Ever thought about the financial impact you make when you visit a country? The "financial ages'' of trave - backpacker to flashpacker?
Ever wondered about the financial impact you make on another country as a visitor? I hadnt really given it much thought until friends rang us from Cambodia to tell us the driver we recommended for them had some news for us - We bought him a house!
I first met CanDo (because whatever you want, he can do) or Mr Kali a few years ago. Typical kid at airport grabs your hand and steers you to uncle driving tuktuk scenario - but I have always stuck with Can Do whenever ive been in Cambodia. Last year, Giant and I were in PP and CanDo became our driver/security guard/negotiator and we were giving him $50USD a day. To us, $50 is lunch at a pub or the booking of a live main event fight on pay TV. Since we met CanDo weve given his number to 4 couples who have gone to PP and had CanDo as their driver. All have given him $50 a day. Three of those couples have given CanDo's number to friends who have again paid him $50 a day. All up we estimate from our initial $50 hes made something in the region of $800...which was enough for him to buy a home with two of his brothers and their families.
When I was travelling 25 years ago giving anyone $50 a day would be like giving them $1000..In those days I had a $5AUD daily budget. Do I feel ripped off when other travellers are haggling down to $1 - no. Did I set out to make CanDo a home owner..not really, never considered it. Just interesting to note the onflow effect.
I am not the benevolent godess of tuktuk drivers..In Bali I jumped off the back of a bike and did a runner simply because I knew the rider who had pestered me for transport for an hour was taking the very very wrong and long way around. I do not set out to improve peoples lives as a reason for travel, i do visit orphanages but never give money only rice and time and bubble blowing toys. I sometimes randomly walk past someone working and go and help...then walk off...more really for the amusement value of the look on their faces rather than any grand philosophical gesture seeking spiritual reward.
As we get older do we move through stages of economic impact as we transcend from backpacker to flashpacker (I love that term, until i found travelblog i never knew I was one!)? Im off to Krabi and places beyond in a couple of weeks. Its been a quarter of a century since I lived in a hut on Ao Nang beach for 10cents Australian haggled down price for each WEEK - this time my hotel is around $100 a NIGHT. Interesting how the footsteps that followed mine over a quarter of a century create this demand for flash hotels and airports and organised tours - and in effect, I will be driving up the price even further.
Reply to this That is an incredible story, Cindy! I would be totally delighted if I found out I made such a difference in somebodies life. 😊
I generally hope I am doing some good, by buying things from family run cafes and street stalls. Some of them come over and thank me after me and my daughter have practically used their cafe as a living room, and ordering all our food and drinks there for a few days or a week. This makes me believe that our custom means something to them, despite that we still rarely step into the flashpacker league.
i do visit orphanages but never give money only rice and time and bubble blowing toys.
My 'good deed' generally involves visiting western prisoners who are being tortured in third world prisons. I bring them some gifts, but mostly I just bring myself(because the prison guards wont let me take in most of the gifts) which seems to mean the most to them. I generally more hope I am doing some good by connecting with people in the worst trouble ever and trapped in an excessively punishing place, but I generally get the drop in the ocean feeling even when I am trying my best. Well, I suppose I choose one prisoner at a time to communicate with and visit, because more than one would be too head wrecking because of the situations they are in. I write to that one and visit when I can, until (s)he is realeased. I am now on the second one. There was going to be a thrid, but I didnt get to visit her. Aborted connection and visit attempts are a bit too common when visiting prisons in the third world. I usually dont give money, because I generally dont have lots to spare, even though money would be useful to them since they sometimes dont get enough food to live on, and depend on family who are already out of their with the legal fee to try and get them out of prison. As for Fincancial footprint, some who have given donations to organisations such as 'Fair Trial Abroad' have made an unbelievable difference, because the presence of their representatives can be the difference between a fair trial and one where somebody spends decades in prison for no crime to a crime that would not be nearly as harshly punished in a western prison.
I also, buy lunch or breakfast for beggars, when there is one around. Well, I choose one beggar to buy these things for, because there are often so many. And, the head wrecked thing applies here too. If I dont limit how much attention I pay to not poverty etc, then I would start to feel too bad about it, because the is only so much one can do, and their is the feeling that most of what you do or give gets sucked into a black hole anyway.
Mel
Reply to this We often consider our economic impact and try to help make a difference. We had to laugh when we were in Siem Riep, Cambodia. We had hired a young man for an entire day to drive us out to the temples. He was wonderful providing historical information. We started out at 4am because we wanted a good position for sun rise. Around 1pm we were tired and asked him to take us back to our hotel for a bit and come back to pick us up at 4pm so we would get a good location for sunset.
We thought we were doing him a big favor by resting from 1pm to 4pm because we knew the buses arrived in town at 1:30pm. We assumed he would go into town and pick up a fare heading to a hotel. We thought we were giving him an opportunity to make a bit more money. As we drove back to the Temples we asked him what he did with his three hours. He had spent the time in an internet cafe. We had to chuckle.
When in Peru we tipped a couple of people and we could tell from their reaction that they were very grateful.
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