Asian women don't do this, Asian men do that etc etc

Me eating vegetarian food using my hands at an Indian temple



It surprises me that some long-term travelers obviously haven't learnt anything from their journey. I don't want to mention any names in order not to name and shame anybody. For sure I will not bother to give negative references to those people although they bore me to death. There was that person A with prejudiced nearly racist opinions about the Thais. This sounded strange to me because this person was a professional and he should have more sense for logic and reasoning. We may not have differed too much in opinion because I have some discomfort in the hierarchy of the Thai culture too. Without my Thai host and her internationally orientated friends I would have been lost in this culture.

"I will never marry a Thai woman, the Thais think they are better than the others, I don't surf with a Thai, the Thais are only friendly when they can receive some bahts, the Thais are always right, foreigners are always wrong......etc......etc" said Mr. A. For my taste this is simply too much generalisation and heavy prejudice for an intellectual person like A. The Thai culture feels like inaccessible and impossible to put my arms around but there is always an acception to the rule.

I found that in most cases it was easier for me to connect with Malaysians than Thais but language barriers can make things hard in cross cultural communication. The very rigid structure of the Thai society makes it way more difficult for me to immerse in their culture. Anyway, as I asked where his opinion or prejudice came from he said that he read many articles on "The Thais". I need first-hand experience where I do take writings or opinions into consideration.

And there was that person B who had lived in Asia for long enough to gain more knowledge of the local people. She lived in Thailand for nearly one year. And yet her view on these cultures was still the view of the superficial spectator or visitor. She got a culture shock after coming to Perth but did not understand a tiny little bit of the Asian culture. Apparently she was disrooted in her own culture and not able yet to immerse into the new culture.

And my favourite sentence of her was:" Asian(!!!) girls don't hike." just because she couldn't find hiking shoes for women. Running off the beaten track with some Chinese Malaysian girls taught me better about the hiking Asian girls. I was impressed by their strength and stamina. Ah well....this woman was so stubborn that she wouldn't even understand what was being talked about."

And these people are supposed to be Couchsurfers or travelers. Well, maybe I need to learn that in a facility like Couchsurfing people are as diverse as anywhere in the world.