Lots of people, particularly ladies, love to go shopping when touring. Some like to shop on more accustomed territory or shop from the comforts of their very own home, online.
I got my desire for shopping while abroad through my granny. As they grew older, my grandparents loved to travel. Even before intercontinental flights came to be, they plan their shopping sprees around their stop-overs. Even just in death, you could still see proof of places they have visited in their home. A living room shelf holds their doll collection in colourful costumes. Among them are a hand-painted matryoshka from Russia, as well as a svelte, brown-skinned doll in an orange loin cloth that seems a lot like the Jungle Book's Mowgli. A doll that my grandma may have purchased around Australia.
Shopping for souvenirs is pretty well-known. Take my sister Trish, as an example, she's magnets from every country she has visited stuck on her refrigerator door. A collection of demitasses from countless flea markets in Europe is a collection of a previous employer. I, too, have a collection from my travels, although not of one single thing.
There was a time, when the internet was not hugely well-known yet, when it was such a buzz to tour Europe and discover up close the difference between the Swiss and Venetian lace. And to imagine that the best part of that trip to Venice was neither the Doge's Palace nor the Piazza San Marco or even a photo op on a gondola by the Bridge of Sighs. It had been more of the discovery of little artisan shops selling Murano's famous glass wares, mid-century furniture, vintage designer wear, and yes, gorgeous old-fashioned jewellery like vintage art deco rings (some of them heirloom even, I was told!) That trip will forever be remembered through gold-tinged Murano bead necklaces, an artist-signed glass sculpture of a fish-eating pelican, and a cobalt blue vase that would become a vessel for long-stemmed roses in my mother's house.
The latest visit to Shanghai was aggravating, to put it mildly, because in spite of the fact that I shopped for three entire days, I only came away with a pair of distressed-gold shoes purchased at the very last minute just because I did not want to leave that trip not having bought something.
Travelling for the cultural scene makes one feel chic and worldly. Looking at it now, I never made it to the cultural scene as I was always too tired from my shopping sprees. People who have the desire to shop during vacation have the tendency to be binge shoppers. We stretch the baggage restriction set by airline companies after going on a major shopping spree. What is it about going abroad that gives us permission to waste money? I think it's the thrill you get to purchase something you cannot at home. But as shopping online becomes feasible to us, we don't need to go abroad to obtain your Patek Philippe watches Australia. Satisfying your buying urges can now be as simple as going online. Then I can get to be real traveller when travelling international rather than just being a shopper.
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