Thursday, July 7, 2006 Venting about traveling in groups

I’m pretty much over my stomach bug, so I started eating normal Indian food. I watched Margaret Cho, which was funny. I’m starting to get really homesick. That sucks…considering I won’t be home for six months. I had to plan my trip to the nearby town of Haridwar. I really want to just go alone so I can do my own thing, and that way I am forced to do everything myself and interact with locals rather than Californians. I also want to stay in cheap hotels and take the bus. But Erin wasn’t down for that because she’d get sick. And then when we were talking about traveling in general, she said, “we should travel like every weekend, everyone in our house, and whoever wants to go can go”. That is exactly what I fear. When it comes to that point I am going to make a fuss at everyone who wants to tag along or make me go with them. I despise traveling in big groups of conspicuous and often naïve, ignorant, whiny, spoiled white tourists. Even though it sounds introverted and antisocial, it’s actually the exact opposite. I don’t want to insulate myself; I can hang out with California people and be in luxury when I get back; I can’t hang out with Indians in India at home. And I am forced to fend for myself in a foreign culture, immersing myself. I can do whatever I want whenever I want. I don’t have to feel bad for not waiting up for someone, getting waited up for, or doing something I or the other party doesn’t want to do (but has to because that’s what everyone else is doing). And if I make a fool or hero of myself, it only affects me; I don’t want to burden anyone else. Plus, in a country where guests are welcomed, I feel that one traveler is not a burden to accommodate, while two creates distance and a burden to the host. One more thing; the above philosophy would be so much harder to apply in action if I were a woman. So, thanks Dad, for making me have a y-chromosome