An observation

It’s interesting to observe how backpacking has changed over time.  It’s almost exactly 8 years since we started our 18 month trip and many things are the same.  The dodgy hostels, the joy of finally having air conditioning/private bathroom/actual running water, the communal kitchens where everyone shows their ingenuity in creating a meal from the 3 cheapest things they could find at the market.  There are the friendly chats about where you’ve been and where you’re coming from, the single travellers who find someone to spend a few days with before parting ways, only the tenuous connection of facebook friendship remaining.  There are the same faces that you keep seeing as you move from place to place, other people going the same rough direction.  

But what has changed is smart phones.  Back in 2008 a lot of backpackers had phones, but not one had a smart phone.  Down time in hostels was often spent playing games, and we learnt a lot of card games during that trip.  Now when we swing in our hammocks watching as day fades to night, each face becomes lit up by the glow of a phone.  Occasionally something is shared, a phone passed between friends, before it is taken back and everyone retreats into their own solitary glow.  

In 2008 travel was punctuated by the weekly search for an internet cafe, to check emails and post an update about our adventures.  Now every hostel has wifi, and in case that’s not enough most cafes do as well.  So we google where to go, what to do and where to stay rather than relying on word of mouth.  Back then we were cut off from what was going on in the world, aware only of Obama due to the general excitement from locals in Africa at the prospect of a black president.  For better or worse we can still follow what is going on in the world, with our friends and with our family.  It is not just the odd email once every couple of months to hear how our dogs are doing, but Facetime calls where we see their gorgeous faces and our hearts break just a little with how much we miss them.  

Some of it feels like a loss, the games, the reliance on word of mouth, the mystery that is created when you arrive in a city (or country in the case of Ethiopia) with no real idea what is there but trust in the people who have told you it is somewhere that is worth the trip.  Even as I am aware of it, I google where I will go, and what we will do.  I check facebook, and call home.  I don’t sit in the glow of my phone (because that was stolen), but maybe I would if I still had it.  Everything changes, I’m just surprised how much backpacking has changed by the phone which is clutched in everyone’s hands.