The advent of the internet（互聯網的誕生）has made the world a smaller place and we now literally have the world at our fingertips（世界近在咫尺）. We can pull up images of exotic（異國風情的）landscapes and learn about cultures which we never knew existed with the simple click of a button.

However, no matter how close we may feel to actually being there, we're not breathing the same air nor treading the same ground. This is exactly why we need to travel – you can’t say you’ve been to a place until you've experienced the culture（體驗文化）and immersed yourself in the local atmosphere（浸在當地的氣氛)!

Our consumerism-driven lifestyle（受消費主義驅動的生活方式）has also somewhat altered the meaning of holidaying abroad（於海外度假). Travel agencies seem to be very fond of（喜歡）sending people on shopping tours these days, for which the usual itinerary（行程）goes something like this:

1. A wake-up call at some ungodly（荒唐的）hour in the morning (like 4am!).
2. A whirlwind sightseeing tour which gives you about 5 minutes to take snaps（拍照）at each attraction（景點）. Much like a flash mob（快閃黨）!
3. The rest of the day at the mall where you shop till you drop.

This makes the entire trip exhausting（使人精疲力竭的）and stressful（有壓力的）, which is kind of the opposite of what you intend to achieve while on vacation（放假）! It also renders going abroad meaningless as you just end up doing what you would normally do back home...

In my opinion, being a Free Independent Traveler（自由行旅客）is the best way to enjoy a real holiday. Sure, language might be a barrier（障礙）in some parts of the world, but a dictionary, common courtesy（禮貌）, as well as learning magic words such as "thank you" and "please" in the local dialect（方言）will certainly help you go a long long way!

Now think back, when was the last time you had a proper holiday?