I'm in Manchester airport waiting for my flight to Istanbul, and then on to Beirut. I'm staying with Tracey again and this time we will get to see Petra and Wadi Rum. The Beirut to Amman flight is already booked.
I was looking around Wadi Rum this morning on my Oculus Go VR headset and it now seems a little strange to have seen it in such detail. The VR seems so much more immersive than ordinary photos or video, but perhaps that is because it is all still so new. Perhaps people felt the same after seeing the grainy sepia 3D photographs or the first travel films. One thing that is true is that now we have so much information about almost everywhere in the world, in so many media; film, text, audio, VR and probably some I have not thought of. Though organised travel has been around for centuries it was only in the !960s that adventure travelling for poorer young people really took off, and then it was a kind of thing shared by those of the hippie generation. It was then that Lonely Planet started publishing its guide books - that were only to be found in alternative bishops like Atticus - and there were Shoestring books that were essential for the overland route to India and beyond. Not all travellers took a camera and of those that did the prints were often out of focus or over exposed; but what all young travellers bought back were stories, to be passed on to family, friends and anyone else prepared to listen. Now Lonely Planet books are in WHS and Waterstones and the apps on your phone. Standing here in the airport I miss the excitement that went with travel when I was young.
But visiting Tracey is still an adventure! There is the Pink Motorbike, chance encounters with drug barons and 'terrorists', soil theft and a particularly viscous cat. The adventure is still there, but you have to look harder and not in the obvious places.
At 4am tomorrow I will be back in Beirut!
I was looking around Wadi Rum this morning on my Oculus Go VR headset and it now seems a little strange to have seen it in such detail. The VR seems so much more immersive than ordinary photos or video, but perhaps that is because it is all still so new. Perhaps people felt the same after seeing the grainy sepia 3D photographs or the first travel films. One thing that is true is that now we have so much information about almost everywhere in the world, in so many media; film, text, audio, VR and probably some I have not thought of. Though organised travel has been around for centuries it was only in the !960s that adventure travelling for poorer young people really took off, and then it was a kind of thing shared by those of the hippie generation. It was then that Lonely Planet started publishing its guide books - that were only to be found in alternative bishops like Atticus - and there were Shoestring books that were essential for the overland route to India and beyond. Not all travellers took a camera and of those that did the prints were often out of focus or over exposed; but what all young travellers bought back were stories, to be passed on to family, friends and anyone else prepared to listen. Now Lonely Planet books are in WHS and Waterstones and the apps on your phone. Standing here in the airport I miss the excitement that went with travel when I was young.
But visiting Tracey is still an adventure! There is the Pink Motorbike, chance encounters with drug barons and 'terrorists', soil theft and a particularly viscous cat. The adventure is still there, but you have to look harder and not in the obvious places.
At 4am tomorrow I will be back in Beirut!