The times they are a changing

There's nothing like sitting all day every day in the common room of a hostelpretending to be working for finely tuning your ability to avoid something. In my personalcase, I'm trying to avoid the boredom of putting together a database for a London company.It might as well be a detailed spreadsheet of all the information on a series of projects being undertaken by the company. Apparently, my inside knowledge was indispensible for the task. I won't complain too hard though, as long as I get paid for it all. But in sitting here at my laptop, I have found that the urge to update my blog overtakes me far more often than it would otherwise do. Hence the regular posts again. It's just like when I was bored silly in a permissive office *sigh*.

But it has also given me a chance to observe the workings of the hostel a little more closely than I would otherwise. And I have to say, this one runs pretty well. There are the regulars who, like me, are pretty much living here. We recognise each other by sight if not by name, and have at least a nodding acquaintance and knowledge of each other's business. There is nowhere to hide your secret life in here, that is for sure. THen there are the blow-ins, the arrivals who turn up without a booking, but hoping for somewhere to spend the night. I'm not sure where they go when it's busy time and the place is booked out; I'm guessing to the somewhat less salubrious accommodation up the road. I don't envy them.

The bit that really gets me though is that most of these people need not turn up without a booking. The odern backpacker is a high tech being, travelling with mobile phones, mp3 players and often even laptops. Many have roaming broadband and need enver be out of touch with the world in any way, at any time. Somewhat different to the first time I went backpacking, over 7 years ago now, and didn't even have a phone card, that most modest of communication devices now. I'm as bad as the rest of them, I admit it, but I have to ask, where's the adventure gone, when you can travel solo, but really be bringing your friends along for the ride via the webcam hook up on your computer?

I'm not advocating going without all th modern accoutrements. I'd die without them on this trp, since I wouldn't be able to make any money and that 2 euros I had left to my name a couple of days ago would have been spent on a combination of packet soup, 2 minute noodles and tinned pasta - a most healthy and nutritious diet. Rather I'm wondering, where do you go to get away from the world? How do you truly escape now? Its not even a surprise to find someone with hundred - in some cases thousands - of dollars worth of equipment stashed in a humble backpack, but rather a surprise to find someone wihtout any high tech gizmos. My family and friends would be curiously worried if I dropped off the radar completely for a few days, let alone for the weeks, months, years that some people spend travelling. So, how do you do it, these days? I'm not sure, given social expectations. But I'm thinking of a trip to Bhutan or Nepal to test out the internet reception there - I figure they must be the last hold outs. The bigger question is, how naked and exposed would I feel without any means of contacting the outside world? And how the hell can I get to Nepal or Bhutan when I can't even manage to get into London and work right now?