Written By - Gabriele De Capitani
Traveller or Tourist
River Boat tour -Thu Bon River, Hoi An, Vietnam
It’s a recurring joke among travelers to poke fun at tourists.
They often push and nudge each other to be first in line for a tour or a coffee shop they spotted on TikTok. You see long lines of people all trying to take the same exact picture in the same location, sometimes with a huge professional camera that will never be used to its potential, and often wearing matching T-shirts, hats, or other souvenirs proudly and taking 7000 pictures with them.
On the other hand, a traveler tends to ignore most of this, as it no longer interests them. They have plenty of time to visit attractions and prefer to take the long, slow way rather than the usual touristy route. You’ll rarely see a traveler decked out with souvenirs; instead, they typically wear the same well-worn 7 pairs of clothes in every photo they might send home. Sure, they may visit popular tourist spots, many of which are popular for good reason, but they are likely to linger, taking their time to explore and enjoy their experience, taking everything in at their pace.
I don’t write this to say that travelers are better than tourists or that tourists are simply a nuisance; I’d like to describe two types of people who might clash with each other, but in the end, are both seeking similar experiences :).
It doesn’t matter if you are on your own, with plenty of time on your hands to fully experience a country and savor each day, or if you're responsible for your family, ensuring everyone is safe and having a good vacation within the limited time you’ve set aside from work, rushing to see everything possible to feel that the time and money spent on the trip were worthwhile. Both situations have their own value; no one deserves to see a site, go on a tour, or drink that coffee more than anyone else. The important thing is to be present, live in the moment, and enjoy it, all while being respectful of others. The important thing is that you put your effort into trying something new, visiting a new place, learning about a new culture, and that in itself is valuable. After all, there’s no time to judge, unless you’re making a little joke! 😊
This photo was taken on a basket boat tour on the Thu Bon River; indeed, a very touristy activity. What were once little boats used by locals for transportation and fishing are now registered boats to take tourists around forests and old towns. Hoi An was once the central commercial hub of Vietnam, having access to the sea via many docks, facilitated commers betwen many asian and European countries. Due to climate change and erosion, the river and sea banks were flooded, leaving large areas of shallow water, no longer suitable for commerce. Nonetheless, they offer a fun and relaxing way to visit beautiful parts of Hoi An. I took this picture highlighting the activity around the river, with the clearly colored and numbered basket boat in the foreground, both tourists and locals on the boats, and a mix of old wooden huts in the middle ground and modern blocky cement buildings in the background, all topped off by the Vietnamese flag in the center frame, a good representation of the mixed realities of the country.
Continuing down the river, we reached an opening, a large basin of water filled with aggregations of boats. There were many tourist-filled boats surrounding individual fidex boats, each hosting a man with a huge speaker, singing songs and inviting people to join him for Karaoke. This reminded me of a music festival, with many stages and artists, just on the water, with out-of-tune people singing and magically floating little boats holding half-ton speakers and, at times, 4 people.
I decided to edit this picture in this Monocrome, style with a hint of sepia. It gave me a 1960’s war vibe, and the groups of boats with flags waving reminded me a bit of a battle happening on the water, just with music instead of guns.
I present to you the magically floating boat.
We talked earlier about tourists and travellers; if we were to analyse this picture, the hats alone would be enough to give us a sense of the subjects of this picture. Dancing and singing in front of this giant speaker, I distinctly remember this woman having the time of her life. We all cheered for her and clapped, while I didn’t sing because… well.. I don’t know Chinese.
It was a very fun day, and a good blend of Vietnamese culture and tourism.
River Boat tour -Thu Bon River, Hoi An, Vietnam
Karaoke Boats -Thu Bon River, Hoi An, Vietnam
A short story on Karaoke in Vietnam.
Karaoke is incredibly popular in Vietnam, so much that you can hear people singing on the side of the street early in the morning just as likely as late at night, at times not even with friends, just on their own, enjoying themselves. One evening I was walking around a beach town and, in search of a beach, with some friends, we stumbled upon 3 Vietnamese friends singing Karaoke in their courtyard with a large speaker; they invited us to sit and drink a beer, try some food, and, of course, we had to sing some songs of our countries. It was a lovely time; we were embarrassed initially, of course, but the beers helped. The whole time I was thinking that this would be impossible to do in Europe; we would get yelled at by neighbours, shut down by the police, or even simply too self-aware to pull this off, but maybe that’s just where I’m from. Yet here, no one cared at all; 10 pm is a great time to try to sing Shakira. (Sorry for the lack of pictures of this, but trust me, you don’t want to see me singing).
Spinning Boats -Thu Bon River, Hoi An, Vietnam
I leave you this week with a picture of a woman getting spun around on the basket boat :P.
There is no big story here; I just thought it was a funny scene, especially with who I imagine is the boyfriend taking an Instagram video of her in the background. The spinning around in the basket boat activity became very popular on social media, and now everyone gets asked if they want to spin. My guide decided to ask me while already beginning the spin, and I already felt like I was going to pass out after 1 full rotation, so you can be sure I felt dizzy just taking this picture.