| Wed July 11, 2007
Young people who have only ever known a booming economy are known as the Celtic Tiger cubs, it seems. They are not watching Big Brother, according to the Irish Times and if their homes were burning down the first thing they would save is their mobile phones (although I know from experience what I would take would be photographs every time).
Expecting to pay §300,000 for a house, they intend to stay living at home till their mid twenties. They listen to Cold Play or Kaiser Chiefs on their iPods and worry about climate change. With the exams almost out of the way, young people are looking forward to the holidays and have been bitten by the travel bug.
Many Celtic Tiger
cubs who are already in their early twenties have committed themselves to the hilt having borrowed the money to pay for their holiday. 70% of holiday loans go to this age group in Ireland. The average young single borrower draws down just over §4,000 for a holiday break. They drive the holiday loan market, with 8 out of every 10 of applicants being young and single — and predominantly women.
"Ireland's young, free and single Celtic Tiger cubs are leading the pack when it comes to packing their holiday bags," said Eoin Lynam, commercial director of GE Money. "This segment is dominating the holiday borrowing market with significant disposable income and a desire to travel."
trips to new york
Many young people want to have a spell working abroad and are prepared to rough it a little for the experience it will give them. Holiday plans, however, are more at the luxury end of the market. "Shopping trips to New York and Spring weeks in the sun have become increasingly common and much more affordable," Mr Lynam said.
Despite the propensity for luxury short breaks, the excitement of more extensive foreign and adventurous travel pulls. I found one advertisement claiming ‘If you’re lucky you may see hippos wallowing in the shallows and an elephant’s bath time. If you are feeling brave, sleep out in the bush in the middle of the game- packed Serengeti’.
The intrepid traveller can join the Reunification Express which traverses the length of Vietnam by train.
You can walk through the Amazon Rainforest, visit the high city of Cuzco and the Sacred Valley, climb Machu Picchu and chug across Lake Titicaca.
My friend Maggie is a seasoned traveller and she has plenty of good advice for young people who want travel to be an ethnic experience rather than the bland luxury of expensive hotels which could be transplanted anywhere on the globe with no discernable difference. She says she’s going to write a book. It all came to her, one hot day in Pakistan.
“Always take a
long skirt. Vital” she vowed. She was on a bus, laden with farmers, their families, the odd chicken, a few piglets and all about her was festooned with bundles of vegetables, radios, car batteries, fabrics and who knows what. People were hanging from the side of the vehicle and the roof, enjoying the breeze that moved the sultry air. They bucketed along dirt roads, through villages and wide-open spaces when suddenly the dreadful moment arrived. She had severe diarrhoea and had to go.
The bus was not going to stop and there was no privacy anywhere, either on the bus or on the road they travelled. There was nothing she could do but push through the crowd to the front of the bus and scream to the driver in desperation “Let me off this moment!”
As he slammed on the brakes in a panic, bringing the bus to a halt, forty local folk, as well as a motley crowd of tourists, watched with a mixture of thankfulness that it was not their indignity that was being challenged, and amusement.
‘Thank goodness for my big wide, long skirt which covered a multitude of sins’, she thought and vowed never to be without it – leaving her trousers in the back pack for good, until she returned home.
‘Always wear a full skirt – not trousers - if you are a woman in tropical parts of the world, especially if you think the diet may have a dubious effect on you. Not only that - you can wear your sarong or skirt round your head in Muslim countries and you can always use it as a pillow’.
Here are some of the other tips she gave me to save travelling grief: When you buy bottled water, turn it upside down to see if it drips. If it does it may have been topped up with contaminated tap water. Avoid watermelon in some very hot countries. They may be rehydrated in the river when they shrivel up in the heat. Ice cubes in your drink may be made from contaminated water too.
If you hate flying, as I do, take a pen and press the end on to the bottom of your big toe. It is an instant cure for airsickness, Maggie says. Swollen feet are often a problem on long flights so you might try taking a golf ball on the plane and roll it up and down under your foot.
If you are flying with a baby, take a dummy for when they land the plane. It stops the ears popping. Put your feet in a paper bag. It helps to keep down the swelling and anyway, you will get some sleep as everyone will think you are mad and will leave you alone although you could always buy those special long socks specifically for the purpose.
If you have a mosquito bite, a soothing treatment is to rub on lemon juice but to keep mosquitoes at bay, eat garlic and drink Guinness. You may be drunk and smelly but you will not be driven demented with insect bites. And whenever you need to rehydrate from the heat – eat crisps and nuts.
Source:
http://www.southernstar.ie/article.php?id=159 |
