Technology has made the modern traveller’s life significantly easier than it was even as little as a decade ago.
The internet, mobile phones, digital cameras and MP3 players have ensured that no matter how far away you are from home, you’re never more than the click of a button away from ‘normality’.
The last week, however, has given me a taste of what the international traveller’s life must have been like in the good old days. An earthquake near Taiwan put the internet out of commission for over a week and even now only a very limited service has been resumed, making surfing for news from back home and trying to upload this blog onto The Bolton News website painfully slow processes.

It’s amazing how reliant we’ve become on modern technology in such a short space of time. Ten years ago I’d never even heard of the internet, now I spend at least a couple of hours on the net most days. Being cut off from that comfort blanket of communication gave me an uneasy sense of isolation, similar to the one I felt a couple of years ago when my mobile phone got stolen and I had to conduct my social life the old-fashioned way, arranging specific meeting times and places well in advance of the actual event.

Things went from bad to worse when my iPod decided to freeze up too, making a trip to the troubleshooting section of the Apple website an absolute must if I was to be saved from the musical torture of Chinese radio, which routinely pumps out horrible Korean cover versions of American rap records in between ridiculously soppy Chinese pop songs – many of which seem to include either yodeling or rapping in English that makes absolutely no sense.

It’s a terrible indictment of the Chinese taste in music that while many people have never heard of The Beatles, you can’t walk into a shop without hearing Westlife or S Club 7.

Bring back the Walkman, all is forgiven.