The Legend of the Flashpacker: Part 1

BASED ON A TRUE STORY

One hot 34-degree-Celsius summer afternoon, you click the TV remote while you try downing a bottle of freezing soda. You try to squish the plastic bottle hoping it miraculously melts so you can finish it off. While cherishing the last few drops of cola, a TV commercial shows a beach with a group of dancing friends with the same soda you are drinking. You realize the only difference is that while they flaunt their bikini-contest-eligible bodies in a remote island in the Pacific, you are stuck in your room with a broken air-conditioner.

You stare at the TV asking yourself how can these twenty-something yuppies afford this vacation. They must be really wealthy.

Envious, you change the channel.

The travel show is about to end. The half-Asian, half-Caucasian host with a Sydney accent invites you to flashpack while you are young. Your eyebrows meet. Flash what?

The end credits scroll up while snippets of this episode's blooper moments do not make you laugh at all.

Flash what again?

You pick up your smart phone. You open the default browser and type in Flashp... Google suggests FLASHPACKING and FLASHPACKER.

You click the first entry.

Though you pay about $20 for unlimited internet, your speed test app laughs at how slow your connection is. You begin counting aloud.

While you stare at the blue bar moving from left to right at one inch per hour, you think again.

You know what backpacking is. Some of your college friends have done it in Vietnam and Cambodia and their Facebook photos make you want to follow suit.

But flashpacking? Nah, you absolutely have no idea.

The page loads after a couple of minutes. You check your soda bottle and gulp what has melted so far.

Fonts on your screen are too small. You try making them bigger. You read the five words in bold letters that catch your attention: Flashpacking is backpacking in style.

Cool, you think.

You close the browser, smiling. You open a blank text message, still smiling. You choose two of your most adventurous and travel-addicted friends at the same time and you type: Friends, let's go on a flashpacking adventure, followed by three smiley faces.

Three minutes later you get the same reply from both friends:

We are in Bangkok! Join us! •