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….
