1310 to 2010 - Travel ahoy
Recently, I found myself thinking that being a city-hopper in the modern day is so much easier than in the times of Ibn Batuta. No need to join caravans or cavalries heading to your place of interest. Or to take a lift from dubious shipping expeditions crossing uncharted waters and bumping into pirates to enliven the journey. No need even to arrive in a city and discover that the plague had demolished half of its population a few months ago, and continued to rage.
So here we are about 700 years later, armed with health warnings, access to local politics, hourly weather forecasts via the web, water-purification tablets, a handy digicam, a smart phone with GPS, restaurant guide and free Skype, and several guide books telling you how to take it 'rough' or 'easy' or 'authentic' as per your temperament. Thus a modern day traveller is All Set to wander across the globe, stopping for a few days or a few months as the heart desires.
But just because one is not forced into marrying into the royal family of Omar I in Maldives and being held a virtual prisoner there (now some modern day folk would kill for that kind of treatment!), or is in danger of losing one's neck by upsetting Muhammad bin Tughlaq of the Delhi Sultanate, or is setting forth to the Mongol Yuan Dynasty with help from local fishermen, let us not imagine for a minute that the discomforts and hazards faced by today's globetrotters are any less significant.
Lets start with MasterCard. Yes it is priceless, and also opens many hotel doors, train doors, flight doors, shop doors and so on. But have you tried telling your bank 'to unblock' it just because you are indeed in Zagreb today and no you don't know where you will be next Tuesday. And yes you did buy that sun block lotion in Trinidad 2 days ago because, you know, there was a lot of sun!
Then lets come to the airlines. So we can now do in 8 hours what our good man Ibn did in 8 months facing uncertainty, disease and sometimes keen-to-impress-princesses. But then again a modern flight could well subject you that in the compressed period of 8 hours. Here's how:
Then there is the issue of the 'travel wardrobe'. I wonder if Mr Batuta would have found a pair of tough blue jeans handy? Looking at some of he areas he chartered- Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, North Africa- I suspect his flowing robes were better at coping with the heat and humidity. And what about a sturdy pair of sneakers/ trainers? Now those I'm sure would have helped him make a quick escape in tight situations!
And finally the trauma of travel photography. It is easy to separate the novices from the seasoned travellers just on this one basis alone. At Level 0 are those taking mobile phone pictures, then come the smartphone users, then the small digicams, then the hybrid cameras with multiple functions and at finally at Level 'You betetr believe I'm a Pro' are those with SLRs. The distinct air of snobbery wafting from that last lot causes even the most self-confident traveller to shrink back into the shadows of the fantastic monument which their paltry little camera just can not capture without chopping either the top or the side.
Yes indeed Mr Ibn Batuta, you had it easy in those 30 years of non-stop travelling. You didn't even have to go about each town looking for Internet cafes or wi-fi spots to update your blog, facebook page, yahoo profile and picasa albums.
So here we are about 700 years later, armed with health warnings, access to local politics, hourly weather forecasts via the web, water-purification tablets, a handy digicam, a smart phone with GPS, restaurant guide and free Skype, and several guide books telling you how to take it 'rough' or 'easy' or 'authentic' as per your temperament. Thus a modern day traveller is All Set to wander across the globe, stopping for a few days or a few months as the heart desires.
But just because one is not forced into marrying into the royal family of Omar I in Maldives and being held a virtual prisoner there (now some modern day folk would kill for that kind of treatment!), or is in danger of losing one's neck by upsetting Muhammad bin Tughlaq of the Delhi Sultanate, or is setting forth to the Mongol Yuan Dynasty with help from local fishermen, let us not imagine for a minute that the discomforts and hazards faced by today's globetrotters are any less significant.
Lets start with MasterCard. Yes it is priceless, and also opens many hotel doors, train doors, flight doors, shop doors and so on. But have you tried telling your bank 'to unblock' it just because you are indeed in Zagreb today and no you don't know where you will be next Tuesday. And yes you did buy that sun block lotion in Trinidad 2 days ago because, you know, there was a lot of sun!
Then lets come to the airlines. So we can now do in 8 hours what our good man Ibn did in 8 months facing uncertainty, disease and sometimes keen-to-impress-princesses. But then again a modern flight could well subject you that in the compressed period of 8 hours. Here's how:
- Uncertainty: My flight is delayed by 3 hours. So I will miss my connection. They might offer me £300 to stay in a hotel. Should I accept? Whats the chance that my luggage will make it to the other end at the same time as me? Should I let MasterCard know- just in case they think I'm out of the country already and block my card again? Wait a second- there's a flight update announcement! They just said that some volcano has erupted, most unexpectedly, about 8000 miles from where I am. And so I could be camping at this airport for 3 weeks. Wonder if I can join a shipping expedition after all....
- Disease: Does everyone with cough, cold and phlegm have to be on this flight?? And the guy sitting on the next seat definitely has something more serious going on- he's turning a pale shade of green now. How weird will I look if I put my little face-mask on? Maybe the designer pattern will fool co-passengers into thinking its a fashion statement. Or they might think I'm in a cult of some sort.
- Keen-to-impress princesses: Aah they don't travel economy do they? They don't even do business class, what with all those boring airmile-grabbing corporate flyers making it so crowded there. They have their own planes of course. But in fact modern-day, keen-to-impress princes or princesses have little to do with royalty. Usually the non-discreet flashing of a Diesel watch or the Louis Vuitton bag is the first sign that your co-passenger might be yearning for some attention. A little bit of name-dropping in the conversation will also go a long way in establishing the exact strata this upwardly mobile Burberry-wearing would-be socialite belongs to. But like Mr Batuta, you realise soon that all that glitters is not gold. And its time to separate the sheep from the wolves again.
Then there is the issue of the 'travel wardrobe'. I wonder if Mr Batuta would have found a pair of tough blue jeans handy? Looking at some of he areas he chartered- Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, North Africa- I suspect his flowing robes were better at coping with the heat and humidity. And what about a sturdy pair of sneakers/ trainers? Now those I'm sure would have helped him make a quick escape in tight situations!
And finally the trauma of travel photography. It is easy to separate the novices from the seasoned travellers just on this one basis alone. At Level 0 are those taking mobile phone pictures, then come the smartphone users, then the small digicams, then the hybrid cameras with multiple functions and at finally at Level 'You betetr believe I'm a Pro' are those with SLRs. The distinct air of snobbery wafting from that last lot causes even the most self-confident traveller to shrink back into the shadows of the fantastic monument which their paltry little camera just can not capture without chopping either the top or the side.
Yes indeed Mr Ibn Batuta, you had it easy in those 30 years of non-stop travelling. You didn't even have to go about each town looking for Internet cafes or wi-fi spots to update your blog, facebook page, yahoo profile and picasa albums.
thanks for taking me mind-travelling!!!
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