The Travels of Päivi and Santeri

Critical eye on tourism: why travel literature encourage marketing talk and critique is falsely perceived negative? Tourists returning home from their travels are often reciting familiar, positive mantras which can also be read from any tourist guide book or travel agency’s brochure: the weather was great, beaches brilliant, people friendly and smiling all the time, all the sights bigger and better than anywhere else in the world, and the night life buzzing around the clock. Critique does not have a part in this gospel despite the difficulties encountered. This raises an interesting question: Why is criticism silenced? Let us examine two fundamental factors for this behaviour: 1) travel literature and travel-related discussion forums which encourage marketing, and 2) the common misconception according to which critique is negative.

The absolute highlight of our travels in South-East Asia has been meeting our friends. First Martijn and Uswa came to see us in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and now Bill and Betty in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Bill and Betty wanted to see the famous temple area of Angkor so we joined the caravan and headed to Siem Reap. The bus ride was slow even though the roads were pretty good. The 225-kilometre-ride took seven hours.

La Habanera - The escape of the rat race in Hebrew. Free ebook. לה הבנרה

A photo blog: Rikshas and frog legs in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The capital is an interesting mix of the colonial heritage and Asian culture. Our friends, Betty & Bill came from Vietnam to see us, and we will travel with them for a while. We visited a popular square in front of the Royal Palace. Cambodia has still a king, although his position is controversial because he supported Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. During the reign of Pol Pot over million Cambodians were terminated in the process of creating a Marxist agricultural utopia.

We have been told a few times in travel-related Internet discussion forums that when we travel outside Finland, we are guests. Therefore we must refrain from expressing any opinions on that country or its people unless our view is positive. Criticism and especially trying to right wrongs is not seen as acceptable behaviour of a guest. Are we guests or tourists? Let us consider a bit more deeply the concept of ‘guest’. Traditionally it refers to a person who is invited to a country or a home by a host. How many people have actually been invited to visit a country? Certainly diplomats, visiting governors of other nations, some sportsmen and other celebrities. But what about regular tourists on their holiday?

We have been asked quite often what do we do or how we spend our time. Usually we have answered “nothing”, which probably describes it best but does not satisfy curiosity at all. When there has been too many such questions, we get tired and answer that we are all the time so bored because there is nothing to do. But to tell you the truth, here is how we spent one day before Christmas. Today Santeri woke up early in the morning and Päivi slept until noon. She had a bad cough a couple of days earlier which prevented her from sleeping. Now she was able to take it all back. Sleeping is a luxury. We are staying with Santeri’s former babysitter and her family: husband and four already grown-up kids and two dogs. Our hostess had cooked lovely porridge for the breakfast taking us to a trip down the memory lane to our childhood days.

After travelling over two years here is a list of our favourite countries so far. We have been constantly asked for recommendations and if there are any places where we will return to. Well, there are over 30, but the top three are clearly above all the rest: Bolivia, Brazil, and Romania (in the alphabetical order).

Thailand visa-run system humiliates foreigners and favours sex tourists making long-stay in Thailand unpleasantly bureaucratic and erratic. Yesterday we travelled to Myanmar, which is another neighbouring military dictatorship. Our motivation was to try out the so called visa-run. We wanted to test and document it so that you don’t have to do it unless you really want to. All foreigners staying in Thailand are forced to travel every 1-3 months to the border, exit the country, and return with a new stamp in their passport. Immigration rules enforce this procedure, and the penalty of failing to do so is 500 baht/day (~ 11 €). Those who travel to Thailand for work, retirement, or for renting a wife are granted a 3-month stay between the visa-runs. Ordinary long-stay tourists usually have to do the trip every month. The Argentinian visa system gives an example of another extreme. There you can overstay as long as you wish. When you leave the country you just have to pay a US 15$ fine...

Recent lack of freedom in Thailand have been business as usual in Singapore for years. Both countries are dictatorships. [Suomeksi] We visited Singapore for a few days trying to sort out Thailand visa mess. The 30-day permission to stay had to be changed to a visa that could then—possibly—be somehow extended. Not too complicated, fortunately. And the obvious motivation behind this seems to be ripping off tourists.

Before entering Thailand we knew that the King is extremely respected and revered in Thailand. And that it is illegal to insult him or the monarchy in general. This raised some contradictory thoughts in us and sounded quite pre-historic, very far away from the anarchy we support or from the republic states that we were used to. When we entered Thailand there was a film shown on the flight before landing. In the film an older couple was walking around in fancy clothes and distributing presents to peasants. There were also some pictures of the couple when they were younger, and the old man took pictures of the people that worshipped him. Funny thing, we thought and continued sleeping.