Looking Back: A Travellers Guide to Technology

There’s a lot to say for technology, for this inter connected world where communication is taken for granted. Roll the clock back 25 years and I remember my parents complaining that there wasn’t even a working phone in the small dust filled town that we lived in, in Burkina Faso. Less than ten years ago the only way you could really talk to your friends who were living abroad was paying over the odds for a crackling international phone line. Telephone service for travel was almost non-existent.

Nowadays of course the only thing you need to communicate is a Smart Phone and Skype. It’s what I use all the time when I want to talk to my parents or contact my head office which is based in the Middle East. Even if you don’t have use Skype, International calling rates have dropped so much over the past few decades that you can call any country for a fraction of the price that you once used to.

When I was studying at the University of Liverpool, a city with a large Somali population, I remember that a lot of people used phone cards to contact their families back home in Africa. Things have definitely changed, the world has become a smaller place and I for one am happy about this.

Lets be honest, every traveller likes the ease of being able to contact his or her loved ones at a moments notice. If a disaster happens to you and all your money is stolen you won’t have to send a letter by ship half way around the world and wait six-months for a reply. Thanks to technology we’ve got passed that stage. I for one am a big fan of this. Anyways I should go, I need to Skype my dad in Peru.