Are You A Tourist or A Traveller?

Quoted from The Rough Guide to First-Time Around the World by Doug Lansky on page 153:

Why on earth should you go out of your way to try some sport or activity you've never heard of and will probably never do again? Why bother with the slow, less comfortable modes of transport? Why go anywhere near a squat toilet, or, for that matter, a Vietnamese ear-cleaner armed with what seems to be shish-kebab skewers?

Because if you're not doing something now, you're doing something you've done before. If you're not taking local transport, you're taking Western-style transport. If you're not using the local language (or hand gestures and phrasebooks), you're probably speaking with professional guides and concierges. If you're not staying in places with local standards, you're staying in places with Western standards. If you're not eating local food, you're probably eating food you know from home. If you're not using the local toilets, you're using Western ones. The creature comforts (and language) of Western life are now available virtually everywhere, and if you don't go on a creature-comfort diet, you'll be getting a Disneyfied view of the place you're trying to see. It's often the inconvenient and uncomfortable elements that give travel its extra dimension, and separate the Sphinx in Las Vegas from the one in Egypt, the gondola ride in the Epcot Center from the one in Venice - and the tourists from the travellers.