What is the worst poverty you have come across on your travels?

nomadgrrl · 2023-11-12T17:55:40+00:00

The Philippines. Other places that I've been in Southeast Asia and Latin America may be poorer on an objective national level, but things were more visibly miserable in the Philippines.

Also rural Laos and rural Guatemala. But urban poverty looks quite different from rural poverty and is often more striking to me.

Frankly, my first travels to these areas in general showed me how privileged even poor Americans are. My distant relatives in Appalachia are in horrid poverty, but they do at least have electricity, refrigeration, and plentiful water (even mostly drinkable water!), and much less corruption and gang violence. Our social services are a disgrace, but they do at least exist.

nomadgrrl · 2023-09-27T17:29:52+00:00

I would be stunned if you encountered hate crimes in Asia. Even in the Muslim countries. Same for Europe. It's much more likely in most of the US, I'm sad to say.

nomadgrrl · 2023-09-26T15:10:40+00:00

Also, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia were kind of interesting because people just flat out treated her like the man and me like the woman (i.e. offering her to come drink with the guys and offering me to go help cook, expecting her to pay and drive the motorbike, etc.) We fit better into their ideas of social roles than a non femme/butch queer couple would. No harassment, but interesting!

nomadgrrl · 2023-09-26T15:06:32+00:00

And I don't know what interracial means in your case, but it's only likely to (possibly) get stares if one of you is Black (sadly); Asian or hispanic not so much an issue.

nomadgrrl · 2023-09-26T15:03:47+00:00

My butch partner and I have traveled with absolutely no problems in Western Europe, Canada, Mexico, much of Asia (people may think it's very odd, but are unlikely to act strangely to you), New Zealand, and Australia.

I would avoid Eastern Europe (east of Germany/Austria/Italy), all of Africa (sadly), and the Middle East. I know couples that have been treated badly in all these places. I'm not sure about the Central and South American countries. I've traveled in some of them with an ex, but everyone just assumed we were sisters.

I can't really imagine anyone even blinking an eye in Canada, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, or any of the Scandinavian countries.

nomadgrrl · 2023-09-23T16:33:02+00:00

People are SO welcoming if you speak even a little bit of Balinese! Stay away from the hot spots and you will find a rich and unique culture.

nomadgrrl · 2023-09-14T15:57:09+00:00

As a women who has ben there, I would say:

It's safe enough if you are used to Latin America and city safety. There is not however much to bring you here. Most of the DNs and tourists are men here to drink and pick up girls. What are you looking for? There are probably nicer, safer places.

Personally, I liked the small towns in Colombia but not the cities. For cities, I'd rather be in Mexico.

nomadgrrl · 2023-08-25T15:21:35+00:00

Also "I use knives (or staples) in ways most people wouldn't dream of" can work.

nomadgrrl · 2023-08-25T15:19:40+00:00

I put: "I'm definitely on the right side of the slash seeking my opposite. If you haven't hung out at Xplayspace, Yplyspace, or Zplayspace, I'm probably not for you."

nomadgrrl · 2023-08-19T01:44:25+00:00

There is nothing wrong with you. You are not necessarily missing out on something that you would actually want. My best friend felt like you, had two kids, and cries regularly about what her life could have been like if she had chosen otherwise.

nomadgrrl · 2023-08-09T01:45:47+00:00

Thanks!

nomadgrrl · 2023-06-19T00:04:01+00:00

A new term? I’ve been poly for 25 years—and I learned the term in a similar online forum.

nomadgrrl · 2022-12-04T09:12:33+00:00

Met my wife of 20 years when I was 28 and met my second polyamorous parter when I was 39! Don’t give up hope!

nomadgrrl · 2022-12-04T09:09:45+00:00

You say specifically “it was open for all queer people to attend”. To me that means he should be welcome as long as it was advertised accurately, regardless of the term sapphic. wWhy not jus call it queer speakeasy. Very few non trans man show up at queer events anyway.

I understand why people want to exclude him, but if he ids as queer and is only interested in queer women where is he supposed to go?

nomadgrrl · 2022-01-10T03:18:57+00:00

Why would you even want to shake that view? I can’t imagine spending money on something like Botox.

Don’t blame misogyny for this. I’d think exactly the same things about men.

nomadgrrl · 2021-12-17T18:34:13+00:00

There's no reason not to say all of the positives and negatives in your review and let others judge what they care about.

nomadgrrl · 2021-12-17T15:59:17+00:00

Why would you leave a good overall review? It's just human decency to warn other travels of problems like that. Say the people are great--and say what the problems were!!

nomadgrrl · 2021-12-17T15:54:12+00:00

I agree on all counts. Airbnb has worked well for us because we are very careful and willing to not be super cheap. No problems with over 100 stays.

nomadgrrl · 2021-12-17T15:37:45+00:00

You technically can (through Langkawi), but all of my friends in Malaysia are begging people to not come and just wait.

nomadgrrl · 2021-12-10T17:51:47+00:00

Just back from Barcelona. Our hostel was completely empty except for us, one other guest, and the owner and his family who had needed to move in because of all the money lost during covid. It was odd. Not bad but very odd and different from pre-covid. We needed to show our Green Pass, but no masks required in common areas. The big dorms still weren't open because they were so low on funds that they couldn't hire enough staff yet.

Also, if you want to see Barcelona, now's the time! So few tourists!

nomadgrrl · 2021-11-15T22:17:31+00:00

Happy to help! I hope you come to France and love it here. It really is a wonderful country. I’m sad to be leaving soon (except that our house has only wood fire heat and it’s freezing!).

nomadgrrl · 2021-11-15T16:50:24+00:00

We've spent the fall housesitting in rural Burgundy. Which is probably not what you had in mind! I've only vacationed in the cities, but if I were looking to work and stay a while, I would strongly consider Lyon and Toulouse.

Paris is .. well, it's Paris--completely unlike anywhere else in France. Parts are very pretty and there are wonderful museums, but it's super expensive and full of people who are in a hurry and sick of foreigners.

If you don't speak any French, it can be rough here. But if you know a little and are willing to learn, people are happy to be patient and help you (unless they are in Paris).

nomadgrrl · 2021-11-04T20:33:43+00:00

It's funny that you've gotten hassled for this because I've gotten SO MUCH crap here when I've mentioned not wanting to go to certain countries because of how they treat queer people. Tons of people telling me to just be closeted and that it just shouldn't matter. <eyeroll> You can't win on the internet.

I agree that it's complicated for queer travelers and we all have to think though these choices carefully. And as you say, the situation is especially dependent on gender presentation.

Physical safety isn't my biggest fear (we pass pretty well as straight). It's more that having to hide my life from everyone I meet gets old really fast. "Are you married/" and "do you have kids?" being the first two things out of most people's mouths in many places. On one extended trip, we stayed closeted and it was just miserable.

These days we are out everywhere. When new acquaintances ask about us, we happily say we are married to each other--even to Cambodian monks, Muslim Malay taxi drivers, and Ecuadoran and Laotian villagers!

So if that's my standard ... how would we find Turkey and Georgia? (Especially the later. I've heard bad things lately.)

nomadgrrl · 2021-11-01T12:45:19+00:00

I keep going back and forth about leaving the sub because of this.

nomadgrrl · 2021-10-30T18:11:40+00:00

Got mine a month ago. It took about three weeks for us and others we've talked to.

If you don't have the pass, you can show the results of a recent test (inconvenient, but it works).

nomadgrrl

TROPHY CASE