klik2travel's Madame Tussauds video - Editor's Pick on Tripfilms.com

Editors at Tripfilms.com have designated klik2travel's Madame Tussauds an Editor's Pick video by saying: "We think that Madame Tussauds is a high-quality travel video that is both informative and inspiring!"

The idea of klik2travel was born out of two basic frustrations

Frustration number one:
As much as I love paper-based travel guides, and to read about places I am about to visit, it is always impossible for me to find spare time to do it ahead of each trip. Unfortunately, this situation does not get much better while I am already on the go and travelling. I try to recover and grab information about places locally, but this largely opportunistic and partisan approach, often backfires on me. I either do not see the right places I would otherwise wish to see, or I miss some key information about them. Admittedly, in that regards I am very much a “couch potato”.

I was showing my friends around London about 3 years ago. One day we decided to visit Temple church near Embankment, only to be confronted with shut doors on our arrival. We got there outside visiting hours and to make things worse, there was a concert rehearsal in progress, so we could not even have a sneak peak inside. I was standing there gob-smacked thinking “gee, I wish I could at least listen to some information about it on my mobile phone now”.


Frustration number two:

Few months later I was running a project in Dubai and so I got to travel there on regular basis. This gave me an excellent opportunity to explore the place a bit more. But this time I was going to prepare myself well. Oh yes. No more shut doors or anything. One evening I have decided to see Jumeirah Mosque. Did some reading on it including opening hours, got a basic bearing for the location and off I went in a taxi. Unfortunately it was rather late and extremely dark. I don’t exactly recall but it might have been very close to the end of Ramadan, with everybody getting ready for a big celebration. As soon as I’ve stepped out of the taxi, to my horror, I’ve noticed number of similar looking mosques in that neighbourhood. Or it seemed like it. The taxi driver was long gone and for some reason I did not feel comfortable approaching men going inside for the prayer asking them “excuse me Sir, is this really Jumeirah Mosque that you are going in?” I was standing there gob-smacked again thinking “gee, I wish I had some pictures of it on my mobile phone now”. Ok, today I would just punch GPS coordinates in, and follow the directions on my phone, but this only works for larger stationary points of interest, and it is still not as good for smaller targets that may be also mobile.

To cut the long story short – even today I am not 100% sure if I’d really seen Jumeirah Mosque that evening. But later that night I knew one thing: I needed both on my mobile phone: voice and pictures.

But I had to wait further 12 months, for my 9 years old son to show me how to put these two together.

To be continued….

Even British Museum not safe from Banksy

British Museum is a comprehensive national museum with particularly outstanding exhibits in archaeology and ethnography. It is located in the Bloomsbury district of the borough of Camden. There are approximately 7 million objects in the collection, which has become one of London’s principal tourist attractions. The strict security at The Museum ensures the security, safety and protection of the British Museum premises, staff, visitors, contractors and the collections. However, it did not stop the elusive Bansky depositing his own exhibit one day which went undetected for around three days. Eventually the staff saw the funny side of it. You'll find all the essential information and selected photos in the klik2travel British Museum release.

Mobile Travel

What is the future of mobile computing and travel. 91% of mobile phone users keep the phone within a one meter reach 24x7. There are some interesting sound bites from industry leaders in the field from the Barcelona 3GSM conference. if you are not already aware of Wikitude and TripApple then it's worth a visit to this slide presentation from Gerd Leonard - the Media Futurist.

Facebook Mobile Plans

We believe that the future is mobile and it seems that we are not alone: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11681462

Tower Bridge - 2 aspects

Road traffic mostly crosses the Thames at Tower Bridge when the bridge is lowered but once it was raised to let a ship pass under and Australian biker Robbie Maddison, a stunt rider, took advantage of the opportunity to race up one side of the raised bridge and fly through the air 100ft above the water, perform a no-handed backflip and land safely on the south side of the bridge. How did he do it?

You will not have to wait until after 2:00 in the morning to visit Tower Bridge but when you do go it's worth taking klik2travel's two minute information-packed film to emphasise the essential points. Probably one of the most effective ways is subscribe to the podcast via the klik2travel site and then synch to an iphone or ipod.

Buckingham Palace Download

Buckingham Palace is the Queens official London residence and is used to receive and entertain guests on state, ceremonial and official occasions for the Royal Family. There is a short and concise film which gives you a one-minute summary and can be played back on a mobile phone. The youtube version is here. If you have an Ipod, iPad or iPhone then why not take the podcast.

BBCs Fast Track Looks at Travel & Social Media

There are a number of interesting interviews and links in this short film from the BBC.

Augmented Reality

Several types of technology are appearing which can deliver information about our location and the places of interest which are around us. One method is that buildings contain bar-codes which can be scanned by software on a mobile phone, this in turn triggers a media delivery via blue-tooth, enabling us to receive information about the building. Another technology direction is to take advantage of the phones still camera to send an image of the building which can be identified by its shape and then rely relevant information.

Layar is a system which combines the power of a telephone, compass, GPS and camera. It is known as augmented reality and as your phones camera views the buildings in the locality information about them can be overlayed on the screen. On Remissio there is a more detailed description of a number of these technologies already being utilised in some European towns.