This continues a new category of posts: Guest columns where friends and readers share how technology is reshaping their hobby – basket weaving, rugby, running – whatever.
This time it is my favorite cousin, Harish Malani. He has accomplished much in life, but he writes about a milestone few of us will accomplish.
"The breakup of the Soviet Union was historic for a number of reasons. But to my knowledge, no historian footnoted that it helped accelerate my joining the “Century Club” - for travelers who have been to at least 100 countries.
The 15 new countries helped me in my “hobby”. While others collect coins or stamps, I like to collect visas on my passport. Not really - but I have been blessed in my career to travel far and wide. To some countries only once, others like Denmark over 75 times.
So, thanks for the opportunity to reminisce on how technology has helped international travel evolve over the last few decades.
Air Travel
International flights almost mandate checked baggage with the associated joy of losses and delays. Pan Am once “lost” my bag for a month. Instead of going to Los Angeles, I think it ended up in Lagos, Nigeria – which has an airport code of LOS. And if you were interlining between airlines the finger pointing made it worse. So it is good to see airlines adopt RFID tags and have sophisticated tracking and reconciliation systems which within hours can usually spot where an unclaimed bag is.
Airport time used to be dead time. Now with wi-fi you can be productive on the ground. My worst experience – 9 hours at Calcutta airport as the in-bound flight was delayed. Today, in many countries you can track how an in-bound flight is doing and optimize the airport time.
Also welcome is wider range of in-flight comfort and entertainment. Gone are the smoke filled cabins where sometimes you could barely read a book. Welcome to the world of personal suites airlines like Emirates have launched with personalized 23 inch TVs, seats that massage and other tech that pampers.
I marvel about the new 777s and A380s being able to do 16-18 hour non-stops. Contrast that to milk-runs I often had to endure. Example: What should have been a 1.35 hour, 614.18 nautical mile Delhi to Bombay flight turned into one with 3 stops in Jaipur, Udaipur and Aurangabad – fine, historic cities but with boring airports. I am glad my son, a pilot, gets to do those short trips these days.
Amazingly in all my travel I never lost a paper ticket (remember those?). But I became intimately familiar with many airline offices around the world as many required you to come in to reissue tickets or reconfirm flights. My 6 foot frame has also been stuck on many occasions in a middle seat designed for shorter citizens of a national carrier. The move to e-tickets and more consumer control over seat assignments and boarding passes has been a real advance in travel.
Hotels
Till a few years ago, you relied on your peers and other word-of-mouth advice on hotels. Or you chose a brand name like a Hilton or a Sheraton and expected a consistent, if boring, quality. Nowadays there are so many travel sites which give you all kinds of data on hotels including photos and consumer ratings. Wish I had access to one before I stayed at the Intourist in Moscow in the mid 80s. Below freezing temperature in rooms, hard soap, even harder toilet paper.
Showing up at a hotel in an unfamiliar city used to be an adventure. Possible they did not get your reservation telex, or it got filed for the wrong check-in date. Happened to me once at the Sahid Jaya in Jakarta, Indonesia. In many cities I would have called friends and asked to use their couch, but in this city I was glad after a couple of anxious hours they finally found me a room. Hopefully the guest they bounced had a local friend with a couch!
Hotels often took advantage of you when it came to phone calls, faxes. You were a captive audience. Nowadays with Skype and other VoIP you can stay in touch with home office and loved ones at a much more reasonable rate. Now you have watch for roaming costs from your telephone carrier, but local SIM cards increasingly help manage that.
Ground transport
Ah, taxis in exotic lands evoke some interesting scenarios! But rental cars with GPS, wi-fi on the Luton Express to London, and limos with satellite TV show how ground transport has changed.
Same with trains. Extremes persist. In Tokyo, the local cops actually help cram passengers in as this video shows. Try using your laptop on that journey! I was fortunate to take The Canadian through the magnificent Rockies in the 60s. I would love to see what technology they now have from that trip from Toronto to Vancouver.
Bureaucrats, Banks and Breakfast
Passports with embedded chips and electronic visas have increasingly streamlined the government interface even as international security becomes worrisome. But inconsistently so. Last year, we could not get to a wedding in Cyprus from Istanbul as they would not let us transit through Athens. Even as we cursed the bureaucrats, they freed up time for us to go see some ruins in Turkey (in the photo)
One of the joys of international travel was showing your kids interesting looking foreign notes and coins. Now with ATMs and credit cards, you get a bland statement and still pay the bank their fees
Now let me tell you about exotic food on my travels…but then again, I should spare you those gory details.
In summary
As I look back in nostalgia on all my travel, there was a certain adventure to not having much technology and predictability. Looking ahead, I plan to do more of my travel on Google Earth. The CO2 emission calculator tells me I have done my fair share of global warming.
Of course, I hear Sir Branson is working on a space vehicle. Sign me up for those space trips – just please keep bureaucrats and banks away from those destinations:)"
I met the guy for lunch in Bombay on Tuesday. As always he has many interesting anecdotes on travel or otherwise. Delighted that you invited him to pen the above column.
Posted by: Harish Jagtiani | March 06, 2009 at 10:57 PM