Hi there! I'm a Chinese American aphantasiac! I have some pretty immense trouble writing the characters themselves, like all the brush strokes are completely lost on me. I can't see the word in my mind, but I can still recognize it when I read it. I assume it's a lot like seeing a picture of anything. Even if I can't imagine a horse in my head, I still know what a horse looks like. I can still recognize a picture of one in a lineup. I never thought of my problems with writing Chinese as an aphantasia problem though! I think that's something I'll probably be thinking about for a long time :)
That's interesting, because those experiences are ones I've had too, but I also need to put my thoughts into consciousness a lot of the time or else they don't feel weird. Like, I'll have a discussion with myself and even though my subconscious is running so much faster than my mouth talking to myself or my consciousness trying to put my thoughts into words, I feel as if I need to have those words before I can move on to something else, or else it didn't truly exist.
I'm personally sort of opposite but also the exact same. I can't see what my mother's face looks like, but I can tell you about her features in a very concrete, factual way. I get pretty familar with people's faces and voices (like cartoon characters in shows) and often think "that voice sounds very familar" when playing a video game. I'm very good with colors and I love to draw, something I've been doing for years. When I took an IQ test as a child one of my highest percentiles was "spatial visualization" (which is either named incorrectly or they were just wrong) so I know exactly what you mean when you say you can manipulate those 3D objects. I suppose just like everyone else aphantasics are just inherently different.
I've never thought about it that way! I've had arguments with my parents because I've never felt as if the experience was worth it. I've been thinking for a while that pictures are just as good as the real thing, but maybe thats just because I have no idea what the real thing actually looks like. Part of my dislike for traveling probably also comes from how most of them I go on aren't really of my own volition, most just parents wanting to visit some national park or another. But my favorite parts of vacations has also been the times where I get to sit down with some of the family friends and play cards or charades or something along those lines. I also think fondly on my trips to visit family because I don't really see them that often.