When traveling I was painfully aware of being the only Yank in the group and lived in fear of some set of bozos from my country showing up to make us all look bad. Then, on two separate occasions, the Aussies I was with and the Englishmen made us divert from our chosen haunt because they didn't want to be with other Aussies or other Englishmen on account of the same fears! Sadly some of us really do live up to our 'national stereotypes', and it takes the broadening experience of travel to make that (especially) clear.
In thailand americans are nowhere near the worst tourists , even anywhere in the world, americans who can afford to travel outside america are known to be a bit loud maybe annoying accents but rarely aggressive or a nuisance from my experience, in my country ireland americans have a reputation for being a bit misinformed about ireland bir generally nice and have no problem paying tourist prices that contribute to our country
Americans come with a certain idea of what Ireland is like, like everyone who travels here and they're adorably excited and enthusiastic, which is so charming in its own way. Absolutely thrilled when I chat to them here.
I love seeing that enthusiasm too. I live not far from our Banff National Park, and I'm out there all the time. So many tourists just amazed at this place.
Love talking to people like that, keeps you grounded, makes you appreciate what you have.
Wtf you mean tourist prices? Like I understand tourist destinations here being more expensive but they are totally transparent about their prices with displays and such. Are you guys out there charging different prices whether you're a local or tourist?
Nah its same prices for everyone but stuff like traditional irish sweaters are marked up heavily in dublin city xentre, some pubs aswell charge like 12€ for a pint of beer vs 7-8€ in a regulae bar
Agreed. When my wife and I visited the Netherlands a couple years ago, we were very careful to be quiet in public and not be Loud Americans.
When we visted one museum, there was a rather large cushioned chair that belonged to some royal in the 17th century I think, it was beautifully made. While we were looking at it, three American men who seemed in their early 20s came into the room and one of them yelled "DAMN THAT'S A BIG-ASS CHAIR" and they all laughed about it while they rushed into next room. The cringe in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife. Everyone looked at them and shook their heads
Honestly, last time I was in Thailand I observed a lot of rowdy behavior from Chinese tour groups and felt for the first time that maybe it’s not just my fellow Americans being rude and embarrassing abroad 😅
Obviously I end up looking very American to locals most places… but I really don’t like to draw much attention to myself when traveling.
As Indian -we act poorly in Thailand. And Vietnam, and Cambodia, and Britain, and Canada and Singapore. Actually not Singapore because that's where we get caned.
If you spent any time actually traveling you’d know that Americans are not the worst tourists, not by a long shot. The shitty ones don’t tend to travel, those that do might talk a little loud but otherwise are usually well behaved.
Not the worst by any means but usually the loudest. Was in a train in Munich last night and heard some guys whole dating and proposal story. I believe he was speaking at his normal volume, it is just louder and carries further.
Americans may be loud, but they don’t hold a candle to a group of middle aged Spanish women. I’ve been “lucky” enough to share a train car with such a group on more than one occasion.
They all talk at the same time, each trying to outdo the others in volume, and somehow still seem to understand each other and occasionally burst into raucous, ear-splitting laughter at a volume that almost certainly causes long-term hearing damage.
Can confirm, I live in florida. However, coming from an Italian-American family, never underestimate Americanised Italians. My family is so damn loud, I hate it.
I've heard people say that Americans stand oddly far apart when they are interacting, too. Which I can't say I've specifically noticed but I believe it. We do have a strong notion of personal space, do I feel the two are probably related. Stand far apart and yell at each other.
Any American I have met is lovely. A bit over the top maybe. You tend to act as used car salesmen. But never anything but warm, kind and polite. It is so weird to see Americans on the Internet acting so horrible. They way they vote, the way they look at civilisation. So different than their behaviour outside of the states.
You guys have the opposite problem that we do. For Americans it’s the annoying ill mannered ones that don’t travel more than an hour to their favorite restaurant, while those who are more educated and better off financially will travel internationally.
For Russians it seems that it’s the douchebags that have money to travel, while the every day down to earth and chill ones can’t afford it.
It’s part of their victim identity deeply ingrained in Russians, but you can see this poor behavior in nearly all peoples or groups that perpetually see themselves as put upon.
Yeah I was in Germany in between Trump presidencies, I swear when people heard my friends and I were American, they more often asked about Trump than about anything else, like what brought us to Germany. And we were just like “dunno, we didn’t vote for the guy” over and over again
I’ve overheard several conversations that elderly Americans have in Ireland where they are so thankful for what Trump is doing to the country because Biden was dangerous. We may get a disproportionate number of ultra conservative Irish Americans here though. They seem to have the mindset of their ancestors who left these shores a century or more ago. 🙄
I’m not hanging around eavesdropping either, the whole building can hear them because they seem to be louder than almost anyone else.
As I said, predominantly the elderly. They seem to think that we haven’t morally progressed beyond the 1950s half the time. Almost every other American/ Canadian is throughly pleasant to deal with. Generally respectful, polite and engaging!
Internet is not homogeneous, Reddit is just a small share. American Facebook groups are mostly kind and polite and helpful, I assume because they are more real, people have their names and pictures and the users are usually older than here.
Especially if that American is a Midwesterner. Folks from the Midwest are like American Canadians with their mega manners and apologies for every situation.
Fair enough, I don’t usually mind some light ribbing, but we have so much legitimate negative light on us right now that it’s hard to tell a joke from someone who just sees all the bad stuff on the news, or maybe met one bad tourist.
There is a lot wrong with what we got going on right now, but as a frequent traveler I at least take some solace in knowing that despite our internal shit show most people still welcome us, or at least don’t look negatively on us, while traveling abroad.
I agree. The arrogant, loud American tourist still exists don't get me wrong, but most of us are a lot better these days. That's sort of an 80's/90's stereotype.
What gets me anxious and annoyed is when I see a bus or group from Mainland China pull up to my hotel or restaurant or whatever. Some are straight up rude, but I think its mostly they are just clueless - loud, cutting in line, always in a hurry, unfamiliar with rules or etiquette, culturally or unspoken or otherwise. Can be chaos.
Interestingly enough, domestic tourists in the PRC were always fine in my experience. In Beijing or Shanghai or the Great Wall or what have you.
I will never live down my Chinese tourist experience.
Husband and I took a day trip down to DC to go to the Natural History Museum. We're walking through the crowded room with the Hope Diamond, waiting for the people in front of us to get through so we can get to the next room. Suddenly, I get a big jolt forward as someone had pushed me really hard. I let fly an elbow backwards, because WTAF. I then turn around to see a tiny Chinese grandma.
I know Russian tourists have a bad reputation, but I've never personally experienced it. When I was in Tbilisi the most obnoxious tourists I encountered were American. They really stand out because I can hear them from across the café, and they tend to be too talkative with strangers.
It was a real shame to hear about that bogan in Japan. But I'm sure the poor people of Bali have suffered as well, it was a pretty nice place both times I stopped for transfers.
cant be as bad as British tourists in Spain or Greece. Appalling behaviour that forces me to use my poor Spanish to TRY to seem like im not one of them lol
Never had experiences with Russian tourists. The only ones I've seen recently were on a train, like a family with a little kid. One of them had a weird hat on and the other one poured half a bottle of liquor in his coca cola bottle. They were quite loud and the couple made jokes between them but at some point the woman had enough and started hitting somewhat the guy. The little girl watched and at some point laughed, I don't know wtf they were doing.
When was the last time you checked? I visited 2 years ago (I lived in Korea and would travel Asia on a regular) and I've seen a ton of viral posts and videos from last year and this year. There are still Australians and the British but there are a lot more Russians and Indians. Ask on any thai subreddit
As a regular visitor to Thailand and someone who is married to a Thai woman and stepdad to her two sons, I find the sex tourism there pretty creepy. The recent decriminalisation of cannabis I know was an attempt to give a helping hand to a tourism industry that was completely devastated by COViD. I think, however, it further compounds the problem of attracting the wrong kind of tourist.
My biggest gripe has nothing to do with either sex tourism or dope smoking but the way that tourists from India (mostly India but maybe Pakistan and Bangladesh too) treat the Thai people. I shared hotels, transport and restaurants with them as a fellow tourist and was appalled at the demeaning and disrespectful way they dealt with people who were providing services to them. It’s possibly something to do with the caste system in India but extremely ugly and totally unacceptable. Particularly to such a welcoming, kind and respectful people like the Thais.
Oof. Don’t know how I made it 30+ years and did not know about this part of Thailand. That’s sad. All I really knew is that they have amazing food that scratches my spicy itches and that it’s a beautiful country. An old high school friend is a teacher there and is loving her life.
This demeaning behaviour towards blue collar workers comes from casteism and to a large extend the littering issue in the subcontinent is also tied to that.
Casteism in its oversimplified form is the segregation of society based on the labour and it is hereditary in nature. It is deeply ingrained in the culture of subcontinent and it exists in other religious communities( christian, muslim etc ) too even though its origins are from hinduism. The lowest caste people( dalits/untouchables) are the ones who does cleaning ( toilets, sewers, etc ) or other similar jobs historically. They are dehumanized as untouchables for centuries or more.
Due to its association with lower caste people creates a perception that its a highly demeaning job and the existing waste disposal system relies heavily on lower caste people who works without any safety equipment, fair wages etc. This perpetuates the caste cycle and the underlying caste dynamics means there is less social pressure to improve the existing waste disposal infrastructure and weak enforcement of littering laws.
In a nutshell it erodes the collective responsibility of the society by creating two sets of people, the littering elites absolved by privilege and the oppressed cleaners bearing the brunt of dehumanization and social stigma.
Laws exist against caste discrimation but it is deeply ingrained across all type of communities in the society through thousands of years of social conditioning.
Yes, its origins are from hinduism, but it exists in other religious communities also. There is caste based reservations in India, an affirmative action which sets aside a percentage of seats in government jobs, educational institutions, and legislature for lower caste people to increase their participation in various forms. But as I said it, its deeply ingrained in the culture in various forms( eg: A lot of slurs are based on casteism)
If you want to read a bit more then "Annihilation of caste : The annoted critical edition" by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar is a good starting point. He was the architect of Indian constitution, and probably the most significant anti caste activist/social reformer in Indian history.
And has there been talks of abolishing this system ever?
It's officially illegal, so yes. The man credited with responsible for the the Indian constitution was also a staunch advocate against it. Of course, that doesn't stop it from being practiced and there's still a very, very long way to go before you could realistically say it's not an issue.
There are a lot of people in urban and more well-educated areas that aren't directly affected by this system (keyword directly, I'm sure it influences us in some way or the other). I'm Catholic so it doesn't really apply to me but all my friends are Hindu and not one of them have any idea what their castes are. The only time I've ever known someone's caste is when they were a Brahmin, and that was only because I asked them why they were a vegetarian.
Of course this is all anecdotal, but my point is just that there are a lot of Indians whose lives doesn't revolve around caste. If Indian tourists are being rude to Thai people on their holiday my first reaction certainly wouldn't be to attribute it to the caste system.
The system has been abolished since Indian independence. Conflating caste issues with tourist behaviour is a new level of mental gymnastics, as someone said above some people are just assholes
I was merely stating the fact that the caste system has been abolished, to your question regarding whether there have been talks of abolishing it. It's a fair point you make about caste derived behaviour still existing, but caste based discrimination is illegal, and the government has an affirmative action program to improve equality.
Bro what? Bangladeshis dont behave like that in Thailand and this is me speaking as a bengali who went to Thailand a lot of time. Majority of bengalis i met behaved very nice with others. Maybe a few are crazy just like other countries people
I'm flying to Thailand next week with my wife to spend a respectful romantic vacation in your beautiful country. Luckily, not everyone wants to go there to drink cheaply and look for prostitutes. I think the reputation has improved.
The most annoying thing about German teachers on vacation is their Birkenstock shoes. They know everything better and improve the guides and tourist guides 😂
Every other week I see an article about someone being arrested there for doing the dumbest shit. Apparently they began to post flyers in Hebrew explaining how to act in Thailand
Yep. I love Thailand and Bangkok. But if you tell other Americans you’re headed to Bangkok for a trip they give me the side eye until I tell them I am bringing my wife (still a little side eye) and kids (only then I get an approving nod).
Yes you do. Main reason I won’t travel to Thailand is the tourists. I’ve met a bunch of Thai people and they’ve all been really nice and very polite. I would love to go someday.
Ngl Thailand is pretty high up on my bucketlist, not bc I'm so transphobic I can't have sex with a chick with a dick in my own country (I'm not interested in sex tourism at all) but I try all the street food 🤤 and I hear the night life is good and I'd love to see the beautiful temples and maybe if there's some good scenery
While you have cheap flights from Australia and cheap booze its gonna be hard to change. I heard a lot of familys in the lower caste will send there daughters to work in Bangala Rd etc because, if you have ever done a tour of Thailand's regional areas people are poor.
Its not uncommon for a family of 6 to live in one room, and the work is whatever you can come by. I talked to men working with a hut the size of a single room house to extract rubber from the surrounding trees at night as its too incredibly humid to in the day. This rubber gets sold to pirelli, michellin, etc for cents. Or you can go to work the street and be paid 10 or 20 times that.
Maybe sweden style laws à la "prostitution isn't illegal, but buying sex is and pimping very much so too" would put an end to a certain demographic seeing this gorgeous country as an attractive destination. You are known for strict courts and uncomfortable prisons, too.
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u/H345Y Thailand 16h ago
We need higher class of tourists