An Open Letter to Backpackers: Your Cheapness and Spontaneity Are Unsustainable [trigger warning]

I must say that gone are the days of Kerouac, sadly. You are not and will never be like him. Can you accept that sometimes, you just don't deserve to see the world? Your happiness does not depend on it. Sometimes, seeing the world means ruining it for everybody. How come you are unaware? You will never be like the truly happy people even if you spend $$$$ going out of your way trying to be poor. Your massive cheapness and spontaneity are not sustainable anymore. How I want to strangle you until you turned blue, especially when I heard you being completely disrespectful of the culture, like turning a fishing village into a wild porn sight. There's no full moon party here hey! You complain about the immigrants yet they don't complain about your own people shamelessly misbehaving in their countries. Why not create your own party where you belong? Like come on, Millennial travelers and the like, when will you ever stop being such a pain to others just like your psycho-ancestors? You guys just flipped my diabolic flip switch once again.

I know that it is clear, globalization ruins it for everybody. Flight companies, shoestring budget guidebooks, and cheap hostels make big profits from this travel lifestyle now. As it seems, that inborn privilege of yours comes with a privilege to travel cheaply. How convenient! As more of your people are becoming sad, sad, more people are becoming addicted to the promise of the so-called spiritual journey or see the world and blah. Addicted to the pleasures of long-term and frequent travel that the thought of going without can be too much to contemplate. This "willful blindness" seems to have affected you and everyone I think.

Once I heard you saying that you are the major source of income. Come on, get off your uppity high horse, will you? When will you ever get out of these centuries-old entitlement issues and societal conditioning? Sure, you might feel like a walking goldmine as you walk around this beach town. Head held high with your fellow snubby travelers, feeling oh so special! Breaking bottles and getting naked in front of everyone at night. Shame on you, do you think I won't say anything about it? Swipe right and you'll find your perfect match! Ready to slap you with the truth until you puke.

I know it can be hard to respect others if you don't even have a slight self-respect, so here's the depression hotline. Acting out outside your territory as if there's no sex for tomorrow? Fine, I get it, you are patronized because of your dollars, euros and other precious currencies. People put up with your shit without a choice. But please, don't wash your hands of it as if you have nothing to do with this global mess. Before complaining about the taxi driver overcharging you for $2, first and foremost, look at the bigger picture. Your government, your corporations, your forefathers have long lived off the sufferings and lives of other people. Ripping them off big time for the comfort you are enjoying at the moment. A third-worlder ripping you off at the corner is nothing compared to what your DNA did on a massive scale. If you don't want me to hurt you with the truth, because God knows you are scared of it, then please, stop waving your French / [substitute nationality here] nose high up in the air. Stay at everyone's level and I'm pretty sure you'll find happiness in your journey.

Yes I know, tourism is a big industry and I am part of it. Hell, just like the taxi driver, and just like you, I am making a living too. Which is nothing compared to your companies offshore evading high taxes in your own country. You think I don't know? I spent years studying your shit. However, does it mean that without you I cannot live anymore? Oh please, get over yourself once again. The locals live off coconuts and wild animals long before you came. And remember the old adage that less is more? This region does not need yet another bunch of ignorant. Perhaps a few but more conscious travelers who can pay respect to nature and the livelihood of locals. The beauty of nature has its price.

Do you really want to be treated like a packaged product? Is this what you truly deserve? Arrive in a place and be shoved into a cattle boat the next day? Then off you go. Have you met a local? What have you learned about the place and the culture so far? You turned something that should be revered as unique into a commodity. Turning a pristine place into something for indecent exposure of your wild tactics brought about by your so-called civilized culture. As you accept what you truly deserve, nature and its people will also get what they truly deserve.

You complain that you get what you pay for in this part of the world. Sure, it's true. But have some self-respect, will you? Travel only if you have the money. Travel only if you can afford it. Travel only if you can properly pay for the local people's salaries and for the real cost of the preservation of nature. Stop cheapening things. Stop turning places into Chinese products. Stop turning people's eyes into $.$ as you know, it is not sustainable on a grand scale. And you're doing a big part in it too. In other words, end this good old exploitation of yours.

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