“Come buy my shop.”
I try to ignore him as I really don’t want to buy anythingg right now, I am just staring at him hoping he will let me go. But he won’t, they never do. He presents a t-shirt he wants to sell. The print on the shirt shows a rabbit that copulates a duck. Beneath that it says: “WRONG”. I shake my head and ask him, if he doesn’t have something else. I try to be friendly. He smiles at me and shows me the next shirt. The Hindi sign for “Om” is printed on it framed by “KHAO SAN ROAD”.
He says: “Same, same. All same, same”, he repeats, “but different.”
I shake my head again and he gets the next t-shirt.
On the front it says “SAME SAME” and on the back “BUT DIFFERENT”.
For his photo project SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT Jörg Brüggemann went to places in India, Thailand, Laos and Colombia that are recommended by the so-called alternative travel book guide LONELY PLANET.
Every year millions of young people from first world countries travel the planet taking with them nothing more then their backpacks and the Lonely Planet. These modern travellers are hoping to find freedom, cultural exchanges and a lot of fun.
Backpacking has become a tourist industry on its own that has developed its very own touristy infrastructures. In some places like Ko Pha-Ngan in Thailand, Arambol in Goa or Vang Vieng in Laos individual or alternative travel is no longer existing. It has been transferred into a different kind of packaged tour.