Backpaking lifestyle
styles, this latter attire largely reflects the ‘countercultural’ category, in which loose-fitting
new age style clothing that eclectically idealises ‘Oriental culture’ is common. Navigating
infrastructure catering to tourism, the participants were often to be found eating, drinking and
socialising with other enclavic tourists. Local interactions, whether through food,
water/coastal sport, yoga, or meditation, were predominantly instrumental and
commercialised. Although many sought to ‘go native’, their participation was often
imaginary. Despite limited non-commercialised contact with the Other, many participants
found that years of backpacking led them to a more pointed sense of identity confusion, or a
feeling of being lost in a ‘sea’ of cultural differences (see Cohen, 2010).
Return trips home for the participants were also commonly marked by distress and intense
‘reverse culture confusion’ (Hottola, 2004, p
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