वहत अरे वे?

What Am I?

My older brother is, at times, what I call a "backpacker". That is to say that he goes on long walks, typically on trails through some degree of wilderness, carrying everything that he needs in a device called a backpack. He totes his own water and food, and sleeps on the ground in a thing called a sleeping bag (inside another slightly larger thing called a tent). I believe that he takes only photographs and leaves only footprints, though I can't say for sure. In my small view of the universe, I understood that a person's temporary designation as a "backpacker" was defined by his/her activity (you know, walking a long way through the woods and all that) rather than simply by traveling with a backpack. When I started reading travel guides and budget traveling as a young adult, I learned a whole new definition for the word "backpacker".

As far as I can tell a backpacker is now a relatively wealthy young person from a relatively wealthy nation who travels through relatively poorer nations cleverly disguised as a poor person, and spending as little money as possible on food and lodging while feeling superior to other wealthy people who are spending more for food and lodging. He/she may be carrying a backpack, but probably not very far. A typical backpack may never be carried farther than the distance from the taxi or bus to the baggage check at the airport. Backpackers tend to gather in relatively poor nations at places described in travel books as backpacker bars and in backpacker hostels and hotels. They are easily recognized by their backpacks and an air of one who is most certainly enjoying the 'real' culture on a level that someone carrying any other variety of luggage could never even approximate.

Please believe that I do not desire to denigrate the marvelous invention called a backpack. The backpack is ingenious in that it is a bag that you can carry on your back. This has the dual benefit of enabling you to carry your gear for great distances with minimal exertion while leaving your hands free to do things like point at birds or whack vines with a machete. I don't know if my brother would have ever survived some of his ridiculously long hikes without a good, sturdy but light backpack.

I have a dufflebag. Does that make me a "dufflebagger"? It sounds kind of dirty - but not in the good way. I like my dufflebag well enough. I suppose I wouldn't mind having a backpack. There are probably about fifteen minutes out of every two week trip when it would be useful. It seems like there's always at least once when I have to lug my old dufflebag down the road between hotels or to a bus station and it would be more convenient if I had a backpack. It happens, but not too much. I would not mind having a backpack, but I don't want to be a 'backpacker'.

If I am not a dufflebagger or a backpacker, what am I? I understand why the hip backpackers are not crazy about the term 'tourist'. It denotes that you are on some sort of tour, which is often not the case. But more unpleasant are the connotations of the word 'tourist'. One thinks of a tourist as loud, insensitive, rich, brash, unappreciative, and ignorant of local culture. Hey, I know that I am sounding like a backpacker. Give me a break. At least I am aware of my own hypocrisy (or does being aware of hypocrisy only make it all the more hypocritical?)

I think I like the term 'traveler' the best. It describes what one is doing without paying undo attention to luggage, intention, or (real or assumed) socioeconomic position. It is broad enough to describe the tourists, the honeymooners, the backpackers, the dufflebaggers, the vagabonds, the cruise shippers, the hitchhikers, the pilgrims, my brother, and even me by the activity that we all love and that brings us together.... traveling.