Modern-day backpacking for boomers

For much of our boomer generation, backpacking had its day. But today? Londoner Tom Curtin, a veteran crisis communications expert, is going soft. And makes no apologies.

Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose
Nothin’ ain’t worth nothin’, but it’s free

That’s what Kris Kristofferson sang in 1970. And like a fool I believed him.

So, after working for a summer as a cockroach exterminator in New York on my student visa, I hit the road for three weeks with a $100 Greyhound ticket in my hand.

My girlfriend and I had few plans and even less money but reveling in the afterglow of the 60s, we were free.

The sheer spirit of adventure made it one of the best holidays I ever had. Not knowing where you were going to sleep tomorrow night. Every second night it was on the bus.

The cities rolled by… Montreal, Buffalo (oops we’re still in New York), Salt Lake City, Reno, and then for five days, the hippy Mecca of San Francisco. In those pre-oil shortage days, those big beastly busses hit the road at 90, so you did some real miles.

Then back on the bus. LA, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Washington, and New York. I got off that bus and kicked it. Since then I’ve had a pathological hatred of the beasts.

Now I book holidays and a bit like Paul Simon: “Every stop is neatly planned.” How boring! There’s the man in the Arrivals Hall with my name on it to take me to the five-star luxury hotel and the guided city tour with time at leisure.

But there is worse. I look at all those cases packed in the hotel foyer besides the sign that says “Be at reception at 4.30.” Underlined. To take the five-
hour bus journey to… oh noooo, not a bus.

So, now I’m heading for ‘Nam. Not as a draftee of course; in fact being Irish, the draft was not even a problem for me back in the day (nor for a lot of others— you know who I mean and I didn’t even have flat feet). I protested America’s war at my university in Galway in the west of Ireland. But now, I’ve decided to go and see what all the fuss was about.

So, I’m going Backpacking for Boomers and here’s how you do it, if you have a few extra dollars.

Okay, so it’s not the true spirit of backpacking. I’ll go business class on the 12-hour flight from London to Hanoi. Hello Jane (Fonda). Then I’ll make my own way to the hotel that I have booked.

Tom Curtin.

Sure, I’ll hire a guide for a day to see the highlights.

Then I’ll get the train to Hoi An and Da Nang. No helicopter gunships now.

Then, I’ll boogie on down to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon as it was called) by train again and then onto Cambodia for another five days.

I won’t have my trusty backpack. It’s too damn heavy. Instead I‘ll have my cabin-friendly wheelie. No waiting for luggage.

And another luxury. Every time I hit a hotel, in goes my laundry. No more motel washbasins. I will treat myself to fresh laundered underpants every day.

And I’m exhilarated. In fact, I’m nearly as happy as Kris Kristofferson who nowadays lives in Malibu and reportedly is worth $75 million dollars.

All that freedom has sure paid off.

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Tom’s book is, Land of the Free: An Irish Odyssey in America.