I See White People

This is a little note to all of the travelers out there.

Ahem… cough cough

WE CAN SEE YOU!!!

You are NOT invisible.

So when we walk by you on the street and we smile & nod at you, quit acting like you are.

Don’t look the other way.

Don’t try and ignore us.

Smile and nod back.

I know “the Lonely Planet” and “the Rough Guide” and the “Let’s Go” and all the other guidebooks out there tell you that to be a “true traveler” you have to blend in with the culture you’re visiting, but there’s only so much you can do.

When you’re six-foot-four, blond & white and almost everyone around you is five-foot-nine & Asian, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, YOU’RE GOING TO STAND OUT!!!

Do you think we’re going to blow your cover?

Do you think you’re so incognito that if you smile & nod back at us, then people are going to realize you’re not actually from there?

Do you think they’re going to say “Hey - look at those two foreigners nodding at our fellow countrymen. Wait a second! They’re not our countrymen – they’re travelers too!!!”

Because the thing is, when we smile and nod at the locals, they smile & nod back.

It’s called being friendly.