I want to build a Disneyland for backpackers ... mmm ... travellers. Okay, let's call them lifetime explorers.
I've had this thought rolling in my head for some time now but recently, it seems to be getting stronger. Time for an enterprising venture? Hmmm ... a venture that I want to not be as much for-profit than for upholding the spirit of backpacking travels, spreading travellers' goodwill, promoting cultural understanding and spearheading community development in some of the host locations. I become even more excited as I realise I'm in a pretty good position (as a researcher and a traveller) to make sense of these places and people for the sake of this venture. Just how can I make good use of my skills and insights to turn up a damn good plan? And I sure need a damn good plan as the sketches in my head become clearer ...
This will be a chain of the warmest and homiest thematic guesthouses, or backpacking hostels if you like, how you call it does not really matter to me. In fact, each of these houses will be so unique that the only thing that identifies them as part of a whole is, well, their distinctness in character. And of course, the background story of how each house came to be built in that particular place and not another ... because each of them will be built in a city that is close to my heart. At this point, there are about a dozen of such locations!
Melaka (Malaysia), Singapore, Chengdu, Hong Kong (China), Wanaka, Queenstown (New Zealand), Boston, San Francisco, New York (the US), Istanbul (Turkey), Takayama (Japan) ... each of them will bear semblance to a feature that is uniquely local to the city / town / village where it is based.
For instance, one in Melaka, my birthplace, the newly-minted UNESCO cultural heritage city where I spent the first 20 years of my life, that which laid the foundation of who I am today, will be built as a Malay kampung stilt house. It will be airy, thanks to the plank walls and atap roof, partially brick for a touch of modernity, maintenance and strength, and the stilts rooted in brick bases instead of straight into the ground.And the one in Chengdu will most likely house my panda family (!) among other prized paraphernalia from this lovely city and around.
When a guest arrives at any of the houses, it will be like arriving at a Disneyland attraction. The house, although an experience in itself, is above all a gateway to a true travelling experience. He will arrive with a certain expectation and knowledge but as he gets immersed into the story of this guesthouse, his curiosity gets tingled big time! He just cannot wait to head out and explore this beautiful place he just landed in!
Hopping from one house to another will be like hopping the different attractions at Disneyland, or waiting for the Faraway Tree to have a change of clouds that unveils yet another exhilarating experience. And of course, like at Disneyland, the explorer will endeavour to visit every house before he considers this experience complete. However, I hope that this will be a task of impossibility as, like Disneyland again, the house will never be completed as long as there is imagination left in this world, and I have enough zest left in me for travels on the wild side.
