Hello guys!
So maybe you don’t know me very well. I’m Jac from behindthebasics and I have what I like to call, a very non-confrontational personality. Some people might prefer to say that I’m delusional, unrealistic, or that I’m a pansy. But what so these people know? They don’t see me half the time because I’m busy escaping from reality.
And what better way is there to do that than to go on holiday.
And I’m terrible. I like to try to do it all. I’m horrible. It’s not even June and I’ve only got three days of vacation leave left.
But I digress. My point, and I do have one, is that I travel quite a bit and I am here to tell you why it is not okay to travel without Wi-Fi.
#1 Who will see your wonderful travels?
Let’s face it. When you travel, you’re going to take lot of awesome photos. Or you’re going to try to, at least. Here are some of mine.
And what are you going to do with them if not upload them for the whole world to see? Let them rot in your SD card? No. Photos are meant to be shared on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to let your friends know that you’re having a great time while they are slogging away at work.
And don’t think that you can upload the photos when you get back from your holiday. It doesn’t happen. I went for a 3 week long roadtrip in 2013. It’s 2015 and more than half of the holiday is still sitting in my hard drive.
How to counter this? Upload the photos while you’re on holiday. Make everyone feel miserable while you’re away. It’s better than you making feel miserable when you’re around anyway.
Wi-Fi – totally essential for this.
#2 How will my mother know that I’m alive?
My mom has this annoying habit that the great people at EDMW refer to as “wall of text” or “WOT” for short. What this means is that she spams me with paragraphs upon paragraphs of text which makes me just lightly skim though everything and decide to reply the barrage of questions at a later date. Luckily there is the “last seen” on WhatsApp which my mom can use to track me.
Only works when there is Wi-Fi though. You could almost say that I am being unfilial if I travel without Wi-Fi and just leave her worrying about whether she should be expecting a call from MFA announcing my death.
#3 I might get lost.
People like the concept of getting lost. Wandering through the winding alleys of Venice with no sight of your destination seems like a romantic idea. Very hipster. Very brave.
Don’t kid yourself.
You know what happened the last time I got lost without Wi-Fi? Titus, Sam, and I had to walk 45 minutes through some Moroccan mountains to a deserted village close to nightfall. Where we had to communicate with someone in broken French, hand gestures, and a video on my phone (our car was stuck in a meadow). Although, they did seem more impressed with my phone than anything else.
IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO?! Get lost? Wake up. Getting lost is something that you wish on your ex-boyfriend. Not on yourself.
(We had a happily ever after though (read here). But you know, wanting to “get lost” should really not be on the list of any smart traveller’s list).
#4 I can watch the sunset.
I recently got a HTC One M9. It’s great. They’ve updated it such that it tells me what time the sun sets in advance. So that I can make my way to an awesome beach to get a great view of the sunset instead of just fooling around the whole day and finding out that I’ve missed the sunset completely.
Watching sunsets - only possible with Wi-Fi.
(I can’t tell you if my phone tracks sunrise timings though – I’m usually asleep.)
#5 How will I know that I’ve done it all?
So let’s say I’m going to... Azerbaijan. What do I know about Azerbaijan? Nothing. But it’s okay.
GoogleNow will load my phone with important cards like translation of useful terms, the exchange rate, and nearby attractions.
If not for this, I might miss important tourist traps such as the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum.
#6 I can track where I’ve been.
Because I don’t have the best memory in the world, I often forget lots of things. My keys, my chores, my ex-boyfriend’s name (possibly why I’m single). And that’s okay. But it get frustrating when you look at pictures and you have no idea where they were taken.
BUT THAT’S OKAY WITH WI-FI AND GEOTAGGING. My pictures have never been better sorted. I can now accurately describe where I’ve been in excruciating detail thanks to the Wikipedia link that’s conveniently located below the location tag on my phone.
#7 I make good friends.
Have I met people while travelling? Sure! Let me give you an example. I met this dude in a bar in Iceland. He’s great! We bonded over Google glasses, android phones, and me asking if he knew the Wi-Fi password. Here’s the first photo that he took of me.
I was gloating showing my good friend that I was drinking alcohol while he was slaving away at work. Anyway, blah blah blah fast forward, Iceland and I are quite good friends and we last met when both of us happened to be doing stopovers in London. Wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t see me use my very cool phones in that Icelandic bar. (Thanks HTC).
#8 How will I get free holidays?
Recently, Scoot sent me on a trip to Taiwan. IT WAS AWESOME. I got to do all sorts of exciting adventurous things like... go to farms and flip quad bikes.
But I had to work for my trip of course. And how did I do it? I had to make postings on Instagram while I was still in Taiwan. Oh the drudgery.
But still, a wonderful planned itinerary, awesome food, accommodation, and flights... YEAH I CAN MAKE A FEW POSTINGS FOR THAT. SURE! BRING IT ON.
Luckily I had Wi-Fi or I would be writing out a very large cheque to Scoot right now.
#9 The best deals are online.
So we were chatting with some of the locals in Iceland and many of them told us about this app that everyone used. Called “Appyhour”, it was an app which gave you the schedule the happy hours and alcohol promotions in various bars around Reykjavik.
So unless you plan on standing around and waiting for some guy to buy you a drink, going online to find the best deals is still the way to go. It’s what the locals probably do anyway. Might as well hop onto the bandwagon and make your money’s worth.
#10 Being offline overseas does not equate to being adventurous.
What’s wrong with having Wi-Fi at random cafes, museums, and national heritage sites? Having Wi-Fi at museums can be quite cool. At the American Museum of Natural History, you download their app which triangulates your location within the museum and feed you with trivia as you walk pass the various exhibits. Kinda like an audio guide, but on your phone.
Don’t tell me you won’t use the Wi-Fi for that.
Having Wi-Fi when you travel opens up many new opportunities that you won’t have if you are snobbish enough not to use your phone and Google for stuff to do. You think I managed to go on an unplanned trip to “Jacqueline Close” without Wi-Fi? No. I had to stand outside Starbucks to figure out what to do with an additional two hours of my time because the Tube had failed me.
I think this was a wonderful use of my time by the way. Thanks Starbucks Wi-Fi! (Oh and my name is Jacqueline if you haven’t figured out already).
So you’re still one of those people who think that you’re so cool to go on holiday without Wi-Fi, stop being so ridiculous. Wi-Fi on holiday is like icing on a cake – totally unnecessary, but nice to have. No one is asking you to scrape of all the icing and ignore the cake, but if they go well together, WHY NOT. Also I bet that you Wi-Fi troglodytes get a kick out of coming back to Singapore and posting all about your carefree, internet-free experiences on the internet.
You want an adventure? Try living in Singapore without Wi-Fi and data for a week. And then we can talk.
Jac is a regular Singaporean who works for a living. She has a blog on the side and travels as much as her leave permits her to. When she’s overseas, she puts her phone on Airplane mode but leaves the Wi-Fi on, much to the annoyance of her travel companions who SMS her important things like “Hi Jac, I’m at the baggage claim now. Where are you?”
Related article:
Why it is ok to travel without Wi-Fi
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