Juneau
Local population of 45000. Today
there are four cruise ships in town. Tourists everywhere. We come off the ship and are confronted with
a hoard of locals holding signs. Each promoting their particular tour. Every shop in town is aimed at tourists. We
are in an area of Disneyland called Alaska-land.
We take a tramway up a hill.
At the top is a gift shop full of Alaskan tourist gifts. We head for the nature
room. Which is full of rows and rows of
curios and a coke vending machine. The curios contain the word “Alaska the last
frontier” or are hunting knifes.
We ask for a map showing
trails on the mountain. She eventually after a long search finds a map of the
mountain showing all the trails on it. She proudly gives it to us and then asks
for one dollar. We can now go for a walk on the mountain. The National Parks Board in Canada supplied
quality info for free.
We window shop in the town.
One of the sales staff asks us where we are from.
I say: Tasmania.
Sales staff: Wow. Africa is a
long way.
Funny thing to say except a
lady in the next shop says exactly the same thing.
On the tram we are shown a
video of natives dressed in headdresses and traditional costumes dancing on a
stage in front of rows of facile, docile, obedient tourists. The native
Alaskans are playing at and pretending to be traditional natives.
Back on the ship I haven’t
encountered any redneck ugly Americans. I have seen a lot of Americans who have
come on the cruise to eat. My aim is to see a whale. Not be one. Ah well. Obese
Americans have to go on holidays somewhere and a cruise would suit them. Which is probably not the way to lose weight
but who cares. My only concern is my health and fitness. Not somebody else’s.
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