Travelling - Does it make you a better person?

gary the great · 01-10-2007 07:30PM #1

Well?

Ive done a bit of travelling and they say it broadens your horizons etc but what does that really mean? A lot of people tell me travelling makes you a better person etc but does it really? I what way?

Id say after travelling im a bit more mature, but other than that it hasnt changed me a whole lot.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 01-10-2007 07:32PM

it's fun, and you get to see things and meet people you wouldn't normally have met.. which in a sense 'broadens' your horizons.. but really it's all bollocks. Plenty of dull, stupid people travel too, and they stay that way when they come back home.

Dudess · 01-10-2007 07:35PM

I suppose the "broadening your horizons" cliché refers to realising there's more to life than just your immediate environs, which is true. But I don't think travelling is necessarily gonna make you a better person. Although visiting places like Calcutta might make you appreciate what you have that bit more - but only for about five minutes. People are traumatised when they visit the killing fields in Cambodia but a few days later they're bitching again about their frizzy hair, about stubbing their toe etc.

_blank_ · 01-10-2007 07:36PM

Yes, I'm a better person than people who haven't visited the places I have.

Wertz · 01-10-2007 07:44PM

Nah, I've been all over the planet and I'm still a c*nt...

FlutterinBantam · 01-10-2007 07:47PM

How can you tell that??

Was there a survey or am I missing something.

iguana · 01-10-2007 08:02PM

Mordeth wrote:

Plenty of dull, stupid people travel too, and they stay that way when they come back home.

No they don't. Because once they come back they have about 600 photographs that they want to talk through at length with any poor sod who makes eye-contact with them.:eek:

super_furry · 01-10-2007 08:09PM

Most Irish people's idea of 'travelling' is going to Australia with their mates for six months, hanging around with Irish people there, getting drunk, working in an Irish bar then annoying the living ****e out of everyone they talk to when they get back.

Man, **** Australia.

Anto McC · 01-10-2007 08:35PM

No.

WindSock · 01-10-2007 08:54PM

No. I've become more hateful and bigotted.

AlmightyCushion · 01-10-2007 09:00PM

Well I'm a truely horrible person and I've never travelled so it might do.

Glowing · 01-10-2007 09:06PM

I think it makes you appreciate what you have a bit more .... and that things aren't always as bad as they seem.

Terry · 01-10-2007 09:09PM

AlmightyCushion wrote:

Well I'm a truely horrible person and I've never travelled so it might do.

I'm a complete wanker and I'm not going anywhere.

AlmightyCushion · 01-10-2007 09:14PM

Terry wrote:

I'm not going anywhere.

I wish I was WWM I'd ban you for the craic after seeing that.

Terry · 01-10-2007 09:18PM

AlmightyCushion wrote:

I wish I was WWM I'd ban you for the craic after seeing that.

I'd just come back in another form.

In the mean time, enjoy your ban.

leninbenjamin · 01-10-2007 09:27PM

well it made me give up smoking so... maybe?

on the other hand it reinforced my drinking of hard liquor... so maybe not?

AlmightyCushion · 01-10-2007 09:28PM

Terry wrote:

I'd just come back in another form.

In the mean time, enjoy your ban.

*shakes fist*

connundrum · 01-10-2007 09:32PM

Meh, having lived exactly half my life here and half my life abroad I can say that I'm exactly as 'good' a person as the next.

My grandad never travelled outside the Midlands (of Ireland) and he's one of the most intelligent, worldly people I know. He just never had the means and then the want to go anywhere else.

I personally hate people who start with the line..

'OMFG you haven't been to Asia?!?! Man you are so missing out, the way of life over there is so different. It makes you really start to think about your life...'

They don't get to finish the spiel because I've usually head butted them by then.

Firetrap · 01-10-2007 09:34PM

Nah. It just means that you're making your carbon footprint bigger and contributing to global warming

super_furry wrote:

Most Irish people's idea of 'travelling' is going to Australia with their mates for six months, hanging around with Irish people there, getting drunk, working in an Irish bar then annoying the living ****e out of everyone they talk to when they get back.

Man, **** Australia.

+1. I don't know what on earth this big deal about Australia is anyway. Talk about a sheep mentality.

star-pants · 01-10-2007 09:45PM

Dudess wrote:

I suppose the "broadening your horizons" cliché refers to realising there's more to life than just your immediate environs, which is true. But I don't think travelling is necessarily gonna make you a better person. Although visiting places like Calcutta might make you appreciate what you have that bit more - but only for about five minutes. People are traumatised when they visit the killing fields in Cambodia but a few days later they're bitching again about their frizzy hair, about stubbing their toe etc.

note--on cambodia--the killing fields didn't freak me out -- the school where all the stuff happened did. The fields are eerily calm...with butterflies... (apart from that big tower of skulls..thats just creepy)
but you're right, you can feel all that madness & then come home & be like that

Terry · 01-10-2007 10:04PM

Firetrap wrote:

Nah. It just means that you're making your carbon footprint bigger and contributing to global warming

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=344382007

+1. I don't know what on earth this big deal about Australia is anyway. Talk about a sheep mentality.

He he.

Firetrap · 01-10-2007 10:19PM

Ha! That Aussie bus would soften their cough. The only thing you can say about someone who goes travelling is that they like travelling.

Terry · 01-10-2007 10:33PM

Firetrap wrote:

Ha! That Aussie bus would soften their cough. The only thing you can say about someone who goes travelling is that they like travelling.

Nah.
I've a friend who travels regularly to England and the continent for gigs and he hates travelling. Actually, the guy he goes with also hates travelling.
They just love live music.

Firetrap · 01-10-2007 10:36PM

Ah, but are they better people? :rolleyes:

WindSock · 01-10-2007 10:37PM

Does that mean the Knackerstm are better people?

Terry · 01-10-2007 10:47PM

Firetrap wrote:

Ah, but are they better people? :rolleyes:

Well they tend to bring local beers back from the places they've been, so I would say yes.

Gaz · 01-10-2007 10:51PM

Ive done a lot of "backpacker" travelling and it hasnt changed me , except slowed my career progess and emptied my savings account.

Also , i make it a point never to start a sentence like " Oh when i was in ... blah blah blah"

I hate that crap

Dudess · 01-10-2007 11:07PM

star-pants wrote:

note--on cambodia--the killing fields didn't freak me out -- the school where all the stuff happened did

That S21 place - yeah, I've read about that and seen documentaries on it (well just bits - most of it is too horrific to take). Those black and white photos of people just before their nightmare started are CHILLING.
I wouldn't have the stomach to see either but yeah, I think S21 would affect me more than the killing fields themselves. My mate was the opposite when she went though.

Gaz · 01-10-2007 11:14PM

s21 was pretty bad alright, blood stains on the floor and stuff. But the killing fields had human remains sticking out of the ground, things like leg bones still in trousers.
Also, i remember something catching my eye and i picked it up , was part of a jaw :eek:

But i think the worst ive seen was in Varanasi , India. Badly decompossed remains of children floating in river, also dogs fighting over remains of baby.
Took awhile to shake those images.:(

Dudess · 01-10-2007 11:25PM

Darth Homer wrote:

s21 was pretty bad alright, blood stains on the floor and stuff. But the killing fields had human remains sticking out of the ground, things like leg bones still in trousers.

Yeah, that's what got my mate. Seeing actual human remains is gonna drive things home that bit more I suppose.
A guy was telling me that there were these tiny cage-type things in which children were kept, and you could see the marks of child-size fingerprints in them.

But i think the worst ive seen was in Varanasi , India. Badly decompossed remains of children floating in river, also dogs fighting over remains of baby.
Took awhile to shake those images.:(

Oh Christ... now I'm not feeling too good. I could NEVER visit those places, or the concentration camps in Europe. I just don't have the courage to face such horror.
And yet... as I was saying earlier, one would think it might change people somewhat and make them more appreciative of what they have, but it doesn't seem to (in general anyway).

biko · 01-10-2007 11:26PM

Yes, travelling does make you a better person in the sense that you are forced to interact with, and be pleasant to / get along with, scores of people you meet. You learn, hopefully, that most people are the same regardless of creed and colour. It takes the edge of your gullibility and prejudices.
Now, I mean backpacking etc, not drunken flights to Spain

Travelling - Does it make you a better person?

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