So last Summer I Went to...

I think it's really easy to talk about travelling and sound like a douchebag. Not that I'm rallying against travel, but it seems to be very easy to make it sound super elitist (which it is). Because of it's natural exclusivity it makes for a tough topic to handle with tact or grace.

I was at a dinner/wine drinking thing tonight and between me making awful jokes and talking about online dating and norwhales, the subject of travel was broached. It seemed innocuous enough, but in the wrong hands it can make you want to vomit. Tonight was one such night. I kinda suspected it, seeing as India was the locus of the conversation. I'm not sure what it is about India but it seems to draw out people desire to make a profound statement.

This one guy, who apart from this moment, seemed alright. But he was even talking in that soft, philosofical tone to make it sound like he was the Dalai Fucking Lama. I mean give me a fucking break. I know that this place has some spiritual background, what with yoga/meditation/Ghandi/sacred cows, but it's still a place. An experience. And this guy goes on to try to explain India (and how he had been everywhere, in three weeks no less. Not sure if you are aware, but it's a big fucking place) and the best he could do was to say that "you feel the highest highs and the lowest lows there." Really? Is that all there is? You can't give me a better description than that. And that Mahatma Ghandi voice seemed to implicate some sense of completeness, like I was the retard missing out on his perfect description of the place.

Then he goes on to tell about a letter that Ghandi wrote to Hitler, and how extremely "profound" it was. And while I'm sure it was an inspirational peice of writing, his elaboration seemed to ring hollow, like he'd read about it in a tour book but hadn't actually sat down to read it.

The thing is, this guy isn't necessarily an asshole, it's just really easy to make yourself look this way when speaking about aimlessly wandering the globe. Few people get that opportunity so to treat it with any sort of overdramatization can make it feel elitist and shallow and make the speaker look like a dick.