I wonder if any of you have tales about the most ignorant tourists you've come across in your travels.

About 5 years ago I was spending a couple of days in Hong Kong. I took a harbour cruise on a chinese junk that finished up in a rather nice harbour side restaurant for a dim sum lunch.

I sat at a large round table with a party of about 6 middle aged American tourists. I was surprised when they all insisted on vegetarian dim sum. I enquired that it was unusual to have so many vegetarians together. They said they weren't vegetarians, far from it, they were Texans. They just didn't want to eat dog, rat and cat. I explained that it was very unlikely we would be getting either! They weren't convinced.

I enquired as to their holiday. They were about to board a cruise liner and sail up to Korea where they were to spend a week or so. I suggested they should try Korea's finest food at their Poshintang Restaurants, without explaining what is served at these places.

I should add that I certainly don't advocate the eating of dogs, and this was me being mischevious with grotesque ignorance.

christ just any mid westerner or american for that matter is bound too say some stuppid arse thing while traveling.

the thing that drives me nuts is hearing tourist say.. wow look they have a KFC wow look they have a 7-11

Don't know if this counts but....just 2 days ago I was lamenting to a co-worker that I couldn't find affordable airfare to Vietnam and was looking at all my options. She said "can't you just drive there from Bangkok?"
Sure, and take about 3 days solid, each way, out of my 2 week trip. Not to mention that this would be by train and bus combo. It just seemed odd to me.
Some other coworkers we talking just yesterday about the "eating dog in other countries" thing. I told them, "don't worry, it's a "delicacy", no one would every serve it to you without making a big deal of telling you first".

It's true about how they are amazed at the KFC's and the MacDonalds,but then they are amazed as well as to why the comforts of home are NOT there. Such as when I overheard an elederly lady whine, "well for crine out loud, it's a drug store and you'd think they'd have Pepto Bismol like at home and put what's in these here bottles in English so I can read 'em."

Don't leave home without it. Or better yet, DON'T leave home--period.

I was on a flight from Vancouver to Almaty in Kazakhstan via Frankfurt with Lufthansa. There had obviously been a feeder flight up from Seattle as two Americans behind me were talking loudly about how glad they were they weren't on an Airbus.

When the flight attendant asked them to do up their seatbelts in perfect English with a light German accent, they said, "Speak English!"

Getting tired of the yelling (they were wearing their earphones while having their conversation), I turned round to say, "Excuse me. You may not realise this because of the earphones, but you're yelling very loudly."

"Speak English!" I was told.

Later when I went to the lavatory one of them was waiting in line. A German passenger helpfully pointed out to him that a cubicle further down the plane was free.

"Speak English!" he was told.

What on earth these people were doing going anywhere overseas I've no idea, but could only hope that at some point in Germany they'd have some sense beaten into them.

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

Oooh, I have so many ignorant tourist stories...my top picks are,
1. 'Bohemian' backpackers and lonely planet types in general are the worst. I understand the use of backbacks under certain conditions, but being filthy and smelly and wearing nasty sandals (in good restaurants while I'm trying to eat) and t-shirts that say 'I'm with stupid -->' are pathetic at best and well, you get the idea...
2. Was in China and ran into group of Japanese men in a tour who showed a little too much interest in the nude paintings in the museum where we were. And they seemed to love my tall blond wife. The cameras were clicking away. It was really creepy.
3. The French girls sunning themselves topless on our Nile river cruiser (I admit, it wasn't THAT bad...). I don't know what was worse, the girls getting nude in a conservative muslim country, or the boats crew that seemed to individually walk up on deck to 'clean out the ashtrays' all afternoon. It got so bad, even the chef came up on deck to clean the ashtrays, dressed in his whites and tall hat...

Make sure you take river slippers when you trek along a river.

pj; love your last sentence. lmao!!

I got a huge kick out of a female tourist outside of Bejing coming out of the ladies rest room complainng to everyone she encountered about the "primitive toilets" - they were state of the art auto flushing squat toilets. Modern and beautiful.

My husband and I were at the Acropolis in Athens, there was a group of "cruisers" there in port for the day. One woman with her Southern accent loudly asked if they accepted dollars there for her entrance fee. My husband and I looked at each other and cringed.

Pretty funny stuff here. It always amuses me that people are disappointed when they travel that things aren't the same as at home...especially when travelling to a third world country. Why leave home if you want things to be the same?
I have a coworker friend who tends to seek out the KFC's and McDonalds to get some "safe food". I prefer to experiment a little and try different things and heck, maybe even learn something along the way.

We have all been ignorant or Naive at one time or another.My Aunt was in Japan and bought a sony radio. She was worried it would pick up US stations.But it happens here too. I heard Bush I was campaigning in Texas in a Mexican Restaurant. He was given a tamale and he bit into the corn surrounding the Tamale without opening it up.

The outrage that many tourists express on discovering that not all foreigners speak English is particularly ludicrous and often embarrassing. You'd think that native English speakers should feel grateful that several centuries of English imperialism, followed by a century of American global domination, have implanted the language so widely that for the most part we can traipse around the world cocooned in our own language. This linguistic imperialism helps to isolate us from our hosts' cultures, and group travel just makes the situation worse.

Another peculiarity, not confined to people from 'Anglo' cultures, is that travel seems to bring out the worst in some of us. People who on their home ground are courteous and considerate can become arrogant monsters when confronted with the need to deal with a foreign culture.

I too wonder about people who travel thousands of kilometres to eat the food they get at home, especially the bland, tastless pap sold by a certain large franchise operation. Recently on the Australia/Pacific board an intending traveller worried that she might not be able to get American food in Australia. True.

Once again, though, it's not just an 'Anglo' problem. In a Vietnamese hotel offering a choice of cuisines for breakfast I was amused to see all the Vietnamese guests lining up for a bowl of pho, all the French and German tourists lining up for a 'Continental' breakfast and all the Anglo-Saxons lining up for their bacon and eggs. There seemed to be no cross-cultural feeding going on at all.

Okay, I had to jump in. My two favourites are:

Taking a Caribbean cruise on board the Costa line (Italian) and playing BINGO in 5 languages with English being last. An Ameircan women thought she was at a disadvantage and stood up and ask the Bingo guy to call the #'s in American. What's American? I'm Canadian but I don't speak Canadian? Or do I, eh?

Second one was while working part-time in a travel agency (now remember I'm in Toronto) and a customer asking about Hawaii because she wanted to find a cheaper place than Florida. Duh!! And then she asked what kind of currency was used there? I said the US Dollar and she said, "oh no, not another island forced to use the US $$." Duh again. I had to tell her Hawaii WAS part of the US.

Some people know nothing about the world, even countries beside them.

Betty in Toronto
Leaving in 2 weeks for Hong Kong (10 days) and Hawaii (2 weeks)

What about the woman in the American Express office in Athens who was changing her Greek currency back into American currency because it was just too hard to understand? Or the American woman in the Hong Kong Tourist office at the Kowloon side Star Ferry wharf who said they had just arrived from the States and that they had to meet up with a Mr Wong followed by the question..Do you know him?

OK - I'll jump in too! Got back to Oz from Vietnam yesterday - why do some Western women insist on exposing as much body flesh as humanly possible to people that mostly clad themselves from neck to ankle? So what if the weather is hot - put up with it! On a tour of the Mekong delta there were some extremely overweight European youngish women in their cut off tops and lowcut hipster pants (ironically the Vietnamese girls could easily get away with this style as they have such great bodies) and this is where the lowliest labourer who works in a rice paddy manages to keep himself covered. Was please to note at the end of the day the rolls of unnecessarily exposed fat were well dotted with mozzie bites.

Once on a tour in London the driver was pointing out some WWII damage inflicted by Germany in London blitzes - an American woman's loud remark to her husband was "honey, I didn't know Britain was in the war-aaah"!!

In Hanoi I saw an Australian woman turn to an unusually persistent postcard seller and announce loudly "Look, not all of us tourists are rich, you know!" The kid was so astonished by this self-evidently absurd statement that he stood there dumbstruck while she walked off.

Gosh, I hope none of you make any ignorant comments while on the road.

Travel has been a consistent pleasure throughout my life. It has opened my eyes, and more importantly, my mind. Travel to far off places also reminds me how much I don't know about the world. I try and be respectful to the country I visit. Not all people are, but most of the tourists that I have encountered who behave ignorantly have, in fact, NOT been Americans. Sure some have been, but in general, I think Americans are good tourists. It has been my experience that Americans are warmly welcomed in other countries because people find us friendly and open.

Les

Hmm... a three year old thread pulled up by a new poster with a provocative comment... Some people just like to stir up trouble.