Being Prepared in Advance

We must be getting old. There was a time that we'd travel to any point on the globe with nothing but traveller's cheques and a smile. We'd just pop off the plane or out of a train and hunt for a place to sleep. In fact, we found it rather amusing that some people found it necessary to make reservations for accommodations.

Yesterday, I just received an email from Hong Kong. We're staying there for a week and already have confirmation of where we'll stay. The thing is ... we'll not be ready to sleep there until October 1st. We'll be spending time on a stopover when returning to Vancouver. That is a complete two months into the future! This appears to be a complete turn around in our old, laissez-faire travel style.

Well, there may be unique circumstances and cause for our seeming change in modus operandi. Perhaps we were scared into advance planning. Some we've talked to say Hong Kong is expensive, so it's best to do a little homework before going. Others said the eighth lunar month has lots of festivals that bring people into the city and the hotels get full quickly. What is it they say about rather being safe than sorry?

A boon to pre-trip planning surely is the Internet. It's not only official tourist boards that provide what I want to see. Sites where individual travellers add the data are important. For example, I found photos of the nearest MRT station stop in the neighbourhood of Kowloon where we're staying.

That's just an initial example. I challenge you to try to find a photo of a famous tourist attraction that's not already on Flickr. Let me know if you can. I believe that every inch of earth's surface, where tourists roam, has been photographed and uploaded to my favourite photo-sharing site.