Hey, your cramping my style...

Travel is about acceptance. Its about tolerance. Understanding and assimilating. These are some of the common threads that bind the seams of travel.

We do and we be, we travel and we see, but theres nothing quite like being free. Free from criticisms, free from persecution, free from ridicule. If someone choses to flashpack their way around the world, are they really missing out on the 'adventure' aspect of backpacking travel? If someone choses to stay in one destination because they don't want to see their carbon footprint spiral out of control, are they any less of a traveler? Who am I to critique this valiant Eco-Warrior? This Eco-packer. This is their style. Their spin on backpacking. Their perception on how they should travel.

Under the umbrella of backpacking exist many styles of travel. What I have been reading on the internet of late has been concerning me. I touched on it in my last blog post but felt compelled to write more as I trawled more and more comments on this distinction between "tourist" v "traveler" and even to some extents this "flashpacker" v "real backpacker".

Over 100 years ago, G.K. Chesterton laid it down, his distinctions on this issue were summed in one of his famous lines - "The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see”
One of my favourite authors Paul Theroux’s famous line, “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” touches on the contentious issue many young travellers ponder over.

I believe it can be all whittled back to one word. Respect. I respect your style of travel as I respect your personality. The cliche "Live and let live" is ringing in my ears.

I believe the diversification of travel styles and personalities is a progressive one. Embrace it, don't fight it. After all, wouldn't this world be a boring place if everybody looked the same, if there was only one language, one way of doing things, one 'type' of backpacker. It would deny the very existence of what this world is - a mysterious unity held together through the web of diversity.

Amen and goodnight.




Donkey or Camel - Your choice....

Flashpacker Sprinkles

Flashpackers aye. They are trading in their backpacks for "roller-cases" like never before. Hitting the streets, with their wheeliepacks, are they worthy of criticism or is it just a sign of the times?


Flashpacking. Where no cost is to great in the pursuit of happiness. Its backpacking with a twist. A slice of lime in that Gin & Tonic by the poolside in Rio de Janeiro. That chocolate tiramisu your nibbling on whilst checking your emails at a wi fi connection cafe in Vienna. The sprinkles on your cappucino. Perhaps its that warm towel that slips off the heated handrail in your downtown hostel in Melbourne. The movie-star lights above your mirror. That little care package that those flashpacker hostels often give you when checking in. The little things.
Its the little things that really matter.


Flashpacking is about choice.


But its not everybodys cup of tea. Some like it with no milk nor cream. Forget the sugar, my travels are sweet enough. But some travelers just can't resist those added sweetners, the cream and sprinkles, its all worth it, se vale la pena.


Its a new breed of backpacking and love it or hate it, its here to stay. Whether your a flashpacker, a slackpacker, a market haggler, a content straggler, we all share that same independent spirit of adventure. The ethos of traveling as a backpacker hasnt changed, maybe just the styles.

The Most Famous Backpacker Of All Time

Who is the most famous backpacker of our time? Its a question worthy of some debate i believe. If there had to be one backpacker who was the 'pin up' or the one to go down in the history books, who would it be.....


One of the earliest free spirited travelers i thought should get a mention was Marco Polo. The legend traveled for 24 years. 24 years. I dont know if the term backpacker was probably appropriate, more of a 'slackpacker' - Where some travelers take the high road and some take the low road, Marco Polo took the long and slow road, setting out on a quest to really understand a place and its people. Legend.



Ibn Battuta - This 13th centuy Moroccan traveler covered 75,000 miles in 30 years around the world. He almost makes Marco Polo look like he was out for a casual stroll. He traveled mainly around the Middle East and Asia as a raggety camelpacker, although become an affluent member of the Muslim world during his later years, presiding as a judge until his death caught up with him.

So those dudes are long gone. Their legacies live on though. But who is still alive that could possibility be the backpacker pin-up traveler?? Could it be.....

• Charles Veley of San Francisco, who has visited 600 plus of what he counts as 673 territories. Or is this guy just a part time hero out for some fame?? Does he truly capture what it means to be a backpacker, someone prepared to travel the road less traveled, in an independent manner for nothing more than the satisfaction of understanding the world we live in.


• How about traveling Matt. The guy who zipped around the world in six months, visiting 39 countries and dancing a crazy little dance in each one of them. Check out the link, its a beautiful and inspiring clip however, he falls short of what in my terms would be one of the most famous backpackers. His travels although started genuine, have turned somewhat commercial. Credit given where credit due, he followed through on a great idea.





He reminds me of another famous traveler i looked up to as a kid. Uncle traveling Matt from Fraggle Rock.





I think the conclusions we can all draw from is that people travel for different reasons. There are so many types of backpackers its hard to "pin up" just one. Where traveling matt might be a bit of a flashpacker and marco polo a slackpacker, i think we all have a bit of backpacker in us, we just execute it with a twist.


Your comments on who is the most famous backpacker are more than welcome....

travel and the big www.com

the internet is such an integral part of our lives these days. so much so, that its completely absurd when trying to think of life without the world wide web, which has only really been functioning as a w.w.w since 1989.

it is intrinsically integrated into our everyday lives. even on the road, the lure of the net cannot deter travelers from the destination where they are residing. even remote islands around the world will have somewhere to check your emails. if in doubt, whip out the iphone.

its nuts to think how travel and the internet will continue to intertwine and gradually compliment or destroy each other.

What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook….

My Backpack

With my backpack on my back
this dusty patchy olde sack
im off again
down this road with no end

A fresh day
another way
I wander off
with nothing more to say

Cos im breathing in the fresh air
got my pack on and i dont really care
as to my direction
the important thing
is my perception

But its the people i meet
and the places i go
these moments they always show
me
you end up reaping what you sow

Its in the smiles
in the faces
of all earths glorious races
that encourages my faith in this world

And with my backpack on
i sing this song
wandering along in my unique way
anticipating each new day.

On Lifestyle and Travel.

...the most important thing to understand is that we have the ability to make decisions and have choices to pursue dreams, whatever those may be...

travel enlightens us. travel challenges us. travel delivers understanding. provokes thought. travel is holistic.

choice beckons us. choice threatens us. choice demands sacrifice. choice is so elusive. yet choice pervades us.

why, when we have such ability to make decisions, we find it so hard to pursue dreams?

it reminds me of one of my favorite travel quotes...

we travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us

flashpackking comedian

this is classic one minute youtube vid of a comedian taking the back out of backpacking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZdzno-Njzk