recreation centre, waste money (the bill will stupefy you)
20. Do not, at Suzhou's tea houses, drink tea (it's expensive and the cakes are tasteless)
21. Do not, at Fengdu Ghost City, take a "free" picture (there's no such thing as a free lunch)
22. Do not, in the Southern Sea, take motorised boats (there are lots of [fee] disputes)
23. Do not, at Beidaihe (Qinhuangdao, Hebei), eat seafood (the live seafood is switched [?])
24. Do not, at Sanya (Hainan), approach peddlers (they were force you to buy their wares)
25. Do not, on guided tours to the Hulun Buir Grassland (Mongolia) eat a whole roast goat (it's expensive)
26. Do not, at Lushan (Jiangxi), get your own taxi to go up the mountain (those with price disputes don't have assurance [?])
27. Do not, on the roads of Huangshan City (Anhui), get on a taxi (they don't skip the list [?])
28. Do not, on Huangshan, let people "guide you for free" (they will strongly encourage to join a tour group or push a guesthouse on you)
29. Do not, along Qiandao Lake's (Hangzhou) jetties, eat fish from a stall (the taste is pedestrian)
30. Do not go see, around Leshan Giant Buddha (Sichuan), the paid attractions (Leshan's Giant Buddha can be seen from afar, don't waste money)
31. Do not, at Zhengzhou's (Henan) Yellow River Resort, ride horses.
32. Don't go to Hengshan for fortune telling
33. Don't follow a tour to Qinghai Lake (Qinghai)
34. Don't buy Shennongjia's (Hubei) local specialities
35. Do not, at Dunhuang's (Gansu) night market, eat 地摊饭 (Ditanfan - a type of rice)
36. Do not eat at Huaguoshan's (Jiangsu) seafood street
37. Do not follow a guide to see Along the River During the Qingming Festival
38. Do not, in Nanjing, go for a "free beauty treatment" (they do the first half for free then ask for money for the second half)
39. Do not, on the Bund in Shanghai, let people take your photos digitally
40. Do not buy "cheap tickets" to see Huangguoshu Waterfall
41. Do not follow a guide in Hong Kong to buy branded watches and treasures
42. Do not spend large sums of money in Macao's casinos (once you go you're done for)
43. Do not, in Weihai's Little Korea, buy anything without ruthless bargaining
44. Do not, at Lijiang (Yunnan), go to a sauna
45. Do not, at Wutaishan, burn incense at Wu Ye temple
46. Do not, in Ping Yao, touch the "fish washing" (Ed: I tried to find out what this was: most of the most relevant Google Images were of young girls. After that it was mostly pictures of fish)
47. Do not, at Wuyishan (Fujian), buy tea leaves
48. Do not, at Baiyangdian (Hebei), buy duck eggs
49. Do not, at Wuzhen (Zhejiang) let the Taoist priest "tell your fortune for free" (they will try and ward off evil luck [for money])
50. Do not, at Taiyangdao (Heilongjiang), let "friendly people" introduce boats to you (you will pay twice as much and not see the island)"

UNESCO World Heritage Site Tally October 2012

"Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary." - Robert Louis Stevenson

***

World Heritage List

Australia: Great Barrier Reef; Tasmanian Wilderness; Sydney Opera House; Kakadu National Park; Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park; Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens
Austria: Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg; Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn; Historic Centre of Vienna
Belgium: Flemish Béguinages; La Grand-Place, Brussels; Belfries of Belgium and France; Historic Centre of Brugge; Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta (Brussels)
Cambodia: Angkor
China: Classical Gardens of Suzhou; Historic Centre of Macao; Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang; Mount Taishan; Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian; The Great Wall; Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu; Ancient City of Ping Yao; Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing; Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial Altar in Beijing; Yungang Grottoes; West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou
Czech Republic: Historic Centre of Prague
Estonia: Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn; Struve Geodetic Arc
France: Palace and Park of Versailles; Pont du Gard (Roman Aqueduct); Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Former Abbey of Saint-Remi and Palace of Tau, Reims; Paris, Banks of the Seine; Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble and Avignon Bridge; Chartres Cathedral; Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay; Palace and Park of Fontainebleau; Bourges Cathedral; The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes; Provins, Town of Medieval Fairs; Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France; Strasbourg – Grande île; Historic Site of Lyons; Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments; Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the "Triumphal Arch" of Orange; Canal du Midi; Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne; Episcopal City of Albi
Germany: Aachen Cathedral; Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin
Greece: Acropolis, Athens; Archaeological Site of Delphi; Meteora; Archaeological Site of Olympia; Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns
Holy See: Vatican City
Indonesia: Borobudur Temple Compounds; Prambanan Temple Compounds; Sangiran Early Man Site
Italy: Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie with "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci; Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le Mura; Historic Centre of Florence; Venice and its Lagoon; Historic Centre of Naples; Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna; Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata; Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto)
Japan: Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area; Himeji-jo; Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities); Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome); Itsukushima Shinto Shrine; Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara; Shrines and Temples of Nikko; Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range
Latvia: Historic Centre of Riga
Lithuania: Vilnius Historic Centre; Curonian Spit; Kernavė Archaeological Site (Cultural Reserve of Kernavė)
Luxembourg: City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and Fortifications
Malaysia: Kinabalu Park; Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca
Netherlands: Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout; Rietveld Schröderhuis (Rietveld Schröder House); Seventeenth-century canal ring area inside the Singelgracht, Amsterdam
Spain: Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain; Las Médulas; Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of the Asturias; Mudejar Architecture of Aragon; Roman Walls of Lugo; Route of Santiago de Compostela; Santiago de Compostela (Old Town); Tower of Hercules; Vizcaya Bridge
Thailand: Historic City of Ayutthaya
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd; Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites; Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey; City of Bath; Frontiers of the Roman Empire; Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church; Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey, and St Martin's Church; Tower of London; Maritime Greenwich; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Durham Castle and Cathedral; Old and New Towns of Edinburgh; New Lanark
United States of America: Grand Canyon National Park; Independence Hall; Statue of Liberty; Yosemite National Park
Viet Nam: Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long - Hanoi; Ha Long Bay

Total: 115
Current number of sites: 962


Originally I was going to post this after finishing my travelogues, but it seems I add new ones faster than I can talk about them - it seems the last time I did an update like this was in March 2009

It seems in 3 1/2 years I've added almost 50 sites (a few due to the listing of previously-visited places).

Hrvatska

Observations - 12th September 2011

"An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field." - Niels Bohr

***

Formspring question: Is science compatible with religion?
Me: Their compatibility is like deep-fried ice cream - you need elaborate manoeuvres, it doesn't last very long on its own and the taste is questionable.

Wondering if taking pics of ugly people and telling them it's for a blog featuring pretty people would work

If you complain government sites are stuck at IE6, don't complain when they spend taxpayer money upgrading them.

"i wish i put in more effort as a student :(... i took grades too seriously and missed out on a lot of learning in the process"

"Why is that the law cant care less when a man is beaten up silly ("Non-seizable offence"?) but unleashes it's full wrath when a man pinches the buttock of a woman?"

It seems everyone who takes time off to travel the world spends most of their time in developing countries - because otherwise they wouldn't be able to afford it

“Lenin wrote: ‘We will support Henderson as a rope supports a man who is hanged.’ It is curious how Communists used outrageous phrases publicly and were indignant when these phrases were turned against them.” (English History 1914-1945) --- A.J.P. Taylor

When someone answers "How are you?" with "Not bad", "Not bad" means bad .

Apparently using the word "lame" (as in "that's so lame") now constitutes ableism. That's dumb.


If you fly AirAsia, you must now pay a S$5 fee if you check in at the airport counter. AirAsia is becoming like Ryanair.

I am told that Malaysians are like Singaporeans in looking to government for the solution, i.e. "the government should..."


"NE has had strange effects on students. most of them will say that it is propaganda and resist it, yet they seem to have internalized the lessons in social studies--in short, adopting national values does not lead to being nationalistic. the other day some students were saying that welfare is a bad idea, because of the way the UK's system is failing and that we shouldn't help the poor because they're lazy (the UK example was from the SS syllabus). but when i asked them if they knew about countries where welfare is more viable or how it could be implemented more discriminately they hadn't thought about it."


"Today, my friend and I gave our numbers to some guys at a bar. Twenty minutes after we had left, we got a call. We excitedly answered the phone, only to hear the guy ask, "So are you the fat one or the ugly one?" FML"

RT @edchng: "don't let your writing be so obfuscating and claim your impenetrability is your point"

"I was happy to doubt everything. Until the death of my friend forced me to acknowledge the reality of life"

RT @Fake_PMLee Let me remind the Tans, that no matter what you say, the Lees are in charge. #SGPresident

RT @chewlink: I'm not sure what it says about our politics that it now becomes necessary to overtly say "Singaporeans first"



RT @PrettyAndieRock: Les filles intelligentes ouvrent leurs esprits, les filles faciles ouvrent leurs jambes et les filles naïves ouvrent leurs coeurs.

RT @lactualaloupe: Hommes : ne soyez jamais faibles, émus, fainéants, effrayé ou découragé. c’est pas viril.

RT @Isaamia: Avoir un orgasme, c'est comme laver ma voiture, je peux le faire moi même, mais c'est tellement plus agréable qd un homme le fait pour moi..

Conversations - 3rd January 2011

"He's simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed." - Saki

***

Someone: i feel dirty. i mock the SPGs
and yet I dig caucasian women too
hahaha

Me: no
going for ang mohs is not the only defining characteristic of SPGs

SPGs:
1) only go for ang mohs
2) project a false accent (and image) in order to do that
3) despise locals
4) fling themselves at ang mohs

Someone: i fulfil 2 of those criteria.

i fling myself at angmohs
and i despise locals.
heh

Me: but you still do them
because there're no ang moh wome naround?

Someone: yeah
sad.
hahaha

they're less frigid. less dramatic
less neurotic

BUT. they expect to be seen as equals because they treat you as one.

they're not like sg women
all talk

these women, they will gladly foot the bill, won't ask u to go
shopping with them, and they generally are less... neurotic


Frigid Girl: cervical cancer is caused by sex?
then why do people still have sex?

okay stupid question
i need to sleep now


Someone: arrrgh i shld have just shut up n travelled alone
i mean for *** trip

e other guy a lot of pattern

Me: see why I like to travel alone =D
you travelled with girls before?

Someone: ya
girls r ok

just allocate 2 hrs of bathing time to em
n a bit more time on shopping


Frigid Girl: my christmas was great till you showed up

Me: it's ok
it's already boxing day


MFTTW: anyway i'm starting to resent my iphone

wah lau the keyboard drives me nuts
i think i need a keyboard with buttons

i like touch screen but not for typing

it's not the responsiveness
it's my fat fingers

typing is really hard for me
texting
i never get spacebar when i need it
and it's not smart at all about guessing which letters you want

and the fake multitasking
i need a alt+tab feature

it's retarded to keep having to go back to homescreen to switch b/w apps
esp since when you try to do it too fast, it'll lag majorly or sometimes crash

i've crashed my phone more times in the last 2 months than i have my 5 year old ibm thinkpad running windows 7 that i never shut down

Me: yah that's why I'm reluctant to get touchscreen

iphone suckslah
got no multitasking

I told you in june liao :P

MFTTW: yes but the other smartphone options are no good either
so it's just better to get the one wiht more apps

anyway *** has a samsung running droid
and she says that it sucks battery faster than iphone
but the typing interface is smarter


Someone: tell me something, what should I do if I want to meet more pple like you in Singapore?

Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I also want to know


Someone on Macau: well it's like a waste of time to go there
I only went because it's one of those places I haven't been to

spent 2.5 days there

Me: there're many places I've never been to that I don't want to go to
like most of malaysia


TC on KL Zouk vs Singapore Zouk: it was fun
pple are not so sleazy and/or desperate and they are generally nicer/frendlier

My calibrated scale of tourism destinations

Tim the Great asked me how Macau was (I have finally downloaded the pictures and have started deleting duplicates and renaming them), so I presented a calibrated scale of tourism destinations:

jakarta - 1
god forsaken village at the top of a hill in crete - 2 [Ed: Ethia]
malaysia - 3
hong kong - 4
macau - 5
vilnius - 6
talinn - 7
amsterdam - 8
rome - 9
japan - 10

"Voir mille objets pour la première et pour la dernière fois, quoi de plus mélancolique et de plus profond! Voyager, c'est naître et mourir à chaque instant"