The NEW Official RS Top Gear / The Grand Tour thread

[68style]

Hahaha I will say the China tourists did not do themselves any favours whatsoever when I was at Auschwitz in Poland and they were all babbling away at top volume in Mandarin and taking pictures/selfies in the gas chamber/shower room until the furious attendant lady went up to the guide leader and tore a strip off him about keeping a modicum of respect for the nature of the place.

[CivicBlues]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

There is a look though. We did not look the part of the China tourist and I think that's what got us through, we were obviously tourists but not the hated kind. You look around Vancouver you can instantly pick out who's from China and not assimilating, who's born or grew up here, the new HK FOBs. They have a look to them. It's a subtle fashion thing, or the way they talk, or the way they hold themselves, you can tell.

I guarantee you, regular Josef or Jacques Seis-pack does not know the distinction or give a shit. You're all just Chinois or Chinkies to them. Even if you're Vietnamese

Anyways I could write a whole novel on European racism. It's a lot less "polite" than American racism but for the most part less "threatening" if that makes sense. There will be a lot of microagressions but less so physical danger. I can't say for this is the case for some of the suburbs with large migrant populations it may be similar to walking into Compton at night.

Anyways having been to Europe over a dozen times a few things have stood out in my memory but for the most part we never really had major difficulties.

1. Chinky eyes pulled by one of those Restaurant touts in Barcelona when we had a gander at the outside menu. Told him in broken Spanish it was not cool and we left.

2. "Ching-Chonged" by another Restaurant tout in Greece. We told him to fuck off because he obviously could speak english fluently.

3. Got seated alone at a restaurant in Poland, was throughly ignored and just got up and left.

Tons of instances in rude service however couldn't really attribute it to being Asian or just being oblivious tourists

[noclue]

If a european tells you they arent racist, ask them what they think of gypsies lmao.

In a way, at least europeans let you know where you stand pretty quick. Small town Canadians pretend to be nice and polite until you get into a conflict, then the filter comes off and they tell you what they really think about your kind. I feel bad for the Indians right now with the media posting constant negative articles riling up the masses. Remember it wasn't that far ago when Chinese (thus all asians to the average joe) were vilified for making housing unaffordable to "real" Canadians.

[westopher]

Most of these European places hate outsiders though. It's just harder to tell when you are white so the disdain starts after an interaction as opposed to just the visual. It gives the whites an opportunity to at least start positive and break the guard down.
Not saying it's right obviously, but it's less about your skin colour and more about you not being a local.

[Dbone]

Yeah, I think that's a fair take, though most places do seem to be cool with Canadians (once they know you're not a 'Yank'). I think it's about insecurity for their culture really.

Once I was on an overnight ferry in Zimbabwe and we had dinner with a Polish couple. They were telling us how the 'blacks' were left behind by evolution while the European forged on to become smarter etc. I never heard such utter bullshit or anything near that in the UK.

[Badhobz]

Tell them you’re German

[Dbone]

I was in Nurnburg once with a German girl walking around town talking in English. A Scottish football team was playing them that day and so the streets were busy.

She was fairly shocked at all the names people were calling us as we went by. Apparently the common name for Scottish people there is 'Ugly Mouth'.

[Qmx323]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

1. Chinky eyes pulled by one of those Restaurant touts in Barcelona when we had a gander at the outside menu. Told him in broken Spanish it was not cool and we left.

Lol had 3 middle school aged girls do this eye thing when I was in Paris.

First thought was "whoa this is a really outdated method of racism"

[CivicBlues]

lol yeah the Europoor form of racism is really retro for some reason. anti-Gypsy, anti-Jew, anti-neighboring ethnic group. Shit we thought died out in the 1940s.

[68style]

My favourite is walking around touristy places like Venice and having them all yell out NEE-HOW at you.

Same in Hawaii they will just assume you're Japanese if you're asian.

[Badhobz]

If I keep eating and tanning they’ll assume I’m native Hawaiian.

[CivicBlues]

That being said I've had some pretty cool (bizarre?) interactions with Europeans based on race almost like how I'd imagine a basic white guy gets treated when he visits Japan.

1. Old Russian man starts singing to me some Sino-Soviet friendship song when he stops to chat with me. Probably this song

2. In Naples, Italy went to an art exhibit and a bunch of the curators (?) started asking us out of the blue how we liked Naples, if we tried their awesome pizza yet and then started recommending good sushi and ramen places.

3. Turkish kids (toddler to high school age) constantly running up to us and asking to take our photos.

I'm old enough to remember being Konichiwa'd in Europe, and how it's now moved on to Ni Hao'd (usually by random street people and minorities)

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

I guarantee you, regular Josef or Jacques Seis-pack does not know the distinction or give a shit. You're all just Chinois or Chinkies to them. Even if you're Vietnamese

Anyways I could write a whole novel on European racism. It's a lot less "polite" than American racism but for the most part less "threatening" if that makes sense. There will be a lot of microagressions but less so physical danger. I can't say for this is the case for some of the suburbs with large migrant populations it may be similar to walking into Compton at night.

Anyways having been to Europe over a dozen times a few things have stood out in my memory but for the most part we never really had major difficulties.

1. Chinky eyes pulled by one of those Restaurant touts in Barcelona when we had a gander at the outside menu. Told him in broken Spanish it was not cool and we left.

2. "Ching-Chonged" by another Restaurant tout in Greece. We told him to fuck off because he obviously could speak english fluently.

3. Got seated alone at a restaurant in Poland, was throughly ignored and just got up and left.

Tons of instances in rude service however couldn't really attribute it to being Asian or just being oblivious tourists

My experience has been utterly different.

2015, first night in Tours, France. We walked into a restaurant and the young server tried hard to help us with the menu. We didn't experience any racism. Tours isn't the boonies, but it's still slightly off the beaten path for typical Asian faces. We noted that except for one tour group at a very well known chateau we visited, there were practically zero Asians.

Same trip, first night in Paris after we returned, while on the train, some one approached us just to chat and made sure we knew where we were going.

Chatted with a Canadian (Toronto) while lining up for Versailles and he noted how lazy French ppl were (racism anyone?)

Same trip still, we walked into a random hole in the wall for some food, and a French guy tried to converse with us. We tried our best his English was poor my French is still at the grade 8 level. But otherwise friendly.


2018. We were in Munich and we coincided with some street festival. Again we were one of the few Asians just mulling about and people were friendly, no one was racist, at least no one showed it.

Nothing stood out throughout Germany as we did the Romantic Road up to Aachen from Munich. Perhaps it's more of a touristy section of Germany as there were quite a few Asian tour groups along the way. Some of the ppl were loud and brash and Mandarin and I did not like them either.

Nothing again stood out on our way back south to the French Riviera. We made the mistake of trying to find food during the afternoon siesta/break time and nothing was open. One bartender guy stayed for us and made us drinks despite not being able to serve food.

We were in Latte, Italy (tiny little town) getting my car washed and we were engaged by another French guy (rich af French guy) and we chatted through lunch there. He was showing us pictures of his kids.


If we want to talk about experience of racism, I've experienced more racism in rural BC and in Australia than I have in Europe. The Australian experience actually got physical as the guy got up to our faces and pushed me and my wife and I had to shove him back out of the way and told him to fuck off. Drew a lot of stares as I think typically Chinese ppl wouldn't retaliate and the guy walked off swearing.

[CivicBlues]

If you re-read my post you'll see I said that for the most part Europeans were NOT racist towards us and that only a few racist incidents come to mind after several trips around Europe.

In the grand scheme of things I experience basically 0 racist incidents living in Vancouver or driving around BC. 1 major racist incident in Bellingham of all places. And 3 or so major ones in Europe after maybe a cumulative total of 6 months being there.

It's really just luck of the draw, or you can't really attribute everything to racism esp with rude service but I'm pretty sure ching chongs and pulling eyes back qualifies as so.

[Badhobz]

Weird…. I’ve never encountered racism in Europe or abroad. Hell I’m usually the most racist one there.

Is it because I’m a huge motherfucker ? Everyone is always very friendly around me

[CivicBlues]

Probably, Asian women and elderly get the brunt of it usually because they are seen as easy targets. Funny how it's all blamed on the mentally ill these days but they're present enough not to mess with anyone bigger than them.

[RabidRat]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

I’m usually the most racist one there.

Best defense is good offense? Can't get racisted, if you racist them first!

[westopher]

Badhobz is 57 year old white man stuck in a 57 year old white mans body with Chinese skin.

[westopher]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

My experience has been utterly different.

2015, first night in Tours, France. We walked into a restaurant and the young server tried hard to help us with the menu. We didn't experience any racism. Tours isn't the boonies, but it's still slightly off the beaten path for typical Asian faces. We noted that except for one tour group at a very well known chateau we visited, there were practically zero Asians.

Same trip, first night in Paris after we returned, while on the train, some one approached us just to chat and made sure we knew where we were going.

Chatted with a Canadian (Toronto) while lining up for Versailles and he noted how lazy French ppl were (racism anyone?)

Same trip still, we walked into a random hole in the wall for some food, and a French guy tried to converse with us. We tried our best his English was poor my French is still at the grade 8 level. But otherwise friendly.


2018. We were in Munich and we coincided with some street festival. Again we were one of the few Asians just mulling about and people were friendly, no one was racist, at least no one showed it.

Nothing stood out throughout Germany as we did the Romantic Road up to Aachen from Munich. Perhaps it's more of a touristy section of Germany as there were quite a few Asian tour groups along the way. Some of the ppl were loud and brash and Mandarin and I did not like them either.

Nothing again stood out on our way back south to the French Riviera. We made the mistake of trying to find food during the afternoon siesta/break time and nothing was open. One bartender guy stayed for us and made us drinks despite not being able to serve food.

We were in Latte, Italy (tiny little town) getting my car washed and we were engaged by another French guy (rich af French guy) and we chatted through lunch there. He was showing us pictures of his kids.


If we want to talk about experience of racism, I've experienced more racism in rural BC and in Australia than I have in Europe. The Australian experience actually got physical as the guy got up to our faces and pushed me and my wife and I had to shove him back out of the way and told him to fuck off. Drew a lot of stares as I think typically Chinese ppl wouldn't retaliate and the guy walked off swearing.

Most aussies are the biggest pieces of shit according to my Aussie friends. They are upside down America where NZ is upside down Canada.

[EvoFire]

Originally Posted by CivicBlues

Probably, Asian women and elderly get the brunt of it usually because they are seen as easy targets. Funny how it's all blamed on the mentally ill these days but they're present enough not to mess with anyone bigger than them.

Explains why that guy in Australia backed off after I retaliated. I was no longer and easy target.

[bcrdukes]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

Weird…. I’ve never encountered racism in Europe or abroad. Hell I’m usually the most racist one there.

Is it because I’m a huge motherfucker ? Everyone is always very friendly around me

The far right political party in Germany is projected to win a majority. You'd fit right in?

[Badhobz]

they won in that state next to Saxony already... although the rest of the Reichstag is trying to block them out by not "working" with them so ultimately they cannot get anything done.

I kinda miss Deutschland for their crazy politics

[Dbone]

So apparently Grand Tour is crossing Zim from East to West before going back to Botswana.

I'm guessing they will go the more difficult route in the north which has some amazing places to stay, and some very punishing roads especially in the wet season. No doubt they will stop by Victoria falls before looping up and over to Botswana (which is the road we had to use the Jerry cans on as the one gas station by the ferry was out of diesel).

Alternatively they could go south, to the Bvumba Mountains where there is an amazingly spooky semi-abandoned Victoria era botanical reserve. Just down the road from the still running, still very colonial, Leopard Rock hotel. The hotel the Royals would stay at back in the ... days. They could then carry onto cross the very out of place Jack Quinton bridge before seeing Old Zimbabwe.

Side note, if you ever want to see what Fallout might look like in real life (replace the wastelanders with American big game hunters) then go to Hwange National Park/active coal mine. Just skulls, dead trees, sand, derelict buildings that haven't had an update since the 50s, dudes driving around with assault weapons, and crazy lightning storms. Also some of the best wildlife and nicest people in the world.

[68style]

^ The last part was so unexpected, it almost sounds like you're there right now with a rifle pointed at you and they're telling you what to type hahaha

[Dbone]

Hah... yeah. I guess you need to experience it.

I won't bore people with more holiday photos but the people in Zim, are just way more chill then those in South Africa. The only guy was who a dick to us the whole month we were there was this dude in a suit that had about a dozen army guys behind him looking rather scared. He shook us down for all of $2. The funny thing is a few hours earlier we were chatting with those same soldiers and they were all smiles.

On the other hand an MP (the political kind, not the army kind) came up to us in Bulawayo and shook our hand and thanked us for coming to Zim.