• Thankyou Emma for your good work and humanistic attitude towards others. I could not do your job and be nice to others at the same time, i'v e realized. The other ABC journo's et al should be taking notes.......all the best in your career! - louise
  • Why censor the pictures, Ro? Don't call them "young men" either. They are "vicious animals" as their act so clearly evidences. They are not human at all. Are you saying it is "justifiable" for ethnic Nigerians, who have never been to either Afghanistan or Iraq but grew up on the teat of the British Welfare State, to run down and then Halal butcher a complete stranger walking along the street and minding his own business? How can you possibly draw any connection between what happened in London and the alleged mistreatment of Aborigines in Australia? What a fine example of the "straw man" argument! Do you think NATO and other allies were "unjustified" in invading Afghanistan and liberating it from the Taliban? That same Taliban that banned girls going to school; regularly indulge in female genital mutilation and the sodomising of "dancing boys"; blew up ancient Buddhist monuments; regularly carried out executions by stoning and beheading as half-time entertainment at football matches in Kabul and Kandahar; undertook ethnic cleansing against Hazara muslims; banned music and dancing on pain of death; and provided a base for the racist extremists of Al Qaeda to operate completely unfettered? Do you think it was wrong to overthrow Saddam Hussein who had used poisonous gas on the Kurds of Iraq? Whose two mongrel sons crawled the streets of Baghdad looking for women to rape; who executed his own son-in-law after promising "forgiveness' if he returned from exile; who gained power in a coup and then personally executed scores of his own "party"? The problems in Iraq today have nothing to do with Saddam's overthrow and everything to do with the seething sectarian and ethnic hatreds that have plagued Mesopotamia since the Babylonian Empire. Why didn't those two vicious animals condemn the latest round of sunni-shia bombings and murders in Iraq? If muslim women are subjected to the regular sight of dismembered bodies, those bodies were provided by other muslims. Why is it that only this week we saw Syrian women asking Bob Carr why it is that the USA and the non-Islamic world is not interfering in their current civil war? The war is yet another essentially religious/sectarian conflict between a Sunni majority and an Alawi-Shia minority. Why should any young Americans, Britons or Australians risk their lives for these benighted, backward bastards who regularly tell us how much they hate us? Have you forgotten the spontaneous eruption of glee and happiness that occurred in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the "Islamic world" when the 9/11 attack was carried out? It seems to me that you, like so many others, have forgotten the lessons of the period from 1919-1939. Appeasement never works. Trying to trivialise this disgraceful crime; saying that ...well, maybe, it was Britain's fault and maybe if Britain hadn't been and Imperial power 200 years ago and ... really, when you look at that and what happened to the Aborigines here, maybe they were justified in running over a total stranger, who'd done nothing to them or any of their family or relatives, and then hacking off his head with a meat cleaver. The white-washing, the diminution, the trivialising, the justifying has already started in media and the blogosphere. The appeasers and the white-hating racists are already talking this whole thing around so that in a few weeks they'll be wanting to give these two mongrels a medal and have them treated as Prisoners of War. I am so glad the British cops didn't shoot them dead. I want them to suffer in HM Prison System for the rest of their lives. But, knowing the way the British EHRC led by that treacherous hater, Trevor Phillips, operate, they'll probably be named and shamed and given 20 hours community service. - Jack Richards
  • Anyway. So long Latin. I know there will be people close to Hazel who will be feeling sad and confused today. Sad for who she was and confused because she is perhaps better off dead now. And then there is everyone else who were touched by Hazel's contribution to our lives. Thank you Hazel and her supporters. - ro.watson
  • Always thought that Hazel H. was too much in the background type of PM's wife.From the information revealed recently about her I've realised how essential and important she was to Australia. This deception was probably due to the limelight on her ex-husband/PM Bob .He might have been successful politically but how he maintained the persona of god's gift to women for so long, baffles me. He is just another ugly aussie male. He should show more atonement towards such an admiring woman as Hazel. Condolences to her children and their families. - louise
  • Perhaps I am projecting, but there really is something very special about the relationship between a regular cartoonist's work and their readers. A sort of mutual getting to know you abandon. - ro.watson
  • Ordinary folk, extraordinary soul. You'll be remembered Hazel Hawke, for the wonderfully decent, down to earth, inclusive woman you were. You connected with your heart and were justly admired. RIP - gogirl
  • What is that expression? Make hay while the sun is shining? Anyway, many Australian stories which belong to the lives of people and animals have remained submerged for many years until journalists within programs like Four Corners bring them to light. Some of us have been privileged enough (eg through our professions) to carry around these stories for several years and done our best to bring such stories to mainstream attention when it is clear there is some emblematic or systematic pattern emerging of eg suffering here in Australia. These stories and lives are not hard to find. - ro.watson
  • Stirring stuff, sue. Alas, from a bygone era. The www is where it's at. Few outposts are as isolated as they once were and now, with the whizz bang NBN they'll be able to access information from all over the world. The ABC has grown into a monster. The Drum website alone must cost a fortune. Then we've got numerous tv channels, radio, SBS and *hundreds* of journalists and ancillary staff ALL for a population of 22 million? It's a crazy waste of taxpayer dollars. If these journos can't cut it in the private sector, which their ratings indicate they can't, then too bad. Let them get jobs writing blurbs for breakfast cereal and cat food. If you want evidence of ABC bias, check out the poll questions on The Drum. Personally, I want it slashed and burned. And, I repeat, I'm a past Labor member. - Gee
  • I agree Sue. I love ABC Radio National and also ABC tv - from The Night Garden up. Lately I've been tuning in to the drivetime program hosted by Waleed Ali, 7.30 report and Emma on Lateline. All maintain high standards. Cheers, Carmen. - Carmen
  • Gee, the ABC Radio National has played and still does, a vital role in unifying Australians as Australia. It has been the one and only voice since the inception of radio, that has been able to be heard no matter where you are in Australia. It has connected the rural and the urban listeners, it has provided thought provoking programmes on health, science, music, art, literature, technology, religion, opera, language, the list is endless. Most importantly it has provided hundreds of different types of educational programmes over the years. Many of us can remember when the ABC broadcast singing programmes into our primary schools, imagine that, all the state primary students in Australia singing the same songs at the same time. They had a wonderful children's club for all Australians to join. The ABC is the organisation we turn to in times of war and disaster, only it has the gravitas needed. The ABC in later years has provided innovative programmes where farmers give a field of their crop and urban listeners select how that crop will be treated, when to fertilise, pay insurance, feed, water, reap. Again we see the great way the ABC unites the country and allows listeners to understand each other over the rural/urban divide. The ABC consistently has interesting, confronting, innovative interviews with people who make you think. The ABC broadcasts throughout Asia, fostering greater understanding throughout the region. Greater understanding can only lead to better trade, human rights, mutual respect and sharing of common goals. The ABC encourages local talent in all areas, something rarely seen on commercial radio/TV. So tell me where is the bias, what percentage of the programmes have a bias, what sort of bias is it, political or other? Here is an organisation that has united a very young country, a federation of states that have held together and together developed a common social ethos and a pride in our culture. This is no parasite it is in fact the host from which we all feed. - sue Bell
 
12
Categories:  Adventure

A SHOCKING WAY TO TRAVEL

By Kay O'Sullivan
May 10, 2012

Just consider this list.

  • Poste restante
  • Slide nights
  • Relying entirely on a travel agent
  • Being surprised by what the hotel looks like, or where it is located
  • Using the landline in your hotel room

Yes, technology has changed the way we travel and while I’m all for it, I do have some reservations.

For me, one of the joys of my backpacking days was that frisson of fear/excitement that came from knowing I was out of reach until I decided to do something about it.

Now, with the whole world connected 24/7, it takes effort to fly under the radar.

And it probably should go without saying… but I’m not that enamoured of the prices Telcos charge for international roaming.

We’ve all got a bill shock story. Here’s mine.

Quebec City, 2008. Phone bill? $2500. And there’s the thing, the one phone call I made was short, if  only because the recipient had the sense to ring off as soon as he heard how enthusiastically I’d been celebrating Quebec City’s 400th anniversary. And I swear I didn’t read the emails, not a single one properly. Just a quick flick, that’s all it took and I was $2500 poorer. (In defence of my stupidity my BS story happened four years ago, months after the iPhone had been released here.)

The irony, which I don’t mind admitting from this safe distance, is that at the time I was writing a column for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald called Smart Traveller. More like not-so-smart traveller.

Never again. So this is what I do now, and why with above provisos, I think the world of travel is so much better now than when we eagerly accepted invitations to slide nights.

BE SMART WITH YOUR PHONE.

Stick to texting. It’s a no-brainer really. Turn off data, and then just to be sure, flick the switches on the mail, calendar and everything else that comes with a button so the phone doesn’t inadvertently dial a number when you’re not looking. Call me paranoid if you like but they’re not called smart phones for nothing.

While lots of other travel writers recommend buying cheap phones or sims when you land, it’s so much easier to use your own phone when you’re on unfamiliar territory. And, really, how long did it take to master your phone? Do you want to go through that again? No, I didn’t think so.

WIFI, WHY NOT?

One word. Skype. Download the App right now. But do all other travellers a favour and don’t use your hotel WiFi if there’s a charge. Then tell management how you feel about being charged for something as essential as plumbing. Better still, tell the world by posting on Trip Advisor. Trip Advisor has its flaws – like naming the Akama Resort at Hervey Bay as the best hotel in Australia for 2012 – but if you want the world to know something, it’s the go-to channel.

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12 Responses to this article

  1. Leanne - Getaway Guru May 10, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Kay, my new favourite app is Viber – an application for iPhone and Android phones that enables you to make free international phone calls and send text messages to anyone who also has the Viber application (using 3G or Wi-Fi).

     
  2. Margi Macdonald May 10, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Uh HuH.
    In 2008 I took my Mum to Cambodia and Vietnam for her 70th birthday.
    I also had a new, devoted boyfriend who stayed home.
    After all the birthday calls and lovelorn murmurings, my phone bill pretty much equalled the cost of my airfare.
    pfft
    Next time THEY can call ME in my room at an appointed hour each day.
    Buggar the phone companies and roaming.
    ;D

     
  3. Meggsie May 10, 2012 Reply
     
     

    $6500 from 3 week holiday in the states. I took a work portable modem for emergencies. Unknown to me my eldest children were logging on at night to watch whole episodes of Top Model and English premier league soccer. In hotels with free wifi. Work did a deal with service provider to halve it but still had to repay $3250. Expensive holiday.

     
  4. Megan Blandford May 10, 2012 Reply
     
     

    I take your $2,500 and raise it to $11,000. Yep.

    We came back last month from a two-week budget holiday in NZ, and were greeted with a mobile phone bill for $11,000. ELEVEN GRAND!

    Before we left we bought a data pack, as recommended to us by the telco. We’ve since found out that just one click on Google Maps would have put us over that data pack’s limit. Still, never in my wildest nightmares would I have thought the charges for going over would be that much!

    We’re in the process of fighting it. So far it’s been reduced to $3,000. Still more than the cost of our whole holiday.

    Seriously, if I had that money spare we would have gone on a bigger, much more extravagant holiday!

    And never, ever, EVER again will we use our phones overseas.

     
    • Leanne - Getaway Guru May 10, 2012 Reply
       
       

      Megan – yowser, that is a shocker! What I can’t understand is that if the bill so easily racks up to that and then they reduce it – is it all inflated B*S in the 1st place from the Telcos!

      It is do-able. Took my iPad and iPhone on my trip to Vietnam last month – downloaded emails, FB’d, loaded photos, sent txt messages – bill = $18. Lived off free WiFi (come on Australia catch up) and did not make calls (although now I have the Viber app will be able to make calls, if I need to, on my next trip). But you’re right it’s the data like google maps searches etc that gets you!

      Good luck with the Telco battles!

       
  5. alan May 10, 2012 Reply
     
     

    An easy way to avoid charges is grabbing pay as you go sim cards. But point missing here us on what basis do the telcos charge this. If you can talk all day on Skype or gchat for nothing where do these billing charges come from? In Europe charges are plummeting because regulator asking to see the paperwork how about our regulator here asking Telstra etc what they made these outrageous charges on. My guess is they will be dropping the charges very quickly.

     
  6. Panda May 10, 2012 Reply
     
     

    $4500 for a week in Europe for work. Despite the number of emails and phone calls to our IT service dept, they were unable to assign the data pack purchased for my to my correct phone number! this had caught out some snr execs – rumours up to $30k – so I was pretty paranoid about it, and I still got caught.

    Where is the responsibility of the telcos to advise customers of the issues?

     
  7. Susan May 10, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Have Vibre and skype. We are travelling for five weeks in the state. Will need to download some maps etc. Iphone 4s. What about games Like Words with friends etc? Can anyone advise?

     
  8. Toushka Lee May 10, 2012 Reply
     
     

    I always buy a prepaid sim card in the country I travel to. And did you know you can just trim full size sim cards down to iphone size? well you can.
    Viber is also awesome, like a previous comment said. I can send text and call anyone else on viber for FREE – just started using it.
    XE currency app is free and my most used app while travelling.

     
  9. Jess May 13, 2012 Reply
     
     

    Hmm. Took the new iphone OS on a work trip, turned off all data push notifications (which I’ve yet to turn back on – I’ve not noticed a difference in my mail or anything), took advantage of any free wi-fi hot spots and never turned on the 3G. Made no phone calls. Turned phone onto airplane mode for all 12 days – if people really wanted me they can email and I only turned the phone back on active mode a couple of times.

    At no time did I ever use google maps or any GPS system. I used paper maps provided free for tourists.

    Got four birthday texts. Sent one text. Got charged: $6 for the texts. Skype was also a possibility but not used.

    It’s doable as long as you realise you do not need to have your phone on 24/7. Emergencies only.

    Get yourself a web-based email address and have all your home mail forwarded through that if you need to stay in touch. And a pre-paid SIM is a great idea. I’ve kept an old phone which is unlocked and I can use that OS with a prepaid SIM if I really want to call someone.

    Hope these tips help.

     

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Comments

  • louise: Thankyou Emma for your good work and humanistic attitude towards others. I could not do your job and be nice to others a...

    Reply|Read all

  • Jack Richards: Why censor the pictures, Ro? Don't call them "young men" either. They are "vicious animals" as their act so clearly e...

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  • ro.watson: Anyway. So long Latin. I know there will be people close to Hazel who will be feeling sad and confused today. Sad for ...

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  • louise: Always thought that Hazel H. was too much in the background type of PM's wife.From the information revealed recently abo...

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