That's been my motto so far, in life in general but particularly in traveling. If I blew through savings a little more, I could live like a bit of a king here in India. Or, I could do as some hardcore folks I've met have done, and scrape by on $4/day or arrive in India with $130 to my name.
But excess luxury, in addition to eating your money faster, makes things less Haimish. (more) (and a lot of thoughts about this; maybe I'll post more later.) And excess hardship, in addition to being difficult, feels pretentious, like slumming.
Among backpackers/young travelers, I notice a lot of scorn for excess luxury, but not much scorn, and indeed some admiration, for excess hardship. There's this idea that suffering will lead to a more rewarding experience, or a more "real" one, or something. I mean, it can, right, but it doesn't necessarily. "I sometimes wonder if it's necessary to admire such self-punishers as... the average mountaineer or Vendee Cup entrant." I am right near a lot of places I could sleep for under $5. But then if I got bedbugs because I didn't want to splurge for the $15 place that I'm currently in, I don't think it'd be rewarding or enriching. (I could be wrong. And I'm not being sarcstic.)
Here's another option: admire travelers if they're doing a very meaningful trip, not a very difficult one. I know a guy who's on a quest around the world to eventually meet this counter-cultural French filmmaker in Paris. That's cool. I know a guy who just biked from England to Nepal. That's cool too. But it's not because he suffered a lot along the way; it's because he must have really wanted to make this trip, and really enjoyed it, to deal with all that suffering along the way.
But excess luxury, in addition to eating your money faster, makes things less Haimish. (more) (and a lot of thoughts about this; maybe I'll post more later.) And excess hardship, in addition to being difficult, feels pretentious, like slumming.
Among backpackers/young travelers, I notice a lot of scorn for excess luxury, but not much scorn, and indeed some admiration, for excess hardship. There's this idea that suffering will lead to a more rewarding experience, or a more "real" one, or something. I mean, it can, right, but it doesn't necessarily. "I sometimes wonder if it's necessary to admire such self-punishers as... the average mountaineer or Vendee Cup entrant." I am right near a lot of places I could sleep for under $5. But then if I got bedbugs because I didn't want to splurge for the $15 place that I'm currently in, I don't think it'd be rewarding or enriching. (I could be wrong. And I'm not being sarcstic.)
Here's another option: admire travelers if they're doing a very meaningful trip, not a very difficult one. I know a guy who's on a quest around the world to eventually meet this counter-cultural French filmmaker in Paris. That's cool. I know a guy who just biked from England to Nepal. That's cool too. But it's not because he suffered a lot along the way; it's because he must have really wanted to make this trip, and really enjoyed it, to deal with all that suffering along the way.
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