In South Africa, with its population enjoying a national health care scheme, with its safe town and city water sources, etc., you can eat just about anything, including salads, anywhere.

India, as Akila mentioned, is another story. If only the very poorest people dine at a place, you may be wise to avoid it.

Unfortunately in striving for an ‘authentic’ experience, some western travelers insist on always saving the maximum amount, and they get sick.

I try to not make much of the traveler/tourist distinction, as I really believe they are similar—if not the same. But I try to be cognizant of the walls that the travel industry puts up in order to keep me in a certain area and slowly chip away at my travel funds!

So what is a ‘tourist’?

I take your point that by sitting on the kerb drinking out of buckets on Khao San Road for a week doesn’t give you the best idea of what Bangkok is really like however it’s still a fun place to spend a few hours of an evening exchanging stories and tips (like many travel bloggers do via their laptops). I agree that the point scoring that goes on can be tiresome but I am sure we are all guilty of doing this whether it’s in a hostel or back home when somebody brings up the subject of a particular destination.

If a person claims to have got more out of a trip simply because they avoided so-called ‘tourist’ areas sounds just as much as point scoring as the person in the hostel counting the number of countries they have been to.

You would clearly be a fool to avoid all of the popular tourist destinations as you would miss out on the Grand Palace in Bangkok or Tower Bridge in London. Similarly, claiming to live like a local when travelling is all well and good but you would obviously draw the line at experiencing life as a local in the terrorist-rich areas of southern Thailand and parts of India.

I’m a firm believer that you get out of travel what you put in and the important thing is to be yourself and come back with no regrets. The things you chose to do or not do should and the reasons behind it should be personal choice; One man’s dream is another man’s nightmare.

A ‘tourist’ is simply one who travels for pleasure. It’s a bubble I’m happy to be in!

Andy

PS – great tip about taking photos & props. Always a brilliant ice-breaker when meeting people.

I try to be observant as well with the little things that I find different. How do people walk, what mannerisms do they use, etc. Watching others (and not yourself the entire time) is a great way to learn and blend in.

I am wary of eating at roadside stands because I have gotten sick too many times in India; instead, we seek out the “fast food” options of the specific country. In Venice, for example, we went to the bacari — bars that serve cichetti (or Italian tapas) for 1 Euro per serving — and found ourselves in the back corners of Venice, hanging out with soccer playing kids and wrinkled old men.

One of the best ways I have found to break the tourist bubble is by traveling the way they travel. (This may be obvious to backpackers, but other tourists forget.) Forgo the sightseeing lecture with lame jokes on the tour bus and take the local. Ride the train instead of renting a car. WALK!

Another way is to avoid the restaurants mentioned in any guidebook–by the time you get there thousands of others have read about it and hundreds have found it (Seemingly on the day you get there). Instead, look for where the locals are eating. As a matter of fact, we find restaurants that way in the United States when we are on road trips–look for the place with the most cars around it with local licenses.
In non-English speaking lands, we avoid restaurants with English language menus.(Traveling with a tiny menu translator book–there are plenty of them–certainly helps.)