An open note to all “gap” year students and frustrated single thirty-somethings everywhere:
A two-month package trip to the Far East, visiting every clichéd tourist hotspot in the “Lonely Planet” guide is not “travelling” and neither is it “adventuring”. Yes, you may well have had an armful of inoculations and be carrying your clothes in a rucksack, but I’m afraid you’re still just a tourist.
Sir Ernest Shackleton, Scott of the Antarctic, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and their kind are adventurers so don’t belittle their endeavours by classing your daddy-funded, advertised-in-the-back-of-the-Grauniad, Summer holiday between University and real life as such.
Oh and while I’m on, before you bang on about how beautiful Ayres Rock/Ko Samui/The Sydney Opera House etc. is, please be sure that you have also experienced some of this country’s scenic, archaeological and architectural treasures as well. Just because you haven’t had to fly half way around the world to see them doesn’t make them any less important. I’ve lost track of the number of “adventurers” and “travellers” who wank on about having gone to the Far East to find themselves, but have never been to Cornwall or the Lake District.
Rant over, off you go now.
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