How the Cheap Hippy Backpacker Views Himself

As the hyper-aware, culturally sensitive cheap hippy backpacker trots along on his worldwide journey of spiritual awakening and spreading of goodwill throughout the less fortune regions of the earth, he or she becomes an ambassador of global peace, understanding, and …uh. Give me a minute here. Ummm. OH! Stinginess. Yes. A representative of the stinginess of wealthier Western nations towards the developing world. So, not exactly the effect the cheap hippy backpacker had originally in mind.

Armed with Lonely Planet guidebooks, dreadlocks, and an overwhelming aura of uncleanliness, the cheap hippy backpacker sets out on a journey of self-enlightenment, and in turn continually befuddles natives along the way as to why someone with such wealth potential would dress so poorly. This is one of the paradoxes of budget travel – trying to show the less fortune that money and prosperity alone cannot bring happiness, and them replying: let me be the judge of that, easy for you to say, and – you try going through life never even being able to afford a single trip to the dentist. In other words, they just don’t want to hear it. Especially from a young twenty-something, over privileged hippy whose only work experience includes being an assistant coffee barrista at the local espresso bar.

So, when the cheap hippy backpacker naively blows money on a meditation course by yet another fraudulent spiritual guru, and then attempts to haggle with the hard-working tuk-tuk driver over a measily 5 Baht, well, need I say more?