Playing the Accidental Tourist
Written: Nov 18 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: You get a new perspective
Cons: Not everyone's cup of tea
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| cinimod's Full Review: Kuala Lumpur |
Review Topic: Overview
When I don’t get to travel as much as I’d like, I tend to start doing strange things. Since my need to travel is practically insatiable, this happens often. My role of playing the accidental tourist started with a chance encounter that I had with a taxi driver here in my hometown of Kuala Lumpur (KL) a few years ago.
It was a rainy day, and my car was at the workshop. So I stood near a hotel entrance in my business attire trying to hail a taxi in rush hour. Now, anyone who has been in KL for even a couple of weeks will know that it is futile to try to get a taxi when it is rush hour and raining. So I must have looked like a foreigner to the taxi drivers. Well, one actually stopped and wanted to charge me about 3 or 4 times what the metered charge would have been. I of course protested and said that it was the law that he has to take me and use the meter (that is the law, but it is very rarely enforced). His reply was “Maybe in your country, but this is Malaysia. I don’t have to take you if I’m not going in that direction.” Well I was mightily annoyed at first that not only did this guy want to rip me off, he also couldn’t tell that I was local. But then I got to thinking – hey it might be fun to “play the tourist” and see what happens!
You wouldn’t believe some of the things you find out as a tourist in your own city! For one thing, I found out that tourists often get better prices on T-shirts and fake Rolex watches in Chinatown than locals can get. Not only that, but tourists are served with a smile, whereas locals are often viewed with suspicion (I suspect this is because shopkeepers know that locals should be able to get a better deal somewhere else, so their very presence is a cause for suspicion). As a tourist, you can get answers to questions that they would not divulge to locals, like “when did you start this business?” and “do a lot of people sell the same thing here?”. Your curiosity as a tourist is appreciated, but as a local you would be seen as snooping.
If you go with a bunch of friends who are real visitors, you’ll be amazed at the different perspective you’ll get on the city that you live in. I once had a friend come over on business – he stayed at a 5 star hotel on Jalan Bukit Bintang (which is one of the main shopping and entertainment areas in KL). Well, I lived it up for a weekend – free canapés and champagne at the hotel’s executive lounge, strolling the city center checking out all the pubs and shops, getting hit upon by the pimps operating in the red light district. Under normal circumstances I don’t go to the center of town unless I have to, so I was really a tourist. I saw my own city through the eyes of one who hasn’t been there before, and it was a very different place. Taxi drivers, if they think you’re a tourist, will tend to be very candid and offer up their opinions on everything from “Dabladygarmen” (the bloody government) to the effectiveness of Tongkat Ali (our local version of Viagra). Many of the taxi drivers also seem to have unmarried daughters that they are trying to marry off, and by the way, are you married yet?
Walk into a hotel, talk to the concierge like you’re from out of town, and you might get insider tips on where to go for a good time that you would not have considered as a local. Let’s face it, as a local, you’re probably rather out of date on the trendy places to check out in town. Sure, you know where to get the cheapest this and the best that, but do you really know “the scene”? I for one have to rely on friends visiting from London or Singapore to find out where people are going for a good time in the city center of KL.
If you’re wondering how it is possible to pass off as a tourist in your own city – well, assuming your city is fair sized (A million or more inhabitants) and cosmopolitan, then it doesn’t matter that you look like a local – it’s how you dress and how you behave that will mark whether you are a tourist or a local. In KL, wearing Bermuda shorts and/or a fanny pack is a dead giveaway. Carrying a camera and pointing at stuff a lot is another “tourist” identifier. Even walking at a different speed will mark you as a tourist. By the way, observing locals in each city I go to also allows me to “play the local” in foreign countries. KL is a very tourist friendly city, and if you stick to the places that tourists go, it is very safe. Of course, there are many cities where “playing the tourist” could be asking for trouble – I wouldn’t want to stick out as a tourist in certain parts of New York City, for example!
Being a tourist in my own city has brought me into contact with people that I would never have talked to as a local. It has shown me what people in the service industry here think about this city, the country and its people. It has allowed me to ask questions that I wouldn’t have gotten answers to as a local. It has enabled me to travel without spending thousands of dollars and it has given me a deeper understanding of the place I live in.
Travelling, after all, is not about flying to the other end of the world and going wherever Lonely Planet tells you to. Much more than that, it is a state of mind.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
cinimod
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Member: Dominic Lim
Location: World citizen (in an ideal world)
Reviews written: 42
Trusted by: 53 members
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