His comments about travel reminded me of how travel has changed during our lifetimes. Going off the grid used to be easy and even necessary. I've gone into specifics before, but the Internet is both a boon and a bane. Travelling without reservations used to be the norm. One would just get to a city, and head to an area where the hotels were. Then, one would have to start inquiring at the front desks of suitable-looking establishments. It does seem that things were a bit more of an adventure. Unfortunately, I think, we are able to look up guests' reviews and find photos of even the smallest guesthouse in the middle of nowhere nowadays.
Tim remarked about being the only foreigner in a specific location. Alas, it does seem as though cheap airfares have made the world smaller (and far less exotic). Mass tourism affects nearly every location on the globe. Being a unique guest in any location is an increasingly rarer experience.
While I was thinking about these things, we took a Grab car to check out a large, destination Carrefour Supermarket. It's just a few kilometers from here. They are a large France-based chain operating in South America, Europe, and parts of Asia. I can't remember exactly where we've shopped with them in the past. We arrived at a huge building with lots of nearly everything. There were both local and imported products.
During our hike throughout the acres of products, for four minutes, we were subjected to something quite Canadian. It wasn't the 30-foot Christmas tree made to display plastic laundry baskets. Celine Dion wished us, via song, a very merry Christmas over the PA system! To me, this is definitive proof that there's nowhere left to run.