Comments on: 28 Daytrips Later

By: Helen C

Helen C — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:47:43 +0000

Funnily enough, a friend of mine is meeting an old acquaintance as they stop off on one of these tours. It lasts 17 days and is costing them £4K a head. For this privilege, they get to do Stratford upon Avon for lunch and a show and then York the same afternoon. They spend one sleepover in Warrington, of all places. The primary reason you’d sign up for one of these things is “because it’s safer”. Because Stratford-upon-Avon, God knows, is the Murder Capital of the Midlands…

Annoying as they are, I am greatly inclined to pity tourists, as having been despised and ripped-off on my own travels, I am still not sure whether I would like to face down a lifetime of staying home and out from under other people’s feet…

I want to visit the Atoll of Lost Tourists though.

By: The Great Geek Manual » Geek Media Round-Up: June 5, 2009

The Great Geek Manual » Geek Media Round-Up: June 5, 2009 — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:00:35 +0000

[...] Fiction: Read “28 Daytrips Later” by Sumit Dam at [...]

By: squarepetal

squarepetal — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:25:34 +0000

Where did this story come from? When did you write this? How? WOW! Startling idea, amazing writing packed with really juicy images, that despite it being 6.28 am I’m reading again to savour! Particularly strong hits for me are:

“Open-topped buses roamed the streets, lobotomised and feral in their hunger for passengers.”

and

“Postcards of breasts disguised as mice fluttered in the summer breeze, piling up in gutters like sheaves of prematurely autumnal leaves.”

and

“Restaurants abandoned all-you-can-eat in favour of whatever-you-can-get – although by some anomaly, the Caledonian steakhouses of Soho festered on, even though their red-velvet banquettes were now almost entirely empty.”

So witty and so true and clear that the writer is smitten by this city despite all her foibles and faults. Poetic.

People in London need to read this: I love the way the humour works as a defiant finger to terrorism.

By: Sumit Dam

Sumit Dam — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:05:18 +0000

Mass tourism seems to me to be one of those phenomena that run rampant because its benefits are easily measurable in hard currency, while its detriments are less tangible and easier for policy-makers to ignore. I think easy international travel is one of the enormous privileges of the modern age, and it's a pity that one of its by-products has been a nasty, exploitative and environmentally ruinous industry that enables insular and disrespectful travellers to avoid having their minds broadened by contact with local customs and people. London is, of course, a big city and able to take care of itself (at least compared to, say, the Maldives); but even so, the impact of millions of tourists is considerable. Central London is much more civilized, and certainly more navigable, during the increasingly brief low season between the summer and winter holiday seasons. And despite headlines shrieking about the cataclysmic loss of tourist dollars (and euro, and yen, and the rest) I've found that I am not alone in being glad of the reprieve when terrorism or disease has deterred tourists from visiting. I've frequently wondered what London would be like if there were no tourists. That's where this story comes from. The title is, of course, a reference to 28 Days Later; and this story's musical inspiration was In the House, from John Murphy's soundtrack. I was listening to that track as I crossed Westminster Bridge one sunny afternoon – the same bridge that Jim, in the film, walks down in splendidly spooky solitude. The contrast with my stuttering progress through gawping crowds and hectoring crap-merchants could not have been greater.