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A Vote for Malta: Most Rude.

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As the title suggests I'm currently in Malta. For the last decade I've spent a substantial portion of my time traveling much of the world. I'm now coming to the end of a 4 month round the world trip and have been here for 8 days.

My most vivid memory of Malta will be the overt rudness of people wherever I've gone. This has been particularly true of men of a certain age - taxi and bus drivers without exception, a man on a bus who berated me because I wanted to sit in the empty seat next to him, a man in the street today who arrived at a corner as I did and knocked me aside. Such things have happened to me every day with such regularity that I've come to expect it and have not been disappointed.

The women tend to be surly rather than overtly rude. However one in the cafe adjacent to my hotel interrupted me to shout at me when she guessed wrong what I was about to ask her.

There have, of course, been exceptions but the balance has been so heavily toward rude that the occasions of kindness have been memorable. The staffs in 2 of the 4 places I've stayed have been exceptionally kind. Younger people in places of business have also tended to be more helpful. But sadly it doesn't make up for the daily abuse.

I've wondered what the reason for the behavior might be. Maybe tourist fatigue. But it's off season, there are few tourists and I've never noticed this sort of behavior in other heavily touristed areas. Maybe it's me, but if so then why have I not noticed before? Is there a cultural prejudice against women? But again, I've never experienced this in any other places.In some countries, China for instance, people seem to be less aware of others in public but it's never felt as overt as it does here.

Any thoughts or other contenders?

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