‘Beg-packers’: Online ire as Western tourists beg to fund their trips

An article on news site France 24 is bringing to light a new trend of Western tourists begging on the streets of Southeast Asian countries for money.

Now, "beg-packing" is catching some flak online.

Images have surfaced online showing Western backpackers sitting on the roadside, with their equipment—such as guitar cases and expensive cameras—propping up signs saying variations of: “We are traveling without money, please help us fund our trip.”

Poor foreigners, only in #Bangkok #Thailand pic.twitter.com/3tOYwITnGQ

— Solo Traveller ? (@ImSoloTraveller) January 17, 2016

Others have been photographed busking, peddling postcards, offering to draw quick caricatures, and more in exchange for money. Busking is specifically frowned upon by a number of netizens, as it is illegal in some of the countries the practice has been observed in, such as Singapore.

These “beg-packers,” as they’ve come to be known, have been seen in countries such as Thailand and Vietnam, where they’re raising eyebrows and blood pressures.

What makes the trend even more questionable is that some of these tourists appear to have the money to buy for themselves expensive items, such as the aforementioned cameras, and other things such as guitars, amplifiers, and violins.

Maisarah Abu Samah, a Singaporean who posted photos of "beg-packers" online, told France 24 that these white tourists do their thing near bus stops and middle-class neighborhoods.

“We find it extremely strange to ask other people for money to help you travel… People who do so are really in need: they beg in order to buy food, pay their children’s school fees or pay off debts. But not in order to do something seen as a luxury!” she said.

A Malaysian woman named Louisa feels that  the phenomenon is proof that there still exists an imbalance between the West and its former colonies in the East.

“I think that this kind of behavior shows how many people still look at the world with an orientalist view,” she told France 24. “They see Asia as an exotic place of spiritual discovery… This turns our continent into a caricature, a mystical land full of adventures or, in other words, a playground for white people.”

Louisa added that, thanks to colonial legacy, “white people are worshipped,” and that these beg-packers would be treated different were they non-white.

The trend has even expanded online, where white people who wish to travel are using crowdfunding platforms to ask for money so they can embark on journeys abroad. — BM, GMA News