People, or doing myself no favours with St Peter.
One of the interesting aspects of this job is that you meet a lot of other backpackers. And, unfortunately, don't get to make fun of them much. So here is a small rant about a few things i keep seeing in the backpackers.
1) Tattoos.
I recently met a man who had the tattoo 'Jim Morrison 1943 - 1971'. Fair enough, you like Jim Morrison, and want to have the dates of his birth & death available at all times. (handy for table quizzes, I'd imagine) But he had it written in Thai. Which he couldn't read, rendering it useless for all but the most multicultural table quizzes.
Anyway, my point here is: Why do people get tattoos in languages they can't speak? Is your 'Harmony' tattoo more harmonic because it's in chinese? And are you deeper or shallower because your sanscrit tattoo suggests inner peace. (by the way, you're off your nut on drugs, desperately trying to sleep with anyone you can find in a hotel across the world from home, I think you may have left the inner peace somewhere along the way.)
ahem.
2) Bondi
There's a suburb of Sydney called Bondi. (there's also a nightclub in Dublin called 'Bondi Beach') Apparently it's very nice. How do i know this? There's a breed of irish backpacker who at some early point in every conversation, will scream something along the lines of:
'Oh Bondi's brilliant, lad! It's only amazing! I'm earning forty-seven grand a day as a labourer, and drinking it all away at night! Fooking irish everyhwere, all standing on tables singing! best year of your life lad! Going mental! I'm trying to get sponsored, want to live in Bondi! I Fooking love it!'
That's great. I haven't been there. I can't wait.
3) Thailand
I think i missed out. We spent the guts of six weeks there. I think we did a lot, really tried to experience it to the fullest, but I can't help come away from most thailand conversations with two thoughts. The first is 'Wow, you found so much there, really had a deeply spiritual experience' The second is 'Spa'.
Seriously, shut up about thailand. It's a holiday destination, It's full of people with bad tattoos and worse opinions, and no grasp whatsoever on irony. (maybe that's it, i'm using irony as an excuse, being afraid to open myself up to new spiritual experiences...yeah. that's the one.) oh thailand, i must return to your cd salesmen, buckets of vodka and full moon parties and have the 'kicking time, but still, like, all spiritual and stuff' experience I missed out on.)
The burst of misanthropy in this post was brought to you by the recent arrival of 12 new backpackers into our previously nearly deserted hotel, and the subsequent loss of any sort of quiet we once had.
1) Tattoos.
I recently met a man who had the tattoo 'Jim Morrison 1943 - 1971'. Fair enough, you like Jim Morrison, and want to have the dates of his birth & death available at all times. (handy for table quizzes, I'd imagine) But he had it written in Thai. Which he couldn't read, rendering it useless for all but the most multicultural table quizzes.
Anyway, my point here is: Why do people get tattoos in languages they can't speak? Is your 'Harmony' tattoo more harmonic because it's in chinese? And are you deeper or shallower because your sanscrit tattoo suggests inner peace. (by the way, you're off your nut on drugs, desperately trying to sleep with anyone you can find in a hotel across the world from home, I think you may have left the inner peace somewhere along the way.)
ahem.
2) Bondi
There's a suburb of Sydney called Bondi. (there's also a nightclub in Dublin called 'Bondi Beach') Apparently it's very nice. How do i know this? There's a breed of irish backpacker who at some early point in every conversation, will scream something along the lines of:
'Oh Bondi's brilliant, lad! It's only amazing! I'm earning forty-seven grand a day as a labourer, and drinking it all away at night! Fooking irish everyhwere, all standing on tables singing! best year of your life lad! Going mental! I'm trying to get sponsored, want to live in Bondi! I Fooking love it!'
That's great. I haven't been there. I can't wait.
3) Thailand
I think i missed out. We spent the guts of six weeks there. I think we did a lot, really tried to experience it to the fullest, but I can't help come away from most thailand conversations with two thoughts. The first is 'Wow, you found so much there, really had a deeply spiritual experience' The second is 'Spa'.
Seriously, shut up about thailand. It's a holiday destination, It's full of people with bad tattoos and worse opinions, and no grasp whatsoever on irony. (maybe that's it, i'm using irony as an excuse, being afraid to open myself up to new spiritual experiences...yeah. that's the one.) oh thailand, i must return to your cd salesmen, buckets of vodka and full moon parties and have the 'kicking time, but still, like, all spiritual and stuff' experience I missed out on.)
The burst of misanthropy in this post was brought to you by the recent arrival of 12 new backpackers into our previously nearly deserted hotel, and the subsequent loss of any sort of quiet we once had.
posted by Andy at 4:07 AM
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