Off the Cuff: Holiday fun begins now

It is reported that vacationers are 21 hours into their holidays before they actually begin to enjoy them. Imagine taking almost a day to unwind from the phone calls and the internet and the laptop — the present day equivalent of the grindstone we try to escape by going on a holiday! With everything that has been kept on hold poised to tackle us and bring us down within seconds of our return, one would think that we'd disconnect faster and be ready to plunge straight into the fun.

Forget about unpacking — just pull something out of the suitcase, drag it on and set out to explore or lounge on the beach or soak in antiquity — why bother with matching clothes and bags and shoes? We're trying to take a break from what we normally do, aren't we?

And no need to ‘settle' into the hotel accommodation and make ourselves at home there when we'll be out in a day or two anyway and in the next hotel! If we really want to treat each place like home, best stay home — and forget about the haphazardness that brings freedom to a vacation!

Maybe it is seasoned travellers who have this problem of ‘adjusting'. People like us, whose ‘real' holidays are few and far between, hand over the planning and executing and handling of documents to a trusted travel agency and don't want to miss out on a moment of the fun. In fact, we just leave our cares behind as we get out of the front door and the holiday begins before the flight takes off. A recent almost-all-ladies group that visited China was a good example of this. The airport lounge saw us already in the holiday mood, mingling with travellers from other groups, getting to know what spurred them to head in the same direction, which cities we were going to see, what we expected, and much more.

More than half of the group were senior citizens, but looking at the levels of feisty enthusiasm and the alacrity with which mobile phones were switched off and dumped in the baggage, onlookers would think they had no cares in the world. Spouses, children, grandchildren — they were all relegated to a compartment in their heads and hearts entitled Not Now. Now was for holidaying — and how!

On the move

No one complained of jet lag or foot fatigue when we landed in Beijing. The mantra was: freshen up and head out before any of those complaints dare to surface and our bodies catch up with us. Uncomplainingly, everyone tramped through Tiananmen Square, through the Forbidden City, hopped onto cycle rickshaws just like our own in India and explored the old narrow-laned sections, constantly on the move. There was so much everyone wanted to experience to understand the mysteries of this country and no matter how much we did and how fast, we knew we could never see it all in the scant 10 days we had at our disposal — but we were certainly going to try!

Those of us who still could, ran —around and about — while the rest were led along the straightest and shortest path to suit their older limbs. But none of us missed a trick, whether it was the watchtowers on the Great Wall, the stone statues of the Sacred Way to the Ming tombs, the incredibly well-kept vaults of the terracotta army at Xian, or the quaint and colourful Yangshuo handicraft market that made even the most hardened among us melt and yearn to add to her collection of pretty things!

As for worrying about heading home, which holiday makers are reported to start doing three days into their holiday, we left that for other vacationers to do. Long vacation-less years had taught us the value of here and now.

Cheryl Rao is a journalist based in India.