There are all kinds of stereotypes for all kinds of people, but there is one specific stereotype that this column addresses: the world tourist.

Perhaps it could be said that there are actually two sterotypes: tourist and traveller. Let's have a little fun trying to paint a picture of the two.

The tourist can be found disembarking from large air conditioned buses parked conspicuously near several souvenir shacks. Cameras and bags hang from the tourist's neck as he squints into the sun under a wide brimmed hat. He wonders if he should get into his wheeled luggage under the bus to pull out his electric fan. Fanning himself furiously with a half folded map, he makes a beeline for the nearest McDonalds and orders a hamburger, subsequently complaining about the slow service and lack of English comprehension.

Watching him from a shaded cafe across the street is the traveller. He's got his backpack sitting next to his chair, and is smiling amusedly along with the locals sitting next to him. He orders another tea from the waiter using the local dialect; even though it's somewhat mispronounced, the waiter understands and nods with a smile. The traveller discreetly pulls out a camera from his bag, snaps a picture of a group of passing schoolchildren, and puts his camera away. Somewhat disheveled, he flips through his guidebook to see where the hostel is at his next destination.

Ok, so I'm getting a little carried away with this illustration, but you get the idea! We're really neither of the two, but probably somewhere in between. Most people are probably somewhere in between, I would think. There is nothing really wrong with either, although it's pretty clear that we'd prefer to be more of a traveller than a tourist.

Just because you're taking a tour and you're on an air conditioned bus doesn't mean that you have to be less of a traveller. I think it's more of a frame of mind than anything else. Appearances and behaviour mean more when traveling to foreign countries than what tour you're on. We've seen Western girls dressed in skimpy clothing on the streets of Cairo; this doesn't show much respect to local Muslim customs and practices.

Obviously, there isn't as much opportunity to mingle with locals and get a closer look at life on the ground when you're being whisked from one tour destination to another. But that doesn't mean that having some interaction with local people and their way of life isn't possible. We've found that taking public transportation and simply walking the streets has been the best way to get a feel for a particular area. Getting lost is a great way to discover hidden areas of a town.

A few backpackers/travellers are also unnecessarily disdainful of tourists. I've caught myself a few times chuckling at the sweating tourists hauling their massive suitcases around town. Not everyone's sense of adventure is the same; most people have a certain standard of comfort that they're willing to live with, and that standard can vary greatly.

Nevertheless, I think being a responsible world traveller involves having a higher degree of patience on the road than is typically required when at home. This, combined with a healthy dose of common sense and a good sense of humour will hopefully allow us to weather the occasionally challenging situations we might find ourselves in during our travels.