Hacker News Reader

I'm very glad that you experienced generosity! But I don't think your experience is the norm. One week of wandering is not exactly a lifetime. I also can't help but assume from your plucky, overconfident dissent that is based on a very short duration of experience that you are a white man.

View on HN

Having spent half of every year for the last decade traveling the world by bike, I can confirm what the OP says: one meets helpful people, is often invited to meals or to stay in locals’ homes, etc. And instead of "white", perhaps a better distinction for trouble-free travel is “not black”. There’s a decent amount of South Korean, Japanese, and South American cyclists doing round-the-world or Alaska–Ushuaia journeys, and they have the same positive experiences as any person Americans consider “white”.

I am a white guy, but I don't get treated the same travelling through those areas in a car.

I'm pretty green to bicycle touring, but my anecdote reflects accounts I commonly read from other bicycle tourists, many who spend months and in some cases years on the go, all over the world.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com