Would Traveling Be Quite As Fun Without Borders? [RESPONSES]
Passport stamps are fun and borders quite a rush, but many of you could do without the hassle of travel visas. When I asked last month if traveling would be less fun without borders, it turns out much of it depends on the ease of the crossing.
Whether it’s the cost of time to go through border control or the pressure of extortion, many of you would probably have more fun counting places without an involved process.
- Turkey’s For Life: “I quite like them on a superficial level. In an ideal world, everyone would be free to come and go as they please. No borders, visas…we’re allowed to dream.”
- Linguist In Waiting: “I actually would prefer that there would be no borders. I know why they exist, and I also know that if the borders were to disappear, we’d see a big wave of migration, since living conditions in our planet are not the same everywhere. But as a Filipino citizen, my passport doesn’t allow easy travel and most of the time, I need a visa to go to places. That is just a hassle. Why do I have to pay $85 for a Schengen visa when an American citizen doesn’t need it?”
- Ayngelina: “When my passport was stole in Vietnam the one thing I missed the most was the big communist visa sticker. Sigh, I guess I’ll just have to go back!”
- Kirstin: “One of my biggest travel dreams is visiting Samarkand and Bukhara in Uzbekistan, and as an American, I would sure love it if there weren’t any sketchy Uzbek border guards (and hefty bribes) preventing me from my dream!”
- Priyank: “I do secretly enjoy looking at my colorful passport with all the visas in it. The fact that I cannot go anywhere on a whim (having an Indian passport) makes things challenging, which I don’t mind because then it feels like I have worked hard for the holiday.”
- Gourmantic: “It’s not only great to see the proof and collect these stamps, but they serve as a memory jogger of the dates we traveled to certain countries.”
- Phil: “Interesting question, but one that I realize I do not need to spend much time thinking about…Most of my traveling is in Africa where borders are a nightmare.”
- Barbara Weibel: “Although it’s nice to get that new stamp in my passport, I don’t think the lack of borders would make the least dent in the fun of traveling. For me it’s all about the people I meet, and culture varies widely, even within a single country. In some places, I only need cross a street to enter a new world; for me that’s the fun of travel.”
There are some other benefits of official boundaries, like cheesy pictures as Annie points out, and many wonderful stories from border crossings around the world in the comments of that previous post. The stories from some experienced travelers like Akila, Justin Morris, Fabio, and JoAnne, might have you changing your border tune – or at least seeing it in a new light.
[photos by: Xaiozhuli (Brazil Uruguay border crossing), the queen of subtle (passport stamps), DTrigger05 (Main Street panorama)]