"I see trees of green, red roses too, I see them bloom, for me and you. And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world" - Louis Armstrong


I want to make this point, but before I do, I want to make it clear that neither myself or my companion Vinny subscribe to Backpacker Pretention. It's not something we rate highly - any pretension that is, but particularly Backpacker pretension

We have met, for example, those that say things like "Oh, God, you're staying in a place listed in Lonely Planet? That's, like, so, I don't know..."

"What Lonely Planet's for?" We would ask at this point.

And don't get us started on the "Oh, sure, yah, that's a nice place... but you really had to be there ten years ago, you know? Before it got too... you know".

It's the stupidity of it we can't stand. The self-fulfilling don't-go-to-nice-places-or-they'll-become-tourist-destinations twattery of the whole thing.

"Oh!", they would remark, looking up from their laptop, "you're staying at a hostel? What, with running water? I'm staying with a native tribe of wild field mice, we only eat things that die of natural causes... or, you know, cheese and stuff".

To really be in with these people you have to roll up to places at the beginning of time and barter a good price for a mug of primordial soup that at some stage in millions of years will evolve into a small stall selling chess sets and tea towels.