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| Bogor Palace Frontyard 2017 |
Nowadays, people tend to spend more money to buy “experience” than what people from the past did. Leisure shopping, is the term, has been adopted by more and more people in the world. They prefer to save their money with the intention to use them to explore more places in this earth and enjoying the privilege to label themselves as “travelers”, a new prestigious label found.
More and more people travel. More and more travel bloggers are born since most of the leisure shoppers, surely, want that their experience would be remembered, of course by other people too. Internet have been saturated with the stories of “don’t know who” person that tells his or her stories about the beauties of the never heard place in the “unknown country”.
As a result, more and more people, especially who don’t have money, envy more after reading what the leisure shoppers write or post in their Facebook or Instagram timeline. They would work harder and harder to make sure the next round will theirs to tell the story.
But I don’t.
I meant, I will still work hard everyday. It’s the only way I know to survive in this world that everybody should work and think hard. What I want to tell is, that I don’t have envious feeling for those leisure shoppers.
Having been working as a marketer in several textile companies selling fabrics or garments for more than 20 years, I have been given a chance to visit 14 countries, too many for a village guy like me. I saw quite many places and many things, even before the term of “experience shopping” was born.
This taught me well about three things. The first is that the excitement of being in new places and seeing new things is behind why people likes to travel more these days, However, the second, the excitement last short. After few days in the same places, the excitement fades away and the “ordinary” feeling starts to take over.
Anytime, the same circle happens. No matter how beautiful the places, the same thing happens inside any human being.
An addiction to the “excitement”, as also other type of addictions, will create problems if it is not curbed. It encourages people to spend more, that will make people in tourism industry smile broader, and more even more than their capability to do just to fulfill the need of the excitement.
If you are a millionaire, then, it is fine. Rich people were born to travel. But, if you are not, you may have to borrow money.
Difficult situation created that may trap people in inconvenience.
The last reason, I don’t envy the leisure shoppers, is because I am a street photographer.
I learned that beauties are everywhere/ You just have to open your eyes, scan the surrounding, and grab it. I can just walk down to the nearest square in my hometown with my camera and immediately have the feeling of the same excitement similar to the one I experienced when I landed in a new place.
Photography teaches me well to appreciate beauties surrounding me than thinking about “beauties” in a place that the cost to go there will make my wallet crying.
The only difference is that what I do will not make my neighbors unconsciously open their mouth when I tell my stories of the trip. I will not also have a privilege of labeling myself as leisure shoppers or travel bloggers. But, I don’t mind, now, I prefer to label myself as city crawler, or a street photographers trying to record my city with my camera.
I don’t envy/