The Ultimate Trip

So the 'bar mat mum' is now banned from the USA, and figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs show that Australians are getting into more trouble abroad than ever before. If you've never come across a bad Aussie tourist, then you probably are one! Have you ever had to put on a fake accent while on holiday for fear of being guilty by association?

Though "mancation" seems to be a relatively new word, it is certainly not a new concept. The mancation manifests itself in annual footy trips, golf trips and fishing trips when a group of guys yearning for some time alone together plan activities that their partners have no interest in for the sole purpose of having an excuse to get away.

It seems a shame that it's taken a cyclone, which has wiped out more than 100,000 Burmese, for the world to focus on Burma and the suffering of its people at the hands of the military junta. This issue of human rights abuses can pose some tricky questions: should we continue travelling to Burma, or should we (like many other individuals and companies), take a moral stand and boycott the country?

When thinking of reproducing, many people fear that it spells an end to adventurous forays into the big wide world. Hello nappies, goodbye fun? Hello all-inclusive 'holiday parks', goodbye huts on the beach? Hello children, goodbye personality?