“As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life — and travel — leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks — on your body or on your heart — are beautiful.”
– Anthony Bourdain (our travel role model and inspiration)
We believe travel is the best way to gain new perspectives of the world and its cultures, and in this process of learning about the world, we find we inevitably learn about ourselves. We believe only through well thought-out responsible travel can we impact change for the better. This website was created to share what we’ve learnt on our adventures and share our travel philosophy of how we apply the concept of Responsible Tourism to our travel adventures.
Our 4 Pillars of Responsible Tourism:
- Travel should benefit the local people and economy in which we are visiting.
- When we travel, we must remember that we are the visitors not them. We should not expect them to do anything for us, accommodate us, or understand our language or culture.
- Travel can change the world but it can also just as easily harm the very countries we fall in love with. We must travel with mindfulness. Responsible and well-thought out travel has the power to change the world, one person at a time, one small decision at a time, but thoughtless travel has the power to destroy cultures and environments.
- The purpose of travel is not just to enjoy and relax, but to also understand the world and its cultures. It’s not just to Instagram that we went somewhere everyone else wants to go. It’s not just to prove to ourselves we can figure things out on our own. Of course, it can be all of the above, but we believe the real underlying reason should be to learn. These travel experiences have the power to change our perspectives, our mentality, and our approach to life, ultimately helping us lead richer lives.
Through this website we hope to:
- Inspire others to travel responsibly and open their minds and hearts to new cultures and people …
- Bring the world to those who are unable to travel …
- Connect to others who have visited these same countries, who can either relate to our experiences or provide a different perspective to enrich the view we provide …
- As Canadians of Asian ethnicity, provide a unique perspective of personal backpacking stories from the perspective of an Asian-Canadian …
Through sharing our experiences, we hope to contribute to a deeper understanding of the beautiful countries we have visited, some of which are not well-known or well-traveled especially in Canada, and some which suffer from negative and unfounded stereotypes. We hope that through our accounts of travel, we can provide a real view of these countries for what they are, at a specific snapshot of time, and from the perspective of two Asian Canucks (and one orange dinosaur).
– Wandering Maple Clementine Team
Wandering Maple Clementine 