Quote:
Originally Posted by MarisaAnna
It is a bit hard to communicate with the locals in Taiwan as English is little spoken, despite it being compulsory at school. Our guide did discuss politics at length and a lot of the info went way over our heads!
In general, as a group, it depends on where you are and how much free time you have as to how much you interact with locals.
However tourists are so common in much of the world these days that any novelty effect is absent. The idea of immersing yourself in the local culture is not realistic, unless you are living there. And even then, people often stick with others of a similar background.
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One does wonder any gain obtained in being a tourist these days with the uniformity of it all, high costs, limited experience availing with so little insight too often resulting .
No wonder decades back there was a class of tourist. The travellers, that liked to consider themselves different. They aimed at harder to get places and looked down with disdain on ordinary tourists.
Thing being too many of those followed LP as a bible , hence most of similar persuasion followed a well worn path.
But these days far harder to even doing that. Big money has changed most everywhere and no turning back the clock.
As for Taiwan, I expect their political discourse would be of a similar nature. Awareness of potential in conflict with PRC.
Unlikely to find easy engagement with locals from being in a group, I would imagine. One advantage of travelling solo. One must engage locally. Probably as a couple to easy to remain aloof, or at best communicate solely with other tourists.
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