A Map For Saturday

Nat Geo Adventure is now my favourite channel Starhub has to offer. Besides 'A Map for Saturday' i really like 'Don't Tell My Mother'. They are not the conventional travel show we get on discovery travel and living.

A Map for Saturday truly reveals raw first hand feelings of solo backpackers. Video footage of 365 days of backpacking around the world in the most unglamourous fashion, jam packed into 2 hours of show. After watching it I've established a few good points. Backpacking is a cool idea. But not exactly what everyone wants.

Living on a budget means moving from hostel and dorms sharing beds and filthy toilets. Wearing the same set of clothes, being alone and homeless most of the time. Friendship? They end and begin almost instantaneously. Especially when you're travelling alone these BP usually bare their feelings to one another when they get company. They end up being partners for the time they have in the country. Then comes the hard part of saying 'goodbye and hope I'll see you around' knowing well that they probably will never see each other anymore. They don't judge themselves as sluts or man whore for sleeping with their closest best friend they have during that short period of time with each other.

They get sick of asking each other the same questions like where have you been and how long their journey is gonna be. Sometimes they even forget to ask what's their name. All of them agree that backpacking in Europe is too costly and they all love Asia. After months of travelling even looking at the most beautiful waterfall, sunset/sunrise, mountains gets boring. I felt that way on a 10 days tour.

People around the world do hate Americans! Haha. So these Americans pretend to be Canadians so they get the friendly treatment and no political arguments. Geez. Next time, ask them for passport as proof! They send emails and pictures of those BP friends they meet. Oddly enough sometimes they end up in the same place talking about the same poor folks.

Doesn't it feel nice? To have seen most of the world, met people from all walks of life but it slowly fades away from your memory when you get back to your 9-5 job and those emails you get from those still backpacking becomes totally irrelevant.

I totally like the show although I'm not too sure what attracted me. Definitely not the lifestyle. The taste of freedom and carefree with the only worry you have is housing and safety which happens to be what people work so hard for and to protect. I probably like it because i know i will never do such a thing and that's the closest i can get.

I guess the show is named A Map for Saturday because they lose track of days and everyday feels like a Saturday. Oh boy. Ain't life nice like that? I googled the tittle of the show and turns out it has won numerous awards at film festivals. I wouldn't mind ordering the dvd for deleted scenes and interivew. Kudos to the guy who travelled the world alone and produced this documentary. Now i'm reading his blog that he kept updated while travelling around the world.

Ciao!