THREAD
I’m a well-travelled guy and I recently got some comments about my travels, especially in light of the Christchurch shooter’s trips to Pakistan and N Korea. I’d like to share some thoughts on why I don’t think these places radicalised him, plus some talk about Bhutan.

What normies have to understand, and by normies I mean Americans who have never been abroad or Europeans whose idea of Asia is a week in Thailand, is that neither Pakistan or N Korea are especially extreme or difficult places to visit.

Pakistan. Visiting is a very simple visa application, far easier than China’s for example. It’s a huge country with many beautiful mountain ranges. Look at this photo. It’s not Switzerland. It’s Pakistan. Sure there are some dangerholes but the majority of the country is safe.

I don’t even consider Pakistan a hardship destination. Like the rest of South Asia, the quality of its int’l hotels is exceptionally high, and not so expensive compared to elsewhere. In India, Pakistan, Indonesia... you tend to get great hotel facilities and customer service.

This is because labour is cheap and easy to train. The cities in general are shitholes so the hotels strive to be as nice as possible to keep you on-site. Western chains there like Hilton and Hyatt are of a far higher standard than back in the west.

EG: The Hilton in Honolulu doesn’t even have complimentary breakfast, all staff demand tips for just asking them a question, and it’s a tired, faded resort. The Hilton Mumbai though like a luxury resort you will never wanna leave, exceptional service, and cheaper too.

The majority of western tourists who visit Pakistan go for the natural scenery and low-cost 5-star hotels. They are not intermingling with Islamic radicals. That’s practically impossible.

North Korea. An exceptionally easy country to visit as long as you are not South Korean or a journalist. It’s quicker and easier to get a visa to visit Pyongyang than it is for China and Vietnam. And also far easier than it is for most Asians to apply for EU/US visas.

There are many tour companies going to NK. Koryo tours has been operating for 20 years. There’s even an annual Pyongyang marathon full of western entrants. They get more visitors than most Pacific Island nations.

Chances of radicalisation in N Korea are zero. Western tourists are carefully chaperoned in tour groups alongside other westerners. Interaction with real N Koreans is severely limited beyond their tour guide. They will simply never have a real interaction with any Nork.

Media cries of radicalisation when they see someone visiting NK or Pakistan are groundless and ignorant of reality. I’m very lucky to be extremely well travelled in unusual locales... the only place I ever felt radicalised was Bhutan.

Do you know Bhutan? It’s a tiny Himalayan Buddhist kingdom sandwiches between Tibet (China) and India. Here’s a photo I took of the Tiger’s Nest monastery. It’s stunningly beautiful and relatively unravaged by modernity.

It’s the closest you can get to seeing pre-technological life. This is a normal house. Till recently it was totally isolated and they only allow a few tourists to visit each year.

It’s fucking difficult to visit Bhutan. Even being there incurs a USD $250 per day fee just to be there. This is done to lower tourism levels and to preserve their unique culture.

It’s not perfect. Till recently it was technology free but now they have introduced elections over monarchy and TV sets and iPhones are now creeping in. This isn’t Shangri-La.

BUT - and it’s a big BUT - there’s enough still in Bhutan to allow you to see what life used to be like. How life was before diversity, modernity, industrial-tech, narcissism, rootlessness and all our current roles.
Want an example? Look how beautiful their 2nd biggest city is.

Think about this. What is more likely to radicalise a rootless and atomised westerner? Cheap 5-star hotels in Pakistan? Chaperoned tours of North Korea where you don’t speak to the locals at all and can only take photos where your tour guide allows?

No. It would be a glimpse of what has been lost, AND what is being lost. Bhutan offers a glimpse back in time before modern poz, and the fact that modernity is fast creeping in on Bhutan makes it all the more real and immediate.

I saw a unique and real culture in Bhutan. One united and mostly free of modern influences. Those influences which are now there were all the more apparent by their evil disparity. Now THAT radicalises you. Not touring Islam. Not touring Stalinism. This beauty does.

I understood Ted Kaczynski when I went to Bhutan. I wanted to stop all modernity and turn the clock back to this saner society. I saw more clearly what we had lost and saw more clearly our ills.

The fact that Bhutan is changing fast only made me feel this more. Seriously, you want to be radicalised against modern poz? Visit Bhutan. See how a people mostly unaffected by reality TV, geopolitics, social media and globohomo actually live. You will never feel sadder.

Of all my travels, it was Bhutan that pushed me further than anything against our dystopian leftist current year. Some of this is mere nostalgia for what we ourselves have lost, but I guarantee no so-called terrorist is getting this from group tours to Pakistan or N Korea.

Never trust journalists. Trust your own experience. Travel the world and see things for yourself. If not anything else, at least you will learn that “multiculturalism” is a uniquenely monocultural phenomenom. Goodnight.

@akarlin88