As we prepare for our trip to Africa, I reflect on past journeys and realise how much communication with friends and family back home has changed.
In 1989 I travelled in South America for 7months. Back then the only way to stay in contact was via letter. I eagerly looked forward to a visit to the Poste Restante in the next country's capital where I could catch up on news back home, albeit a month old news! I clearly remember the central courtyard of the Post Office in Asuncion, Paraguay, tranquil and cloaked in greenery, where I could read my letters at a leisurely pace. There was even a letter from a friend who was travelling in India and I remember marvelling at 2 friends being able to communicate with each other from remote countries far away from home. Making a phone call back home was a major undertaking. In Peru I'd go to the telephone office and book a call and maybe 2 or 3 hours later I'd be connected. My parents got used to being woken at odd hours by a jabbering Spanish speaking operator but I think they were relieved to know that their daughter had survived the Shining Path in Peru or the drug cartels in Colombia.
Poste Restante was still the main means of communication when Chris & I travelled through South East Asia in 1992. The Central Post Office in Bangkok, Thailand was a cavernous Victorian style building always bustling with backpackers sending huge parcels home and picking up letters from the efficiently run Poste Restante section. Not all the postal systems were reliable though, there were quite a few letters that didn't make it to us in Bali, Indonesia. And marvel of marvels we could actually place our own phone calls back home from telephone booths on Khao San Rd. in Bangkok and get connected immediately!
By the time we went to Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia in 1999 the internet age was upon us and our correspondence was by email. We sent an email about our travels every few weeks to friends and family around the world. Gone were the days of writing letters and post cards individually tailored to each recipient but also gone were the days of leisurely reading a letter in a pleasant locale and instead it was a frantic reading and sending of emails in some dark dingy Internet cafe.
And here we are about to embark on travels on yet another new continent and with yet another new mode of communication ..................... let the blog begin!
