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British Mensa Travel Special Interest Group |
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The
death of travel? by John Keeble Do you remember the days, just before the end of the last century, when you could tear a tiny hole in the fabric of your life, jump through it and head for the hills? Now, just when you think you are unsafe in some wild, adventurous place that most people have never heard of ... you find yourself sitting in a cyber café checking how much you have in the bank and worrying about how your real life is getting on without you. The internet, so useful before you escape and when you want facts for your photos after you get back, has closed on the traveller - from the youngest gap yearers to their grand parents on grey panther trips to places they missed in the sixties. We are all there, collapsing time and geography, stitching together strange new places and our familiar worlds via online links. And, of course, booking on hotels, checking transport, seeing if we've won the lottery and never need to go back... For a couple we met in northern Laos, the net links made the difference between escaping for a long trip or staying somewhere closer to their home near Toronto, Canada. ''We have to stay in touch,'' Nancy said as we ate mushroom and eggplant Semtex by the river at Luang Namtha. ''My mother is ill and we have teenage children ... do you know where there's a good internet link?'' The next day we got a bus for the six hour ride down to Luang Prabang - to a hotel booked on the web because, well, you know how busy Luang Prabang hotels and guesthouses can get - and found that in two or three years the number of internet cafes had increased from a round zero to more than half a dozen with scores of machines in constant use. There, young backpackers vied for web and email links with rich Europeans and saffron-garbed monks and novices, unwitting birds of paradise among touristwear and fake designer shirts. It is striking how vital it had become to people on the move. It was a similar story as we headed south, through Vientiane, Siem Reap in Cambodia with its lightning fast links, Phnom Penh where there was a queue between 6am and 7am - 11pm and midnight in the UK - as well as remote Sihanoukville on the Cambodian coast and, of course, everywhere in Thailand. Words, digital photographs, cheap phone calls - $1 a minute from Siem Reap, the nearest town to Angkor Wat, to the UK ...how did we manage without all this technology? A colleague tells how his son was travelling in Laos, one of the poorest countries in the world, when he became ill. He was two days from the nearest hospital ... but minutes from an internet links that let him pass on his symptoms for his father to check with a doctor friend and reply that it was unfortunate but not serious. Without a link, he might have had to cut short his travels in remote areas and head for Vientiane or Thailand for treatment. Researching on the web is well worth the effort before travelling: not just to check the flights and hotels - sometimes it is better to compare newspaper advertising or just enjoy the fun of just turning somewhere in the middle of a monsoon night without anywhere to stay. But imaginative searching for what is available, checking health and hazards like visa requirements, and setting up any visits and meetings can make it all more rewarding. Just start with the destination and, like a version of travelling, see where the trail takes you. It may be a big city ... but what is unusual, are there any festivals or special events, what is the history and how does it link with today, is there anything to see outside the city, what kind of experiences have other people had, what kind of photographs have they taken? When you get to whole countries, the web can suck you in for days with virtual visits to everything from today's villages to history's battles. And often there are excellent pages on subjects of specialist interest ... the symbolism of Theravadan Buddhist architecture, the meanings and origins of Cambodian classical and folk dances, the swirl of 19th and 20th century cultures that make up Thailand of today...probably whatever you want. It is a chance to be truly creative and add meaning and interest to your trip. But, for
me, some of the adventure has been sacrificed for the advantages of communication.
The rip in the fabric of my life is now an illusion and the hills are
alive with the sound of keyboards. First published in VISA issue 46 (summer 2002) |