Happiness is a dog at play in the united Berlin

This was the city after all where unhappy people sought to bring down a wall that divided a nation. And so the cry of “Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall” in 1989 reshaped an entire continent.

And last week, I heard there were protests by unhappy people over plans to tear down a 25m stretch of the longest remaining segment of the Berlin Wall for a condominium development. Mr Gorbachev would be turning in his grave.

Happiness is very much on the agenda these days, although the tiny kingdom of Bhutan is of course way ahead of everyone in measuring its success as a nation by the Gross National Happiness Index and not the Gross National Product.

South Korea recently elected its first woman President, Park Geun-Hye, and in her inauguration address, the media took pains to note that she mentioned the word “happiness” at least 18 times.

See, all across the region, a new generation, united by a constant, free and open flow of information, is striving for a different form of happiness that their forefathers sought when some of them left their original lands in search of a better life.

If I use me as an example – the one I am most intimate with of course and there are some who argue that the fear of intimacy impedes happiness but that’s another subject for another day – my father left Hainan Island in the 1930s to escape the famine of that time. He certainly wasn’t seeking happiness, only food.

His children – my siblings and I – had food (most of the time) but he sought education for them because he knew education would give them opportunities to make a living. While his immediate goal wasn’t happiness, I believe he eventually found it as he worked hard to build a new life for himself and his family in his new home.

I probably think of happiness more than he did and I remember once asking him, “Father, are you happy? Do you miss your home?” and he said, “I have no time to think of such nonsense.”

But it is no longer nonsense now for my generation and the one after me to think of happiness. In fact, for most of us – from Malaysia, to Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Taiwan, China – happiness has become a right.

If you look at the political and social changes taking place across Asia – in line with economic growth – you will see that at the core of the struggle is a desire for happiness by a new generation – and I mean generation not just in age but in thinking and ideology.

In Malaysia, we are preparing for a national election that will be voted on by possibly the biggest majority of unhappy people ever. In Singapore, unhappy people protested the recent government’s plan to increase its population to 6.9 million with the inherent implication that it would have to bring in more foreigners to keep the economy chugging along.

I was having a massage the other day – the modern answer to instant happiness – and my masseur, who is in his mid-40s, said, “You know, the Singapore dream when I was young was around the 3Cs (car, condominium, credit card) but what’s the new Singapore dream for my kids when they cannot afford to buy a car or a flat anymore?”

I believe one new dream is to travel and see the world. The intensity of travel in a small place like Singapore is both necessary and incredible. My masseur and his family, for example, take at least two big holidays and one or two regional trips a year, usually as part of school trips with their children.

Travel creates happy pockets in their lives. And I have noticed that the more they travel, the happier they seem. Which makes me happy of course, because happy masseurs equal happy massages. Don’t believe it? Try getting a massage from a miserable masseur.

This is why I think the “Vacations Rules” book is the right book for the right time. With the increasing emphasis on happiness by a new generation of Asians, coupled with a rise in income and an open, more accessible world, the need to travel will only intensify.

Whether China slows or India hiccups, travel in Asia will grow – you don’t need to be an economist to know that.

The book, co-authored by Rome2Rio interim chairman Rod Cuthbert and psychologist Sebastian Filep, shares rules that are pretty simple and sensible and they serve as good reminders of little things you can do to have happy vacations.

One rule for example tells you “to shop for meaning, not just things”. I do not need another lamp holder but I won’t say no to another great dinner somewhere with good friends or a river cruise to watch dragonflies and crocodiles in Sarawak.

Another tells you to “tell the world” and we know there’s no place like Asia when it comes to sharing about our travels. “For a healthy heart and a longer life, boost your positive emotions by regularly spreading the news about the things that happen on your trip. Take a few minutes each day to update your Facebook status, blog, tweet, email or send postcards and share the joy”, say the co-authors.

The best thing about the book, other than it being a fast and easy read, is that if it succeeds in making more travellers happy, then we’ll see them take more vacations which then leads to more happiness all round. T+H=Hsquared

So I reckon it’s time for travel to start a Travel Happiness Index and given the age of the “Quantified Self” – the “it’s all about me” thing we’re living now – we could probably have a personal “Travel Happiness” social graph which tells us “The Top 3 Places Where You’re Most Likely To Be Happy”.

Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, where I am writing this, would not be on that list. Cardiff where I spent last weekend, possibly.