I met more than one backpacker who was amused by the useless presents they have been given to take on their travels, by family, friends and work colleagues. Miniture this and that and gadgets and tools that will come in handy for the various situations they will never encounter etc etc Have your 'present to take on your trip' experiences been positive or negative? What did you receive? Was it useful? If not, what did you do with it? Have you ever given a gift to a backpacker? If so, what?
My sister generally pays no attention to my comments about how I like to travel light and rarely carry a backpack because it ruins the expat look I try to achieve when in certain countries.
One of my Christmas presents from her was a huge backpack.
I have only taken it with me once when I travelled, because I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to give away in the destination.
My boyfriend does however manage to fill it up when he is going away for a few days or a week.
The most useless present I ever heard of anyone getting, was an insurance policy from her mother, which covered killing another person. She had never killed anyone to date and does not have insurance for this when she is at home. I dont know why her mother thought she would be more likely to cause fatal accidents on her travels than at home.
Reply to this The best backpacking present I ever got was a Karrimor travelling towel. It came folded in a pouch taking minimum space. It absorbs a hell of a lot more than any conventional towel, it is 1/3 of the thickness and it dries freakingly fast! - I highly reccommend it for long backpacking trips!! - u can always give a hint " you could buy me a Karrimor travel Towel"....ehem....
Reply to this I actually don't remember receiving many (or any) gifts to take with me...do I take that as a compliment that my friends and family thought I was smart enough to take everything I needed and thus no gifts were necessary, or less optimistically they were ready to leave me to my own devices out in the world? I'll go with the former...
I suppose the insurance policy came from mom reading about someone accidentally killing someone in a foreign country and then that countries laws got that person into a heap of trouble, thus thinking their child may need protection from such a scenario. The tough part on any gift, of course, is that most of time there are good intentions behind the gift and how do you turn down good intentions and genuine concern from your friends and family? Everyone needs that!
Reply to this ... how do you turn down good intentions and genuine concern from your friends and family?
I usually pretend I like the gift. Not completely a lie, because I appreciate the intention behind it.
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