Bubble Tourism

Warning: bit of a rant!

I hadn't done the package tour thing before, and being a cruise as well... there've been a few realisations and reinforced prejudices about mass market holidays which I'll admit to:

• it's all about getting you to spend money rather than experiencing real places and people
• usually on expensive junk, probably manufactured in early-industrial-age conditions
• it's easy to eat too much food
• Jesus could  throw thousands of voyeurs out of cathedrals and churches, any day
• despite being privileged myself I felt exploited; there were times when I wanted to break out
• caricatures of Florida retirees are fairly well deserved

Ok, there were some pleasant Western Australians on the boat, a pair of Canadians who mostly eschewed the 'excursions' and did their own thing, and an interesting couple from Alaska who were embarrassed about Sarah! You can also have quite decent conversations with caricatures when you get them on their own e.g. the Oil Man who dropped his persona somewhat to suggest his industry needed more regulation...

But I was embarrassed and perturbed by the underlying ethos and the waste. Heck, what are we doing? One architecturally lovely town, Rudesheim, appeared to be entirely devoted to The Tourist. There was an interesting museum of mechanical musical instruments which we were processed through, and another of instruments of torture, which we weren't. Otherwise: cafes, bars, and souvenir shops - at least one of which required you to pay cash unless you spent $60NZ on their bits and bobs. While there, 11 other similar cruise boats were docked = a minimum of 1700 people packing out a couple of blocks of cobbled alleys. Imagine August. Awful!

I came across a bit of a challenge while musing in the midst of it all. "Be the change you want to see  in the world" - Mahatma Ghandi.

I've a way to go...