Yeoh Siew Hoon
There I was, sitting out in the garden in my Airbnb-rented home in Pornic, France, taking in the cool breeze coming off the Atlantic Ocean. The house cat, Mouss, is on my lap. He knows where the most comfortable spot in the house is.
I'm catching up on my reading while Mouss is purring when a headline on the Web in Travel website grabs my attention: "Asians most attached to mobile devices while travelling."
I am, of course, reading this on my smartphone. Top on the list of our requirements when choosing the Airbnb house to rent for our seven-day holiday was WiFi. There's no way six Asians could survive a week without connectivity. Or instant noodles (I will get to that later).
The Hotels.com survey, which looked into digital holiday habits across 28 countries, found travelers from Thailand were the least prepared to give up their mobile devices, with 85% saying they would be unwilling to do so. Korea came in second (78%), followed by Japan (69%), China (67%) and Singapore (60%).
In North America, only 27% of Canadians and 28% of Mexican travelers said they would be unwilling to do so.
I don't know what it is in our genes that makes us Asians so attached to our devices and to the need to share.
Even in Bhutan where the underpinning philosophy of life is to be detached, it was hard for us to disconnect. Every moment we were in a cafe with connectivity, out would come the devices, the conversation would stop, and everyone would be busy posting photos or WeChatting, Lining, WhatsApping or Vibering.
And apparently, we Asians are the biggest braggers and liars, too. The same Hotels.com survey said that among countries most likely to exaggerate their vacation experiences, China was top of the pile, with 67% of respondents likely to lie to friends and family when returning home.
Germany was in second place, with 64%, followed by Korea (48%), Spain (47%) and Thailand (46%) among the top five to admit they would embellish a travel story to impress others.
Thank you, Germany, for not making this an all-star Asian list.
Anyway, back to Mouss. He came as part of the conditions of renting the house. The host had asked us if we would look after his cat, and I have to say that Mouss was the second best thing about the house, after WiFi.
The kitchen was the third best thing. We could cook instant noodles anytime we felt homesick. So that's one more thing you need to know about us Asians: We are pretty attached to our noodles, as well.
Incidentally, Airbnb is getting pretty big in Asia. It's been expanding its Singapore base very rapidly, and in April it announced that, year to date, it had recorded a total of 50,000 nights booked from Singapore; in 2013, the number of Airbnb searches from Singapore jumped 200% from the previous year. Regional destinations were high on Singapore travelers' agendas, with three out of the top five hailing from Asia. Seoul came out tops, followed by Paris, London, Tokyo and Taipei.
So don't believe those who tell you that Asians will not take to staying in other people's homes or that they won't let out their homes to others. That's changing pretty fast, and after this Airbnb experience, well, I've got to say, it's hard to beat, cat and all.
Yeoh Siew Hoon, editorial director of Northstar Travel Media Asia, is the founder and editor of Web in Travel, a content and community platform for online travel professionals in the Asia-Pacific region.