What happens when you don’t use smartphones or the internet when travelling? You miss the bus to Abu Dhabi and have to hop into a taxi instead. Such is a day in the life of Gareth Pon, a veteran travel enthusiast, blogger and South Africa’s King of Instagram. Accompanying him on this unusual trip are three other seasoned travellers: Sami Tokhais from Saudi Arabia, Putri Anindiya from Indonesia and Heather Mason from South Africa. It’s a group both diverse in nationality, culture, Instagram follower count as well as in experience; only Gareth and Sami have ever been in the UAE previously, and they both had smartphones with them then.
They were all in the UAE over the past weekend travelling (something they all love) without smartphones as a part of Qualcomm’s “World without Smartphones” campaign. But they weren’t just thrown into the into the wild to forage forthemselves; to aid them in their travels there were each given various bits and bobs such as a compass, map, radio, polaroid camera, postcards and more. The gem of it all: an old fashioned flip-phone solely used for communicating. While the average human being may turn away in horror at the thought of using a phone that you couldn’t even take a selfie with, Gareth and the crew took up the challenge with gusto.
The programme would take place over three days with the travel enthusiasts each getting a smartphone on the final day of the challenge, to compare how great a difference the experiences are.
I managed to call Gareth on the day his journey started and amid the cacophony of Sami, Putri and Heather talking in, what I assume was, a cramped taxi I asked him a few questions.
https://www.instagram.com/p/_eMWivKgZV/?tagged=worldwithoutsmartphones
Q. How do you feel about exploring the UAE without any sophisticated tech?
Gareth: Well it’s quite uncomfortable because I’m always on my phone; I have little apps that give me notifications about cool restaurants in my vicinity I should check out , as well as the general area. The main thing is public transport, you always have Google Maps to guide you around, so the biggest problem at the moment is figuring out “where do we go, how do we get there, what do we do?” As you can hear in the background, everyone is figuring that out (over maps). But in the end I’m, really happy, I don’t mind, I’m used to getting lost- I like it, because then I can figure my own way back. Obviously it’s different with a group because you have responsibility and you don’t want to leave anyone behind! We each have “dumb phones” for communication
Q. What are you planning to do on your trip?
Gareth: What we’re going to try and do is interact with people, find out what their favourite things are- that’s the best thing, being able to ask people on the ground “where’s your favourite spot?” and about where we should go and then go onwards from there. We tried not to plan too much, we just did a little bit of research and googling. We have some waypoints that we’re trying to go to, some places where we know some action will happen but I think the gems of this trip are like the guys on the street telling us where their favourite restaurant is, or where his favourite place to go clothes shopping.
https://www.instagram.com/p/_d8KSRLXuF/?taken-by=2summers
Q. Do you think not having a smartphone will significantly increase your exposure to the local populace and culture?
Gareth: On previous trips, I’ve usually had a guide and as a result I only have a day or two to do some solo exploring and I assume it’s the same for the other guys– Sami has done a quite few solo trips and is quite comfortable getting into the community and local space– in those two days that I usually have to explore by myself I usually Google all these places I want to go, and then go from there. It’s actually really cool to just be on the ground because the local heads are much better (than Google) and you get to experience some of the culture when you talk to some of the locals, it’s sorta like being thrown into the deep end.
The following is from an email interview I conducted with Gareth on the final day of the World without Smartphones challenge.
Q. Can you tell me about your experience of exploring the world without a smartphone as opposed to with one?
Gareth: The experience without a smartphone was definitely more challenging. I found myself instinctively reaching for my pocket every few minutes to engage on social media, search for a nearby place to eat, call an uber or look on google maps for direction. It was very challenging to say the least! The biggest thing for me was not being as efficient as I was when I have a smartphone, as a group we had to guess times and were always scrambling to catch up with time, we missed a bus, miscalculated the metro times, walked down the wrong paths and often discovered that we were somewhere we didn’t intend to be.
I explore a lot solo, often meeting up with people one the way and keeping in touch is a BIG thing when I travel solo because it helps me meet up with friends and engage with people online so I can really just find a footing to explore areas better. Being without a smartphone left me always wondering, which is something I really don’t enjoy.
Q. What smartphones did you get?
Gareth: We got the latest from manufacturers, at the end of the program I was connected with the Snapdragon powered Nexus 6P (the smartphone Gareth was hoping for).
Q. What did you love best about the smartphone?
Gareth: I was impressed with the phone’s speed, it’s really fast! It performs beautifully and also has all the best pre-installed apps and features, including a fingerprint reader – the best thing since sliced cheese.”
Q. What apps did you start using as soon as you got your smartphone?
Gareth: Instagram, snapchat, Google Maps, the camera, google now, news updates. I also had a few hundred whatsapp and telegram messages to catch up on!
Q. What was the highlight of the trip for you?
Gareth: My highlight for the trip was visiting a quaint restaurant on the way back from Abu Dhabi, our taxi driver recommended the place to us. The timing was perfect and we ended up meeting the owners of the restaurant who treated us to an amazing meal!
The following are some pictures Gareth, Sami, Putri and Heather took using their Snapdragon powered smartphones. You can see more pictures here, or you can follow them on their respective Instagram accounts; Gareth, Heather, Sami, Putri.
https://www.instagram.com/p/_kDyK7rXgi/?taken-by=2summers
https://www.instagram.com/p/_kGrVADZYc/?taken-by=garethpon
https://www.instagram.com/p/_d_fbXjIzg/?taken-by=puanindya
https://www.instagram.com/p/_i-ywpKgeW/?taken-by=samitokhais
