Rich people are begging to fund their luxurious travels and calling themselves "begpackers"

Is there a worse genre of human than people who have gone on gap years and continue to be really, really enthusiastic about it way after the gap year has actually ended? Yeah, yeah, I’m sure Thailand was really amazing and the experience of finding yourself/learning something profound about human existence/somehow managing to avoid contracting an STI was challenging and worthwhile and life-changing, but that does not mean I want to hear about it when I’m drinking a lukewarm beer at a house party.

But now, we have an even worse sub-category within the already very annoying umbrella of “people who go travelling and post pictures of the sunset on Instagram EVERY SINGLE DAY in case, somehow, their followers have forgotten what the literal sun looks like”: “begpackers”.

As the name suggests, “begpackers” are people who are financing their way around the globe by... begging.

But they’re not, y’know, actual beggars. They’re not people who need the money to pay for food, or for somewhere to live, or because they have no other option. They’re just regular, well-off travellers, often replete with cameras worth £2,000 and expensive phones, begging for money on the streets in order to “fund their trip”.

Locals are… not that happy, weirdly. 

“People who beg in the street are really in need: they beg in order to buy food, pay their children’s school fees or pay off debts,”  Maisarah Abu Samah, from Singapore, told France 24.

“Not in order to do something seen as a luxury.”

So if you’re thinking of begging your way around a luxury tour of the world: probably… don’t? Thanks.