Worlds worst travellers, Aussies taking the lead!

[fisho mcspaz]

My ex is American. He actually lived in Australia for a year before I met him but I don't think that was long enough. Stick him in one of those Australian souvenir shops in Hahndorf and he was quite likely to blow half his savings. He couldn't walk past a kangaroo without going 'This is an Australian animal' and taking a picture of it. (He also thought we really revered our kangaroos because they're on our coat of arms - I had to inform him that we are the only country that eats our coat of arms and that kangaroos are routinely culled because of overpopulation.) We drove across Victoria and the whole way he was saying things like 'Wow, that sign says "kilometres" ' or 'Hey, a winery' or 'There's a mountain'. It didn't seem to matter what it was or how common it was in his own country, the fact that it was in Australia somehow made it a Unique and Noteworthy Cultural Artifact. I don't know about all Yanks but he was definitely the worst tourist I'd ever met.

[A Mum]

sounds good A Mum, great experience all round!! maybe all your life at a place like that could wear thin! there would be endless camping adventures around, which would be cool.

Actually no - I don't think there are endless camping adventures.
Too many brown snakes
Too hot in summer - freezing cold in winter (at night) !

The days in winter are glorious though - 17 degrees and sunny as - wonderful

My husband would move up there again in a heartbeat - but I won't leave the kids and there's no way they'd go now they're older...lol.

Once you've seen the rock and the olgas that's about it.

So it's mainly the lifestyle that keeps people there.

I know someone who has been up there for 30+ years - as far as I know is still there.
And friends of ours stayed - one for 10 years - one for 15 years.

I think most 'young' people last 12 months.
Young families 3 to 5 years.

(once a resident for 6 months you get a zone rebate of around $1500 in your tax return and every year - just for living there!)

And not wanting to start a whole new debate - having lived there and seeing the 'antics' of the dingoes - I have no doubt at all that a dingo did take Azaria.

[whufc]

In my only OS travelling experiences which was in Fiji, we found that most aussie tourists in our resort were jack asses, they obviously came from medium type wealth and thought because they were in a five star resort they were all a sudden superstars.e,g ordering fijian barman on the resort to order them a taxi just to go a further 50 meters up the resort, they had no apparentent health issues as they were all fine to party on in the resorts bar that night. Then also complain when the taxi took more than 2 minutes, also my pet hate was clicking at the fijian staff nothing ruder imho.

By the end of our 3 week stay it was so funny we would be 5-10 deep in the line at various restaurants and bars but would get pulled to the front of the line by the local fijians because we had been very polite and respected there culture and participated as much as possible. The local fijians were absoluley magnificant, nothing was to much trouble for them as long as they were shown the same respect back.

Fiji is full of Indians, now they were the rudest people i have ever met even the indians in Aus i find completely rude as well, they were out for nothing more than making another dollar and didn't even try and be nice or polite in their endevour, my wife was spat on by an indian bloke because she didn't by a junk necklace for $50 fijian dollars, we already had spent $200 fijian dollars of the bloke. Lucky i had my wits about me over that or i might have ended up on 'banged up abroad'

If an Indian (or anyone for that matter) spat on my missus, I would have pounded the **** out of them.

yeah ordinarily i would have to, but we were warned on arrival by the fijian police that they don't take kindly to tourists being involved in fights or drunken disorderly behaviour especially outside of the resorts.

[AFLflyer]

In my only OS travelling experiences which was in Fiji, we found that most aussie tourists in our resort were jack asses, they obviously came from medium type wealth and thought because they were in a five star resort they were all a sudden superstars.e,g ordering fijian barman on the resort to order them a taxi just to go a further 50 meters up the resort, they had no apparentent health issues as they were all fine to party on in the resorts bar that night. Then also complain when the taxi took more than 2 minutes, also my pet hate was clicking at the fijian staff nothing ruder imho.

By the end of our 3 week stay it was so funny we would be 5-10 deep in the line at various restaurants and bars but would get pulled to the front of the line by the local fijians because we had been very polite and respected there culture and participated as much as possible. The local fijians were absoluley magnificant, nothing was to much trouble for them as long as they were shown the same respect back.

Fiji is full of Indians, now they were the rudest people i have ever met even the indians in Aus i find completely rude as well, they were out for nothing more than making another dollar and didn't even try and be nice or polite in their endevour, my wife was spat on by an indian bloke because she didn't by a junk necklace for $50 fijian dollars, we already had spent $200 fijian dollars of the bloke. Lucky i had my wits about me over that or i might have ended up on 'banged up abroad'

If an Indian (or anyone for that matter) spat on my missus, I would have pounded the **** out of them.

haha !!! for the record travelled the south of india for a month and people were frindly as, just wanted a picture taken with them, heard its a bit more crazy up north though, never met many indian tourists, just the occasional RICH indian family.

[mighty_tiger_79]

sounds good A Mum, great experience all round!! maybe all your life at a place like that could wear thin! there would be endless camping adventures around, which would be cool.

Actually no - I don't think there are endless camping adventures.
Too many brown snakes
Too hot in summer - freezing cold in winter (at night) !

The days in winter are glorious though - 17 degrees and sunny as - wonderful

My husband would move up there again in a heartbeat - but I won't leave the kids and there's no way they'd go now they're older...lol.

Once you've seen the rock and the olgas that's about it.

So it's mainly the lifestyle that keeps people there.

I know someone who has been up there for 30+ years - as far as I know is still there.
And friends of ours stayed - one for 10 years - one for 15 years.

I think most 'young' people last 12 months.
Young families 3 to 5 years.

(once a resident for 6 months you get a zone rebate of around $1500 in your tax return and every year - just for living there!)

And not wanting to start a whole new debate - having lived there and seeing the 'antics' of the dingoes - I have no doubt at all that a dingo did take Azaria.

A MUM - ever thought of writing a book - or you could start up your own thread with your stories here.

you been around the place by sounds of it

[Dog_ger]

Please define country of origin when you define Australians please

[Q.]

Please define country of origin when you define Australians please

Whaddya mean, like where our ancestors migrated from?

[devilsadvocate]

Please define country of origin when you define Australians please

So you can kick off the racism debate again.....no thanks

[redandblack]

Want to travel and enjoy it?

Take Pseudo's advice about France and learn a few words and a phrase or two in the local language.

If you know how to say please, thank you, yes and no, the numbers and how to ask for a coffee or a beer, it adds greatly to the trip, wherever you go. The French are wonderful if you have a go at their language, but that applies to many countries. The difficulty in Europe now is that it's becoming harder to find opportunities to speak anything other than English.

[A Mum]

A MUM - ever thought of writing a book - or you could start up your own thread with your stories here.

you been around the place by sounds of it

Yeah well - I probably could...lol... and I have been - plus I think the older you get the more stories you have

[JAS]

Want to travel and enjoy it?

Take Pseudo's advice about France and learn a few words and a phrase or two in the local language.

If you know how to say please, thank you, yes and no, the numbers and how to ask for a coffee or a beer, it adds greatly to the trip, wherever you go. The French are wonderful if you have a go at their language, but that applies to many countries. The difficulty in Europe now is that it's becoming harder to find opportunities to speak anything other than English.

Couldn't agree more...every country I've ever visited I've tried to learn at least a few basics in the local language. Just making that tiny effort has always resulted in being shown the utmost courtesy and good service in hotels, restaurants, shops etc.

As an example whilst in Jordan, unknown to me, a large party of Germans and Austrians had arrived at the hotel in the night. When I came down to breakfast every chair had a cardi or jacket on it (I always thought the towels on the sunbed thing was a myth but I kid you not). In one little corner was one of the waiters who had volunteered to guard a small table and chair just for me. Little things like that can make a big difference to a holiday.

Only place the language thing failed was Prague cos no matter how hard my mate and I tried we couldn't even pronounce 'good morning' in Czech but that in itself resulted in fits of giggles on both sides so was a great ice-breaker with the hotel staff.

Tbh I can't remember meeting many Aussies whilst travelling so can't really judge you lot. In fact the only one I can think of was in Jordan...lovely young couple...he was from Sydney and she was Singaporean. The worst I've found are other Brits...the kind who always wear a Union flag somwhere on their body, get pissed at breakfast and are convinced the only way to make foreigners understand is to speak slowly and loudly at them in English.

Regards
JAS

[Pseudo]

...every country I've ever visited I've tried to learn at least a few basics in the local language. Just making that tiny effort has always resulted in being shown the utmost courtesy and good service in hotels, restaurants, shops etc.

Well JAS I hope you put some effort into learning the local lingo before you start your much-heralded trip down under. Here's a link to help you on your way:

http://www.upfromaustralia.com/aussieslang.html

[JAS]

...every country I've ever visited I've tried to learn at least a few basics in the local language. Just making that tiny effort has always resulted in being shown the utmost courtesy and good service in hotels, restaurants, shops etc.

Well JAS I hope you put some effort into learning the local lingo before you start your much-heralded trip down under. Here's a link to help you on your way:

http://www.upfromaustralia.com/aussieslang.html

Haha...thanks that should be very useful.

A few years back the No1 goddaughter sent a copy of this over as a bookmark so I was going to hunt it out and take with me as a handy phrase book



Regards
JAS

[Q.]

Want to travel and enjoy it?

Take Pseudo's advice about France and learn a few words and a phrase or two in the local language.

If you know how to say please, thank you, yes and no, the numbers and how to ask for a coffee or a beer, it adds greatly to the trip, wherever you go. The French are wonderful if you have a go at their language, but that applies to many countries. The difficulty in Europe now is that it's becoming harder to find opportunities to speak anything other than English.

And then you have the added pleasure of your English suddenly being spoken with a french accent.

Incidentally, I still catch myself saying "C'est bon".

[The Yetti]

I wouldn't have thought that anyone could rank this by Country. Things that cause bad behaviour ranked below.
1. How much you have had to drink.
2. How long you have been standing in a line.
3. Language Difficulties
4. How many street sellers you have just passed and said no
5. How good are the kids being.
6. How lost you are.
7. How well you understand their culture and rules
8. How much more you have drunk.
9. How good a day you are having.
10. When you are having a real bad day...How much the bureacrats just don't get it

[Mic]

French are the rudest and most arrogant, have had a couple arguments with some while traveling overseas.
Indians are the most annoying.
Yanks are the loudest.
Poms are the friendliest.

Haven't had too many problems with Aussies.

[MW]

Visited the Hiroshima museum in Japan and there was a couple of Americans screaming out "we did not do this, we did not do this!" and they were serious!

[AFLflyer]

firstly I agree about learning a little language before travelling to a country, exactly right.
But the problems I have had with some french guys has been out of france, which has included two different small group tours. Both times the french lads seem to demand more respect than other members of the tour.. They both came across very arrogant and almost like they thought they were better than the rest.. I'm sure there is some real decent French travellers, just my experience on two different tours.. A part from that haven't had much to do with other Frenchies on my travels..

[fisho mcspaz]

Met a French bloke in a pub once, he was on holiday and he was really irate that our cheese wasn't as good as France's. 'No comparison! It is shit!' he kept saying at the top of his voice. 'You don't know what good cheese is in Australia. I can't wait to go home to Lyon!' My friend tried to pacify him by saying 'You should try Margaret River cheese, it's great' but I was more like 'Why bother? Go home to Lyon and your superior cheese!'

[Drop Bear]

My ex is American. He actually lived in Australia for a year before I met him but I don't think that was long enough. Stick him in one of those Australian souvenir shops in Hahndorf and he was quite likely to blow half his savings. He couldn't walk past a kangaroo without going 'This is an Australian animal' and taking a picture of it. (He also thought we really revered our kangaroos because they're on our coat of arms - I had to inform him that we are the only country that eats our coat of arms and that kangaroos are routinely culled because of overpopulation.) We drove across Victoria and the whole way he was saying things like 'Wow, that sign says "kilometres" ' or 'Hey, a winery' or 'There's a mountain'. It didn't seem to matter what it was or how common it was in his own country, the fact that it was in Australia somehow made it a Unique and Noteworthy Cultural Artifact. I don't know about all Yanks but he was definitely the worst tourist I'd ever met.

Hahahaha, brilliant. "This is an Australian animal". I can picture a yank saying that!