gualalalisa

Dori: Everyone has given great answers to your post!

Though I can't remember anyone in my small town giving me a rude answer, I often get mind-blowing (to me) responses such as:

Me: "I'm so excited. I'm finally going to Prague!"
Reply: "Wherever that is."

Me: "I'm going back east!"
Reply: "My grandparents were from there - Italy, I think."

The weird thing is, I love to hear about other people's trips - whether they went camping in an adjoining county, on the bus to Reno or to China. My best friend just returned from Africa and I made her keep a journal for me - I want to know every detail, especially if I haven't been to a place.

I agree there's some envy/ignorance involved but I just don't get it.

DiAblo

Love Robespierre's response.

I have never been to India and probably will never go, though I will admit I am intrigued by the reaction of those people that I know who have been there...No one comes back from India, it seems, without having very strong feelings.

A couple I know visited extesnsively a couple of years back and they've been arguing about it ever since. She said it was sad and depressing, he found it to be the most exciting and exhilarating place he's been, and this guy's been to a LOT of places in his life.

I know a fellow who was there in the Peace Corps all those years ago. He will be retiring next year and plans to LIVE in India.

I figure that any place that can stir such emotion and difference in opinion is probably pretty special.

Enjoy your trip!

dcespedes

Gosh, I would love to go to India some day, Dori--I am excited for you and hope you enjoy a great trip!

cheryllj

>>>>>>>>My first response was that I'm not too fond of people who call other people "idiots",,but notice that cheryllj "took it back<<<<<<<

Well, I never said I would "call" them an idiot . . . I'm not that rude. I said I would ignore their comments . . .

But I stand by my comment that anyone who would criticize another person's choice of vacation destination without ever visiting the place personally is an idiot. Not to mention extremely rude.

Even if you think someone else's choice of destination is appalling, it's their trip, not yours, so keep your opinion to yourself - unless, of course, you actually have a personal experience to share about the place in question, which might actually be helpful to the traveler.

sundown

Kudos to Robespierre for a great response.

One of my pet peeves are the people who didn't like living in a locale so can't understand why anyone else would even want to visit there.

nanb

I hope I can remember Robespierre's response, it is perfect...

SeaUrchin

Christina, sometimes we are trapped in an office with these people and there is no escape, even if we ignore them.

I have some doozies working here with me, there are a few I can discuss travel with, but with most of them I don't even bring it up. As you say, I don't really care what they think about where I am going, but they think they have to tell me anyway!

One of them told me "I would never go there" and I said "well, I wasn't inviting you either" and then left for the airport.

ssachida

Pity them. By the way, this thread has been pretty interesting reading for an Indian expat living in America. It's a huge and very diverse country. Have fun!

ira

Dear Dori,

>Just a few minutes ago, my boss and several workers were discussing "how could anyone ever want to visit places like Africa or India. What is wrong with these people." <

May I politely suggest that, in this case, admitting to eavesdropping on other people's conversations is a bigger faux pas than whatever they might have been saying.

Miss Manners

suze

Y'all actually make me feel lucky (office-wise). My boss and his wife just got back from China. A co-worker lived in Paris for 2 months this summer. Another partner recently sent her high school age daughter of to Italy for a year. I got to go to Switzerland even though I'm new and hadn't officially earned vacation time.

Dori

Thanks for all your wonderful responses! Christina, I think your reply was just a bit too much. I hardly sit up at night thinking about this. But thanks for implying I need therapy to resolve this issue. I thought it would be an interesting question, and as it turns out, it was. By the way, I get along very well with all my co-workers and enjoy my job. It makes life more enjoyable. Thanks for your concern. And the rest of you did hit the nail on the head. People who make these remarks are people who just do not travel.

suze

I do not believe the folks with rude comments are jealous. They really would not want to go (anywhere) and thankfully won't because they would not make good travelers and everything probably would go wrong for them!

Fellow lovers of travel are joyful for your trip and want to hear all about it, even if it is not a destination they'd choose themselves (that would be me and India, I'm afraid).

RufusTFirefly

Other than on the internet, I've never had anyone make any rude comments about my travel destinations. Not once. Ever. And we've traveled many places both on and off the beaten path. Mostly people are envious--just like I am when someone tells me they are going someplace and I have to stay home and work, and mow the lawn, and pay bills, and deal with the neighbor's nasty little mutt, and ... .

The only place I have had people make rude comments is on sites like fodors.com.

SeaUrchin

BTW, ssachada, I have always wanted to visit India, it must be an overload of sights, smells and sounds, at least that is how I imagine it.

I'll get there one day.....

mr_go

&quot;You're going to Europe again? But...you went there <i>last</i> year, didn't you?&quot;

That's the one I get all the time. And I always reply with, &quot;Yep. And next year too!&quot;

cheryllj

mr_go: That is hilarious!

I got the same reaction recently after taking a trip to Europe in both 2003 and 2004 -- last year I went to France and Spain and this year I went to Italy and the Czech Republic, but that seemed to be lost on some people . . . &quot;why would I want to go to Europe two years in a row?&quot; Sheesh.

OReilly

Dori, I have learned over the years to say NADA about my traveling unless I know I am talking to people who also love traveling to foreign parts. I have also found the same reticence in other travelers until they realize they are in the company of someone who REALLY wants to hear about their adventures.

But that?s OK, to each his own. When people insist on telling me about their kid?s achievements in hockey/baseball/football I glaze over with boredom and look for an escape route. This is probably exactly how THEY feel about my travel stories

The line I find amusing, when I tell non-travelers about doing a driving weekend in France or Spain on my own is ... &quot;You are SO brave&quot;, like I was an intrepid explorer braving the jungles of the Amazon gt;

nytraveler

Well, most of my family and friends are fellow tourists - at least in attitude - and one or two are even real travelers (you know, staying in a yurt in Monogolia, up the Amazon in a canoe - way too adventurous for me) - but I do have some co-workers of the why would you go THERE sort.

If they give me grief just become the ultimate travel snob:

You mean you've never been there? I can;t believe you haven;t been there yet - everyone else has - whatever are you waiting for? Well, maybe if you save harder you'll be able to get there someday!

If they say they don;t want to go - I just accuse them of jealousey (You know you really want to go - but just can;t get it organized. I really feel sorry for you.)

Of course, this doesn;t make for great fiendships with the subjects - but then I;ve never been particularly infatuated with those of the &quot;ignorant and damn proud of it&quot; school.

indie

Dori

Another Indian expat here and believe me I hear a lot of such stuff said by my coworkers about India, about China, even Jamaica!! In fact anywhere other than Western Europe, Oz, and NZ is suspect

That being said not many Americans are really equipped to be able to handle travel in India - and that's probably why they say these things.

SeaUrchin from what I've read of your posts on the board, you'd do fine traveling there

have fun Dori..let barking dogs bark

ThinGorjus

This has happend to me. Once, at a coffee stand in Philadelphia, I was mentioning to the Indian clerk that I was just back from India and Nepal. A woman in line overheard me and stated, &quot;That must have been horrible. Did you have to go there on business?&quot; I told her that I had always dreamed of travelling to India, and that it was a leisure trip. She couldn't believe it. &quot;I would never want to go to such a dirty place,&quot; she said. I replied, &quot;By the look of you, I doubt you could tie your own shoelaces let alone travel to a foreign country.&quot;

I am evil.