'I am not quite local, not quite stranger. I am either a local stranger or a strange local.'
Hypothesis
Enjoy all the benefits and experiences of a backpacking holiday without leaving home.
Apparatus
A backpackers hostel, a guidebook and/or map, a backpacking outfit (eg socks and sandals, thermal jacket, beaded necklaces from Bali, a camera).
Method
Ask a friend to drop you at the airport. From there, catch the cheapest form of transport back into town, then make your way to a backpacking hostel of your choice and check in. Spend your time eating backpacker meals (pizza, falafel, takeaway curry) and doing backpacker activities with other backpackers - sightseeing, beer drinking, surfing the Net in Internet cafés, having meaningful discussions and even romantic liaisons with fun and attractive people you've just met. Watch your budget, and be sure to take photographs of yourself with your new friends. When you've had enough, make your way back to the airport and ask someone to collect you to take you back home.
Our Results
Backpacking at home is a simple way to make friends with people from around the world without leaving town and can provide you with a break from your usual routine.
Experimental Traveller Alex Landrigan:
To compensate for my expert local knowledge, I've over-packed my bag (take what you need and then double it), and decided that my travels should be circumscribed by a strictly downbeat budget and limited to the scope of my guidebook. I am only too aware of the conceptual limitations of the task I have set myself: I am not quite local, not quite stranger. I am either a local stranger or a strange local.
I'd hoped to join the Neighbours bus tour and visit some of the sights made famous by the popular TV soapie, but the guy at my hostel tells me the tour is booked out (of course, being a backpacker, I haven't booked ahead). So instead I walk the streets looking for a place to eat. I'm reminded that a lot of backpacking time is spent in places where one would rather not be. In fact, time itself seems to change as a backpacker, expanding and contracting like an accordion.
Back at the hostel, life is grim. There's football on the TV, watched by a bunch of Brits sipping their tepid beers. My feeble attempts at conversation meet with disappointing results. A couple of barefoot locals I could swear I've seen before - downtown, maybe hitting me for loose change - play the Virtual Tennis video arcade game.
*Warning: This experiment should be done over a weekend or up to a week - any longer, and you're in danger of becoming a real backpacker.
