My husband always dreamed of owning a Morgan sports car, brand new from the factory, a handmade legend!
But by the time he could afford such a car, his hair had turned grey, the children would not fit into it and he had to settle for a comfortable family vehicle.
I was about to emigrate to Australia when we became engaged and we decided my dream had to be put on hold while we started our married life.
It was almost 30 years later when my dream came true and I flew on Emirates’ inaugural flight into Melbourne.
I loved the city, the country and the people. Australia truly wowed me and even my English other half agreed, it was a heck of a country and the welcome and the hospitality received were awesome.
In fact, we in the travel business are the true ‘Wizards of Oz’. We make dreams come true, we can provide sports cars, if only for a holiday, to our clients. We make reality of childhood/young adult fantasies. We can turn the pages of a brochure into a real experience.
Of course, today’s iPod users and internet surfers can see the pictures, even videos of exotic destinations, but until you have actually seen the sun rise over the Himalayas and heard the village below waking up, it is not 3D.
Until you have smelt the oranges and leather in the Great Souk in Cairo or crawled on your hands and knees up the ladder to the hidden chamber in the pyramid, the intrigue and fascination of these icons means very little.
After a lifetime of travel, I am fortunate to have clocked-up millions of miles and visited some 80 countries. Of course for the less fortunate, not associated with the travel business, it might sound like arrogance when a visitor to your home asks ‘where does that come from?’ and if you are not careful you can find yourself launching into the tale of how you bargained for the teak elephant in the shop at the elephant orphanage in Sri Lanka or that of the Indonesian trader, who raced after you in Jakarta with the tall wooden duck shouting ‘quack quack’, until you stopped and bought it from him.
We were discussing with friends the other day the effect of video and cinema on travel. Will this filmed experience eventually replace travel in a new world, threatened with economic recession, where people do not have sufficient time or finance for intercontinental vacations.
I argued that this would never happen due to the unquenchable thirst for knowledge inherent in most human beings. Naturally you can buy a Batik in a local handicraft shop but it is not the same as seeing it made.
Another point made in the discussion was that the ‘good old days’ were in fact better than most people appreciate, according to my husband. He talked about the smell of the turbines of the Viscount and the smooth landings of the Caravelle, though he had forgotten how we were crunched up in our seats on these planes.
“Remember when we walked through the airport without any X-ray machines and security checks?” Well, yes, I do, but I am very thankful for the security now introduced… that was a different age and it always made me edgy watching the captain gladhanding passengers as he strolled around the aircraft.
Tourism has, to some extent, changed the Gulf region forever. I remember cups of tea and warm pitta bread offered by a Gulf national, a total stranger, on one of my first desert trips… now you would have to visit the Bedouins in the Jordanian desert to receive the same friendly treatment. But we have the malls, the water parks, the luxury hotels, which would not have been established without the tourist invasion.
Many destinations have changed for the better, of course the sights are still the same but do you thank that Somerset Maugham, on returning to his favourite Singapore hotel would find chocolate on his pillow and a forecast for tomorrow’s weather?
But, back to the future, yes, I am going to rent him a Morgan next time we visit the UK.