emails from a backpacker

[slartybartfast]

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/30/emails-from-a-backpacker

loved this article.
sounds expensive though!

Do you think the money the mother got for the article goes towards paying off the debt?

i went travelling when i was 20, I worked at three jbs before I left and had a stash of money and worked a bit as well whilst away for nearly a year. I wasn't bank rolled by my parents but still have the letters I sent home to my mum every fortnight and the letters she sent to me to Poste Restante.

I read through them last year and it is lovely having a complete set as normally you would only have the one half of the letters - I would though be horrified if there was any mention of sending money, at 20 I was an adult capable of funding my own life

i couldnt find any names - it seemed to be annoymous.

that's hilarious!

I went travelling when I was 17 and I think my very intermittent phone calls were like those emails.

sounds like she's had a blast ad her mum sounds fab too.

£1000 flipping quid though! did Lily not save enough? bad form.

apart from the £ side of things it makes a lovely read

I really liked reading that article. When I went travelling I knew if things went awry my parents could bail me out - but didnt need to ask them to.

A few calls, a few postcards and a lifetime of memories.

Fabulous :)

Am I missing something? There is nothing particularly funny or touching about another middle class kid going on a gap yah asking Mummy and Daddy for more money. I'm glad the daughter had fun and I'm sure the Mum valued these emails (lovely private keepsakes!), but sharing them in a national news paper? Why? Maybe I have a swinging tin can for a heart!

greenblue it's The Guardian! They have a large percentage of subscribers will have been on similar trips or have children who have been or will go on them. It's a bit of nostalgia for those with experience and a bit of reassurance for parents about to go through it. It's hardly an important public service, but it's not pointless for that audience.

I found the emails irritating rather than endearing. She sounds pretty entitled and spoiled to be honest.
My daughter worked and saved for a year before she went off on her travels. Money got very tight at times but she never asked for assistance (although I would have in an emergency) as she takes pride in her independence.

Travel can be great for growing up and being independent, but not if your rely on Mummy and Daddy to bail you out all the time.

I'd love to go to S E Asia but I fear that the hordes of selfish young adults like this girl would drive me batshit.

Ah that must be it prospects I am an avid Guardian reader but I'm of their 'rough as auld boots' contingent, spending the weekend in Skeggy was considered exotic on the estate I was from, guess I just can't relate

I'm with greenblue - I only read the first few paras and I thought it was ghastly. Self-indulgent middle-class tripe. My guess is that the piece was written by a Guardian staffer as you couldn't just send this crap in and get it published.

Awful! The girl sounds like a complete airhead.

Absolutely fucking hideous.

They also didn't have the courage to:

(a) print the author's name, so that the nepotism can be uncovered
(b) enable comments so that the internet can (quite rightly) rip the shit.

See www.guardian.co.uk/travel/blog/2008/feb/14/skinsblog

for the previous attempt at this bollocks, which was given the response it entirely deserved.

I went travelling - worked & saved for a year and did 3 jobs to fund it all.

By the time we got out there the exchange rates changed and we had to cancel part of the trip, and be very selective with our activities.

But had an amazing time and experienced different cultures. Feel very lucky to have been able to do that.

Tried to send back scintillating letters full of sparkling wit and insight - I doubt strangers would agree!