BACKPACKERS. . .STRANGER AND STRANGER

I had a conversation with my guesthousemate about backpackers and he told me how he hated the whole culture of it: going to a new place, staying where other ex-pats stay and just hanging out with them. Where is the local culture and meaning of visiting a new place and learning about the culture? People arrive there and bombard each other with the same questions: where are you from, where have you been and where are you going? Kinda like the philosophical meaning of life---but not.

I have to admit I'm guilty of this as well, just to form bonds with people, to find people to travel with and to find out the best and cheapest way to get around. But I completely understand why being a naive traveller is negative. Perhaps it's better to go to a place for a purpose: to work to learn, volunteer and learn about the place itself, not to let another foreigner drink you under the table every night.

Yet there is something almost compelling of the backpacking scene---you get to meet all these interesting characters. From two young university student from Victoria riding their bike across Canada in a Halifax hostel to a Scottish man walking across Canada in three stages in Winnipeg, there is a magnetic force that attract freaky people to this cheap and easy form of accommodation. In South Africa, you find mostly Germans there (like you do with the interns and temp workers in general).

A VET IN MPUMALANGA

My weekend road trip to Mpumalanga province I took last week with two carloads of German embassy interns brought us to a backpackers in Graskop, just outside of Kruger National Park. Here, we met an interesting character. . .

His name is Richard from Kansas, Missouri. Born in South Africa, he immigrated to the lovely place of Minnesota, USA at the ripe age of 5. He wanted to be part of the Marine Corp since age 7. Part of the appeal was the uniform. He was able to realize his dream right after high school graduation and signed up for 4 years with them. During last year's War on Iraq, he was on the scene from Feb-May.

The day he got back from Iraq, he met the girl of his dreams. Less than a year later, he has been engaged and broken up with her. He was in Mpumalanga participating in a 30k bike race. He is currently studying opera with his dad's old voice teacher. He wants to do a bachelor's in music when he returns to the states, hopefully in Julliard.

He's pro-Bush and Pro-Republican, doesn't understand why people dislike Bush, dislikes Clinton and JFK, and hates Arabs ("In Thailand, they have this saying that when you face a rattlesnake and an Arab, you should rather turn your back on the snake cuz it will go away"). He told me not to trust the media since all US media is Liberal and anti-Bush, especially CNN.

"They brainwash you in the Marines," he told me. "They teach you that what civilians think is wrong."

Richard is 23 years old. I am v. scared.