Ode to the motorcycle, and a little bit of ... happiness

[Henrik_imp]

I don't really understand this:

"...how it more resembles traveling down memory lane than anything else".

I love to travel the world, and it is probably my most important passion, but I do it specifically to discover things, not to relive them. Sure, some of my travels may be to revisit places I lived in or visited in my youth, but primarily it is all about discovering something new. I avoid popular tourist attractions as if they were infested with Covid, and try to find the real culture of the places I visit. My biggest thrill is meeting and getting to know a little bit new people that are locals, and I love discovering what I can about local culinary specialties.

Mass tourism annoys me to no end, and I find it so destructive. Many places in Thailand have already become McDonalds. I hate it when I encounter tourists in some far away place, and all they want is to find a place where they can get a burger or a wiener schnitzel or maybe a steak and kidney pie.

The non-travel situation since Covid is driving me crazy. Yes, there are many beautiful places around me that I can visit on my bike, and although I do enjoy such trips which allows me to see the beauty of Switzerland, I know these places already and so this trips more than anything are trips down memory lane. The sort of travelling I did before Covid were not.

Well Henrik, it means you are the perfect tourist, everything "you think" tourism is or can offer, is exactly what isn't any more. And you're in for more, that's what this industry wants. When you think the others are contributing to mass tourism while you don't, think again. Unless you walk from home to these beautiful remaining places, you are as much part of the problem as anybody else. Infrastructure is built to get us all further and further into the rain forest, or into Antarctica, and yes, into every corner of Switzerland in order to squeeze out the better return on investment. Guess who pays for it ? In Switzerland itself you can see it. It's the Swiss you worked for 40 years in Zürich and Luzern at low to medium wages, and are successively forced out of their homes for resettlement in a cheaper corner - if there was one. The same happens in every corner of the world.

The statement about memory lane does NOT mean go to where you have been before, it means go back to where your older "I" dreams to be - a place where you are young, healthy, carefree, "discover a treasure", served by ... others you don't pay much adequately. And that IS the promise made by this industry ... for a few days at least, and at low cost.

There is no mass tourism which the savvy, well educated tourist can avoid. You're in or out.

I am not sure that I understand your answer here. Are you saying that tourism today is only and exclusively mass tourism? That if you travel somewhere, you are automatically contributing to the further development of mass tourism and the destruction of the world? If that is the case, then I do not agree with you.

I agree that air travel has become far too cheap. Does that mean I should simply not use it? If the prices came back to what they were before the arrival of the low-cost airlines it would not stop me from travelling. It would simply imply that I would need to save up for longer in order to afford a trip, like I would do in the 80's. I wish that the mass tourism industry would disappear, and I believe that there is something such as a type of tourism that can actually benefit others without any destruction of culture or well-being.

Infrastructure is not built and expanded for the sole purpose of mass tourism. Roads were being built well before the explosion of mass tourism for sure, and certainly don't need a super highway to get to where I want to go. As I mentioned, I totally avoid the places that are being exploited by mass tourism. If that implies some additional effort, then that really is part of the discovery. I just don't see how that benefits the mass tourism industry.

Finally, I don't agree either with your new clarification of the memory lane phrase. Personally my travels have never been about feeling young, healthy and care free. In fact, I actually do quite a bit to actually try and stay healthy to the extent possible, so that I am still able to travel. As to being served by others, you have no idea how that is not something I would ever seek out.