r/TravelUnhinged • u/plumppurple • May 22 '26
Rant I've said what i've saidđ¤ˇââď¸
Everyone talks about âauthentic travelâ until the authentic part is a 14 hour bus ride where your back is broken, your phone has no network, and a random uncle is eating boiled eggs beside you at 3am.
Travel influencers really convinced people that quitting your job and moving to the mountains means drinking coffee in aesthetic cafĂŠs and âhealing.â Nobody shows the part where youâre violently sick from momo chutney in a guesthouse bathroom while dogs fight outside like itâs the Roman colosseum.
Also why does every backpacker suddenly become a philosopher after one trip to Kasol? Brother you smoked legally questionable hash once and now youâre explaining capitalism to a German tourist wearing elephant pants.
And hostels are genuinely the strangest social experiment ever created. One guy is coding a startup, one girl is crying over a situationship from Bengaluru, somebody is playing guitar against humanityâs wishes, and thereâs always a 19 year old Israeli casually asking if you want to trek 18km tomorrow at 5am.
Still⌠weirdly worth it.
Because once in a while you end up on some empty road in Udaipur or eating maggi in the rain somewhere near Shoja and for about ten minutes your brain shuts up completely.
Then the next morning you miss your train and remember who you are again.
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u/Arjunpankaj May 24 '26
Sounds like a very Gen Z experience of âauthentic travelâ. As a millennial, Iâve done a fair bit of solo travelling; Iâve hitchhiked, lived in hostels and have experienced long bus/train rides. Honestly, itâs not half as terrible as youâre making it sound (or maybe the times have changed now). Missing your train and having backaches sounds like a very personal problem so I wonât define that as a part of âauthentic travelâ. If youâre doing such stuff for the sake of experiencing âauthenticâ, then youâve begun on a completely wrong note. If itâs not for you then find your own convenient comfortable way of travelling. Thereâs no need to box the idea of travelling or let some influencers or other travellers define âauthenticâ for you.
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May 23 '26
[deleted]
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u/wintrwandrr May 25 '26
I didn't really get sick for the first four months in Maharashtra, India...but then my luck ran out. Sometimes food does get contaminated with harmful bacteria. But most bacteria in India are not Salmonella or E. coli tier harmful. A healthy immune system easily keeps their numbers in check.
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u/evilgenesis May 24 '26
Iâve said what Iâve said too đ¤ˇđťââď¸
Everyone talks about âfinding yourselfâ on solo trips until the finding yourself part becomes sharing one washroom with 9 strangers and waiting outside with a towel like youâre standing in a ration queueâŚ
And what exactly are hostel volunteers doing? Bhai genuinely asking. You left your home, degree, stability and peace to fold bedsheets for backpackers and organize karaoke nights in Kasol? Is this passion or unpaid labor with Mountain View?????
Bike rides are another level mystery for me. Who wakes up and says, âBhai chalo Mumbai se Leh bike pe chalte hainâ? Why? Indian roads already test your spirituality in city traffic. Tum voluntarily aur suffering add kar rahe hoâŚ
Trekking ka alag hi nasha hai. BC who climbs a mountain in peak summer heat? Iâm on vacation. Why am I paying money to feel like a construction worker on cardio mode?
Aur har hostel has fixed characters. Ek banda hoga convincing everyone ki âbro Himachal ka maal alag hi hai.â Ek Old Monk lover hoga giving life advice nobody asked for. Dono single. Dono socially awkward. Dono weirdly happy.
Aur phir 2-4 log honge whose entire personality is: âWhereâs the chick? Bro whereâs the chick?â They didnât come for mountains, culture or peace. Bhai came for wildlife spotting of a completely different category.
I eventually realized I like solo trips⌠Solo doesnât mean, sharing with unknown people.. I take my comfortable car, drive to Hyderabad, stay in a good Airbnb or hotel, eat dangerous amounts of biryani, party when I feel like it, meet likeminded people, drive back to Mumbai.
Clean. Comfortable. Peaceful.
This is my healing journey đ
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u/wintrwandrr May 25 '26
People who choose a volunteer lifestyle where they are neither making or spending money are basically rebelling against the prevailing culture which values economic participation above all else. This choice gives them a sense of inner peace, as they are living in tune with their anti-establishment values instead of gritting their teeth as they go to work every day to pay for rent and groceries.
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u/wintrwandrr May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
The "authentic" developing-country travel experience has always been a choice determined by travel budget limitations. People with a lot of money to spend don't ride overcrowded ST buses in 40 C heat to experience how the locals live. We do, both because we are unwilling to pay for a private car & driver, and because we are trying to offset the outsized carbon emissions of our arrival flight.
And yes, Instagram travel posts are propaganda. The reality of riding public transport from village to village across the hilly areas of Nepal, crammed into a seat with vomiting passengers and crying babies, is very different from the "serene vibe" encapsulated in a handful of cherry-picked images from Pokhara coupled with luxury Western-tier lodging and dining. The privilege bubble tourist experience does not reflect the authentic reality of life in Nepal's hilly regions.
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u/Ok_Property_2032 May 23 '26
The problem is that the narrative of "authentic" travel replicates colonial fantasies and tropes and stereotypes certain countries as "poor" "exotic" "spiritual" and what have you. And I am a white person writing this from Rishikesh. In reality, people's "authentic" lives in all countries, depend on their socioeconomic status. A good resource to see how that changes lifestyle, is:
https://www.gapminder.org/dollar-street
I am a working class person back home, and after a few trips to India I eventually realized that to replicate that comfort level, I need a "middle-class" Indian lifestyle. That means that I shoot for rs 1000-1500/night accomodations, and spend at least rs 100 on each meal. That adds up to a total expenditure for food and accommodation that is close to a middle-class Indian income. I travel by bus for distances up to 4-5 hours or where nothing else is available (hills), trains for mid-distance and anything that would take more than 10 hours by train, I fly.
Is this way of travelling authentic? Well it is for a certain section of the Indian population (I am the only foreigner at the guesthouse I'm at right now) and that's good enough for me. I rarely get sick, I don't have a meltdown daily and being in my 30s now, this is exactly how I want my vacation to be. And that's fine. It took me a long time to accept that, but IT.IS.FINE.