About five weeks into my trip I periodically started taking
statistics and collecting research on the various travelers I met along my
journey. This information ranged from where the travelers were from to why they
decided to take such an epic plunge into the cultures of Southeast Asia. Now
there are obviously many intangibles that go into this information as I wasn't
exactly stern on taking things down, just whenever I randomly had my journal by
side I would pop a few questions to the backpackers around me. I’m always so
curious on why people do certain things. After about 5 (ish) months of on and
off stat taking I came up with some pretty interesting findings.
The most glaring one being in regards to where fellow
backpackers were from. Whenever I asked this particular question it was always
what the backpackers nationality was (and/or where they were born) not the
place they grew up. Those are two completely different questions if you ask me.
With this question I garnered a total of 376 responses from backpackers. Of
those 376 people, 75(19.9%) were from England, easily the highest percentage of
any country. 43 or 11.4% of the total number of people I asked were from the
United States making them a distant 2nd. 3rd and 4th
were Germany and Australia respectively with 10% and 7.4% against the totals.
There are a few things that jump out at me. One being the
fact that the United States has over six times the population of England (318
Million = U.S.A / 53 Million = England <<< Yes, I stole those figures
off of Wikipedia) but I met nearly twice as many English people while
traveling. I think a few things factor into this. The main one being the
British Pound is an absolutely REMARKABLE currency. It is unreal how well the
British Pound travels around the world. Sometimes in Southeast Asia when I was
paying 50 cents for a beer I would sometimes stop and think how a Brit feels
buying this cheap stuff. Pretty remarkable difference. Another factor being how
inbred backpacking and adventure is so much a part of growing up in England.
Whenever I would ask an English backpacker on why they were traveling I got
many of the similar responses I would get from Germans, Americans, French,
Canadians etc. but it was the Brits tone of voice that echoed as a common theme
between all of them. Some would say they were taking a gap year before starting
Uni or some said they quit their job to travel for a year. Definitely
respectable answers. The way they responded made me think how much more
socially acceptable such adventures are in their western world. Something I
wish was true for the good ol U.S of A. Now combine these factors, money and
family/friend acceptance, and it makes things exponentially easier when you’re
making the jump to drop the certainties of home for the open road.
Now this doesn't all have to be about the glorifying of our founding
fathers across the water and their
drive to travel. Even with the drastic difference in population 43 of the 376
people I asked were still from the United States. Not an incredible amount, but
still respectable. Americans always seem to get a bad rap for their lack of
international traveling and for good reason. I once heard a statistic, to be
fair I don’t remember the exact figure, that fewer than 50% of Americans own a
passport. There are so many factors that go into this number it’s not even
funny but taking it face-value it is quite disturbing. GET UP AND GO
AMERICA!!! Even so with all the negative
stereotypes surrounding Americans and travel I was quite impressed that almost
12% of the people I met were from America. Shoot, let’s take the numbers I
gathered from the Russians I met. Russia has nearly half the population of U.S
(also stolen from Wikipedia) but only 4 of the 376 people I talked to said they
born there. That’s 1% percent of the totals. What a joke. Sure this information
is just one kid asking around Southeast Asia but I still feel like it’s a
decent sample size with a collection of responses coming from 7 of the 11 total
countries in the region.
One theme to seeing the various Americans across the region
was the fact that they weren't in one place in particular. Everywhere I turned
whether it was wine tasting throughout the rolling hills of Myanmar, scuba
diving in Bali, boat cruising through Halong Bay Vietnam, rocking climbing the
famous walls of Tonsai Beach Thailand or getting overly intoxicated whilst tubing
down the Vang Viene River in Laos there always seemed to be at least one
American in the group. It makes think that this has to do with our extremely
diverse group/mishmash/melting pot of people that call the United States of
America home. Surely we all know no one is actually from America (except the
Native Americans, sorry. Blame Christopher Columbus) but everywhere else around
the world. I think this concept is what spread out the various Americans I met
along my journey. This is something that wasn't always true for other
countries. For example, during my 3 and half weeks in Myanmar I didn't meet ONE
Australian there. For the country that landed fourth on my most met travelers I
found that interesting. In comparison to that I remember meeting an
astronomical amount of French people while I was in Myanmar. Now I don’t have
exact figures on either one of these but it’s intriguing none the less.
There were a few other things I kept statistics on while I
was over there but have yet to “crunch the numbers” and come up with any
interesting findings but when I do I will be sure to share.
