I being the typical liberal lemming was sucked into this narrative. During my junior year of college when I studied abroad in Rome, I had the great fortune of being introduced to Rick Steves. He told me that it was wrong to book an expensive hotel with a nice swimming pool, great room service and easily accessible American food. No, the new educated elite, must move downstream. The cheaper and dingy the better! Why would he suggest this? Because to Rick Steves, by going cheap, one was going local. And when you're abroad, local is better than global--global being the Marriotts and Hyatts of the world. Local is better because you get close to the real culture. How are you going to meet an old loving Italian grandmother who owns and operates her own B&B when you stay at a corporatized hotel? How are you going to have that hookup with a Italian lover when you're staying at a Mariott with two hundred other American and Japanese tourists. You won't and Rick Steves says that's not okay.
Now, if you plan on going to Europe or Thailand or Peru, to get down with the local culture, try some authentic food, and learn some Thai or Spanish, maybe staying at a cheap hostel is a better idea than staying at the Hyatt. But when did it suddenly become the case that vacation was a time for learning, and not a time for chilling out and doing nothing? Why isn't it okay that for my vacation, I plan on staying home and getting a massage at my local Thai brothel? Or why isn't okay to stay at a five-star hotel in MY city and in MY country, drink pina coladas by the pool, sleep in and get room service for breakfast? Why do I have to travel thousands of miles for this privilege? Why do people who had no previous interest or desire to learn about indigenous cultures and premodern lifestyles, suddenly become Indiana Jones when they're abroad in some third-world shit country? Why not go to your public library, and borrow some books on Thai culture and learn about it that way. It's a whole lot easier and cheaper.
We don't because we don't go on vacations to enjoy our vacations. We go on our vacations not for our present selves, but for our future selves. What do I mean by this? We go on all these fancy vacations because those are the ones we're going to remember. I mean a nice sensuous Thai massage might feel really good at the time but if I get one every several months (I don't), then the one I got on my christmas vacation two years ago isn't really going to stand out when I try to recall it several years later. But a vacation where I go to Ghana and help feed starving african children--oh I'm pretty sure I'm going to remember that one. And that's the point. Who cares if your Thai massage feels good for that one moment. How can you compare that with the unlimited righteous satisfaction you will feel for the rest of your life by recalling your one memory of feeding indigent african children in Ghana last summer. You won't and that's why we vacation for our remembering selves, and not our experiencing selves.
