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Postcard tales
Have pen, will travel. More people are pulling up stumps and chasing dreams on the other side of the world- and writing home about it.
From hostessing in Tokyo to living la dolce vita in Rome, wherever you want to travel, you can do so between the pages of a book. Travel memoirs are becoming the literature du jour.
But the genre has expanded well beyond American author Bill Bryson's first humorous travel book in1985, The Palace Under The Alps.
Now, it is young women who are often wielding the pen. Though, not those on the well-trodden gap year between high school and university. They're in their late 20s, 30s or beyond, and have had a taste of working life, before their wanderlust has bitten.
Clinical psychologist and life coach Darryl Cross says the desire to travel, once having established yourself in a career, is a reflection of modern times. "The Baby Boomers said, 'We can't travel, because we have to save money for our flat or our house and have money in the bank.' Whereas Gen Y are not as money-hungry. They're much more about the experience of life. They might come home broke, but they will be more rounded and have had more experiences."
With young people's skills continually being recognised abroad, including in tax havens like Dubai and the Canary Islands, it looks as though there will be a few more page-turners yet to come.
Amanda Tabberer
Amanda Tabberer travelled to Italy in 1983 to learn the language and wound up staying 20 years. The daughter of fashion guru Maggie Tabberer says Italy has always been a big part of her family life.
"Maggie's second husband was Italian [Ettore] and he was my real dad. Although I didn't speak Italian or hadn't travelled there extensively, I just had this yearning to learn the language."
Her language lessons were soon swapped for a career in fashion PR and media in Italy's north, including at Lei magazine. But a holiday in the jewel-like town of Positano saw her change course.
"It was basically myself and 20 gay friends - all boys - heading south," Tabberer recalls. "Everyone was saying we had to go to this restaurant, which you could only reach by boat - and we got the best-looking boat boy." That boy later became her husband, Sergio. "I ended up moving down with him and we lived in his garage on a waterbed!"
But, rather than revelling in the south's slower pace, such as, sipping coffee in a piazza, Tabberer instead threw herself into starting her own ventures, including a T-shirt screen-printing business, pure-linen designer wear and villa rentals (the last two she still runs from her Sydney base).
While she has since split from Sergio, the pair has
a 17-year-old son, Marco, and many wonderful memories. All has been encapsulated in her memoir, My Amalfi Coast ($69.95, Penguin).
Chelsea Haywood
"Millionaires, surgeons, serial killers, CEOS: I light their cigarettes, mix their drinks. We engage in conversation.
I am the facilitator of good times. I am a hostess."
This is the tantalising precursor to Canadian model Chelsea Haywood's debut travel memoir, 90-Day Geisha: My Time as a Tokyo Hostess (Random House, $34.95).
Four years ago, the then 21-year-old and her Australian husband, Matthew Brennan (they've since separated) decided to move to Tokyo for three months. Haywood, who had seen other women get into hostessing when travelling the world as a model, went to Tokyo with the intention of landing a job as
a bar hostess and writing a book about it. "I had no agent, no publicist, I had never written before. I thought I'd figure it out after the fact," Haywood says.
On hostessing, she says: "There's a line in the sand and you don't cross it and they don't want you to cross it. In Japan, you can go and get whatever you want in any context as far as the nightlife goes. They purely come there because they're not going to be threatened by anything eventuating."
One customer, Yoshi, did get under her skin a little though. "My affection for him took me by surprise. It can be hard to know if they're being genuine sometimes or if it's a product of the environment or the role you're playing and obviously there's alcohol involved as well. But it can definitely put stars in your eyes."
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Haywood is currently deciding where to call home. "I have one suitcase in Sydney and one in Oxford and things to do up to the end of the year, so we'll see after that!"
Penelope Green
With her 30th birthday on the horizon, Penelope Green decided it was now or never to carve out her own slice of la dolce vita.
Despite a successful career as a journalist and PR executive in Sydney, she chose to trade it all in to chase a dream, buying a one-way ticket to Italy. This was despite speaking absolutely no Italian and having no job, no friends and nowhere to live when she arrived.
That was six years ago. Her adventure spawned her first book, When in Rome, which became the highest-selling travel book in 2005 and won the Grollo Ruzzene Foundation Prize. She now lives on the Italian island of Procida, where she is working on her third travel memoir. A new version of her second book, See Naples and Die, has also just been released (Hachette, $24.99).
Green says she almost felt as though she had left it too late at 28 to pack her bags and head to Italy, but was inspired by seeing other women travellers, at least twice her age. She would do it again in a heartbeat. "I find I am more relaxed in Italy compared to at home and that was my long-term goal," Green says.
Green is currently living it up in Procida, a small island about an hour off the coast of Naples. While the nearby islands of Ischia and Capri draw many tourists, Procida's inhabitants haven't tried so hard to market the island, but this is what Green says makes it so special. "It is a very close community, one which is at first a little wary of an outsider, who chooses to call Procida home, but that is eventually accepting as soon as one becomes a part of the furniture," Green says.
Still, she does plan to return home - some day. "While I love Italy and can't imagine not living here, the day will come when I return home."
Love may keep her there a little longer though. "I can confirm I am still very happy with my Neapolitan partner, Alfonso, who features in See Naples and Die, and also my next book about Procida."
Bella Vendramini
Ever since Sarah Jessica Parker's character in Sex and the City tottered down Fifth Avenue in her Manolos, women have been enchanted with the idea of living in New York.
Bella Vendramini, who was born in New Zealand, has got to experience it first-hand, penning the travel memoir, Biting the Big Apple (Hachette, $32.99, out October 30) on her time treading the acting boards in the city that never sleeps.
Despite her mother being an author, writing herself was something she fell upon. "I did an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald on my acting career and it mentioned that I'd been accepted into the Lee Strasberg Institute of Film and Theatre in New York," Vendramini says. "Bernadette Foley, a publisher at Hachette, read the article and thought I sounded like a bit of a livewire, so asked me if I'd like to write a book about my experiences over there. It was a real dream come true, as I'd always wanted to write, but never had enough guts to actually do it. So, I went over to New York and kept a journal about my experiences. I followed my mother's advice: be honest, be real. I have to say it was pretty hard-going at times, talking intimately about my fears, thoughts, mishaps, depressions and loves. But people always get a giggle out of somebody else's misfortunes, so at least something good can come out of it!"
Not that it's a definitive happy ending. "After I finished the memoir, so much happened with regard to my love life that it was enough for two extra books. I got married to a New Yorker, parents and friends flew in from Australia and all over for it, it was a fairytale beautiful wedding... Two weeks later, I filed for a divorce. But that's for the sequel to Biting the Big Apple, perhaps I could call it Choking On The Big Wedding Cake! Well, life can be strange and beautiful - and unexpected. Just like New York."
From hostessing in Tokyo to living la dolce vita in Rome, wherever you want to travel, you can do so between the pages of a book. Travel memoirs are becoming the literature du jour.
But the genre has expanded well beyond American author Bill Bryson's first humorous travel book in1985, The Palace Under The Alps.
Now, it is young women who are often wielding the pen. Though, not those on the well-trodden gap year between high school and university. They're in their late 20s, 30s or beyond, and have had a taste of working life, before their wanderlust has bitten.
Clinical psychologist and life coach Darryl Cross says the desire to travel, once having established yourself in a career, is a reflection of modern times. "The Baby Boomers said, 'We can't travel, because we have to save money for our flat or our house and have money in the bank.' Whereas Gen Y are not as money-hungry. They're much more about the experience of life. They might come home broke, but they will be more rounded and have had more experiences."
With young people's skills continually being recognised abroad, including in tax havens like Dubai and the Canary Islands, it looks as though there will be a few more page-turners yet to come.
Amanda Tabberer
Amanda Tabberer travelled to Italy in 1983 to learn the language and wound up staying 20 years. The daughter of fashion guru Maggie Tabberer says Italy has always been a big part of her family life.
"Maggie's second husband was Italian [Ettore] and he was my real dad. Although I didn't speak Italian or hadn't travelled there extensively, I just had this yearning to learn the language."
Her language lessons were soon swapped for a career in fashion PR and media in Italy's north, including at Lei magazine. But a holiday in the jewel-like town of Positano saw her change course.
"It was basically myself and 20 gay friends - all boys - heading south," Tabberer recalls. "Everyone was saying we had to go to this restaurant, which you could only reach by boat - and we got the best-looking boat boy." That boy later became her husband, Sergio. "I ended up moving down with him and we lived in his garage on a waterbed!"
But, rather than revelling in the south's slower pace, such as, sipping coffee in a piazza, Tabberer instead threw herself into starting her own ventures, including a T-shirt screen-printing business, pure-linen designer wear and villa rentals (the last two she still runs from her Sydney base).
While she has since split from Sergio, the pair has
a 17-year-old son, Marco, and many wonderful memories. All has been encapsulated in her memoir, My Amalfi Coast ($69.95, Penguin).
Chelsea Haywood
"Millionaires, surgeons, serial killers, CEOS: I light their cigarettes, mix their drinks. We engage in conversation.
I am the facilitator of good times. I am a hostess."
This is the tantalising precursor to Canadian model Chelsea Haywood's debut travel memoir, 90-Day Geisha: My Time as a Tokyo Hostess (Random House, $34.95).
Four years ago, the then 21-year-old and her Australian husband, Matthew Brennan (they've since separated) decided to move to Tokyo for three months. Haywood, who had seen other women get into hostessing when travelling the world as a model, went to Tokyo with the intention of landing a job as
a bar hostess and writing a book about it. "I had no agent, no publicist, I had never written before. I thought I'd figure it out after the fact," Haywood says.
On hostessing, she says: "There's a line in the sand and you don't cross it and they don't want you to cross it. In Japan, you can go and get whatever you want in any context as far as the nightlife goes. They purely come there because they're not going to be threatened by anything eventuating."
One customer, Yoshi, did get under her skin a little though. "My affection for him took me by surprise. It can be hard to know if they're being genuine sometimes or if it's a product of the environment or the role you're playing and obviously there's alcohol involved as well. But it can definitely put stars in your eyes."
read on below advertisement
Haywood is currently deciding where to call home. "I have one suitcase in Sydney and one in Oxford and things to do up to the end of the year, so we'll see after that!"
Penelope Green
With her 30th birthday on the horizon, Penelope Green decided it was now or never to carve out her own slice of la dolce vita.
Despite a successful career as a journalist and PR executive in Sydney, she chose to trade it all in to chase a dream, buying a one-way ticket to Italy. This was despite speaking absolutely no Italian and having no job, no friends and nowhere to live when she arrived.
That was six years ago. Her adventure spawned her first book, When in Rome, which became the highest-selling travel book in 2005 and won the Grollo Ruzzene Foundation Prize. She now lives on the Italian island of Procida, where she is working on her third travel memoir. A new version of her second book, See Naples and Die, has also just been released (Hachette, $24.99).
Green says she almost felt as though she had left it too late at 28 to pack her bags and head to Italy, but was inspired by seeing other women travellers, at least twice her age. She would do it again in a heartbeat. "I find I am more relaxed in Italy compared to at home and that was my long-term goal," Green says.
Green is currently living it up in Procida, a small island about an hour off the coast of Naples. While the nearby islands of Ischia and Capri draw many tourists, Procida's inhabitants haven't tried so hard to market the island, but this is what Green says makes it so special. "It is a very close community, one which is at first a little wary of an outsider, who chooses to call Procida home, but that is eventually accepting as soon as one becomes a part of the furniture," Green says.
Still, she does plan to return home - some day. "While I love Italy and can't imagine not living here, the day will come when I return home."
Love may keep her there a little longer though. "I can confirm I am still very happy with my Neapolitan partner, Alfonso, who features in See Naples and Die, and also my next book about Procida."
Bella Vendramini
Ever since Sarah Jessica Parker's character in Sex and the City tottered down Fifth Avenue in her Manolos, women have been enchanted with the idea of living in New York.
Bella Vendramini, who was born in New Zealand, has got to experience it first-hand, penning the travel memoir, Biting the Big Apple (Hachette, $32.99, out October 30) on her time treading the acting boards in the city that never sleeps.
Despite her mother being an author, writing herself was something she fell upon. "I did an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald on my acting career and it mentioned that I'd been accepted into the Lee Strasberg Institute of Film and Theatre in New York," Vendramini says. "Bernadette Foley, a publisher at Hachette, read the article and thought I sounded like a bit of a livewire, so asked me if I'd like to write a book about my experiences over there. It was a real dream come true, as I'd always wanted to write, but never had enough guts to actually do it. So, I went over to New York and kept a journal about my experiences. I followed my mother's advice: be honest, be real. I have to say it was pretty hard-going at times, talking intimately about my fears, thoughts, mishaps, depressions and loves. But people always get a giggle out of somebody else's misfortunes, so at least something good can come out of it!"
Not that it's a definitive happy ending. "After I finished the memoir, so much happened with regard to my love life that it was enough for two extra books. I got married to a New Yorker, parents and friends flew in from Australia and all over for it, it was a fairytale beautiful wedding... Two weeks later, I filed for a divorce. But that's for the sequel to Biting the Big Apple, perhaps I could call it Choking On The Big Wedding Cake! Well, life can be strange and beautiful - and unexpected. Just like New York."
Story: Carla Caruso
