Students dream of backpacking the world

Posted on 03. Dec, 2009 by Nicole in In Focus

A bag and pair of boots are a backpacker's best friends. Photo by Lance Holdforth.

BY LANCE HOLDFORTH
IN FOCUS REPORTER

When Jack Kerouac’s book, On the Road, was published in 1957, generations of people became inspired to travel and 52 years later the ideals of backpacking still encourage a sense of adventure. Humber students have also caught the adventure bug.

“I think it’s one of those things you have to do when you are young,” said Anton Lozowsky, 20. “I think it’s the sense of freedom and the sense of exploration.”

Lozowsky, a first-year media foundation student, said a lot can pass you by without even knowing it.

“What’s the sense of staying in the same place your whole life?”

Charlie Lay, 21, a second-year architecture and technology student, said his desire to travel is about his heritage first and adventure second, he wants to see his homeland’s culture first-hand.

“I’ve always wanted to go to Asia backpacking,” he said. “I want to go to Cambodia. It’s where I’m from and I have never been to my homeland.”

Lay said there are a lot of things he’d like to experience.

“I think I’d ride an elephant and drink from a coconut,” Lay said. “I heard in Cambodia if you want to drink from a coconut a guy will climb a tree with a machete and cut one down for you. It doesn’t get much fresher than that.”

He said backpacking is a way to see the world around us and experience things outside our daily lives.

While students in Canada dream of crossing the ocean, students from overseas come to North America with nothing but a backpack and a laptop.

Brian Gardhouse, operations supervisor for Moose Travel Network, a Canadian adventure bus company affiliated with the Global backpackers’ hostel in Toronto, said he notices a lot of student travellers arrive in the summer months.

“I think Canada in general gets a lot of people from the English-speaking countries like the U.K and Australia.”

Gardhouse said he has noticed a larger amount of younger travelers coming to the country in recent years.

“I would say about 60 per cent of people who show up here would be students,” Gardhouse said. “I notice a lot of younger backpackers coming in around the high school equivalent of where they come from.”

Josh Jackson, 23, second-year film and television, said backpacking is something he has always wanted to try.

Jackson said he would like to backpack around Europe, notably Belgium and Switzerland.

Jackson said while many people travel to one place and do routine things, he would like to take a different approach.

“I would do it just to be able to see the non-tourist spots and stay in a different place each night,” Jackson said.

He said he thinks it’s the idea of spontaneity and new direction people find intriguing about backpacking.

“I think it’s the freedom to explore, it’s an adventure.”